Stanford EntrepreneurEntrepreneurship isn’t a career, it’s a way of life

Discovering Entrepreneurship - E-Week Kickoff!Filed Under: class, entrepreneurship, events

So, the moment I have been waiting for all quarter - the Entrepreneurship Week Kickoff and world premiere of the movie “Imagine It!”. The video is about entrepreneurship week last year at Stanford and did an absolutely FANTASTIC job at highlighting what entrepreneurship is all about and I highly recommend anyone interested in entrepreneurship to watch it. That said, here’s a quick overview of what’s happening throughout the week… Or check out the website.

Saturday 2/23: “Pump Up Your Creativity” Workshop

Tina Seelig, who I’ve mentioned here, here and here, is hosting this and should be absolutely fantastic. It will be a great workshop for pumping up the creative juices for the Innovation Challenge!

Sunday 2/24: Funding Social Enterprises: Panel & Showcase

There will be four individuals on the panel and they are all involved with social entrepreneurship in different ways.  Here’s a quick list of the people.

• Jenny Shilling Stein, Executive Director of the Draper Richards Foundation
• Jessica Jackley Flannery, Co-Founder and Director of Business Development of Kiva.org
• Amy Clark, Ashoka, Global Fellows Program Leader
• Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, Ashoka Fellow and Founder of BUILD

Monday 2/25: Innovating for Health — BYOB! (Bring Your Own Brain)

Interesting looking event in which the audience will help with a brainstorming activity to help solve the problem of child obesity. A panel of experts has been invited to discuss the top five issues in this area, and after the panel there will be a kick off  for a three-day competition - the Innovating for Health Challenge. The winner will be announced at the Entrepreneurship Week Closing ceremony.

Tuesday 2/26: Be Careful What You Wish For - Getting Media Attention for Your Company

To develop awareness, many entrepreneurial endeavors look for media coverage. The only problem is that it can be a minefield, and thus requires very careful planning to get the message right to prevent greater problems later on. In this information session, we will find out how to get a journalist’s attention.

Wednesday 2/27: ETL - B-Corporation

This week’s ETL involves Stanford graduates as founders of B Corporation. Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan, and Andrew Kassoy are the founders and they’re goal is to set standards for corporate responsibility and hold companies to their promises. It should be an extremely interesting presentation and they have a super ambitious goal…

Thursday 2/28: “Startup 101″ Job Fair

Cool job opportunities from a wide range of industries from Web 2.0 to cleantech, medical devices, and biotech. Some cool Stanford startups will be there as well as some “traditional” companies like Google and Facebook.

Friday 2/29: Innovation Tournament Showcase and Closing Ceremony

This is the close of Entrepreneurship Week and we’ll be finding out who won prizes for Most Money, Most Social Value, Most Creative, Biggest Flop and more.

And the surprise item for the week… Rubberbands!

So the goal for this week in the Innovation Challenge is to create the most value - however you define value - with rubberbands. I already have a couple ideas, so it should be really interesting… For the next few days I’ll be working with a team to do what comes to mind!