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What’s one way to get people excited about your gathering? Wrap it up with a much bigger event.
That’s the strategy that Carmel-based tech firm ShipSigma is using for its ShipSigma Summit next month, an industry event it’s hosting Feb. 16-17—specifically timed around Indianapolis’ NBA All-Star Weekend festivities.
ShipSigma has offices in both Carmel and Indianapolis.
ShipSigma’s software platform helps customers find ways to reduce their shipping costs with carriers like FedEx and UPS. The company’s summit, which is aimed at executives and decision-makers at both nationally-known and local companies, will include executive dinners and gatherings at locations around the city. It will also include some basketball-specific elements.
The summit itself, to be held at the Harrison Center on Feb. 17, will feature a keynote speech by former NBA player Spud Webb—winner of the league’s 1986 slam dunk contest despite being only 5-feet-6-inches tall.
ShipSigma has also secured a suite for the All-Star Saturday Night activities at Lucas Oil Stadium on Feb. 17, which include the slam dunk and three-point contests. There’s also a private afterparty that night with entertainment by 1990s hip-hop group Naughty by Nature.
This is the second year ShipSigma has hosted an industry event built around a major local gathering—last year, it hosted a similar event in May, that one timed to the Indy 500.
“If there’s a big event happening in the Indianapolis metro area, we want to capitalize on it,” said ShipSigma co-founder and CEO Chase Flashman. “We do like to curate these unique experiences.”
It’s a significant undertaking for ShipSigma, which launched in 2018 and has a full-time staff of 32.
Flashman said next month’s gathering will cost an estimated $250,000. To date, the company has gotten about half of that cost covered by sponsors.
But the effort and expense are worth it, Flashman said, because the weekend is really about bringing people together in person to build relationships that can, in turn, lead to business opportunities.
In the business world, “what you’re ultimately selling or wanting to convey is trust,” Flashman said. “… We want them to show up so we can spend time with them—so we can build trust that we can build fruitful, meaningful relationships.”
ShipSigma landed on IBJ’s Fast 25 list of the fastest-growing private companies in both 2022 and 2023, with reported 2022 revenue of $10.03 million. The company reported revenue growth of 176% between its 2020 and 2022 fiscal years.
Flashman was also an IBJ Forty Under 40 honoree in 2023.
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