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VC Comms Con-1

In February 2022 we hosted the 3rd VC Comms Con - a gathering for venture capitalists in communications and marketing roles. Check out the recap video and the programming below.

Missed us in February?

Check out our recap from VC Comms Con 2022. Stay tuned for 2023 dates!

HubSpot Video

 

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Event schedule

Wednesday

Location: BAM HQ 702 Ash Street #100 San Diego, CA 92101

4:00pm: Pool Side Yoga
(back by popular demand!) 
Details: Hosted at BAM HQ in the historic El Cortez, enjoy yoga on our large patio, instructed by one of our favorite instructors. All levels. Mats provided
 
5:00pm-7pm: Welcome event: Tacos
(back by popular demand, no really: people put this in the comments!) 
Details: Hosted at BAM HQ in the historic El Cortez, savor some handmade TJ-style tacos and meet your peers

Thursday

Location: LUCE on Kettner 2310 Kettner Blvd San Diego, CA 92101

 
8:00am: Registration and breakfast open
Details: Get your badge, stellar swag, and coffee/breakfast as you settle in and say hi to all your peers.
 
8:45am: Welcome from Beck
Details: A big welcome from Beck and run through of the day.
 
8:45am-9:35am: Main Stage Panel
Details: VC comms and marketing: what worked in 2021, what didn't, and what's in store for 2022
 
9:50am-10:30am: Session 1 Breakouts
Details: See speakers descriptions below
 
10:45am-11:25am: Session 2 Breakouts
Details: See speakers descriptions below 
 
11:45am-12:30pm: Lunch
Details: Healthy lunch provided by one of our local restaurants in Little Italy
 
12:45pm-1:35pm: Main Stage Panel
Details: Hear from our top tier media on their likes, dislikes, and best ways to reach them for pitch ideas for your portfolio companies or fund
 
1:45pm-2:25pm: Session 3 Breakouts
Details: See speakers descriptions below
 
2:25pm-3:00pm: Popsicle Bar Break
Details: Mingle, catch on emails, and mental health.
 
3:05pm-4:30pm: Media meetings + breakout reruns
Details: Your chance to meet one on one with our 10+ journalists and to meet breakout session speakers if you missed a talk.
 
4:30pm-6:00pm: Happy Hour
Details: Walk one block down the street to the world famous Crack Shack (all outdoors) for bites and hosted drinks
 
 
 

Friday

Location: Mingei Museum
Balboa Park, Plaza de Panama
1439 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101

 
9am-10am: Coffee + Breakfast bar
Details: Chat and meet with your peers at the stunning newly opened Mingei Museum. We recommend taking an Uber/Lyft to Balboa Park as parking is limited and we’ll be walking afterwards
 
10am-11:30am: Walking tour of Balboa Park 
Details: We’ll be taking a guided 2 mile stroll through Balboa Park, considered the “Central Park” of the West Coast and home to 17 museums and the world famous San Diego Zoo. Bring your walking shoes so you can stroll and chat with new peers and then enjoy museums afterwards.
 
 
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San Diego tips

 

Where to stay:

The VC Comms Con is in downtown San Diego's Little Italy, just minutes from the airport. The Luce Loft we're meeting at on Thursday is located at 2310 Kettner Blvd, San Diego. We recommend checking out THIS great blog post on favorite nearby hotels. 

What to eat:

There are SO many choices in Little Italy! HERE’s a good source to get you started.

What to do:

 A lot of San Diego’s top attractions are free, and we’ll be seeing Balboa Park on Friday if you’re sticking around for that! HERE are a few recommendations to make the most of your time here.

Meet our incredible speakers:

Session 1:

Breakout 1

ANNIE SHAPIRO

Vp, Platform

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Breakout Session: How to Nail a Fundraising Announcement in 4 Step

 
One of the most important times for a startup to share their story is around a fundraise—but a successful fundraising announcement looks different for each company. Annie Shapiro, VP of Platform at early-stage firm Inspired Capital, walks through the 4-step process she uses to make every funding moment as impactful as possible. From clearly defining PR objectives with your founder, to optimizing the timing of your outreach, to gearing up a company's supporters to amplify the news, she shares the framework that has placed Inspired company news in Forbes, TechCrunch, Crunchbase, and more.
 

Breakout 2

Cliff Worley

Sr. Dir. of Marketing

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Breakout Session: Top Marketing Tools for 2022 and beyond

 
With over 7000 marketing tools out there, how do you know which ones are the best? Cliff Worley, Senior Director of Portfolio Growth Marketing at Kapor Capital, has tested thousands of marketing tools and will give you his top marketing tools of 2022. From email marketing to graphic design, Cliff will focus on how you can be a marketing whiz on a shoestring budget.
 

Breakout 3

Vincent Touati Tomas

Head of Marketing & Comms

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Breakout Session: A Content Flywheel Independent From The Investment Pace

No matter how sophisticated your system is, creating content within a partner-led model is a challenge. How do you create content that is not only reflecting unique strengths but also building a franchise brand that is here to last? How do you balance the short term production with the long term brand impact? Vincent Touati-Tomas, a Head of Marketing and Communications at Northzone, walks through the tactics to create a franchise content flywheel from managing copywriters, incentivize investment team members to help and many more opportunities to use the content as a competitive hedge.
 

Breakout 4

Heather Harder

VP, Global Comms

6-2

Breakout Session: 4 Secrets to Branding Your Firm on Social Media

Whether your VC is small and scrappy or massive with many hoops to jump through, this session will help you build a social media plan customized to your fund/fund leader(s). Heather Harder, VP of Global Communications for SoftBank Group, walks through 4 data-backed tips for growing your social media following, with a focus on LinkedIn and Twitter.
 

Session 2:

Breakout 1

JENNIFER JANSON

Dir. of Comms

7-Jun-23-2021-07-52-47-53-PM

Breakout Session: Zero to hero: a playbook for how we helped a rising Principal create a distinct brand and dominate her investing niche.

Even with a big brand name behind you (or perhaps especially with one), investors still need to build their personal brands, especially in a competitive market like the Valley. Jennifer Janson, Director of Communications at OMERS Ventures will talk you through how she worked with one of the team’s principal investors to occupy pole position in proptech and contribute significantly to inbound dealflow.
 

Breakout 2

KEJI MUSTAPHA

Operations & Strategic Partnerships

5-Jun-23-2021-08-27-58-18-PM

Breakout Session: Bringing a Product mindset to your firm’s Brand function.

A dedicated brand and marketing function is fast becoming an integral part of VC firms across the globe...Great! What’s less great are the realities of the day-to-day - cue feeling overly stretched with the amount of content you need to create, whilst juggling a number of moving pieces. If this sounds familiar, perhaps it’s time to productise your firm’s brand function? Keji Mustapha, Head of Network, Brand & Culture Ops at seed stage VC firm Connect Ventures, will walk through the ultimate checklist of how you can bring a product management mindset & best practices into your brand and marketing operations - from newsletters to moonshot projects - and how this helps you build speed as a habit.
 

Breakout 3

AUSTIN CARTER

Dir. of Partnerships

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Breakout Session: The PR readiness assessment: a quantitative quiz for portfolio companies

Your portfolio company just closed its round, and the founders want to start on press "right away!" The enthusiasm is great, but the results of a PR campaign, whether with an agency or freelancer, will not be stellar if the startup isn't really ready for PR. To avoid disappointment and wasting money, this 30-point PR readiness assessment, developed by BAM, can showcase where gaps in readiness are. Austin Carter will walk you through the assessment so you can give it to eager portfolio companies.
 

Breakout 4

NATASHA AZAR

VP of Investor Relations & Marketing

11-3

Breakout Session: The One-Person Marketing Team: A Survival Guide

As the sole individual dedicated to a marketing and communication function at your firm, you'll find yourself having to master many different and complex trades. You fill the shoes of a marketing strategist, graphic designer, web specialist, SEO expert, copywriter, event planner, ghost writer, social media expert, etc. Without a marketing team in place, it's not realistic (or possible) to expect one person to fulfill your team's marketing needs. Natasha Azar, VP of Investor Relations & Marketing at Osage University Partners (OUP) will share her tips on prioritizing marketing tasks, deciding what you should take on yourself, and when it’s time to ask for help.
 

Session 3:

Breakout 1

ERIKA GAMMON & Jill VEGLHAN

Dir. of Marketing

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Breakout Session: DEI in action: a 1 year case study

In October 2020, BAM issued a detailed DEI statement. What's actually happened since? Led by Erika Gammon, Marketing Director at BAM, this is an in depth and critical review of BAM's results that can provide a road map for funds seeking guidance and urgency for change.
 

Breakout 2

JEN DERKS

Founder, Creative Dir.

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Breakout Session: Keep your website redesign from flying off the rails

 
Getting a new website can be a lot like remodeling a kitchen. You thought you would just hire someone to replace the cabinets and countertops and next thing you know, you're searching "mid-century modern kitchen lighting" on Google. Learn from a web veteran and agency owner what really happens when you embark on a website redesign whether VC fund or venture backed startup. After this session, you'll know what to get in order ahead of time, how to streamline the process, and right-size the SOW so you don't lose all your internal social capital on this one (large) marketing initiative.
 

Breakout 3

ERICA AMATORI

Head of Platform
Erica Amatori

Breakout Session: Creating a platform tech stack that optimizes for communication and engagement


Creating a one-stop-shop hub or platform that brings together your team, advisors, and portfolio companies is now a necessity. This executive or founder portal is a place where everyone can communicate, collaborate, and share resources. But how do you pick the right platform to host this community on? What solutions are available out there? And once you do build this platform and community, how do you spur and retain engagement? What resources have smaller to larger firms found useful? All will be touched upon in this session.

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Breakout 4

VICTORIA GRIFFIN

Executive Producer

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Breakout Session: The Ins and Outs of Launching a Podcast

Launching a podcast is exhilarating, but it is a challenge, and there are concrete steps to making it work for your company and brand. How do you help your audience find you? How do you secure a budget from your company for a podcast? Victoria Griffin, the Executive Producer of P.S. Blossom and the Communications Manager for Rhia Ventures, shares the ultimate guide to launching a podcast with a clear mission and focus designed to shift the narrative and influence social norms at the behavioral level. She shares how the power of storytelling makes an impact, one story at a time.
 

Main Stage:

Main Stage

ELISE BROWN

Dir. of Marketing

1-4

Main Stage: VC comms and marketing in 2022 and beyond: what we learned and what’s next

2020 threw us all for a loop, and 2021 has been nonstop. What did we learn in 2021 and what's on the horizon for the role of comms and marketing at VC funds? This panel, moderated by Beck Bamberger, will be our opening talk to set the stage for the full day of content.
 

Main Stage

NIKKI PARKER

SVP, Marketing Comms and Community

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Main Stage: VC comms and marketing in 2022 and beyond: what we learned and what’s next

2020 threw us all for a loop, and 2021 has been nonstop. What did we learn in 2021 and what's on the horizon for the role of comms and marketing at VC funds? This panel, moderated by Beck Bamberger, will be our opening talk to set the stage for the full day of content.
 

Main Stage

TYANA DALEY

Former Dir. of Marketing

1-Jan-27-2022-05-55-09-29-PM

Main Stage: VC comms and marketing in 2022 and beyond: what we learned and what’s next

2020 threw us all for a loop, and 2021 has been nonstop. What did we learn in 2021 and what's on the horizon for the role of comms and marketing at VC funds? This panel, moderated by Beck Bamberger, will be our opening talk to set the stage for the full day of content.
 

Media to meet:

Hope King

Business Reporter at Axios

 

5-Oct-01-2021-07-16-50-48-PM

 

 

Kenrick Cai

Tech Reporter at Forbes

 

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Daria Solovieva

Sustainability Editor at Fortune Magazine
 

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Holden Page

Dir. of Product at FinLedger

 

3-Oct-01-2021-07-16-49-89-PM

 

 

Tim Chan

Dir. of Products and Commerce at Rolling Stone
 

10-Oct-01-2021-07-16-47-99-PM

 

Ben Bergman

VC and Startups Correspondent at Insider
 

1-Oct-01-2021-07-16-50-34-PM

 

Lucinda Shen

Fintech Reporter at Axios
 

8-4

 

Sissi Cao

Business/Tech Reporter at Observer
 
 

7-Oct-01-2021-07-16-49-75-PM

 

Llona Limonta-Volkova

Corporate Strategy & Innovation at Vanguard

 

Llona Limonta-Volkova 

 

Why Attend VC Comms Con

Meet and learn from 70+ comms and marketing professionals at funds just like yours 

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Up your game with tangible playbooks and insights to better serve your fund and portfolio companies 

 

Make relationships with top tier media that cover VC and tech 

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Feel fancy because this is the biggest community event dedicated to communications and marketing professionals in venture capital and you’re part of it!

VC CommsCon SD

FAQs

Will all of the content be recorded or captured in some way?
We won’t be recording the content as there will be a LOT happening. In addition, we want our speakers to spill the tea as much as possible, so we want to ensure it is off record. Come hang out with us in person!
 
What about COVID-19 precautions?
We will be sending guests a link to Crowdpass that will require your negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of the event and a full COVID-19 vaccination card.

For all those attending, vaccination cards will be required at the door. We are requiring each attendee to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of the event and a full COVID-19 vaccination. We will also be doing on-site temperature checks. In short, no card, no entry. This will help us all stay safe and comfortable.
 
What does my ticket include?
Your ticket includes the yoga and tacos on Wednesday, all the programming and food on Thursday, and the breakfast and tour on Friday in Balboa Park.
 
How will I get in touch with everybody I meet at the event?
Unless you decline when you check in, we will share everyone’s email afterwards so you don’t need to worry about cards.
 
What about media that will be attending? Will I get their contact information?
This will depend on the individual journalists. We’ll respect them if they don’t wish to share their contact info with everyone in attendance.
 
Which airport should I fly into?
San Diego International Airport (SAN) is your best bet. This airport is about a 10 minute drive from our venue on Thursday (in Little Italy) and about 14 minutes from the yoga and taco party on Wednesday.
 
Are discounts available for the ticket?
Sadly no. Our tickets simply cover the cost of this event and are not a revenue stream for BAM. Given the limit of 100 attendees, full ticket prices are what we have to stick with.
I’m really excited! How many people are coming to this event?
Our max for this year’s event is 100 attendees representing 80+ funds. First come, first in is our policy. In 2020, we had about 50 funds from New York, California, Boston, Europe, Canada and more.
 
One of my colleagues wants to attend. Can I send that person instead of me?
Send us an email so we can determine if your colleague is a good substitute. Keep in mind: this conference is just for full time people in marketing or comms roles at venture capital firms. Thus, an analyst, fellow, or operations head would probably not get value out of our event.
 
What should I wear for San Diego?
San Diego is a pretty casual place, and in February, the temperatures are mild, ranging from 51 to 66 degrees FAHRENHEIT. Bring your yoga attire if you want to participate in the yoga at our HQ on Wednesday.
 
If I have any logistics questions or other needs during my time in San Diego who should I call?
Ramel, our SR. Community Manager, is happy to hear from you! Please feel free to call or text him at: 619-829-7045. You can also email us at: vccommscon@bamtheagency.com
 
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