2008 Global Entrepreneurship Week From November 16-23, 2008, entrepreneurs, educators, community leaders and young people across the world are celebrating the power of entrepreneurship and igniting global consciousness about the importance of being entrepreneurial. Global Entrepreneurship Week offers a tremendous opportunity to engage and encourage the next generation of entrepreneurs. The initiative enhances on-going interest in global enterprise, and serves as an inspiration for young people to begin a journey to fulfill their potential as self-starters and entrepreneurs.
Worldwide Lecture Exchanges
The Academy is developing lecture exchanges that will take place between leading global universities during eWeek. We hope to utilize our connections in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East to invite faculty from various campuses to stream their lectures online. This will enable students and faculty to gain a broad exposure to various curriculum and entrepreneurial ways of teaching from across the world. Many of our faculty are already connected through the Worldwide Universities Network, and we are looking forward to this opportunity to collaborate even further to expand our teaching tools.
Virtual Lecture Exchange - Entrepreneurial Engineering
November 18 or 20: 11am US central time
Global partners: University of Illinois, University of York (UK), Worldwide Universities Network
Two institutions in the Worldwide Universities Network will be participating in a virtual lecture exchange around the topic of entrepreneurial engineering and creativity. Professor Tony Ward of the University of York will be discussing engineering on great engineering failures and how entrepreneurs can learn from their mistakes. Professor Bruce Litchfield from the University of Illinois will be discussing innovative engineering.
Access Grid Meeting - Entrepreneurs Without Borders
Thursday, November 20: 9-11am US central time
Global Partners: J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek (Croatia), University of Illinois EWOB student organization
Partners in the Entrepreneurs Without Borders organization will be meeting virtually to address the growth of the EWOB partnership, the impact that entrepreneurial work has had in their respective local communities, and future activities and events that will allow them to expand the EWOB organization to additional countries.
Access Grid Meeting - The Entrepreneurial University
Friday, November 21: 9-11am US central time
Global partners: University of Illinois, Coventry University (UK), Times Higher Education UK Entrepreneurial University of the Year, Cardiff University (UK), Glyndwr University (UK)
International colleagues will discuss best practices of making global universities truly entrepreneurial. Senior administrators will be speaking virtually about methodologies and strategic implications for uniting campuses in entrepreneurial creativity and innovation.
Virtual Global Lecture - Opportunity Discovery
Global partners: University of Illinois, Technion University (Israel)
Professor Uzi de Hann of Technion University in Israel will be lecturing on the entrepreneurial success factors of the high-tech industry in Israel, and it’s implications on budding entrepreneurs.
The Access Grid Announcement and Unveiling of the WUN International Enterprise Competition
Wednesday, November 19
10:30am - Noon
University of Illinois Access Grid Facilities
In April 2009, the WUN Enterprise initiative will be launching its inaugural International Enterprise Competition in London, England. Students from top global universities in Europe, America, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Australia will have the opportunity to participate in a global forum to challenge their business planning skills and to develop truly unique venture ideas. What makes this competition very unique is that student teams will be centered around five major global challenge themes:
- Sustainable energy alternatives
-Global climate change
-World poverty and food sustainability
-Innovative technologies
-Social entrepreneurship ventures
These five divisions of the competition were selected because they represent many of the global challenges facing the established and developing countries of the world, and they also have significant potential for entrepreneurial initiative. In fact, the WUN already has several faculty research initiatives working on solutions to these issues; we hope to ultimately pair our student enterprise companies with WUN initiatives to make an even larger and sustainable impact on solving global challenges.
The Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, along with the other 18 WUN schools will be virtually announcing this competition and their student teams during Global eWeek. The schools are planning on using Access Grid technology to prepare short presentations on the student businesses, and share them with teams worldwide. All the teams will have the opportunity to introduce themselves, and we are also hoping to have some corporate mentors participate on the virtual video call. We feel that this would be a stellar way to kick off the WUN International Competition, while giving the student teams the opportunity to meet peers from across the world.
The mission of the Worldwide Universities Network is to continue to be one of the leading networks of institutions of higher learning, and through collaborative efforts, to accelerate the creation of knowledge and to develop leaders who will be prepared to address the significant challenges of a rapidly changing world. Eighteen leading research institutions spanning four continents comprise the Worldwide Universities Network. Partnering institutions include the Universities of Alberta, Bergen, Bristol, California (San Diego), Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Leeds, Nanjing, Pennsylvania State, Sheffield, Southampton, Sydney, Toronto, Utrecht, Washington (Seattle), Western Australia, Wisconsin (Madison), York, and Zhejiang.
FastTrac Growth Venture
Tuesday, November 18
4:30pm - 6:30
Enterprise Works, Room 130
The Academy will be teaching a module of the FastTrac Growth Venture course to local entrepreneurs housed in the Research Park during eWeek. We are planning on inviting a global entrepreneur to come and speak about his business experiences growing from a national to an international venture. This will give participants an excellent chance to discuss the rewards and risks of going global with business ideas. Entrepreneurs will also have the opportunity to gain valuable mentoring advice from this global entrepreneur.
Market Research – National to Global Workshop
Thursday, November 20
5:00pm- 6:00
Levis Faculty Center - Music Room
The Academy will be hosting a workshop for entrepreneurs and students that discusses both the national tools that are available for doing market research and feasibility studies for business ventures, as well as the global tools that can prepare companies for future success. This workshop is part of our Nascent Entrepreneur Series of workshops that covers: business plan writing, guerrilla marketing, venture modeling, making the presentation, and financing a new venture.
Robert Nelson Global Entrepreneur Presentation
Friday, November 21
Noon - 2:00pm
Levis Faculty Center - Reading Room
A Global Perspective...The Need for Entrepreneurship Education
Robert Nelson is the Scholar in Residence at the Academy and an exemplary example of an outstanding entrepreneur educator who has traveled the world, making an impact on enterprise education. Bob currently also works for the ILO and has done a tremendous job spreading entrepreneurship education in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He will be talking about the changes he sees in young students and communities when enterprise is nurtured and businesses are allowed to thrive.
Academy Student Organizations
The Academy is working with our student organizations: Entrepreneurs Without Borders, Students in Free Enterprise, the Chinese Entrepreneur Professional Club, and the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization to arrange sponsored events during eWeek. We are encouraging student organizations to bring in guest alumni speakers, organize mini-enterprise competitions, and educate the campus about entrepreneurship.
Start-up.com Movie Showing
November 18
Chinese Entrepreneur & Professional Club, Illini Entrepreneur Network
Two of the Academy’s entrepreneurial student organizations are planning on showing the movie start-up.com to illustrate the enterprising process of starting a business and thinking inventively.
Brooke Stevens Lecture
Wednesday, November 19
5:00pm - 6:15
Location: TBD