Mentor Session: Mark Benak (Mark S Benak & Associates, LLC)

Event ID: PP1149370

Sat, Mar 14, 2026 | 9:00 PM - 10:15 PM

Venue: Room 400-402 (Hilton Austin Downtown)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Business Development, Content Strategy/Production, Entrepreneurship.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

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Open JSON payload
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