Carnegie Mellon University

The Piper

CMU Community News

Piper Logo
November 10, 2011

Global Entrepreneurship Week Starts Nov. 14

Entrepreneurship is vital to economic growth, and CMU students, faculty and alumni are right in the mix. Learn more during CMU’s third annual Global Entrepreneurship Week, part of the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life.

Read more below about the exciting and informative events across campus, including a startup job fair and panels on topics ranging from young entrepreneurship to social innovation. For more information about Carnegie Mellon's Global Entrepreneurship Week visit the event page on Facebook.

Brought to you by Carnegie Mellon University's Carnegie Institute of Technology, Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation, Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, Graduate Student Assembly, Greenlighting Startups, Institute for Social Innovation, SCS Enterpreneurship Club, Students In Free Enterprise and Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club.

Monday, November 14

Peter Stern, CEO of bitly, presented by James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Leadership Series
12:30 - 1:20 p.m., Mellon Auditorium, Posner Hall
RSVP to Sonya Ford.

Before joining bitly, Stern created Zenbe, which made the Web a better place with innovative products like Zenbe Mail, Shareflow, and Lists for the iPhone. Zenbe Mail was sold to Facebook in June 2010. Long before that, in 1996, he co-founded Datek Online, which quickly grew to become the 4th largest online brokerage firm, successfully competing against companies that had 10+ year and $10+ billion head-starts.

Project Olympus Show &Tell

5 - 6:30 p.m., Rashid Auditorium, Gates Center
RSVP online.

Project Olympus will feature a showcase of faculty and student startups and spin-offs coming out of CMU.

Tuesday, November 15

Young Entrepreneurs Panel: The Perks & Challenges of Starting a Business During School

5:30 - 6:20 p.m., Room 151, Posner Hall

Moderated by Amanda Fox, assistant director of the Don Jones Center, the panel includes Mona Abdel-Halim (MBA and MSPPM '10), co-founder and director of sales at Careerimp; Daniel Bishop (MD and CIT Ph.D. candidate), co-founder and Technology Lead of Hygenyx; Neil Soni (CIT '13), founder and CEO of The College People; and Brett Weiwiora (MSPPM'11), founder and CEO of onlyinPgh.

Wednesday, November 16

Ad Idem: Discussion at the Interface of Design & Business

12:30 - 1:20 p.m., Posner Center
RSVP to Sonya Ford.

Many talk about the complementarities of Design and Business, but what are they, really?  What does it take to successfully capitalize on their potential synergies? Ad Idem will explore these questions via a series of seminars provided by industry experts who work at the interface of design and business. This series will focus on building stronger links between the business and design communities at Carnegie Mellon University by identifying commonalities and complementarities, spurring collaboration, and seeding ideas for research. Moderated by Helen Walters, former editor of Innovation and Design at Bloomberg Businessweek and current writer/researcher at Doblin, the discussion will include Colin Rainey, Design Director at IDEO, Shelley Evenson, Research Manager at Facebook, and Jeff Tull, Program Leader at Doblin.
 
At the conclusion of the discussion, students will be able to select from one of two interactive workshops. The panelists will detail how their respective companies operate and engage students with techniques and practices that work well at the crossing points of design and business. Contact Sonya Ford if you would like to be included in the afternoon workshops. Space is limited.

Workshop I, 2 – 4 p.m., Colin Raney, IDEO, and Helen Walters, Doblin
Workshop II, 2 – 4 p.m., Shelley Evenson, Facebook, and Jeff Tull, Doblin

SMART START — Commercializing from Game Hackfests

5 - 6:30 p.m., Room 6115, Gates Center

Ever wondered if things created at hackfests or hackathons can be commercialized? Or wonder who owns the code? Learn more about the patents, copyrights, intellectual property and more.

Think Like An Angel: Entrepreneurial Challenge

Sponsored by Blue Tree Allied Angels
5:30 - 9:30 p.m., Room 3305, Newell Simon Hall

Think Like an Angel is a real competition that will allow participants to improve their entrepreneurial abilities and interact with real entrepreneurs and professional investors. By registering for this event, students will join Angel teams with students from across campus and evaluate real startups to see if they deserve an investment from an Angel fund.

Thursday, November 17

Startup Job Fair 

3:30 - 8: p.m., Perlis Atrium, Newell Simon Hall

Working for a startup is a great learning experience and a great way to build up a resume. Participating startups are hiring for the following positions: full-time and part-time potential team members, summer interns and projects. For more information, contact Kit Needham, Project Olympus senior business adviser.

Friday, November 18

Social Impact Investing Panel

Noon - 1:30 p.m., Room 1000, Hamburg Hall

Make the future of finance more ethical through impact investing to solve the world’s most pressing problems. The panel is facilitated by Tim Zak and features investors and social entrepreneurs discussing social impact investing and its benefits.

Social Entrepreneurship Showcase

5 - 6:30 p.m., Hallway, Hamburg Hall

See the campus’ social innovations in a showcase that features more than a dozen innovations, from ideas to free-standing enterprises that have been launched into the world. Meet students, faculty, alums and members of the social innovation community.