2008-10-22 14:19:04 -
www.kauffman.org - Media Relations Representative Sarah Brewster, 816-842-8111 sarah@trozzolo.com or Kauffman Foundation Barbara Pruitt, 816-932-1288 bpruitt@kauffman.org Prospective entrepreneurs of all kinds who want to participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week have a growing list of diverse, challenging and motivating events to choose from. They can check out www.UnleashingIdeas.org for all the details.
The Week, Nov. 17-23, offers a first-ever, worldwide series of events to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship and encourage young people to become more innovative and entrepreneurial. In the United States, the Week includes a series of national events and hundreds of locally sponsored activities across the country. Founding sponsors for Global Entrepreneurship Week are the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the United States and Make Your Mark
in the United Kingdom.
"Innovation and entrepreneurship are the keys to developing businesses and creating jobs in any country," said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. "The events and challenges that will take place during the Week will be fun, inspiring and transforming for young entrepreneurs."
In addition to national events, the open source nature of the Week has given local organizations license to create and promote fun events in their cities and towns. Although this is by no means a complete list, here are 10 cool things to do during Global Entrepreneurship Week:
Let it BE
Entrepreneur and music mogul Russell Simmons will host the Race to BE., a national competition that will engage innovators in three industries, in three cities: fashion in New York; music in Austin, Texas; and film in Los Angeles. Teams can apply for one of the three competitions at www.RaceToBeUSA.com. During the Week, five finalists from each category will be selected from the online applications and will bring their portfolio of completed creative work to the event where they will compete in an on-site challenge. The winner of each competition will receive $5,000, a mentoring opportunity, a possible internship and post-event PR for their winning concept. Visit www.RaceToBeUSA.com for more information.
Unleash Your Ideas
Unleash It!, www.unleashingideas.org/unleash, will showcase the power of ideas. Innovative thinkers are invited to explore solutions across cultural boundaries -- such as connecting virtual 3-D environments with real businesses, developing eco-friendly nightclubs or finding new ways to distribute potable drinking water to sub-Saharan Africa. Anyone can post a challenge -- government or business, big or small, global or local -- and bright, young minds are invited to "unleash" their creative and innovative ideas to find solutions. This online challenge, launched in October, will run through and beyond Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Mad Mentor
The New York Stock Exchange, one of the Week's global sponsors, will host Mentoring Madness at 10 a.m., Friday, Nov. 21. It will feature Russell Simmons and other successful entrepreneurs discussing how they got their start and what challenges they faced and advising the next generation of entrepreneurs. Alexis Glick from Fox News will moderate the discussions, and students in the audience will have an opportunity to ask the entrepreneurs questions. The event will be Web cast at www.unleashingideas.org/mentoringmadness.
Lunch and Learn
Sponsored by the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence, "Take an Entrepreneur to Lunch" is designed to connect aspiring entrepreneurs with someone who has successfully made the entrepreneurial journey. Each participant will be asked to identify a local entrepreneur in his or her area who has qualities he or she admires, then schedule a 30-minute meeting, interview that person and submit an entrepreneurial hero nomination. Once all nominations have been collected, 100 individuals will be named semi-finalists and selected to create a short story about their nominee. Semi-finalists will receive $250 for their educational expenses. From the nominations, 25 entrepreneurs will be chosen as heroes. With permission, their stories will be published and shared across America to inspire others. Finalists will receive an expenses-paid invitation to attend the 2009 Acton Entrepreneurial Journey Summit in Austin, Texas.
The New College Try
The Collegiate Inventors Competition honors innovative college students for their groundbreaking inventions and scientific achievements, culminating in an invitation-only awards dinner on the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 19. Judges for the competition consist of several National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees. This distinguished event is hosted by the Kauffman Foundation, organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation(R) and sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Abbott Fund.
Let Them Eat Cake
Duff Goldman, owner of Charm City Cakes and star of the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes," will join fellow University of Maryland-Baltimore County alumni at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Library Gallery for a night of conversation, food and inspiration. Goldman will discuss how his experiences at UMBC provided the right ingredients for his career as a premier pastry chef and entrepreneur.
The Will of the People
Sponsored by Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., the symposium will examine the roles and responsibilities of citizens in a global community, and the demands on individuals to meet not just the challenges of a home nation, but the challenges of a home world. Speakers at the session, which will take place on Nov. 18 and 19, include Eugene Robinson, Washington Post assistant managing editor and columnist; John Nagl, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security; Dr. Alexandre Melnick, former Soviet diplomat; and Glaydah Namukasa, an emerging literary voice from Uganda and a nurse/midwife. Visiting Woodrow Wilson Fellow Kathleen O'Neil, president and CEO of Liberty Street Advisors, a consulting firm for public and private corporations, will offer a presentation on the global marketplace.
The Art of Capital
The task of raising money can be frustrating and time consuming for an entrepreneur. The "Art and Science of Raising Money" workshop, noon, Thursday, Nov. 20, at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass., will draw on the collective experience of the audience and the moderator to develop a practical model for thinking through the fundraising process. The group will talk about business plans, customer feedback, presentations, the team, dumb luck, an investor's appetite for risk, sources of funding, and a host of other factors and requirements that shape investors' perception of the opportunity. Dan Gregory, who has been the CEO or a member of senior management teams at publishing and digital media companies, will lead the workshop. Gregory has worked for Cap Cities/ABC, Scholastic, New England Business Services and Vertigo Development Group. Most recently, he co-founded Turnstone Publishing Group and The Launch Group, a consulting practice that advises clients on starting new ventures.
See the Future
The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Haas School of Business, on the University of California-Berkeley campus, is hosting the 4th Annual Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge starting at noon, Tuesday, Nov. 18, and running through Nov. 21 at the Stanley Auditorium. Engineers and scientists will present how they plan to make the world a better place through their innovations and entrepreneurial skills. The Challenge partner representatives from leading research institutions will judge the regional business plan competition and identify the technologies and teams that can have the greatest impact.
Clean Out Your Locker
By Kids for Kids (BKFK) is encouraging young innovators to clean out their lockers. BKFK inspires young entrepreneurs to create and share their ideas, and often transforms outstanding ideas into commercial products where the young people earn self-esteem, business experience and royalties. As part of the program, BKFK provides Idea Lockers, a private online space where teens can create, develop, store and share their ideas.
As part of Unleash It!, BKFK is urging young innovators to clear out their ideas and enter them into the "Unleash Your Locker" Challenge. It's open submission, offering opportunities for almost any interest, subject or theme. To learn more, visit www.bkfk.com and click on the Challenge banner.
A complete list of events and participating countries and organizations is available at www.unleashingideas.org.
About Global Entrepreneurship Week
With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, to turn their ideas into reality, and to make their mark. From Nov. 17-23, 2008, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Thousands of activities are being planned in more than 75 countries around the world. Global Entrepreneurship Week is: founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign; sponsored by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young; and, supported by JA Worldwide, Endeavor, Entrepreneurs' Organization, DECA, YPO-WPO, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Young Americas Business Trust, YES - European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs. To view a complete list of participating countries and organizations or to learn more, visit www.unleashingideas.org.
From Music, Film and Fashion Competitions, to "Emptying" Your Idea
Locker to Solve Challenges, the Week Has Something for Every Innovator
