Interested in learning about the latest initiatives that colleges and universities around the world have launched to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship? Check out the 2018 Desphande Symposium, held June 11-13 in Lowell, Massachusetts. This year’s symposium features a variety of faculty and program leaders from UNC-Chapel Hill who will contribute to the discussion of best practices in entrepreneurship education, university research commercialization and campus-wide development and support of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
There’s still time to register, attend and hear these interactive, informative UNC-led sessions – plus many others:
Panel Discussion: Innovative Experiences Supporting Entrepreneurship Education
This panel will examine several experiential education innovations meant to link entrepreneurship education with real-world application. Colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Massachusetts Lowell will share their experiences in implementing the Carolina Angel Network program, the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network and the River Hawk Experience Distinction in Entrepreneurship.
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Panel Discussion: Our Higher Calling – Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and Its Colleges and Universities
The session will engage university leaders and the audience in a discussion of the fragile partnership between higher education and the public, and some steps institutions can take—including embracing an entrepreneurial mindset to begin to repair this critical partnership. The discussion will be grounded in a book to be released in late summer with the same title as the panel.
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Panel Discussion: Cultivating Social Innovation Ecosystems on Campus and in the Community
Whether culture eats, beats or trumps strategy could be debated. What is undebatable, however, is that if an institution wants its students to be innovative and make social impact, then the institution itself must value social innovation. Less clear, however, is how to create social innovation ecosystems and cultures in institutions of higher education.
This panel, featuring UNC-Chapel Hill and two campuses from Ashoka U’s Changemaker Campus network, explores three cases of cultivating campus-wide ecosystems and cultures for social impact. The presenters will share approaches for, and lessons from, assessing their ecosystems and cultivating leadership, networks, strategies, structures, programs and campus-wide social innovation pathways and collaborations on and off campus.
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Workshop: Preparing Student Entrepreneurs for High-Impact and Breakout Careers – Joining UNC’s Entrepreneurs Genome Project
Ted Zoller, Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies & Professor, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This session will explore one of the most important measures of success for university entrepreneurship programs: Does your program contribute to the future success trajectory of your students as future entrepreneurs? Specifically, this workshop will wrestle with questions balancing “entrepreneurial mindset” training with skills-based curricula, and question whether early start-ups actually lead to long-term success. The workshop will begin with some initial findings from UNC’s Entrepreneurs Genome project led by Professor Ted Zoller, who will review results analyzing the career trajectories of alumni entrepreneurs; their skills, backgrounds, experience, and training; and their career life cycle.
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