Patrick - Meetup Organizer of the Week - 6.4.08

This week we're in Oakland California to chat with a man on the move, our Meetup Organizer of the Week for June 4, 2008 is Patrick Schwerdtfeger, leader of a top Meetup in its field, Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy

The Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy is one of the 50 largest entrepreneur groups in the country and is now sponsored by American Express (see logo in left margin of his welcome page) as a result. We couldn't be prouder to host his group!

Patrick's innovative ideas in marketing and financing have helped many people just starting out in the world of small business. His content-rich, well-attended seminars and meetings are full of kind, supportive members of the entrepreneurial community willing to share their expertise.

I'm sure you'll agree, Patrick has something very special going on in the Bay Area!

1.) Tell us a bit about yourself and your interests.

I am a true entrepreneur. I have never enjoyed working for others and have always been driven to work for myself. I also love writing, public speaking and facilitating meetings. With my company, Tactical Execution, I hold workshops and seminars about Internet Marketing. The entrepreneurial drive is motivating to me and it keeps me searching for new and creative techniques that deliver measurable results. My passion for entrepreneurial marketing is the central pillar of my life.

2.) What prompted you to create the Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy?

Originally, I started the meetup to gain exposure and find potential new clients. But as the group has grown, I have found lots of other benefits. The Academy is full of kind supportive people and they help each other out and contribute to our meetings. It's wonderful. We have great content-rich meetings with members sharing their expertise about the preselected topics. Just last night, we had about 50 people at our meeting and discussed technology applications (including SugarCRM, BaseCamp, YouTube and Google Apps) we can use to leverage our time and grow our businesses. It was a great meeting!

3.) Your Meetup is one of the top Entrepreneur Meetups hand picked to participate in a pilot Sponsorship with OPEN. How has this sponsorship helped you with your Meetups?

The OPEN sponsorship hasn't changed my meetup that much. It has added some credibility to the group but we haven't used their content very much so far, primarily because we had topics scheduled out for over 6 months when the content started arriving. I will try to incorporate the OPEN content in future meetings.

4.) Your monthly "Content Meeting" Meetups and extensive all-day seminars are very well attended Do you plan the topics and agendas yourself or do you have help from Assistant Organizers?

So far, I have done everything myself. I have an assistant organizer but he hasn't been involved. The topics for our monthly "Content Meeting" are determined by feedback forms I hand out at the events. Attendees request future topics and I use that to guide the scheduling.

I also have members who volunteer to present and share their expertise and I try to group them together into logical topics. Most of our meetings have either 3 or 4 speakers so I'm always looking for contributors. So far, it has worked out great and I have a steady stream of members volunteering to present new and interesting topics.

5.) With the scope of members and sponsorships involved with your group you must have several success stories, could you share with us one or two?

I have had tons of success stories but they're not really the dramatic tales you might be looking for. Instead, they involve people learning things they never knew before. They involve people growing their businesses with tools they discovered at our meetings. Josh Sauberman found new strategic partners for his social events business. Joan Martin came in with only a few clients and now has more clients than she can handle. Debra Russel rebuilt her Artists-Edge website with Wordpress after hearing about it at our meeting. Steve Peterson started a QuickBooks meetup to find new clients. Terry Whitington is using a blog to grow his real estate business. And Rob Burpee is using video to drive traffic to his financial services website. All of these people are finding contacts and using tools they're discovering at our meetings.

6.) Do you have any "big plans" for 2008?

I am working with other Bay Area organizers to hold a 2-day Entrepreneur Expo with educational workshops, two headline speakers and a tradeshow-style forum for local entrepreneurs to network with each other and exchange resources, contacts and expertise. I'd like to hold it in the fall but expect it probably won't happen until next spring.

7.) What's coming up in the years ahead for the Entrepreneur & Small Business Academy?

Last June, my Meetup had 170 members. Today, it has 550. By next June, I expect it will have 2000. My challenge will be to grow the meetings in a way where people can still get value from them. At first, we met in a restaurant but soon out-grew the space. We moved to a meeting room at a local library but after four monthly meetings, we out-grew that space too.

Now, we're very lucky to meet in a large training room provided by Rodney Best at New York Life. But we are now out-growing that too. There is a shift coming and it will be marked by the next move. At that point, I will also start catering the events and charging a small fee to attend. So far,all of our events have been free. I expect a $10 event with food in a larger space will take the Meetup to the next level - and I can't wait!