We have reached the end of the road.
With no sponsorship dollars available to us this year, I have decided to close the Y’all Connect conference. It’s the right time to move on.
I had a simple goal in mind when launching this event back in 2013: Bring an annual blogging and social media conference to Birmingham. I had secondary goals as well: Show off my hometown to visitors, and bring some much needed diversity to speaker lineups.
I have loved every minute of it. Making new friends, working with speakers and volunteers, sweating over the details till the wee hours, helping our sponsors, promoting the event every way I knew how. I have learned so much from producing this event and from everyone connected to it.
A big thank you to our speakers, our volunteers, our staff, our sponsor, our partners, our Birmingham supporters, our guests and our fans!
And even though Y’all Connect now fades away, we hope y’all will come see us in Birmingham often. Our event ends, but our hospitality lives on.
Some things you wish would have lasted forever. This is one.
But you succeeded against so many expectations, and you did accomplish some pretty heady goals.
Let’s talk soon about the next big thing.
You’re on. Thanks for everything, Ike.