Texas Forever: Celebrating Ideas and Innovation at SXSW 2019

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As cred’s resident Texan, my home state is known for many great things—cowboys, the Alamo, and one of the best conferences in the world (in my humble, Austin unicorn opinion): South By, aka South by Southwest (SXSW)! An annual festival happening every spring in Austin, SXSW is part conference and part film and music festival, with the goal of bringing together leaders and thought provokers across all industries to share their knowledge.

Along with listening to talks from the likes of Stacey Abrams, Brené Brown, Kimberly Bryant, David Byrne, and Tim Ferriss, I was able to see cred speakers like Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder & CEO of Mighteor, Edith Yeung, Partner at 500 Startups, David Schwartz, CTO at Ripple, and Omar Tawakol, CEO & Founder at Voicea, take the stage and share their thoughts on the future of health, tech, politics, entertainment, and much more.

Here were some of my top three favorite talks:

Featured Session: Blockchain Beyond the Hype: The Ripple Effect

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In front of more than 600 attendees, Ripple CTO David Schwartz spoke candidly about cryptography and the future of blockchain. Joined by Business Insider Editor-at-Large Sara Silverstein, David discussed his interest in bitcoin, the difference between XRP and Ripple, SEC regulation laws, and why XRP is not a security.

Keynote: A Cultural Crystal Ball

In front of a packed house, Bozoma Saint John, CMO at William Morris Endeavor, and Ashley Graham, model and host of the Pretty Big Deal podcast, discussed how to spot trends that will be the next big thing. The session dove into how being authentic has helped them navigate trends and how they have each developed or impacted the culture in their industries.

Filled with golden nuggets of wisdom throughout their talk, Bozoma’s message of “staying quiet and really paying attention to the world around you,” for new ideas and inspiration is something that I’ll be practicing.

Keynote: Shirley Manson & Lauren Mayberry with Puja Patel

Lead by alternative music powerhouses, Shirley Manson, Garbage frontwoman, and CHVRCHES vocalist Lauren Mayberry, this panel, moderated by Pitchfork Editor-in-Chief Puja Patel, discussed their experiences as women in the music industry, how growing up in Scotland helped shape them into the people they are today, how they stay creative, and how social media impacts them in both positive and negative ways.

Curious about where else cred has been so far? Check out our other event spotlights here!

Meet cred’s Spring Intern

The cred team is excited to welcome another intern for the spring semester! Our intern program is as unique as cred, offering newcomers a chance to take a deep dive into the world of communications and events—from pitching clients for conferences to supporting speaking opportunities and researching industry events.

We sat down with Sonali Gupta, a senior graduating in May from the University of San Francisco, to chat through her experience. From interning at Chirps Chips, a startup featured on Shark Tank and backed by Mark Cuban, to joining us for the spring, we loved hearing about Sonali’s path to cred.

Check out our full interview below!

cred: Where are you going to school and what are you studying?

Sonali Gupta: I’m currently at the University of San Francisco and I’m studying Business Marketing!

cred: Why did you choose to study marketing?

SG: I chose to pursue marketing because there’s so many different aspects to it (digital, social media, product, etc) and over the course of my studies and classes I realized I was passionate about digital marketing.

cred: Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

SG: I’m originally from Sacramento so it was a big change for me to move to San Francisco, which is such a populous and a busy city. I love brunching on the weekends and spending time at Dolores Park with friends. I am obsessed with Game of Thrones and I love binge watching random shows on Netflix!

cred: What do you want to achieve while interning at cred?

SG: My past experiences have been heavily focused on digital marketing and a little bit on events, so I really want to get more experience in the PR/communications industry and learn more about the backend work of running events. It is nice to see that cred focuses on events, because not a lot of companies do that. Being able to tap into that niche market and help run events seamlessly is very useful for people who want to have an audience to talk to. I’m super excited for all the new things I’m going to learn!

cred: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

SG: Taco Bell Chalupas 24/7.

cred: Can you give us one interesting fact about yourself?

SG: I interned at a startup (Chirps Chips) that was featured on Shark Tank and invested in by Mark Cuban!

cred: What is one thing you want to accomplish in the next five years?

SG: My dad and I have a few new entrepreneurial ideas for products and companies, so I really want to work with him to start a company of my own!

Curious to learn more about what we do here at cred? Learn more about our open positions, including internships, on AngelList, or email Gina King at gina@credpr.com with your resume!

Water for Peace: CreativeMornings Sacramento

The third Friday of the month means one thing at the Urban Hive, home of our Sacramento office: CreativeMornings!

CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series serving the creative community. Local chapters from cities around the world host monthly events to celebrate their city’s creative talent and open their space with like-minded individuals. The Sac chapter of this international event series features a rotating list of speakers, breakfast, and—of course—coffee. 

At today’s event, doors opened at 8:30 a.m. and attendees enjoyed breakfast burritos and fresh fruit from a local co-op and sipped on fresh local coffee. The main event began at 9:00 a.m., with an opening from CreativeMornings Sacramento host Rebecca Plumb. As always, she read the CreativeMornings Manifesto, which begins, “Everyone is creative,” and set the tone for the talk.

March’s theme, picked by the CreativeMornings Perth, Australia chapter, centered around water. Who better to speak to this than La Mission Por Vida Founder William Mendoza? Through his nonprofit organization, William works to bring clean water to developing countries and has impacted more than 1.5 million people globally.

William shared his story of addiction and how it led him to start the nonprofit. To William, “Water is hope, opportunity, progress, [and] education.” Through providing access to clean water, William believes he helps bring peace to communities.

The event wrapped up with Q+A from the audience. We left feeling inspired by William’s story and his work to improve the lives of people around the world. We’re proud to work with organizations and companies that share this same vision for social good—including fashion eCommerce site Olivela, which donates 20% of all its proceeds to support educating girls worldwide, and Cathay Pacific Airways, which was the first airline to invest in a biofuel company and has committed to reducing their net carbon emissions by 50% against 2005 levels by 2050.

Interested in learning more about CreativeMornings? Check out their website to find your local chapter, and maybe we’ll see you there!

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The credSac office closed. Check out our brand new office in SF.

Hear Us Roar: Happy International Women’s Day!

Stacey Boyd, CEO and Founder of Olivela | Milken Institute London Summit 2018

Joanne Chen, Partner, Foundation Capital | amoConf 2018

Caitlin Bartley, CEO, cred | SaaStr Annual 2019

Sarah McCrary, CEO, GasBuddy | Unacast Real World Talks 2018

Sree Menon, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Global Operations, Tophatter | TAP 2018

Rebecca Stone, Vice President of Marketing, LiveRamp | RampUp on the Road London 2018

Yamini Rangan, CCO, Dropbox | SaaStr Annual 2019

Happy International Women’s Day! Across the world, March 8 marks a global event for women and men to celebrate the “social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.”

Here at cred, we are proud to partner with a number of dynamic women speakers across industries to help share their stories, wisdom, and unique perspectives on what’s next in innovation and entrepreneurship. As a women-led company ourselves, cred recognizes the importance of having strong female leaders who are not afraid to rattle their industries and inspire movements for generations to come.

According to the 2018 Pew Research Center’s Data on Women Leaders study, only 4.8 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies were held by women. We hope to see this number grow over time as we continue to work with outstanding female leaders to give them a platform to broadcast their voice. (Related: credTen: Top Ten Conferences in Female Entrepreneurship)

Today, we celebrate the amazing women we see on the stage, in our office, and around the world.

See below for a sample of some of our amazing women speakers.

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Know a female founder whose voice should be amplified? Send them our way hello@credpr.com.

Reflecting on Illuminate 2019: How to Empower the Modern Workplace

Last week, I attended Illuminate, a one-day people conference on a mission to make the manager-employee relationship better. Hosted by people management platform Reflektive, the event was filled with tactical takeaways to improve myself as a manager and contribute to the growth of cred’s culture and people.

Featuring speakers from Allbirds, Airbnb, Omada Health, AppAnnie, Pinterest, and 23andMe, Illuminate shined light on the employee journey and its expansion to include a company’s work environment, mission, values, culture, and wellness.

Omada Health CPO Jo Dennis and CEO Sean Duffy weighed the pros and cons of anonymous feedback before concluding their business is better off without it, opting for a transparent culture of feedback. Transparent feedback limits confusion, has ownership, and provides context. While not easy for anyone, giving constructive feedback does gets better with practice.

In addition to sessions discussing diversity and inclusion and coaching culture at scale, Illuminate offered attendees a chance to win a pair of Allbirds following the event. While I didn’t win the Allbirds giveaway, I walked away with a deeper look into what it takes to be a better manager and overall a better team.

More thoughts from the stage:

• Fairness is the foundation of feedback. Create an equal playing field by offering tools and resources that ensure everyone is speaking the same feedback language.

• Peer-to-peer feedback is just as important as manager-to-employee feedback.

• No one quits because they received too much praise from leadership. Top communication issues that prevent effective leadership include failure to recognize employee achievements, offer clear directions, and carve out time to meet with employees.

• People development and culture is a work in progress. It can be rewarding, challenging, messy and constantly has to be worked on.

• For more, here’s Reflektive’s official event recaps.

Interested in continuing your learning and fostering a culture of #nobadmanagers? Check out these four books that stood out and were recommended by speakers and other attendees. I’ve added them to my reading queue, what about you?

• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

• The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

• Bring Your Human to Work by Erica Keswin