2020 was a year with many firsts. We saw a number of losses in the closing of businesses, layoffs and loved ones. We also saw a lot of openings, creations and new solutions to unknown problems. This year, we hosted our first virtual conference, our first conference that was a month-long, with some first-time tracks. 
In 2020, we welcomed over 190 speakers in over 70 sessions. Tracks included business fundamentals to robotics to cyber security to women’s entrepreneurship and everything in between. There were LIVE workshops and pre-recorded sessions. If you want to see some rockstars in the San Antonio community, you can find them all here on the SASW YouTube page.
It was also the first year we “launched” USAA Community Awards. Every Friday in October, we highlighted members/leaders in our community that we felt represented one of the R’s from our conference theme: Reconnect, Rebuild, Revive and Reboot. We highlighted San Antonio companies each week with goods/services we felt would help reconnect, rebuild, revive and reboot their organizations from this tumultuous time in our lives.
Last but certainly not least, we brought back our Free Legal Clinic event, and it was such an overwhelming success…we planned for another on in January. During the evening, you could get free advice from an attorney about your business. What some knew (and some didn’t) was that you could also form an LLC all in the same night! It was inspiring to watch people kickstart their businesses.
2020 set new challenges, goals and limitations for what a conference can/should look like. We are in awe and forever grateful for the track captains, volunteers, sponsors, partners, and attendees who were involved because we couldn’t have pulled this off without you. We love this community so much, and we look forward to what 2021 brings us.
