Bonus Episode | NWA Tech Summit Live, Featuring Andres Lazarte, Aaron Ivy, Amir Hoss, Liam La Fargue & Eugene Park
12/02/22 • 48 min
Summary
The NWA Tech Summit is the Heartland’s premier technology conference and serves to enhance, prepare, and diversify the local Northwest Arkansas economy. In its ninth year, the NWA Tech Summit came back with 1,700 registered attendees when it returned in-person to downtown Bentonville. The NWA Tech Summit is an event hosted by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, and it is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, Northwest Arkansas Council, Walmart, J. B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, Salesforce, and the University of Arkansas Blockchain Center of Excellence.
Show Notes
(0:54) Introduction to Andres Lazarte
(5:43) Introduction to Aaron Ivy
(15:52) Introduction to Amir Hoss
(25:25) Introduction to Liam La Fargue
(38:15) Introduction to Eugene Park
(47:03) Closing Thoughts
Links
Bentonville Economic Development
Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit
Northwest Arkansas Square 2 Square Bike Ride
Plug And Play Tech Center Northwest Arkansas
21c Museum Hotel - Bentonville
Quotes
“You get the best of both worlds. You have all the innovators and you have all the resources from Walmart and all the other companies. That culture made it a no-brainer to build [Basis Health] here...There’s a lot of other places in the world I could probably be, but Bentonville is the only place where I can walk down the street and go fishing in the morning and meet billion dollars of investment money in the afternoon.” - Andres Lazarte, (3:52)
“I’ll lead in with talking about how incredible Northwest Arkansas is. It’s really all become one community with different sub-sectors and cultures within that. Rogers, Bella Vista, Bentonville and Fayetteville are all very different from each other but are very much one big economic powerhouse.” - Aaron Ivy, (11:52)
“What I’ve been seeing is that a lot of executives and enterprises we have relationships with have moved to [Bentonville] over two to five years ago. It’s been amazing. So the conversation I have with them is that you come here and you never expect that what you see here is far beyond what you expected before coming here.” - Amir Hoss, (19:45)
“What I’ve really enjoyed at this tech summit is the presence and support that emerging technology companies are receiving from Fortune 500 companies and the recognition from huge corporate partners. I find that inspiring and extremely relieving.” - Liam La Fargue, (34:11)
“I love all the family things that are going on...I love the fact there are wonderful bike trails and restaurants. Everything here has grown so fast, but it feels like very thoughtful growth and growth that’s been designed for families. That’s what keeps us here.” - Eugene Park, (42:46)
Summary
The NWA Tech Summit is the Heartland’s premier technology conference and serves to enhance, prepare, and diversify the local Northwest Arkansas economy. In its ninth year, the NWA Tech Summit came back with 1,700 registered attendees when it returned in-person to downtown Bentonville. The NWA Tech Summit is an event hosted by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, and it is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, Northwest Arkansas Council, Walmart, J. B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, Salesforce, and the University of Arkansas Blockchain Center of Excellence.
Show Notes
(0:54) Introduction to Andres Lazarte
(5:43) Introduction to Aaron Ivy
(15:52) Introduction to Amir Hoss
(25:25) Introduction to Liam La Fargue
(38:15) Introduction to Eugene Park
(47:03) Closing Thoughts
Links
Bentonville Economic Development
Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit
Northwest Arkansas Square 2 Square Bike Ride
Plug And Play Tech Center Northwest Arkansas
21c Museum Hotel - Bentonville
Quotes
“You get the best of both worlds. You have all the innovators and you have all the resources from Walmart and all the other companies. That culture made it a no-brainer to build [Basis Health] here...There’s a lot of other places in the world I could probably be, but Bentonville is the only place where I can walk down the street and go fishing in the morning and meet billion dollars of investment money in the afternoon.” - Andres Lazarte, (3:52)
“I’ll lead in with talking about how incredible Northwest Arkansas is. It’s really all become one community with different sub-sectors and cultures within that. Rogers, Bella Vista, Bentonville and Fayetteville are all very different from each other but are very much one big economic powerhouse.” - Aaron Ivy, (11:52)
“What I’ve been seeing is that a lot of executives and enterprises we have relationships with have moved to [Bentonville] over two to five years ago. It’s been amazing. So the conversation I have with them is that you come here and you never expect that what you see here is far beyond what you expected before coming here.” - Amir Hoss, (19:45)
“What I’ve really enjoyed at this tech summit is the presence and support that emerging technology companies are receiving from Fortune 500 companies and the recognition from huge corporate partners. I find that inspiring and extremely relieving.” - Liam La Fargue, (34:11)
“I love all the family things that are going on...I love the fact there are wonderful bike trails and restaurants. Everything here has grown so fast, but it feels like very thoughtful growth and growth that’s been designed for families. That’s what keeps us here.” - Eugene Park, (42:46)
Previous Episode
Touring the World's Best Mountain Biking Trails with Mark Marsiglio & Charles Greathouse of TrailPilot
Summary
On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Mark Marsiglio, Co-founder of TrailPilot, and his business advisor, Charles Greathouse. TrailPilot is an iOS and Android audio guide app designed to help mountain bikers navigate off-road adventures. The app gives riders expert advice on trail features and provides turn-by-turn directions based on their GPS location. Throughout the episode, James, Mark and Charles discuss the ins and outs of TrailPilot, their experience with being a Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program cohort and how Bentonville is working to be ‘unrecreateable.’
Thanks for tuning in!
Show Notes:
(0:56) Introduction to Mark and Charles
(2:52) About TrailPilot
(5:35) Accessibility for Beginners and Visitors
(8:40) The Cost of TrailPilot
(9:47) Next Year's Forecast
(11:03) Being a GORP Cohort
(16:41) Advice for Those That Want to Join GORP
(20:47) The Past and Future of Bentonville
(28:26) Bentonville Favorites
(36:01) #Bentonville Story
(38:53) Closing Questions
Links
Bentonville Economic Development
Greenhouse Outdoor Recreation Program
Quotes
“They don’t have to wonder where they are, and most importantly, they don’t have to wonder what things the trail has in store for them that they might not expect. We want a rider to enjoy the trail more on their first run and be able to have a safer experience that is not going to surprise them.” - Mark Marsiglio, (3:12)
“It turned out to be a great opportunity, and I learned a lot and got a lot of resources and education focused on personal commitment from my side to have the accountability of the program behind me. It resulted in gre...
Next Episode
Winning Commerce through Bentonville's STOPWATCH with Meagan Kinmonth Bowman
Summary
On this episode of The Bentonville Beacon, host James Bell is joined by Meagan Bowman, Founder and CEO of STOPWATCH, a cloud-based commerce software. STOPWATCH allows businesses to thrive in the blinding speed and complexity of commerce by optimizing profit across retailers in real time. In addition to leading STOPWATCH, Meagan is also a member of Fast Company’s Executive Board and a full-time contributor to the Forbes Technology Council. Throughout the episode, James and Meagan discuss how COVID impacted supply chain management and consumer behavior, the specific challenges women in business face and the specialty of Bentonville’s startup ecosystem.
Thanks for tuning in!
Show Notes:
(0:57) Introduction to Meagan
(5:35) A Recovering Supply Chain
(8:04) How COVID Changed Consumer Behavior
(12:54) About STOPWATCH
(17:14) Meagan’s Experience with Fundraising
(23:19) Advice to Women Raising Capital
(27:13) Balancing Motherhood with Entrepreneurship
(29:11) Why Bentonville is Right for STOPWATCH
(32:29) Bentonville’s Startup Ecosystem
(37:12) Bentonville’s Past, Present and Future
(40:29) #Bentonville Story
(45:29) Closing Questions
Links
Bentonville Economic Development
Quotes
“When you have a barcode on the back of a product, a different barcode could be on the back of the same product in a different retailer. So what stopwatch does is reverse engineer and put the genie back in the bottle and ask, ‘If you had one sky how would you build this out differently?’” - Meagan Bowman, (15:20)
“Developer talent is fantastic here. It’s very prevalent in things like Walmart and JB Hunt. It’s stuff that’s organized and it’s stuff big money gets made off of. So I knew from a culture perspective, [Bentonville] is going to be a really good place to build a team.” - Meagan Bowman, (30:14)
“I like that type of energy. It’s kind of like get-up-and-go energy. I think one thing I really love about Northwest Arkansas is it doesn’t feel to me like you have to work super fast and be really flashy to make friends.” - Meagan Bowman, (34:18)
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/the-bentonville-beacon-487884/bonus-episode-nwa-tech-summit-live-featuring-andres-lazarte-aaron-ivy-64955021"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to bonus episode | nwa tech summit live, featuring andres lazarte, aaron ivy, amir hoss, liam la fargue & eugene park on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy