ACES Conference: The Prequel Free for All Small Business Owners

With my TidBITS Content Network hat on, I’ve attended the ACES Conference for IT consultants the past few years and was planning on jetting down to Atlanta for this year’s conference on May 19th and 20th. Given the coronavirus pandemic, that’s not happening—it has been postponed until October.

However, rather than merely shift the date, conference organizer Justin Esgar decided to squeeze today’s lemons into lemonade. The result is ACES Conference: The Prequel, a virtual event that will take place on the original conference dates, with an expanded focus on small business owners across all industries. The theme is topical and straightforward: How Your Business Is Going to Survive COVID-19. Topics will cover marketing, sales, finance, branding, mental health, and more.

The best part? Everyone can register for ACES Conference: The Prequel for free. It includes 2 days of speakers and sessions, and you can drop in any time to join sessions live or watch recordings from earlier in the day. Speakers include author Peter Shankman, La Terza Coffee CEO David Gaines, and Advocate to Win CEO Heather Hansen, executive coach Jason Womack, and podcaster Josh Tapp, plus other entrepreneurs, business leaders, financial coaches, and other small business owners.

If you are an IT consultant, a $199 IT Consultant Pass includes bonus content and resources, breakout sessions and IT industry roundtable discussions that proved highly effective at last year’s event, and a $199 credit toward a ticket for the in-person ACES Conference scheduled for October 20–21.

10% of the revenue from paid tickets, plus donations raised at the event, will go to the Stupid Cancer charity to help adolescents and young adults battling cancer during these universally uncertain times.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I’ve spoken at and sponsored ACES in the past, and I’m on the ACES board of advisers, although it’s an entirely uncompensated position. And while I have no connection with Stupid Cancer, a dear friend is dealing with terminal pancreatic cancer right now, so I’m much more aware of just how a group like Stupid Cancer can help.)