Innovation & Entrepreneurs: Upcoming events aimed at entrepreneurial hopefuls
By Scott Meacham
Copyright © 2015, The Oklahoma Publishing Company
On Nov. 19, students and entrepreneurs from across Oklahoma will be dipping their toes into the warm waters of Oklahoma entrepreneurship.
That’s when two annual no-charge, concurrent events — The 2015 Entrepreneurial Summit (8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and the college-level workshop, Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur (8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.), draw a crowd of Oklahomans who have a hope, an idea, or a dream and want to learn more about starting a company.
These events are two of our most effective ways to reach the community. They are open to anyone.
Our message is this: If you think entrepreneurship might possibly be for you, sign up and join us on the 19th. If you have an idea that you believe could turn into a business, invest part of a day to hear the truth from the trenches on what entrepreneurship is all about. You’ll also learn about some of the resources available in Oklahoma. You may be surprised and inspired by the depth of support.
Our goal is to inform people who might be interested in starting a business, but don’t really know where to start.
Both students and aspiring entrepreneurs attend the Summit. Then, in the afternoon Dr. Elaine Hamm, vice president, Accele Biopharma Inc., will lead the students in the Who Wants to Be workshop where they will learn the basics of writing and presenting a business plan, including what investors are looking for in an entrepreneur.
Summit keynote speaker is Barry Moltz, a nationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship.
“I’ve founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 20 years,” Moltz said. “If you’ve ever once thought about starting your own business, you owe it to yourself to take this small first step. Come to the Summit and hear from me and other entrepreneurs what it’s been like for us.”
A member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, Moltz has presented to hundreds of audiences, appeared on TV and radio programs, include CNBC’s Big Idea with Donny Deutch, and writes regularly for American Express Open Forum.
He’ll be followed by a panel of successful Oklahoma entrepreneurs including Dave King, founder of Exaptive; Dirk Spiers, president of Spiers New Technologies Inc., and Kris Rush, founder and CEO of JustGOODNews.Biz. They’ll talk about what worked for them and what didn’t work.
Then there’s a networking luncheon where participants meet other entrepreneurs and people from the many organizations around the state who are there to help entrepreneurs.
I’ve written about deal flow before — how important a steady pipeline of quality deals is to driving job and wealth growth in this state.
Events like the Summit and Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur are where deal flow happens.
For more information about these free events or to enroll, go online to www.i2E.org/events.
Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology. Contact Meacham at i2E_Comments@i2E.org.
