We think there are far too many events in the world that focus on fluffy, new, shiny stuff and not enough that focus on turning new things into sustainable businesses. We think this is why so many people say nice things about our events – that and they get to meet other high quality people.

I wonder how many of you feel the same way?

The BLN and Business of Software share the same philosophy. That is one reason why we think the Business of  Software conference is probably the most valuable event in the US that CEOs and Founders of software companies can participate in. Successful businesses are not all obsessed with coming up with a new and exciting idea, raising venture capital then exiting. This event is for people with the vision to see beyond the hype.

If you are a CEO or Founder of  software business, whether organically grown or venture backed, or if you are a VC and want to meet some of the best practitioners in the business, you should give some very serious thought to getting to Boston between October 4th and 6th this year.

Here is a two minute video that gives you a quick view of last year’s event.

One thing makes an awesome conference – awesome people. Here are some of the awesome speakers that will be talking, eating, meeting and learning from the awesome participants:

Joel Spolsky, Fog Creek Software

“My VC Year” – After ten years of running a slow-growth, bootstrapped software company that was profitable from day 1, I found myself running a fast-growth, VC-funded internet company that is actually trying to get unprofitable. I’ll reflect on some of the differences and some of what I’ve learned from going over to the dark side.

Seth Godin, sethgodin.com

“Are you afraid to truly make an impact? The opportunity for linchpin organizations and the people who run them.”

Eric Sink, SourceGear

“Stuff I Learned from Selling Our Company to Microsoft” – Over the years, we’ve been approached by several parties interested in acquiring our company. I learned a lot from those discussions, even though none of the deals happened.

Paul Kenny, Ocean Learning

“Engaging Dialogue” – In his presentation Paul will build on the material covered in 2008 and 2009. In this session Paul will explore how best to get the customer really talking about their needs their concerns and their aspirations. We will explore how best to use our questioning and listening skills to engage the customer in a meaningful dialogue, which will help not only to identify an appropriate solution, but also to enhance the customer experience.

Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot

“Building A Great Software Business: Notes From The Field” – Dharmesh (who is not used to writing about himself in the third person) is obsessed with software companies. When he’s not working on his own startup, he’s reading about building software companies, investing in software companies, blogging about building great software companies or engaged in passionate debate with fellow entrepreneurs as to how to go about building great software companies.

Giacomo ‘Peldi’ Guilizzoni, Balsamiq

“Do Worry… Be Happy!” – One thing they don’t tell you about quitting your job to become a startup CEO is how much you’re going to worry about things.

Jason Cohen, Smart Bear Software

“From Geek to Entrepreneur” – As a geek who has started three successful companies, I’ve had to move from “coder” to everything else — salesman, marketer, accountant, and changer of the pellets in the urinals. In the process, I’ve found that some widely accepted advice lead to failure while trusting my inexperienced gut lead to success. Through stories I’ll give you six ways to figure out whether specific advice is right for your situation, and then workshop those lessons against the 37signals philosophy.

Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

“The Lean Startup: A Scientific Approach to Innovation.” – Most software projects fail. Most startups fail. Most new products are never used. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

David Russo, Eno River Associates, Inc.

“Company Culture and its DNA: “For Better For Worse, For Richer For Poorer …” – Summary – The presenter, David Russo, who consults with high tech companies regarding high performance management, and growing attractive and sustaining employer brands, and who is the author of the book 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent (2010 Financial Times Press), will use research conducted by top business school professors and his own experience as both executive and “trusted advisor” to show how the way the company sets itself up from inception to find, hire, engage, reward, and keep its “talent” plays a large part in whether a company grows, finds success, rewards investors and incumbents, and even lives or dies … regardless of the quality of the science, technology, innovation, or discovery.

Scott Farquhar, Atlassian

“From Bootstrap to $60m. What I’ve learnt” – Atlassian has been a successful software bootstrap, right up until we took $60m funding from Accel Partners in July 2010. Scott packs some of what he’s learnt about running a software company into thirty minutes. You’ll hear about how to pick a business model, how to get free marketing, how we hired 32 people in 6 months, and how we built a workplace that has won numerous HR awards.

Derek Sivers, MuckWork

“Profit Models” – Explore many wildly different profit models from a bird’s eye view. Abstracted to memorable shapes, it’s simple and inspiring to apply them to your business.

Rob Walling, SoftwareByRob.com

“The Primary Goal of Your Website” – What’s the primary goal of your website? Not to sell software. With most visitors returning multiple times before making a purchase, your primary goal should be to draw visitors back to your site. In this talk, Rob looks in-depth at why this is the case, and how to make it happen.

The Cranky Product Manager, DysfunctoSoft

The Cranky Product Manager is a fictional product management professional at a fictional enterprise software vendor named DysfunctoSoft. The Cranky PM has been officially in product management for many years, but before that spent time in the trenches as a developer and professional services slave. All told, she’s been working in tech for lots of years, at companies ranging from itty-bitty startups to IBM-sized behemoths. The Cranky Product Manager’s personality flaws and character failings include a passion for sodium-encrusted food, snarkiness, cynicism, abject driving skills, bluntness, and an absolute inability to tolerate pompous jackasses. The Cranky Product Manager might be revealing her true identity at Business of Software 2010. Or she might appear in wig and sunglasses. She hasn’t decided yet.

Mark Stephens, IDRSolutions

“(Don’t) Panic” – Something is wrong. Maybe you are just not checking your emails enough? Actually, it’s not you. The software universe really has gone mad and you need to step back and re-evaluate big time. This is your chance. The talk aims to take a long, cynical look at both the past and the future, give you some new ideas, and pose lots of those awkward, searching questions you try to avoid. All in 42 slides. And with kittens.

Dan Bricklin, Software Garden, Inc.

Dan Bricklin is currently president of Software Garden, Inc., a small consulting firm and developer of software applications that he founded in 1985.

Mr. Bricklin is best known for codeveloping VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet, while he was a student at the Harvard Business School. VisiCalc is widely credited for fueling the rapid growth of the personal computer industry.

If those people mean nothing to you, and the themes of their talks don’t get you interested, you are probably not the right sort of participant. If they do, then find a way to get there and take part.

The BLN  will be there and we strongly suggest you give it some thought too. If you want to get involved, use the code ‘BLN’ on registration and you will receive a $200 discount. (And, ‘No!’, we don’t get commission, we just think this is an awesome event and that our members are the kind of people who would value taking part).

Hope to see you there. More info: Business of  Software

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The launch of the Newnham Regatta home made raft. July 2010.

• Writing chapter for book on investing in UK. Feeling a bit like Barbara Cartland in Little Britain. "How many words…?" #
• Congrats! @rahulvohra @martinkl RT @rapportive: WOO: just raised a stunning round of >$1M from Gmail creator and others! #
• Great list – @hrheingold Encourage students to avoid PowerPoint. >100 interactive presentation media http://bit.ly/yIxzu #
• Am I getting more juvenile or is Shooting Stars funnier now? Angelos amuses me even more than George Doors. #
• My new kitten makes a crap diary secretary but I might keep him on anyway. http://bit.ly/9VRvJW http://bit.ly/c9qv2y #
• Book chapter done finally. New respect for real journos but main discovery – playful kitten is NOT productivity tool. #
• Google waves by by. Didn't even feel a ripple #
• Dude, you do know that, 'new' means bit been done before…?! @tweetalondoncab @Scobleizer @UberCab @Jason http://bit.ly/2LlzAV #
• Cleaning up a whale with TNT fail. "The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds" http://bit.ly/bG1rq #
• RT @helen_brown: ecommerce discussion dinner. 14th September, City of London. http://bit.ly/9yL41w > Highly recommend it. – Thx Helen! #
• Proof from @PeerIndex that VC really do all go on holiday in August. http://bit.ly/c94oWb #
• I just approved this spam comment though I linked it to the BBC. Did make me smile. http://bit.ly/cQL19F #
• Life as an entrepreneur in 3 words. Thank you so much @jeggers & @spreadshirt Too kind & too true! http://bit.ly/agjF6Y #
• Two adverts & a headline that are just SO wrong. http://twitpic.com/2af3l5 http://bit.ly/9idkNq http://es.pn/2fnE3W #
• RT @spreadshirt: thx for http://bit.ly/agjF6Y & the lob "the best way to make a point in public without having to take your clothes off" 🙂 #
• Legoland doorstop.

  Excellent use of indigenous materials that Prince Charles would approve of.

  http://bit.ly/broplg #

• Futile, dented, sign seen on the Norfolk Broads. Nothing on other side. http://twitpic.com/2ctyus Must attract tourists? #

• Friend @ top tier investor is looking for highly organised researcher/marketing/trainee analyst. @ me for info. #
• Investor role is entry level and London based. #
• RT @davegentle So sad. The oldest person on Bebo has died aged 23 🙁 #
• Woo hoo! @The_BLN: #BLN10 Cambridge discussion dinner. Avoiding pain as you scale. 8th September. http://bit.ly/aV5eFU #

The BLN CFO Breakfast Brainstorm (21st September, 8.00-10.30), is a high-level peer-to-peer discussion forum for individuals leading the finance function in some of the UK’s most admired companies.

Approximately 20 attendees, comprising successful CFOs and rising stars will attend under the Chatham House Rule. The programme exists to help CFOs network, learn from each other, share best practice and advance the role of the CFO in high growth companies in a relaxed, entertaining and facilitated environment.

Following on from our recent Growth Forum we thought it would be beneficial for those of you who attended, and those that could’t make it, to discuss some of the key findings from the day in more detail and explore how these insights may be applicable to your business.

Attendees: The BLN CFO Breakfast Brainstorms have already included some of the most experienced public and private company CFOs and FDs in the region including CFO/FD’s from Red Gate Software, NXT plc, nCipher, CSR, Alertme, Xaar, Domino, Owlstone, Zeus, Sphere Medical, PriSmaStar, Atlantic Healthcare and 1spatial amongst others.

The BLN CFO Breakfast Brainstorms have been greeted by CFOs as a welcome and much needed initiative to facilitate the development of the strategic finance function in organisations – as well as offering a nice breakfast and a chance to meet fellow finance professionals.

Supporters: This initiative is supported by BDO and breakfast is provided courtesy of Red Gate Software.

Places are limited and in high demand so a prompt reply is advantageous to secure a place. If you would like to attend, please get in touch.

The 4th BLN ecommerce discussion dinner in this highly popular series will feature both upcoming businesses as well as a few that are interested in acquisitions in the space.

This is a chance to meet other incredible people, share ideas on emerging business models, challenges and how we might support each other in our goals.

BLN discussion dinners are run under the Chatham House Rule and draw key participants in business ecosystems – incumbents, investors and growing entrepreneurial enterprises – together to meet and discuss important and pressing issues about the future of their industry.

BLN discussion dinners are events for high-value people who appreciate the opportunity to discuss new ideas and explore business relationships with their peers in a relaxed, informal and fun atmosphere. Participants in previous events in this series have included founders/CEOs/senior executives from companies including Spreadshirt, LoveFilm, eBay, Waitrose, Figleaves, Graze.com, Tesco, House of Fraser, Glasses Direct, Viagogo, Isabella Oliver, Skimlinks, MedicAnimal, Net-a-Porter, I Want One of Those, MyDeco, and eCommera.

We anticipate significant demand for the 20 available places.

If you are a CEO/Founder/Senior Exec in a relevant organisation, we would love to hear from you if you would like to attend this event. Please note that by applying we CANNOT guarantee a place although we do our best to accommodate relevant individuals. Our priority is always to ensure that our guests are relevant to the specific discussion.

We are delighted to be partnering with Taylor Wessing and Deloitte for this discussion.

The BLN Cambridge Discussion Dinner, ‘Avoiding Growing Pains as you Scale’: 8th September, 17.30 start, to be followed by roundtable discussion, cocktails, and dinner from 19:30.

BLN events bring entrepreneurs running high growth businesses together to share thoughts, meet peers, investors and discuss issues of common interest in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. Events are run across the UK with further discussion dinners in London, Oxford, Edinburgh and Bristol over the coming months.

One of the key themes that emerged from the BLN Growth Forum on 15th July was the challenge of scaling an organisation effectively. This BLN Discussion Dinner will draw on some of the learning from this discussion and aims to help senior executives think about building an organisation that can scale beyond the ordinary.

Avoiding growing pains as you go global

• How do you assess the risks in markets you don’t know?
• How do you decide where to establish your beachheads?
• HQ – to move or not to move?
• What are the most common fatal mistakes made in expanding?
• How can you keep your senior team in synch?
• How can you keep your corporate culture as you grow?
• What makes a company scale brilliantly?
• What makes a company fail spectacularly?

We expect approximately 12-16 companies to be present at the event, along with 5-6 active investors. Previous attendees at Cambridge events include CEOs, founders, recycling entrepreneurs or board members from ARM, IP.Access, Biowisdom, True Knowledge, Arakis, Serentis, RedGate, Ubisense, Plastic Logic, Abcam, Nujira, Bango, Alphamosaic and up and coming leading high growth businesses.

This event is being run with the kind support of BDO and Taylor Wessing.

There are many opportunities to attend networking events but we like to think that The BLN events are both high quality and a little different. You can see feedback from previous attendees here.

Places are limited so a prompt response is necessary to be considered for a place.