It feels like every month, there’s another big acquisition in the Indianapolis tech community. Hell, most times it’s a member of the Verge community getting acquired. As a tech entrepreneur, you can’t help but think about what that negotiation looks like. Personally, I do mock buy-out talks every morning in the shower.

I think if you look at the numbers, you’ll see that conditioner’s ability to restore hair and add volume could really help shampoo engage with new markets.

That’s why I’m so excited for this month’s event.

This month, we get the opportunity to learn first-hand lessons from a company that has been on both sides of the negotiation table. As a staple in the Indianapolis tech community, this company acquired Pardot, an Atlanta-based marketing automation company for over $95M and an Indy-based company (and former Verge pitch), iGoDigital for $21M. They also were acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 Billion.

You know who I’m talking about, right? If not, take a look downtown. They’re painting the whole place orange.

Every year, ExactTarget throws the world’s largest interactive marketing conference right here in Indianapolis. Connections is attended by the best and brightest in both marketing and technology from all around the world, and we get to host it in our back yard. This year, they’ve brought in a great lineup that is determined to educate, inform, and entertain the nearly sold out conference. This year’s event includes keynotes from:

• Mark Benioff, Salesforce CEO
• Scott McCorkle, ExactTarget CEO
• Gabriel Stricker, Twitter CMO
• Will.I.Am, Musician and Entrepreneur
• John Green, Best Selling Author
• Mindy Kaling, Actress, Comedian, and Tim Hickle’s celebrity crush
• and MANY more!

“Right, but aren’t tickets to that thing like a bajillion dollars?”

No, rhetorical device, they’re not. In fact, we’re giving all Verge members a chance to attend the last day of the conference for free!

Save the Date: Thursday, September 25th

Verge is teaming up with Connections to bring you a Verge event unlike any you’ve seen before. We’ll start our day at Connections to catch two incredible keynotes. We’ll then be heading to an awesome location that’s been known to host bad ass Verge events in the past. Here we’ll be doing Verge over lunch, featuring a couple of awesome pitches that you’ll hear a lot more about next week and a fireside that will be the perfect capstone to our Connections experience.

Our last event sold out in less than a week, and these tickets are set to move a lot faster. Between free access to Connections and a Verge lunch, this is going to be an all-morning, hard-hitting event that no one in the tech space is going to want to miss.

Keep an eye on your inbox next week!

Tickets will be going live and we have a very fixed capacity. Occasionally we’re able to open up events to sell more tickets, but this is not one of those times, so it’s extra important that you get your tickets EARLY! 

I’ll also be sharing more about our pitches and fireside chat on the blog, and you won’t want to miss that. Can’t wait to see you all downtown!

If you want to learn more about pitching without sounding sales-y, check out this awesome blog by Hunckler!