I had a great time this weekend at the CEO National Conference in Chicago. The first time I attended the conference I was deeply impacted by the energy from other students and the guest speakers. Two years later, my second go at the conference was just as invigorating.

At the conference your time is filled with meeting people, frantic note taking, and a constant stream of new ideas. In the evening the city of Chicago is at your fingertips. Over the weekend you hardly sleep, but you never feel tired!

Some of the awesome people I met include:

• Chris Miller is a 24 year-old real estate whiz and I learned a lot from his workshop on investing while in college.
• Talia Mashiach is both a mom and the CEO of Eved. She is so nice and I could tell she loves helping young entrepreneurs.
• Michael Simmons is co-founder of Extreme Entrepeneurship Education and an accomplished entrepreneur. He also graduated from Stern where he was president of the Entrepreneurial Exchange Group, small world!
• Liana Louie is working on her own line of comfortable & luxurious women’s shoes. She’s also a brother of the Oregon State Chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi .

Meeting entrepreneurial people is critical to being successful in the startup world. You need mentors, partners, and teammates to make your vision a reality.

The best way to finding a community is by finding local influencers. Use the internet: facebook, linkedin, twitter, and entrepreneurship blogs. Find out who the big shots are and where they hang out, then you’re guaranteed to find a bunch of lesser big shots.

There is also three reliable places I know to find entrepreneurial communities.

1. Major universities and their entrepreneurship clubs, programs, and department activities
2. Meetup.com groups
3. Co-working spaces

The great thing about co-working is not only that you get to know people on an everyday personal basis, but also that you can shop around and find a space with people that you would like advice/help from without having to recruit them to your team.

SparkSpace NYC is an awesome co-working space/incubator that is also a few doors down from VC firm Rose Tech Ventures. Not only does it offer advantages from a capital standpoint, but also from a selection one.

Seed Funding Programs are also great, but the draw backs are that you have to apply for them months in advance and they accept more early stage entrepreneurs. You should aim to find people who have already accomplished something similar to your primary goal.

VC’s are not complicated people, they want a low-risk way to make a ton a money. If you’re pitching a VC, make sure your business plan includes the following things:

1. Big market, big PAIN, big money
2. An innovative approach – something that’s never been done before and stands above what’s out there
3. Proven business models and real numbers
4. Demonstrated traction

These “four things” are taken from a presentation by Lawrence D. Lenihan, CEO at FirstMark