Engaging Your Startup Community in the Digital Age

We're excited to be featuring Shervin Talieh and Thomas Knoll for our 16th Tech in Motion: Chicago! Shervin and Thomas, after running a successful blog talking about how to create authentic and meaningful connections with customers, decided to take their show on the road so that they could educate entrepreneurs across the country. This is a huge part of any business, and a must-see for anyone thinking about launching a startup. These days, it's too easy to lean on technology, but this type of marketing doesn't fill the need for real human to human interaction!

Shervin: (http://www.linkedin.com/in/shervintalieh) Over the past 5 years, Shervin has been focused on the changing nature of consumer-to-business communications, and how mobile and social are changing the way we discover, engage and transact with brands.

He is the cofounder/CEO of Drumbi (http://drumbi.com/), his tech startup based in Southern California. They are focused on voice + data orchestration, keeping customers in the "buying flow" when calling a business.

Previously, he was a Partner at Accenture, leading the Products Operating Group in Los Angeles.

Thomas: (http://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasknoll) Thomas is the cofounder/CEO of clippPR.com (https://www.clipppr.com/?lrRef=yRJhb), a startup advisor, and a connector for the #VegasTech community.

He has been a community architect, community cultivator, product designer, social marketer, customer developer, and startup advisor for companies including 500Startups, LaunchRock, Zappos, UserVoice, and Seesmic.

Check out their website here (http://voiceofcustomer.co/)!

Also come hear about #MeetSkyDrive (http://www.windows.microsoft.com/skydrive) from our Microsoft sponsor! SkyDrive brings you free online storage so you can access your files anywhere. With apps for PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, your most important docs, decks, and spreadsheets come on-the-go with you, across all your devices. With SkyDrive, your files are always with you.

As always, please join in the conversation with #TechInMotion or #MeetSkyDrive!

FinCapDev (http://www.fincapdev.com/) has also made a generous contribution to this month's event! You can check out their website for more info, but FinCapDev is a mobile app development competition that helps millions of underserved Americans make smarter financial choices and achieve better access to financial services. Are you ready to build? Sign up here for immediate notification (http://eepurl.com/sy6sz) for when the call for proposals opens in January 2014.