April 15th, 2011 | World Entrepreneurship Day

SO many new supporters, plans for celebration, and ideas for WED 2010 came out of our recent WED National Tour. However, one of its most exciting results is the addition of Animal Fair Media, Inc. founder and Chief Pet Officer, Wendy Diamond, to the WED Advisory Board. Already, Wendy has had an incomparable impact on the progress of all WED initiatives. We are extremely honored to have her!

Wendy Diamond, Philanthropist and Chief Pet Officer (CPO), Founder and Editorial Director of Animal Fair Media, Inc.

Dubbed as “Canine Queen” by Forbes Magazine, Diamond is a cause-related entrepreneur who got her start in philanthropy helping homeless children and people through the Coalition for the Homeless. She wrote two best-selling cookbooks A Musical Feast and An All-Star Feastfeaturing recipes from top celebrities in the music and sports industries to benefit various homeless charities throughout New York.

After adopting her cat and dog from a local rescue, Diamond shifted her focus to helping homeless animals, creating the first-ever pet media empire dedicated to fairness to animals. In addition to releasing trusted, philanthropic pet content for over a decade, Diamond has created original fundraising events such as Toys for Dogs, Paws for Style (the first-ever pet charity fashion show), Mutt Makeover, Halloween Pet Costume Benefit, and Yappy Hour®. Over the last decade Diamond has raised millions of dollars to support local animal rescues and endangered species organizations. Recently Diamond has joined forces with the United Nations to help raise awareness for endangered species around the world. Throughout her career she been a spokesperson to many Fortune 500s, including Zyrtec, PetSmart, Pedigree, Cesar, Del Monte, American Express and Procter and Gamble’s Bounce, among others.

Wendy is the author of  a number of bestselling pet-related books including, How to Understand Men Through Their Dogs and How to Understand Women Through Their Cats. She wrote the foreword and is the face of the Chicken Soup series What I Learned from My Cat and What I Learned from My Dog. This year Random House released her latestbook, It’s a Dog’s World, a savvy guide to four-legged and currently she is working on her next business book, How to Train Your Boss to Roll Over!

Diamond is also a pet-lifestyle contributor to NBC’s Today Show and has starred in television shows on CBS, NBC, Style Network, FOX, and Animal Planet. Wendy and her rescued Maltese, Lucky Diamond were judges on CBS’ primetime hit show Greatest American Dog! Diamond is also regularly seen on The Early Show, The View, Fox News, CNN, Extra, Good Morning America, E!, VH1, MTV as well as publications including The New York Times, Forbes, Time, People, The New Yorker and Vogue.

For more information visit AnimalFair.com.

Check out the photos from the WED West Coast Tour! A HUGE ‘thank you!!’ to photographer Asa Mathat, wine-trepreneurs Rion Spoon & Chris Coleman of The 20 Wines and all of our fantastic hosts (Institute for the Future’s Marina & Matt; Dogpatch Lab’s Ryan, Kamal, and Ken; University of Southern California’s Rob, Elisa, and Dana; High Tech High’s Simi & Larry). 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, Los Angeles, New York City, or Washington D.C. 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.