Entrepreneurship Week kicks off Friday
The Huntsman School of Business and the Entrepreneurship club will kick off a weeklong celebration of innovative ideas during Entrepreneurship Week 2012, which begins Friday and goes until April 6.
The week will be full of events, said Kat Zeiner, the vice president of events for the Entrepreneurship Club. Some highlights include comedy night on Monday, with local entrepreneurs Logan Out Loud, and the BMX Business Expo April 6.
The week starts off with a free comedy night in the Skyroom, where free dinner will be served, Zeiner said. Logan out Loud will perform, and the Entrepreneurship Club will announce the 72-hour Competition, which will begin at 8:00 p.m.
The 72-hour Competition invites students in teams of up to five people to develop a marketable concept. Teams create a three-minute video. There are $3,000 worth of cash prizes for winners, Richards said.
Students who are not at the free comedy night to hear the rules for the 72-hour Competition will not be able to compete, said Stuart Richards, the vice president of communications for the Entrepreneurship Club.
“We announce a secret topic that teams can innovate, and they have exactly 72 hours to do that and report to us what they’ve done,” Richards said.
A previous year’s 72-hour Competition topic challenged competitors to combine social media, new technology and exercise, said Entrepreneurship Club President Bri Petersen.
Entrepreneurship Club member Matt Seely said the winning solution mixed exercise with something akin to online multiplayer gaming.
“So while you’re on the treadmill, you’re racing somebody who’s on a treadmill in the gym 200 miles away,” Seely said. “You have an animated character and you’re racing them at the same time.”
The Business Council will sponsor a blood drive in the business building on Monday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The Entrepreneurship club will hold a flash mob Tuesday in which students from all colleges can sign up to display their innovations outside the business building, Seely said.
Students looking at displays will each have three votes to choose their favorite innovation, and the person with the most votes will win $500. The second-place prize is $300, and the third-place prize is $200.
“We want to show students that entrepreneurs come from every college, not just the school of business,” Seely said.
Two speeches will be given Wednesday: a Dean’s Convocation by David Bell, a social media expert, and a lecture series installment by Bill Child, who started RC Willey and then sold it to Warren Buffett, Petersen said.
The week will wrap up with the Student Business Showcase and BMX Expo 11 a.m. April 6 in the Fieldhouse.
“We’ll have a lot of student businesses there and they can have their own booths. So we’re trying to draw attention to student businesses to help them,” Petersen said.
Any student-run business can participate in the BMX Business Expo along with other local businesses, she said.
Students can listen to music and get free food, as well as hear competition winners from throughout the week, Zeiner said. Next year’s Entrepreneurship Club officers will also be announced at the expo.
“Entrepreneurship is all about getting excited and doing something about it. So we’ve had all these competition speakers and at the end, Friday … it’s like the cherry on top,” said Preston Parker, a professor in the journalism and communications department.
Students will be able to pick up passports Friday and can collect stickers as they go to different events throughout Entrepreneurship Week, Zeiner said. At the BMX Business Expo, the stickers can be traded for raffle tickets for prizes that include the new iPad, a GoPro camera, gift cards and other prizes. A total of $2,000 in prizes will be given away, starting at 2 p.m.
Students can also attend the Partners in Business Conference – free to students – at 9 a.m. Friday in the Eccles Conference Center, Parker said.
Speakers at the conference include AC Green, Stephen M.R. Covey and Ian Macmillan.
– marissa.shields@aggiemail.usu.edu