Meet the Entrepreneur

The Centre for Innovation and Entreprenuership (www.cie.unsw.edu.au) is running another Meet the Entrepreneur event, sponsored by Ernst & Young. The target audience includes people related to the start-up community in the greater Sydney area, including entrepreneurs, investors, government grant administrators, etc.

Topic: From concept to commercial reality

Are you interested in starting up a technology business? If you want it to be successful, learn from those who already are. Our panel members are leaders in this field and will provide guests an insight on their entrepreneurial approach and how to navigate through the commercialisation process, including securing funding and grants.

Learn about their experiences of commercialising early stage technology businesses and receive practical advice, followed by a facilitated question and answer session.

Meet the panel

The success story: Damian Kay, Founder, Telcoinabox. From a conversation in the lift, telcoinabox has become a leader in the telecommunications industry, with an annual growth rate of over 180%.
The technology commercialisation hub: Hamish Hawthorn, CEO, ATP Innovations. ATP is a collaboration between four of Australia’s top universities, providing value-added services to accelerate growth of early stage technology businesses.

Date: Thursday, 20th May 2010
Time: 5:30 for 6pm Start, Until 8pm
Location: 680 George Street, Ernst & Young Sydney City Offices
Register: Please click here to register by Thursday 13 May

Seeking: Entrepreneurs and Undergrads in Sydney

We are about to kick off another term at UNSW in Sydney, including my course "STRE2010: Principles & Practice of Innovation & Entrepreneurship" The course textbook is Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start which is available in most bookstores. Last term, the top reasons that students were interested in the course were because of the guest speaker entrepreneurs and interdisciplinary group work. Guest speakers mean you get the real deal on how companies got off the ground, not just a list of theoretical things to look out for. And, group work resembles the real world, in which a company's performance depends on people with different backgrounds working together.

Undergrads: Take STRE2010. Enrollment is already half-full. It's a Gen Ed course, too! Deliverables are:

• 4-page business outline
• 3 and 5 minute business pitch
• 2 mid-terms

Entrepreneurs:

• Be a guest speaker! Meet the next generation of entrepreneurs, coach them, invest in them, hire them as interns, become inspired.
• Get a business pitch for your company. This term, I am exploring pairing teams up with entrepreneurs who have a business idea that needs a little more meat on the bones. This will be an option for teams who are struggling to come up with their own idea.

See you in a few weeks.

mbliemel@unsw.edu.au

PS: Already taken STRE2010? Looking for more at UNSW? Check out STRE3001, Managing Business Strategy.