2nd Annual · Educate · Motivate · Elevate
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Conference
8:00am check-in · sessions 8:30am–5:00pm · happy hour to 6:30pm
One day, one ticket: a national keynote, nine practical breakout sessions across three downtown rooms, and a hall full of people whose job is helping your business grow.
The 2026 conference has wrapped. Dates and tickets for the next one will be posted here — the day below is what it looked like.
A day to actually help you grow
A keynote worth the drive
Liz Bohannon — Forbes Top 20 speaker, Shark Tank founder, author of Beginner's Pluck — talking directly to owners at every stage.
Nine practical breakouts
Three sessions, three rooms, pick one each time. Customers, marketing, funding, tax, legal and AI — all taught by people who do the work.
The room itself
Last year ran from first-time founders to owners twenty years in, plus a full exhibit hall of people whose job is helping you grow.
Keynote · 9:30 – 10:30 AM
Liz Bohannon
Liz Bohannon founded Sseko Designs, a fair-trade fashion company that employs women in Uganda pursuing higher education, and wrote Beginner's Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now. She built a globally recognized brand from scratch, and she challenges audiences to stop waiting to be discovered: become a problem finder, dream small to achieve big, and reconnect with your purpose.
- Author, Beginner's Pluck
- Founder, Sseko Designs
- Social entrepreneur
The full day
- 8:00 – 8:30 AM
Registration & check-in
Leslie Town Centre
Doors open. Grab a badge, breakfast from Meg's Bread, coffee from Soul Craft, and walk the exhibit hall.
- 8:30 – 9:15 AM
Opening & welcome
Main Stage · Tiffany Anton & Jeff Brown
Welcome, housekeeping and a look at everything the day holds.
- 9:30 – 10:30 AM
Keynote: Liz Bohannon
Main Stage · Liz Bohannon
- 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Lunch break
Downtown Cookeville
Head downtown. Your conference laminate gets you 10% off at participating west side restaurants.
- 1:00 – 1:45 PM
Invest TN
Main Stage · Wisty Pender & Lamont Price
The state resources built to help Tennessee small businesses start and grow — access to capital, technical assistance, TNSmartStart and FundTennessee — and how to actually use them.
- 4:00 – 5:00 PM
Closing panel: AI for Small Business
Main Stage · Becca Duncan (moderator), Tyler Fisk, Kent Moore, Sara Chambers
We ran a full AI track this year because you asked for it. The speakers come together for an open discussion with a roaming mic for audience questions.
- 5:00 – 6:30 PM
Happy hour
Red Silo
Close the day out with us. A drink token is included in your registration bag.
Nine breakouts, pick three
Session 110:45 – 11:30 AM
Room A · 37 Cedar
Approachable Networking
Karlyn Reel & Adam Poe
Building business relationships without the intimidation. Practical strategies for making connections that last, plus the local organizations and programs built to help you expand your network.
Room B · Red Silo
The AI Marketing Hack
Sara Chambers
Word of mouth isn't enough anymore. How AI is changing marketing for small businesses, and how to put it to work amplifying your reach without adding headcount.
Room C · The Biz Foundry
The Number One Thing Every Business Has to Have: Customers
Jeff Brown
Customer discovery and the value proposition that actually earns them: who your customer really is, and what would make that person choose you.
Session 22:00 – 2:45 PM
Room A · 37 Cedar
Marketing: Talking to Your Customers
Susy Davis
Start with who your customer is, then pick the channels most likely to reach them rather than chasing the latest trend — and write messages that move them to act.
Room B · Red Silo
Legal AI: Options for Entrepreneurs
Kent Moore
What AI can and cannot do for your legal work, from an attorney with almost 30 years of practice, including a live demonstration on real small business legal needs.
Room C · The Biz Foundry
Is Your Business Bankable?
Kelly Sullivan
What to be ready for when you walk into a banker's office. Sixteen years of lending experience on what makes a business fundable — and what gets an application set aside.
Session 33:00 – 3:45 PM
Room A · 37 Cedar
Your Path to Plenty
Lisa Uhrik
Finding the energy you need for connection and focus in a world that fries your brain, including the surprising difficulty of making adult friends.
Room B · Red Silo
AI Chief of Staff
Tyler Fisk
A live look at what AI can already take off your plate, then the catch nobody warns you about: every new AI helper becomes another direct report whose work lands back on you. How to manage the pile and keep the humans in charge.
Room C · The Biz Foundry
The Art of Spending: More on Your Company and Less on Taxes
Tiffany Crabtree, CPA
Rethinking business expenses to optimize deductions without creating risk. Not loopholes — tax code, and what owners routinely leave on the table.
Four rooms, all walkable
Main
Leslie Town Centre
1 W 1st St, Cookeville, TN 38501
Main stage, registration and the exhibit hall.
Room A
37 Cedar
37 N Cedar Ave
Room B
Red Silo Brewing
118 W 1st St
Room C
The Biz Foundry
114 N Cedar Ave
Every breakout room is a short walk from Leslie Town Centre on the west side of downtown Cookeville. Each one has its own color on the signage the day of, so you are not hunting for a room number.
Tickets
First 50
$100
The best rate available.
Tickets 51–100
$120
Once tier one fills.
Standard
$130
After the first hundred.
Team Pack
$320
$80 each
Four tickets, the lowest per-seat price we offer, available at any tier.
There is no code and no deadline to track. When a tier fills, the next price takes over — so the only way to lock the lower rate is to register earlier. Every individual ticket includes the keynote, all three breakout sessions and the exhibit hall.
In the hall
Premier sponsor
Twin Lakes
Sponsor
Epion
Media sponsor
StoneCom
Session sponsor
Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce
Partner
LaunchTN / InvestTN
Partner
Business Resource Center & TCRI, Tennessee Tech
Partner
Crabtree Public Accounting
Exhibitor
ADP
Exhibitor
Workforce Connections / RIVET
Exhibitor
Plenty Bookshop
Headshots & photo booth
Art Inspired Images
Want to know about the next one?
The lunches run every month in the meantime — free, and the fastest way to meet the people who were in that room.