UPDATE: October 27

Pictured: Damond Nollan (speaking) and Aaron Averill at SCALE

Mas Sato talks to Wil Weldon (with his back). Jay Mebane, a panelist, in the background

Everyone sat in a circle, a DK roundtable tradition and a good way to bring everyone into the discussion

UPDATE: October 23

Recap of our talk is posted here.

Panelists Sean Wilson and Emily Bloom chat as people arrive for SCALE. Far right is Vandana Dake.

This Thursday, seven amazing people from the local business community will share their experiences on growth.

SCALE is the first open, free roundtable discussion in Durham on the topic.

Why are we hosting this?

We now have 7 panelists!

THIS Thursday! 6 pm at Rigsbee Hall in downtown Durham.

SCALE: a roundtable
:: Thursday, Oct. 20
:: 6:00–7:30 pm
:: Rigsbee Hall
:: 208 Rigsbee Avenue, downtown Durham

RSVP here: http://scaledurham.eventbrite.com/

The panel:

Jay Mebane | Thundershirt/First Analytical Labs/Arcametrics
Jay Mebane has been the owner/operator of multiple start-up companies. Currently he is co-owner/CFO of Thundershirt, LLC, co-owner of First Analytical Labs, and co-owner/CFO of Arcametrics.

Previously Jay was a corporate finance attorney for Moore & Van Allen, PLLC, one of the largest law firms in the Southeast. Following his time spent as a practicing attorney, Jay was co-owner and President of Rapidata.net, an online healthcare market research firm that was acquired by Greenfield Online.

Jay holds a B.A. and MBA from Duke University and a JD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Emily Bloom | Viget Labs
Emily Bloom is the Regional Director at the Durham office of Viget Labs, a hybrid web development shop and design agency. She also helps organize Refresh the Triangle, a monthly gathering of local web professionals. Emily is passionate about people, technology, and milkshakes.

Ann Woodward | The Scrap Exchange
Ann May Woodward has been in the reuse industry for over 15 years, and is the current director of the Scrap Exchange, a non profit creative reuse center located in Durham, NC.
The organization’s mission is to promote creativity, environmental awareness and community through reuse.
She is also an artist, likes to pick up garbage, and participate and create events where people can interact, learn something and hopefully change the way they look at resources and consumption.

Sean Wilson | Fullsteam Brewery
Sean Lilly Wilson is Fullsteam’s founder and Chief Executive Optimist. He founded and led both Pop The Cap and PermitBeer, two beer lobbying organizations that have opened up economic markets to North Carolina’s craft beer industry. He holds both an MBA and Master of Public Policy from Duke University. Sean has ten years restaurant experience, including three years at Durham’s renowned Magnolia Grill.

Neil Lancia | A Small Orange

Vandana Dake | Alliance Architecture

Aaron Averill | Zone Five Software
Aaron Averill spent 15 years as a software developer at several major corporations including SAS before his entrepreneurial spirit led him to set out on his own in 2009. His company, Zone Five Software, created SportTracks, an application for athletes to track and analyze their workouts. More recently he co-founded Bullocity, a property development company that is renovating a historical commercial building in downtown Durham, which he hopes to lease to startup tweeners looking for flexible work space. In his free time, Aaron is also pursuing a master's degree from NC State.

AND YOU

Everyone’s welcome to join the conversation. Whatever your view of growth and scale, please be prepared to share it. The aim is to learn from all different forms of growth and stories people have around them.

RSVP

Event is free with RSVP. RSVP on Eventbrite:

Discussion questions

Q1. What are the criteria for deciding when to grow? When to scale back?
Q2. What stories do you have about something that worked well?
Q3. Lessons learned from an attempt to grow that didn’t work?
Q4. How do you see “growth” as an objective in 2011, vs., say the 1980s or 1990s?

Feel free to leave your A’s in the comments below.

Background

If you still have the time, energy and curiosity to fill, here’s Akira’s 5-minute diatribe.