InNUvation

Entrepreneur Idol Class Series I

Saturday, October 18th, 2008 5:30pm, ITW Room, Ford Building

“How to build a business model” - Eric Olson from Portage Ventures will guide you through the first steps of building a successful venture.

Entrepreneur Idol Class Series II

Sunday, October 26th 2008, 5:30pm, ITW Room, Ford Building

“Intellectual property - Protect your Idea!” - IP Lawyer Bob Brill from the law firm of Wood Phillips will instruct and guide on the best ways to protect your new venture.

Entrepreneur Idol Class Series III

November 1st, 5:30pm ,ITW room Ford Building

“Finance Workshop” - Bhavan Suri, Manager at William Blair.

Seasoned entrepreneur and finance expert Bhavan Suri will teach you how to build a five year financial projection and other tips to build the financial basis of your strt-up.

Entrepreneur Idol Class Series IV

November 8th, 5:30pm ,ITW room Ford Building

“Sell ice to Eskimos – with a good pitch”  - Michael Marasco, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Learn from the pros how to sell your idea and practice your elevator pitch for the Entrepreneur Idol Competition.

November 15th, 2008, 1:00-3:30pm, McCormick Tribune Center

We are proud to host the 2nd Annual Entrepreneur Idol, an idea pitch competition emphasizing fun, vision, and delivery with competing schools across the Midwest.

Schedule

Semi-finals Round 11:00am – 12:30pm

• Teams are given 2.5 minute to pitch for a panel of judges. There will be rooms with teams from all universities competing at all times. The Preliminary Round Judging Panel will be comprised of experienced entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, academics, non-profit founders, legal professionals, and patent experts.

Networking Lunch 12:30 – 1:00pm

• Lunch is served. Sponsors will be introduced. Businesses with info booths can use this time to recruit. Students will use this time to network with the different organizations and distribute resumes. Judges will meet during this time to whittle the competition down to eight teams.

Keynote Speaker 1:00-1:30pm

• Harper Reed and Scott Van Den Plas from Threadless.com/Skinnycorp will be kicking off the event and talk about their experience turning a custom t-shirt design website into a $30 million business and their upcoming adventures with Skinnycorp.

Final Round 1:30 – 4:30pm

• All audience will move into the main auditorium. Eight teams will be competing in front of a panel of four judges: An experienced entrepreneur, an entrepreneurship professor, a venture capitalist, and last year’s Entrepreneur Idol winner. Each team will be allowed 3 minute of presentation, using any visual aid to give its elevator pitch.

Entertainment will be provided at the break time and an audience vote will be conducted at the end of the competition for an Audience Favorite Award. While the judges deliberate for a winner, another presentation will be given by a successfully run student business. Winner and Audience Favorite Awards will be announced promptly afterwards.

The Competition

Entrepreneur Idol posts students with ideas against a panel of judges and audience members who will critique them based on the quality, creativity, and delivery of their concepts.

The competition will be a full day extravaganza filled with passionate competition and lively entertainment.  Elimination Rounds on Saturday will narrow the field for the Finals later that day. Helping competitors and audience through the stress and excitement of competition will be good food, educational speeches by successful entrepreneurs, and informational booths from leading organizations.

Participating Institutions:

Undergraduate students from more than half-a-dozen Chicago-land universities are expected to compete in Entrepreneur Idol.  Students may work as individuals or as teams and will be allowed whatever aids they feel are necessary for their presentations.
Participating institutions:

• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Northwestern University
• Loyola University
• DePaul University
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• University of Dayton

The Awards:

• 1st Place - $25,000 funding with the Iventures10 program - Turn your idea into reality!
• 2nd Place - $1500 cash + Free Kaplan Prep Courses (GRE,GMAT,LSAT) for the winning team.
• Audience Favorite Award - $1500 cash prize. You decide who wins!

For more info and registration check www.EntIdol.com

Wednesday, November 11, 2008 at 6:30PM RSVP Required.

Want to learn tips for how to succeed as an entrepreneur?  Want to meet other students and alumni interested in entrepreneurship?

Come hear NU alum Larry Levy discuss: “Becoming Your Own Boss: Entrepreneurship in the Current Economic Climate”

This event is designed to offer advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in today’s day and age.  Mr. Levy will share his own experience of starting and running a highly successful business and then field questions from the audience.  A networking reception will follow.

Event Details:
When: Tuesday, November 11th
6:30-7:30pm:  Discussion hosted by Larry Levy
7:30-8:30pm:  Networking Reception (Includes Limited Bar and Beverages, Appetizers and Dessert)

Registration: Space is limited, Click here to register!

Where: Northwestern University Chicago Campus, Wieboldt Hall, Ray Connelly Lounge
339 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, 60611

Take the free bus: http://www.univsvcs.northwestern.edu/shuttles/pdf/intercampus08.pdf.  The map doesn’t show the Chicago campus but the bus route ends at the Montgomery Ward building at 303 E. Chicago Ave. This is just down the street from Wieboldt Hall.

Price: Alumni: $25, Students: $5

Dress code: Business Casual

Sponsored by: NU Club of Chicago and InNuvation

Questions? Contact Matt Znameroski at

About Larry Levy
Larry Levy (UB ‘66, KSM ‘67) is the Chairman of Levy Restaurants and Chairman and CEO of The Levy Organization, his real estate development company.  Since its founding in 1978, Mr. Levy has built Levy Restaurants into a dynamic culinary and hospitality business known nationwide as the innovator and market leader of sports and entertainment dining.   From its base of award-winning restaurants, including Spiaggia and Bistro 110 in Chicago, and Fulton’s Crab House and Portobello Yacht Club at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, the company has grown to 66 locations including convention facilities, music/performance venues, and stadiums and arenas for all major sports leagues in 39 markets worldwide.

About the Levy Institute
In 2003, Larry and his wife Carol founded the Levy Institute of Entrepreneurial Practice at Kellogg Graduate School of Management.  The institute is responsible for shaping and managing the entrepreneurship curriculum at Kellogg.
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/levyinstitute/
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/levyinstitute/program/index.htm
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/levyinstitute/research/levy.htm

October 11th. 5:30pm ,ITW room Ford Building

Find out how you can get involved in InNUvation, learn more about the Entrepreneur Idol Competition, and hear about InNUvation mentorship opportunities and events.

Come hear how your peers started their businesses!

Thursday,May 29th

5 pm to 6:30 pm

Ford Motor Building, ITW (Room 1-350).

There will be free food.

Bios:

Matt Cohlmia is a senior in Industrial Engineering originally from Wichita, Kansas. He has been president of Chicago Unzipped for one year, and in that year turned the business from printing 1,000 copies of the 2nd edition to a planned 5,000 copies of the 3rd.

Li learned about money and finance from his penny-pinching grandmother and was fortunate to be born into a family with many business savvy people. He got his start in entrepreneurship when he joined a small company The Boxing Co., a Northwestern started summer storage and shipping company. As a consultant for Northwestern Student Holdings, Li has helped start two other student companies, NUTutors and Wildcat Express Delivery. He is passionate about real estate and Goldman Sachs.

Neal Sales Griffin has done everything from selling Christmas trees to starting two companies. Griffin’s interest in business began when he sold Christmas trees during junior high school for money. His interest was piqued and he began selling more items. When he graduates, this Learning and Organizational Change major in the School of Education and Social Policy, would like to do the impossible: become a venture capitalist. As a freshman, Griffin also worked with a startup, Context Media, founded by two Northwestern students: Rishi Shah and alumni Derek Moeller.

William Pulte, Jr., a Medill sophomore, has created two new ventures during his time at Northwestern. His first company, Campuslist, co-founded by himself and Jon Drake, is a online marketplace for college students. The second company that he is currently running is Great Lake Helicopters, a service that specializes in aerial photography in the North Shore area.