UW News

October 30, 2008

EntrepreneurWeek UW features variety of events Nov. 3-7

Interested in starting your own company? Want to take your knowledge beyond the academic setting? Have a great idea for a product but don’t know what to do next? Next week, the UW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) and the UW’s Science and Engineering Business Association (SEBA) will host the second annual EntrepreneurWeek, a five-day series of talks, events and networking opportunities focused on starting new companies.

Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students from any discipline who dream of starting and running successful companies, EntrepreneurWeek UW features business start-ups who’ve made it big, both from UW and outside. Faculty interested in pursuing commercial applications to their research may find some events useful as well.

“We’re offering the idea of entrepreneurship from all different angles,” said Lauren Witt, assistant director at CIE. “So there’ll be information at EntrepreneurWeek about start-ups, venture capital, technology commercialization, “green” ventures, social entrepreneurship — something for everyone.”

The week will also provide opportunities for students to branch out and meet entrepreneurial folks from other disciplines, Witt said. The week includes networking and brainstorming events for two business competitions for students that take place later in the school year, the UW Business Plan Competition and the new Environmental Innovation Challenge. The environmental challenge, which will be held April 1, 2009, is a competition for interdisciplinary student teams with environmentally-themed business ideas, Witt said. Each year’s competition will have a different broad theme. This year’s theme is water.

The cornerstone of EntrepreneurWeek is the Science and Technology Showcase, Witt said, which will be in Balmer Commons on Wed, Nov. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m. At the Showcase, students from science and engineering departments will present posters on their research, and get the chance to meet students with expertise in business, marketing, or finance who might want to team up for the business plan competition or other business ventures, Witt said.

New this year is the Taste of Tech Commercialization workshop, lead by Janis Machala of UW TechTransfer, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7 in the HUB 200BC. Students will hear about the steps needed to take between developing a cool technology and making it a commercial product.

More information and the rest of EntrepreneurWeek’s events can be found at: http://bschool.washington.edu/cie/entreweek.shtml. Events are free and open to the public.