What could be more fun than spending a few days in a place called Carefree, Arizona? Maveron hosted its 2010 CEO Forum in Carefree, where we were joined by the CEOs of our portfolio companies and several visionary business leaders for stimulating discussions about growth and innovation.

The CEOs enjoyed the opportunity to engage with Tom Davin, former CEO of Panda Restaurant Group; Bill Campbell, Chairman of Intuit; Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of WIRED Magazine; and Peter Bassi, Former Chairman Yum! Restaurants International.  In addition, Mark Vadon, Executive Chairman of Blue Nile, sat down with Darrell Cavens, CEO of Maveron-backed Zulily, to discuss a topic critical to all startup

executives today: “Winning Today: Going Fast While Being Cheap” and serial entrepreneur Chris Michel shared “Lessons From the Edge” insights from his time leading Military.com

Attendees also got a chance to converse with Maveron co-founder and partner Howard Schultz, Chairman, President and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company about the lessons he learned working on the successful Starbucks turnaround.  Other topics at the event included the importance of social media today, how to manage rapid growth and tough lessons learned during the recession.

The CEO Forum is part of Maveron’s commitment to add value to its network of companies that goes beyond investment capital.  With high quality speakers and plenty of time to network with entrepreneurial peers, the Forum gave CEOs a chance to learn “in the trenches” strategies to grow their businesses.