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Students Organize Startup Conference to Help Entrepreneurs Realize Their Dreams
October 1, 2012
A group of enterprising Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
students has organized a day-long conference on Saturday, October
27, to inspire future entrepreneurial opportunities in technology
and innovation.
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Matt
Hunckler
Jeff Ready |
The Rose Startup!
Conference will bring together Indiana college
students, Rose-Hulman alumni, experienced business leaders, and
young rock-star entrepreneurs with potential investors,
technologists, and engineers that are eager to collaborate on
innovative projects. There will be 14 speakers, including two
featured keynote speakers and four panel discussions on a variety
of entrepreneurial topics.
The daylong meeting is being sponsored by Exact Target, Taft
Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Rose-Hulman's Department of
Engineering Management, and Rose-Hulman's Office of Career
Services.
"Something is bound to develop from putting all of these
resources and creative ideas together in one place," said
Conference Organizer Chad Conway, co-founder of the Rose Innovative
Student Entrepreneurs (RISE) organization. He is a senior
mechanical engineering major from Duxbury, Mass. "This will be an
excellent place for people to network and discuss important issues
relating to starting a company or bringing a new idea to the
marketplace," he said.
Keynote speakers will be Matt
Hunckler, president and founder of VERGE, a community of Midwest
software developers, entrepreneurs and startup investors; and Jeff
Ready, a successful entrepreneur whose latest enterprise is
Indianapolis' Scale Computing, twice selected to Forbes' list of
America's Most Promising Companies. Ready, a 1996 Rose-Hulman
computer science graduate, was nominated as MIT Technology Review's
Top Innovators of 2004.
Panelists discussing idea creation will be Beau D'Arcy, partner
of Hollywood's B2 Entertainment Group; Yvette Kendall, president of
Las Vegas' Shevinci Innovations; and Elizabeth Hagerman, Ph.D.,
vice president of Rose-Hulman Ventures and a former new product
development official with Baxter Healthcare.
Providing advice on overcoming barriers to creating new business
ventures will be Nick Mahurin, chief executive officer of Terre
Haute's InfraWare; Jon D. Speer, managing partner of Martinsville's
Creo Quality, LLC; and Jeremy Clarke, president of Vortex Web
Solutions of Middlebury.
A third panel examining venture/seed funding for business
enterprises will feature Elizabeth Kozman, associate director of
strategic and commercial development for Indianapolis' BioStorage;
Bradley W. Schwer, partner for Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
who specializes in funding and documenting the funding agreement;
and Michael Shepard, vice president of finance for the Bostech
Corporation of Indianapolis.
Discussing company classification and growth will be Anthony
Broadnax, president of northwest Indiana's Broadnax Enterprises;
Dustin S. DuBois, partner for Indianapolis' Ice Miller law firm who
specializes in intellectual property; and Gerald Rea, chief
executive officer of Scottsburg's Stray Light Optical
Technologies.
There will be two breakout sessions during the event, and a
networking opportunity will conclude the day.
Rose Startup! is planned from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Hulman
Union building on the Rose-Hulman campus in Terre Haute. The event
is free for any university student, faculty or staff member, but
$20 for others. The online
registration deadline is October 13. There is a limit of 200
participants.
Learn more about
RISE.