World Entrepreneurship Day, April 16 2010

Check out the photos from the WED West Coast Tour! A HUGE ‘thank you!!’ to photographer Asa Mathat and wine-trepreneurs Rion Spoon & Chris Coleman of The 20 Wines. More photos, videos, and captions to be posted in the following week… Enjoy!

World Entrepreneurship Day is coming to you! Join us in San Diego, San Francisco, Palo Alto, or Los Angeles for a WED Brainstorming Session to prepare for the big celebration in your community on April 16th. Click on the following pictures to learn more:

A modern entrepreneur has to be in-the-know on technology. That’s why, for the second year in a row, I’m attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Surrounded by more than 110,000 peope, Steve Ballmer will update the world on Microsoft innovations, Ray Kurzweil will launch his new e-reader the Blio, AMEX OPEN Small Business will feature keynotes from Alltop, Small Business Trends, Mashable, and Zappos (review & take away materials). Around every expo corner shall be abounding opportunity—hopefully this coverage will help the WED network to recognize it.

But before I step off this Southwest 747 plane into the casino-style Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, I will have done some CES-prepping that I so wish last year’s trip had included. For those of you in Las Vegas, even those of you tuning in from home, this list of prep items will prove insightful. If you’ve attended CES, comment on this post with anything I’m leaving out (there’ll be a lot):

-       CES hosts 110,000 attendees and X sq. footage expo space. How can an amateur technologist recognize the trends? Read this CNN article, 8 Tech Trends to Watch at CES, in its entirety. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/04/consumer.electronics.show.preview/index.html

-       But what about discovering the awesome products no one else knows about yet? Check out David Pogue’s 2009 Best Tech Ideas to understand the ingenuity behind the overlooked ideas of 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/technology/personaltech/31pogue.html?_r=1

-       Mark on this CES Map all the places you want to visit. Doubling your expo floor coverage (especially in high heels) is sooo not worth it.

-       Plan to check out:

• The Lake of Dreams at the Wynn Hotel. You’ll thank me.
• AMEX OPEN keynotes
• Apple iLounge

- Subscribe to updates from #ces10, @intlces, @google (they are supposed to make one appearance at a media event), @dell, etc.

And remember: what happens in Vegas (during CES), stays in Vegas.

…Except for the CD player, high-def TV, and Blu-Ray—that stuff spread everywhere.

NY Times Technology Columnist David Pogue’s quote on World Entrepreneurship Day was one of our favorites:

“Innovation is the spark that drives the economy—and in this economy, we need innovation and entrepreneurship more than ever. We’ve got special days to celebrate groundhogs, ghostly pumpkins, and dead presidents—why has it taken so long to celebrate entrepreneurship?”

In his last column of 2009, Pogue announced the 5th annual ‘Pogie Awards’—a collection of the year’s best tech ideas—not best products, but ideas—and here’s the verdict.

Entrepreneurs, take notice: Whether it’s a browser plug in that eliminates all annoying ads on any website or an online GPS-phone-locator, all the Pogie Award winners have one common feature: simplicity.

Happy Idea Hunting.

Space exploration, technology, & entrepreneurship. How should the three interweave? What does the future look like for NASA Ames? Why and how can a government institution establish entrepreneurial private-public partnerships? How can a government institution create an entrepreneurial work environment?

Dr. Pete Worden, Center Director of Silicon Valley’s NASA Ames Research Park, has all the answers—he blew me away with his innovation-oriented leadership style, his bold vision for the future, and his wild insight into the connection between space exploration & entrepreneurship.

Post-interview, I got a stealth tour around the campus. Laid my eyes on one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, even Segwayed around the ponds behind campus. The rest? Well, that’s top-secret.

Before WED, there were days to celebrate pirates, pasta, mothers, turtles, and smiles, but nothing for entrepreneurs! Then finally, on April 17th, 2009, the world took a day to celebrate its heroic entrepreneurs and innovators! 22 countries and 22 US states joined in the inaugural celebration. In the making, WED built a world-class team, including advisors from the World Economic Forum, endorsers like the co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak and legendary VC Tim Draper, and global volunteers and interns from Australia to Senegal.

We are recruiting the following positions:

• Country Champion
• Global Recruitment & Engagement Director
• Enrollment Specialist
• Outreach Strategist
• Social Media Strategist
• Event Management Master
• Research Expert
• Design & Interactive Expert

To learn more about each position’s responsibilities and benefits, please see the application links below…

To learn more about a volunteer experience, take a minute to watch this video from WED’s Australia Marketing Director, Courtney Goes:

STEPS TO APPLY

Step #1 First, figure out if you will apply as a volunteer, intern, Country Champion, or Direct Study student:

Apply as an intern if:

• You have at least 5-10 hours of free time per week
• You are in high school, college, or graduate school

Apply for a Direct Study opportunity if:

• You are in college
• Would like to receive academic credit from your work with WED

Apply as a volunteer if:

• You are a working professional, between jobs, or retired.
• You are a student, but have little time and cannot add another structured commitment to your plate but still want to be involved.
• You have at least 2 hours of free time per week.

Apply to become a Country Champion if:

• You have at least 5-10 hours of free time per week
• Would like to focus on the entrepreneurial success of one country
• Can be a working professional, student, etc. etc.

Step #2 Download the application associated with your choice above.

• WED Country Champion App
• WED Direct Study App
• WED Intern App
• WED Volunteer Experience Application

Step #3 Set aside 20-30 minutes to give your application some careful thought.

Step #4 The application is due FEB. 1ST. To submit, save the application as a PDF and email it to team@worldeshipday, with your resume attached!

Step #5 If we feel you’re a great match for the WED team, we’ll follow up and schedule a phone interview.

NOT THE TRADITIONAL OPPORTUNITY

We are not looking for the traditional intern, volunteer, or team member. We are looking for initiators, people who can work both independently and with a team, and are not afraid to push the envelope in pursuit of their big ideas. As a member of our team, you’ll quickly see that a position with WED includes all of the benefits that one of those rare extraordinary opportunities should–experiential learning, personal interaction with global cultures, valuable connection-making with high-profile global leaders, and–rarest of all–the opportunity to have a profound, tangible, and GRAND impact on the world, when it needs it the most!

(contributed by Alberto de pablo)

Our SAGE team first sought out an organization that we could raise money for and help. So we decided to go with NextAid and the GO campaign.

We wanted to raise money for their Kawangware project which helps children and single mothers in the slums of Kenya, while helping them build better working conditions. (http://nextaid.org/kawangware.htm)

On World Entrepreneurship Day, we had a two part event – first an assembly in which we educated the Santa Monica High School campus about the devastating effects that are occurring in the Kenyan slums and the efforts that NextAid and the GO campaign are doing to help these children.

The second part was our International Fair where our Virtual Enterprise Class and the Project ECHO class researched over 35 different countries and learned about their major imports and exports, GDP per capita, business customs, and HDI’s (Human Development Index) . After we learned these facts we share them with at least 1,500 other students on our campus.

In addition, we teamed up with a SAGE team in Uganda. They sent us products, like wooden sculptures, jewelry, and also some paintings. (featured in picture above) We held a silent auction, from which we have raised over $750 for the Ugandan team.

We applied for the Youth Venture Grant and received $1,000 for start-up capital. We have also raised almost $400 for the NextAid and the GO Campaign organization.

(Contributed by Omar Diaw, WED Senegal Host Organizer – picture below)

On World Entrepreneurship Day, we were looking for the opportunity to change the paradigm in Senegal, to change not only the way young girls here think, but also the way our culture feels about what African women can do. We have started a cultural revolution in SENEGAL against how girls are perceived in our culture. We SIFE students believe that one of the world’s most important resources is its young people. Education not only gives them a greater voice in their own lives, but ensures a brighter future for themselves and their communities.

Therefore, on World Entrepreneurship Day, we educated 192 young girls (aged 15-22) in Senegal (Africa) on the skills of entrepreneurship. The results were remarkable.

We followed this dynamic curriculum:

• Course 1: How to Be an Entrepreneur?
• Course 2: The Challenges of Youth Entrepreneurship
• Course 3: What is Leadership?
• Course 4: How to be a Leader in Your Community
  

The most important lesson we shared with these girls was: ”Every entrepreneurial project requires preparation, discipline and teamwork”

After we finished our training we asked them to assess our courses and their feedback was amazing. Aida, a 14 year old girl, said:

“This freely given training will change my life forever cause I couldn’t imagine it was possible to learn such things like how to create a company and run it successfully!”

The impact on the young students was remarkable. Imagine some of them already have ideas of creating an enterprise with the help of their parents. We awarded them certificates co-signed by SIFE and USAID.

Community Awareness

A society that wants more entrepreneurs to ensure its survival and long-term growth must work to develop an entrepreneurial culture in its community because entrepreneurs contribute to greater wealth creation. The effectiveness of government policies to support the creation and the resumption of business will only bear full fruit if all the actors of economic development – among which are the educators in our country – work together to develop creativity and new attitudes of young people who are feel unsafe to take risks or make change… With our help, these young people will be better prepared to create sustainable businesses.

(our SIFE team with the School Principal)

Our personal success

With the precious support of the school administration and the teachers we were able to train the young girls in a very comfortable atmosphere. The training sessions we did with the young girls had a very profound transformational change on the young girls and on us as well. Overall, we have inspired these young girls and they have inspired us as well. We were kind of role models for them and as a result, felt a profound personal growth and transformational change within ourselves…

“This has been an experience that we’ll

never forget for the rest of our lives.”

– Omar Diaw, Senegal WED Host Organizer.

From Bill Grant, Program Manager of the Technology Management Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara:

“World Entrepreneurship Day was a perfect way for us to highlight our many strands of Entrepreneurial DNA on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. We created a new annual lecture series around it called “The Tomorrow Makers” which includes the story of  our UCSB serial entrepreneurs and  international guests.”

Guest keynotes included the following distinguished technology entrepreneurs:

Michael Crandell

CEO & Founder, RightScale Inc.

Kara Swisher

Co-Executive Editor, Wall Street Journal

Co-Producer & Co-Host, D: All Things Digital,

A major high-tech and media conference

Robert Siegel (Panel Moderator)

General Partner at X/Seed Capital Management

Stephen J. Golden, Ph.D.

Chief Technical Officer, Co-Founder, Director

Alison Perry

Vice President of Finance/CFO

Inogen, Inc.

Davis Brimer

Co-Founder & CEO

Active Life Technologies

Rodney A. Ferguson, J.D., Ph.D.

Co-Founder and Managing Director,

Panorama Capital (2001-pres)

Alexander Manu

Chief Imaginator

InnoSpa International Partners

“On the occasion of the World Entrepreneurship Day on April 17^th, Entrepreneurship Development Centre Tuzla, University of Tuzla and  Business Start Up Center within the University of Tuzla organized the presentation and discussion “The role of entrepreneurship in development of Tuzla Canton and importance of entrepreneurship in economy crisis overcoming“

Attendants were representatives of the University of Tuzla, governmental and nongovernmental, representatives, experts from the field of entrepreneurship, successful entrepreneurs, and students.

Speakers emphasized the role of the entrepreneurship in development of Tuzla Canton and importance of entrepreneurship in overcoming economy crisis. Useful materials on entrepreneurship were given to attendants after the discussion.

Entrepreneurship Development Centre Tuzla, University of Tuzla and Business Start Up Center within the University of Tuzla will continue to implement projects from the field of entrepreneurship and every year we will celebrate the World Entrepreneurship Day in appropriate way, with aim to remind everyone on importance of entrepreneurship for development of the economy.”

(WED Story contributed by Mirela Arifovic of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre of Tuzla University in Bosnia & Herzegovina)