The cameras are packed up, the stage lights are off, and I finally have a minute
By Natalie Angelillo · September 29, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
The cameras are packed up, the stage lights are off, and I finally have a minute to reflect on the hard work that goes into an event like this.
What most people don't see is that for many of the seller stories that make it to the mainstage or the big screen, there are months of listening, filming, and building behind it. Accelerate is the highlight, but elevating seller voices is a year-round job, not just a three-day one.
It starts long before the doors of the Seattle Convention Center open. This year, we worked with over 300 sellers to feature them in some way across the conference: their story, their brand, their photos and videos - connecting their compelling voices to the stages, cameras, and rooms where they'd have the most impact. Over 8000 photos and 60TB of video of our incredible small businesses made their way into the event!
And then at the event - 6 seller spotlight stage interviews - 16 "man on the street" seller interviews - 9 "seller hot takes" videos - 8 podcast interviews filmed - 4 sellers interviewed live during General Session pre-shows – 6 seller interviews capturing their reactions to product announcements – 4 articles published featuring 4 sellers - and over 100+ data points verified before they made it into a session, keynote, or a video.
This year was also our biggest event to date for our Sellers In Your Community (SIYC) program. We had hundreds of sellers join us at our SIYC Lounge, including international sellers from 8 countries — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK. Sellers joined us for our annual SIYC happy hour, and it was standing room only at our annual advocacy breakfast where we launched our plan to have SIYC groups in every US state. We also hosted 2 community stage events this year elevating our advocate seller voices.
Thank you - behind every one of those numbers is a real founder who trusted us with their story and a web of storytelling, data, design, and collaboration to do it justice. That's the part I'm proud of. Not the production, but the human connection behind it.
To my team and every partner team who showed up for our selling partners: thank you. You made this look easy, and it is anything but.
Already can't wait for next year!
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