Talk about it
When jobs are hard to come by, it may be time to create your own.
That will be the focus of the seventh annual South Dakota Entrepreneurship Education Conference, also known as Launch ’12, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Thursday at Dakota Wesleyan University.
The cost is $20 for students and $50 for faculty. It is open to the public for the $50 fee although lunch would not be provided, since no advance registration was taken.
About 300 people are expected to attend.
Rhonda Pole, executive director of the Kelley Center for Entrepreneurship at DWU, said the day-long conference will have both student and faculty tracks.
The conference’s keynote speaker at 12:30 p.m. will be Heidi Neck, director of symposia for entrepreneurship education and professor of entrepreneurial studies at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.
“She’s a well-known and accomplished leader in entrepreneurship education,” Pole said. “She has done a lot of research on innovation, creativity and social entrepreneurship and she speaks nationally on cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset.”
Following her address, Neck will meet with students and faculty in special breakout sessions.
Entrepreneurship tour
Another part of Launch ’12 is the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, a tour previously hosted by DWU at past Launch conferences, but with different speakers, Pole said.
“The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour tries to connect college students with young entrepreneurs so they can show students the action steps they can take to realize their passions,” she said.
The tour has toured nationally on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and it has featured many of the country’s top young entrepreneurs who have built or sold successful companies for more than $1 million before the age of 30.
Featured speakers are Arel Moodie and Brittany Rose.
“Moodie is widely known as one of America’s top young speakers,” Pole said.
His topic will be “Getting It Off the Ground,” which Pole described as a “dream action workshop,” which deals with how to envision and start a business venture.
Moodie, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and professional speaker, was recently named one of Inc. magazine’s “Top 30 Entrepreneurs in America Under 30.”
He was featured in the book “Millennial Leaders,” a book about connected and successful Generation Y entrepreneurs, and a New York Times best seller, “Who’s Got Your Back?”
Brittany Rose, another Extreme Tour speaker, turned her dreams into reality when she started her first company, More Than Cheer, a recreational sports company that creates cheerleading and dance programs while still a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University.
She is also U.S. ambassador for the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards.
“She’s passionate, inspiring and very motivating,” Pole said.
From the trenches
Pole said the Kelley Center’s staff is most excited by the “From the Trenches” segment of Launch, which features young South Dakota entrepreneurs who have their own startup companies.
The “From the Trenches” speakers’ panel includes:
Dustin Pratt, the founder of Solid Rock Clothing. Pratt recently graduated from the University of South Dakota with a master’s degree in business administration.
Pratt was the winner of former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds’ 2010 Giant Vision Student Competition.
He currently works at Avalon Capital Group as a financial analyst.
Josh Aberson is a South Dakota native, born and raised in Sioux Falls. He is an Augustana College graduate. In 2011 he launched Green Acre Real Estate, a boutique real estate company located in downtown Sioux Falls.
That same year he also opened Meso, South Dakota’s first co-working space. Meso provides a fun community office environment for freelance, independent and mobile-based companies and workers.
After four months of operation, Meso grew to nearly 30 members. Aberson has plans to expand the concept to the greater Midwest.
Royce McDaniel was born in Memphis, Tenn., and moved to Logan, Utah, when he was 14.
There, he fell in love with the mountains and the outdoor sports of skateboarding, snowboarding and biking.
As an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at South Dakota State University he was the 2010 winner of the IDEA competition.
McDaniel is working on launching Nism, a company that sells a conversion kits to turn BMX and mountain bikes into ski bikes.
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Article source: http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/62552/