Proof Bravelo^® Works

Venture Club of Indiana Volunteer Committee Uses Bravelo to Plan Venture Conference

The Venture Club of Indiana conducted its inaugural a conference targeted at national investors and emerging Indiana companies seeking funding. With over 500 registrants and representation by 30 different venture firms from 15 different states, this event was successfully organized and executed by a committee of volunteers using Bravelo.

This event met closely with their mission to serve as a catalyst for the creation and growth of entrepreneurial businesses by providing a unique environment in which sources of capital, entrepreneurs and business professionals interact, connect, share information, collaborate and create business opportunities.

When planning for the conference first began, approximately 8 months prior to the event, expectations were high and so was the enthusiasm level. As the initial euphoria wore off and the task lists grew longer, participation was difficult to manage with so many volunteers. The Conference Committee consisted of 18-20 participants and they only met on a monthly basis, with sub-committee meetings taking place in between. The sub-committee ran the risk of performing duplicate functions and decisions were being made independently between full committee meetings. There was no way to provide a global view to all of the members.

"It quickly became apparent that we needed to devise a protocol for how to communicate with our geographically dispersed team," stated Tim Tichenor, Conference Chairman and Board Member of the Venture Club of Indiana. "That is where Bravelo fit in."

"As a committee, we made a conscious effort to use Bravelo as our main avenue for communications," continued Tichenor. "We used it to prepare the agenda, approve speakers and develop the brochure. It was also used to inform the committee meetings of our media plan, finalize the event logistics and share sponsor logos."

"With Bravelo in place, we no longer had to worry about communicating with each individual and we rapidly saw an improvement in meeting our assigned deadlines."

Bravelo helped to ensure consistency among the various sponsors, speakers and committees involved in this event. For example, all of the speakers' PowerPoint presentations were gathered in advance and stored in Bravelo. Committee members were able to apply consistent formatting, review each presentation and test them prior to the event.

As the Venture Club of Indiana prepares for its next Venture Conference, they will have access to all the important event planning information associated with the first conference through Bravelo. While there will inevitably be new committee members involved in this planning process, the record keeping and insight offered by the resources of Bravelo will prove invaluable.