Welcome Advisory Board!

As I sit in a New Mexico hotel room, it seems only right to start this announcement off with a quote from John Crosby, founder of The Santa Fe Opera:

Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve formalized some of the brain picking, ear listening, and directional pushing with the formation of the Spigot Labs Advisory Board this month. I absolutely couldn’t be happier with the minds and personalities represented by these 5 outstanding business people and friends of mine.

Ryan Evans — Ryan has been a long-time friend and collaborator. He’s founder and CEO of Bruz Beers and helped make the first Spigot Labs-enabled beer event come to life. He’s described by many of our friends as being “able to sell ice cream to the eskimos”. He brings with him a broad background and skill set for sales across multiple industries, and a penchant for adventure (ask him about the mud pit party or our winter march to Eiseman Hut :)).

Elizabeth Glau, CMP — Elizabeth will be the first to tell you that she and I met on Twitter. In my quest to meet and understand conference organizers and their pain points, Elizabeth has been a beacon of information and good conversation. She is well known in the events industry as a cheerleader for innovation and disruption. Elizabeth has worked in a variety of event roles and closely with other technology providers. She has the unique perspective of understanding the vast landscape of the events industry and technology — no small feat.

Sean Kennedy — Sean has done a little of everything in the technology world. He was the VP of Development at Aventura, a Health Care IT company, where I worked as a Lead Developer. Sean has successfully started/exited multiple companies of his own and most recently is starting on a new venture based on his passion for building and executing personal development processes. He has often advocated the benefits of an advisory board, and I think he makes a great utility player with experience across multiple disciplines.

Sean Porter — Sean and I just recently met through Megan Von Wald. Sean has a long history of working in the ticketing world. His startup, Gigbot, was acquired by TicketFly who was later acquired by Pandora. He also spent some time at Eventbrite and most recently was the Chief Product Officer at Galvanize. Ticketing is a key integration for many of the Spigot Labs engagements, and I think Sean will be a great help in identifying common threads from ticketing to tasting to retargeting. I’ll mention that I felt an instant kinship with Sean when he rolled up for our first coffee meeting on his bicycle.

Megan Von Wald — Megan and I met playing indoor soccer a million years ago. She has been a tremendous help to Spigot Labs from the very beginning. She’s seen the evolution of Spigot Labs from a rough drawing on a white board to the 57 3D-printed devices that we have today. Megan has managed operations across a variety of industries and brings with her a strong, methodical approach to business. In addition to her work as the EVP of Operations at Galvanize, she helped bring to life the Stanley Marketplace in Aurora.

I’m looking forward to our first board meeting in a little over a month, and excited about what’s in store for this adventure in 2018.