Spanx founder Sara Blakely will speak at Tampa’s Synapse Summit

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.