Ask Norm
Norm Brodsky

Welcome to the Inc. 500 Conference

 

Inc.'s annual conference honoring the fastest growing private companies in America opens today in Chicago. If you're at the conference, please come by and say hi. You'll have several opportunities to do that:

First, I've got a breakout session Friday morning at 10:45 where I'm going to take questions about my attempt to sell my businesses and the nine-part series I wrote for Inc. chronicling the whole fiasco. I might even tell you what my plans are going forward.

Second, whenever there's a break in the program, I'm going to be hanging out at the IncBizNet booth in the Marketplace in the grand ballroom. Look for me at 10:15, 1:00, and 4:30. The IncBizNet is the new social networking site Inc. is introducing -- think Facebook for entrepreneurs -- and I strongly encourage you to stop by the booth and give it a test run.

Third, Friday at 5:00, I'm taping a session of MSNBC's "Your Business" in the International Ballroom. I've done the show before -- in fact, one of my appearances will air Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. -- but this time I'm going to be a co-host. I'll be interviewing other entrepreneurs, including Tom Szaky of TerraCycle, Greg Wittstock of Aquascape, Katrina Markoff of Vosges Haut Chocolat, and Tom Stern, who created the CEO Dad comic strip. I'm not sure when this show will air, but I'll let you know in my blog.

If you're not at the Inc. 500 conference, you might think about coming next year. There's really nothing quite like it.

"Street Smarts" columnist and senior contributing editor Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur who has founded and grown six businesses. In 2008 he sold CitiStorage, a document-archive business based in Brooklyn, New York, for $110 million. Along with Bo Burlingham, Norm has chronicled his entrepreneurial journey in his column in Inc. and in the book The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up. @normbrodsky