Combine 2010 conference discusses success, failure, comedy

“How’s it going, nerds?” comedian Michael Ian Black asked the crowd at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Friday during the Combine — a technological conference that took place Sept. 9 through 12.

Hundreds of entrepreneurs, bloggers, venture capitalists and other business people met in Bloomington at the conference to network and talk about the business of the Internet in the Midwest.

The Combine 2010 was a non-profit conference for anyone interested in “the people and ideas that drive technology.”

“One of the main goals of the Combine is to show the tech community that there are some amazing things going on here in Bloomington and the Midwest,” said Combine Budget Coordinator Jessica Reed. “Silicon Valley isn’t the only place where a tech community can thrive.”

Mike Trotzke, co-founder of SproutBox, hosted the speeches. SproutBox is a local venture capital firm that invests in technology startups.

Comedians Black and Michael Showalter concluded the speeches. Both became famous in the late 1990s by making comedy videos and posting them online as members of the sketch trio Stella.

“Black and Showalter were chosen to speak at the conference because of their involvement in technology and also because they’re awesome,” Reed said, “The Combine doesn’t plan on bringing comedians to town per se, but hopefully next year the people we get are equally as funny.”

The two discussed how they used the new market of the Internet and how they were able to spread their works without geographic constraints. They also said sites like CollegeHumor, Funny or Die and YouTube are a great tool for anyone interested in comedy.

Although the comedians came from out of town, some of the speakers had a local
connection.

Christian Lander, the creator of the overnight blog sensation Stuff White People Like  and its subsequent book, attended graduate school at IU, but he left before he could complete his degree.

He talked about his rise to success with a little help from the Internet and a lot of luck.
Lander liked the Combine’s overall theme of not giving up.

“I think the talks were great,” Lander said. “You had a cool mix of the fun talks and more serious talks. There is such a value if you want to be an entrepreneur just to hear from everyone else talking about failure and working and what you can learn from mistakes. It was really inspiring.”

Even though he talked at a Union Board lecture in 2009, Lander could not pass up a chance to come back to the town he loved.

“If someone’s going to bring me in then I’ll come back in a heartbeat,” he said.
Lander said it was inspirational to hear them say that failure isn’t a bad thing but rather just a learning experience.