Welcome once again to Campus Chronicles! MBA student newspapers have remained quiet due to winter break, so this week we’re examining three schools’ takes on entrepreneurship conferences:
In early November, the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Club hosted IGNITE 2010, the 8th Annual Entrepreneurship Conference at HBS. The one-day event began with the keynote address on “Choosing an Entrepreneurial Life” by Ron Shaich ’78, Founder of Panera and Au Bon Pain. Following the keynote was a panel, titled “The Non-Technical Founder,” that discussed how people with non-technical backgrounds can successfully establish online businesses. The next panel, “From Idea to Launch: Getting Product Development Right,” focused on the best practices in product development. The conference then broke for a networking lunch, after which participants were treated to two eTalks, 20-minute talks by active entrepreneurs explaining their companies and the lessons they learned while starting them. This year’s eTalks featured Carl Dietrich, CEO/CTO/Co-Founder of Terrafugia, known for producing “roadable” airplanes, and HBS alums Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, founders of the beauty supply company Birchbox. Afterwards, Bill Murphy Jr. discussed findings from his new book, The Intelligent Entrepreneur, and conference attendees learned about the latest plans for the new Harvard Innovation Lab.
On November 19th, Chicago Booth held its annual Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital conference, known as Seed10. The day kicked off with a morning keynote by Genevieve Thiers and Dan Ratner, co-founders of ContactKarma, which was followed by two panels. The first panel, “The Garage Days,” explored the most essential steps in transforming an idea into a startup. The second panel, “Rubber Hits the Road,” centered on the important decisions that come up as a company begins to grow. Next, Soujanya Bhumkar, founder of Cooliris, delivered the lunch keynote, after which attendees learned about how to grow a company big fast in the third panel, “Pedal to the Metal.” Following the last panel was a fireside chat between Professor Kaplan and Mary Tolan, CEO of Accretive Health. The day concluded with a networking reception, during which students were able to interact with panelists such as Rob Solomon, President of Groupon, Drew Patterson, CEO of Jetsetter and former CMO of Kayak, and Eric Fosse, founder of Homemade Pizza.
Coming up on Friday, February 18th is the 2011 Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference. This year’s conferences, titled “Dream Less. Do More.” will be hosted at Sofitel Philadelphia and will feature keynote addresses by Jack Abraham, founder and CEO of Milo, and David Pakman, Partner at Venrock. There will be four panels held during the day, titled “Startup Toolkit,” “War Stories,” “Venture Capital,” and “Successful Exits.” The event will conclude with a VC pitch session as well as a start-up fair and networking reception. Over 500 professionals, entrepreneurs, and students have been invited to participate in the conference.
Read the full article: Campus Chronicles: Entrepreneurship Conferences
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