Two outstanding, highly regarded innovators brought their entrepreneurial messages to campus for the 6th annual Sebo Series in Entrepreneurship. Hundreds of attendees heard the wisdom from the founder of Travelocity.com, Terry Jones, and the founder of TOMS: Shoes for a Better Tomorrow, Blake Mycoskie. This year’s Sebo event was entitled "Creating Your Market in a Changing World."

The morning was kicked off by young entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie who has been featured in the latest AT&T commercials. His company is based on social consciousness - for every pair of shoes purchased, another pair of new shoes are given to children in need. Mycoskie created five start-ups by the age of 30. His newest venture, TOMS, was created a few years ago while he was on vacation in Argentina. He watched volunteers give used shoes to children who had cut and infected feet, and he wondered if he could create a for-profit venture and incorporate giving into the business model.

According to Mycoskie, he began his canvas shoe business with a small factory in Argentina, a close location to the children he would help, and sold his shoes out of his apartment in Los Angeles. A week into the project, he received a call from an LA Times reporter who wrote a story about his new shoes venture. By late afternoon after the story appeared, he had sold 2,200 pairs of shoes which exceeded his inventory. Mycoskie said all but one customer agreed to wait for their shoes.

The young entrepreneur said this venture didn’t change his life until he gave away 10,000 pairs of shoes on his first trip to Argentina after the venture was created.

For more about Mycosckie's presentation, click here.

After lunch, the featured speaker was Terry Jones who shared how his start-up, Travelocity.com, revolutionized the way we buy airline tickets today. His venture changed how the product was priced and distributed, how much the product cost, and how much market share it grew.

Jones talked about what worked and what didn’t work over his journey.

• Over 500.coms died because they didn’t create a one-to-one selling relationship.
• "Techniques follow technology." People who create innovations don’t realize how that innovation will be used. Jones defined technology as "whatever didn’t exist before."
• Today’s graduates will be tomorrow’s customers. The Internet is key, because customers want speed and convenience. Jones said, "You need to be a beacon to attract them." The balance of power is shifting toward the customer. Retail marketing and information technology need to work together.
• Travelocity.com "short-circuited" the way travel business was conducted. It cut out the middle man – the travel agent. Today technology is linking the customer directly to the manufacturer.

Jones said the key to today’s market is to “build a digital relationship with your customer.”

For additional information on Jones' presentation, click here.

Besides the main speakers, attendees also chose from several concurrent sessions facilitated by outstanding entrepreneurs including,

• William Luse, Client Unit Director Industrial Sector, IBM
• Michael Hoskins, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager, Pervasive Data Management and Integration Products
• Greg Knudson, VP of Technology for the Regional Growth Partnership

The Sebo Series is hosted by the College of Business Administration’s Dallas-Hamilton Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and generously sponsored by J. Robert Sebo (’58), BGSU Board of Trustees.