I am here in Louisville with twenty-eight of our Belmont students at the annual International Career Development Conference of the collegiate division of DECA, Delta Epsilon Chi.
Interest in entrepreneurship continues to be strong at this conference. I was amazed to see the high level of interest this year in the conference-long event called the Entrepreneurship Challenge.
Each year the students participating in this event are given a specific prompt and told to develop a new business that takes advantage of the issue in the prompt. Here is this year’s challenge:
“The Challenge is simple–create a business concept that capitalizes on the new Louisville Downtown Arena currently being built right next to the Galt House Hotel. NOTE: Your business concept, whether it’s a product or service, may not be “located” inside the arena itself.”
The student teams will be making their initial pitches this afternoon in a speed dating style format developed by my friend George Solomon from George Washington University.
The top teams from the preliminary rounds will then refine their pitches for the finals tomorrow.
The entrepreneurial energy and the optimism of these students is motivational to all of us involved with the event.
Let me share a little entrepreneurial inspiration with all of you this morning. Ben Cunningham sent along a video that was posted at Club for Growth that brought a smile to my face this early morning:
Jeff,
Best of luck to your students! I was hoping to be at ICDC with my students this year but it wasn’t in the cards. Hopefully we’ll see you in Orlando next year!
Hope all is well 🙂
Pierre
The entrepreneurship competitions were always a highlight of my experience while a student at Belmont. All the best to those who are competing this year!