DIG SOUTH Tech Conference

Carey Smith’s tenacity and good eye for great products led him to create Big Ass Fans in 1999. Bootstrapping from day one, he successfully ran the Kentucky-based ceiling fan and lighting manufacturer until its sale in December 2017 for $500 million. More than 10 percent went to  100+ employees with stock appreciation rights, including 15 who became millionaires. An eternal entrepreneur, Carey is already working on his next venture: finding small companies and startups with big potential and helping them grow. Carey has won numerous awards for leadership, including Inc. Magazine’s Economy Hero and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the region. He was a regular contributor to Inc. Magazine and is frequently interviewed as an expert on starting and running a business, including outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes.

Loren Feldman is a senior editor at Forbes, responsible for entrepreneurial coverage in print and online. He also co-hosts a call-in show for business owners, Mind Your Business, on Sirius XM's Wharton business network. His previous job was small-business editor of The New York Times, where he created the You’re the Boss small-business blog. He has also been editor of the Web sites at both Inc. and FastCompany. Before going digital, he was a top editor and writer for print magazines such as Inc., Philadelphia, Manhattan,inc., the American Lawyer, Money, and George. He has also written for GQ, The New York Times magazine and The New York Times Sunday Business section. And he has spoken and conducted interviews at numerous conferences and seminars on entrepreneurship. On Twitter, he's @lfeldman.