Credit: sarablakely/Facebook

Credit: sarablakely/Facebook

Conferences are usually places where small talk and GaryVee fan boys are more prevalent than big ideas. Downtown Tampa’s Synapse Summit is an exception, and on Tuesday, Amalie Arena plays host to at least 6,000 attendees who’ll take part in two days of speakers including Priceline.com co-founder Jeff Hoffman, new USF president Steve Currall and Spanx founder Sara Blakely (pictured). That’s on top of dozens of breakout sessions, a Pitch Madness competition, nighttime pitches to NASA officials and a few handfuls of after-conference networking events.

Synapse Summit. Tues.-Wed. Feb. 11-12. $45 & up. Amalie Arena, 401 Channelside Dr, Tampa. Synapsefl.com

Follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter to get the most up-to-date news + views. Subscribe to our newsletter, too.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...