Entrepreneurship Series at the Colorado School of Mines

There are so many opportunities for Entrepreneurs in Colorado. I just received an announcement for what looks to be a wonderful seminar series at the Colorado School of Mines. This series is FREE and open to the public.

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES, DIVISION OF ECONOMICS & BUSINESS

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

EXECUTIVE-IN-RESIDENCE SEMINAR SERIES PRESENTED BY JP O’BRIEN

All seminars are held from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. in Hill Hall 202.
This seminar series is free and open to the public.
Call Kathleen Martin at 303-273-3482 for directions and a visitors parking pass to park on campus.
Questions? Contact: Michael Walls, Professor and Chair, ETM Program
Phone: 303-273-3492 Email: mwalls@mines.edu
September 2, 2008: Passion, Motivation and Goal Setting – JP O’Brien The kickoff of the 2008 EIR session explores the foundation of successful innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs. In this session, you will learn how to create, measure and achieve S.M.A.R.T. goals, powered by passion and directed by motivation.

 September 16, 2008: Leadership as a Discipline – JP O’Brien The term “Leadership” is overused to be sure, but if we break it down and explore what research of thousands of “leaders” has found, we can create a framework in which to describe, evaluate and apply leadership.

September 30, 2008: Competing through Innovation - Karen Padgett (guest speaker). Innovation today comes in all shapes and sizes, and often when you least expect it. In this session, we’ll hear an innovation success story and use examples to identify milestones of the innovation life-cycle.
 October 21, 2008: Harnessing the Power of Language and Visual Texts for Innovation and Leadership - Alyssa O’Brien (guest speaker).
Effective communication helps in all aspects of business, but it is critical for situations involving innovation and leadership. In this workshop, we’ll look at recent political cartoons, advertisements, and videos as models. Participants will learn concrete strategies for approaching communication with both creativity and resources for success.
 November 4, 2008: Spirit of Entrepreneurship– JP O’Brien
In this session, we’ll explore the essence of entrepreneurship, what it takes to be an entrepreneur and what inspires people to pursue their vision even in a world of uncertainty. We’ll look at what entrepreneurship means within a startup versus a large company.
 November 18, 2008: Leading/Influencing Independent Business Partners - Liam Crowe (guest speaker).
Managing and negotiating with independent business partners is essential in running and growing any business. You’ll learn about a company that has built their entire business model on the success of their independent business partners. We’ll examine the risks, benefits and strategies of building a strong business partner network.
 December 2, 2008: Debrief and Summary Discussions –  JP O’Brien
About the Presenters:
JP O’Brien is the Chief Executive Officer of SageFire, Inc., a leader in web-based business work-flow solutions. SageFire is O’Brien’s third startup, where he oversees SageFire’s corporate financing strategy and overall business direction. SageFire is a business owner’s best friend. Their applications help businesses track and manage all aspects of the business – from lead generation to prospecting to servicing and delivery to accounting to reporting and business intelligence. O’Brien is passionate about small business success and is a featured speaker on the topics of profitability, entrepreneurialism, and leadership at several national conventions including eBay Live. Mr. O’Brien has a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.
Liam Crowe, Founder, President and CEO of Bark Busters USA (www.barkbusters. com), is responsible for the overall vision and direction of Bark Busters USA. Liam brought Bark
Busters to the USA with another Australian couple in 2000 and have subsequently sold and trained 255 franchise owners. He is their national spokesman, responsible for all national media appearances.
Alyssa J. O’Brien, Ph.D., Lecturer and Assistant Director at Stanford University (www.stanford.edu/~aobrien/cv.htm), completed her Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and post-doc at Cornell University. At Stanford, she teaches courses in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric. Since arriving at Stanford, her research has focused increasingly on visual rhetoric and the practice of pedagogy. Alyssa is the Director of the Stanford Cross-Cultural Rhetoric Project, a grant-funded initiative to connect students across five continents.
Karen Padgett, President and Founder Novus Biologicals, Inc (www.novusbio.com), founded
Novus in 1996 and has grown from a one person company to a company of over 40,000 products that support biological research. Karen received her MBA from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Microbiology from Indiana University.