The SLSBC.

Yes, this is the conference which i was investing so much into with my $35. I expected everything to just voila. (I even expected to win the fabulous prizes -- camcorders and a complete office giveaway.) I would meet all the necessary people and instantly I would be connected to the money people and have the financing I need to start my business. Well, I have news for myself. Don't get me wrong. The conference was awesome. But it made me realize how much work I have ahead of me. And that I will need to come back next year with the answers to all the questions they raised for me. The sessions covered the gambit of getting banks loans, alternative lending, tax credits, etc. While I realized I wasn't quite prepared for the definite opportunities that were there, I collected a lot of good information, I met with experts, I got motivated by the speakers and I networked. Success story speaker Esailama Henry of Bissap Breeze, a company that's gone global in a matter of a year, described SLSBC in terms of an ecosystem. All of this works, she said, to support you as an entrepreneur/business owner. They kept it real, too. The next success story speaker Kyshun Webster of Cupcakes & Co. told of the ups and downs of business and how that ecosystem can be the difference between temporary failure and permanent failure. One thing about the Digital Age is that success and failure go hand-in-hand. Ying & Yang. You can't be afraid to experiment -- use negatives and positives to grow & evolve.