Seminars & Events

A series of seminars and workshops have been scheduled that will inform and assist those who plan to enter the SVBPC as they write their business plans. The seminar topics focus on different parts of the business plan and are designed to provide the guidance needed to write a sound, high-quality business plan.

SJSU students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited to attend, as are interested individuals in San Jose and Silicon Valley. For a map of the SJSU campus, click on the following link: http://www.sjsu.edu/about_sjsu/campus_maps/

 

Entrepreneurship Week USA : Feb 25th - March 3rd

Entrepreneurship Week USA: Feb 25th - March 3rd

February 28th, Wednesday:

Where: Room 225, 229 King Library

Time: 6pm to 8pm

Speakers:

San Jose City Mayor Chuck Reed will kick-off the evenings proceedings. He will be followed by..

Gina Poole, VP, Innovation & University Relations of IBM

Topic: "Fostering an Innovation Economy in the Global Context"

Gina Poole is Vice President, Innovation and University Relations for IBM.  She has worldwide responsibility for developing and executing internal programs that drive IBM's strategic imperative for innovation further into IBM's culture; and external programs for collaborating with clients, partners, governments and academia to foster innovation.  She leads IBM's worldwide collaboration with universities, which are the wellspring of the research needed to foster an innovation economy.

In her previous role she was vice president of Developer Relations for IBM.  She had worldwide responsibility for IBM's developer programs that attract early adopters of technology, individual developers, and independent software vendors to IBM with tools, technical information, education, and interactive on-line resources that help developers build their skills and deliver successful IT projects.  In addition, Gina led IBM's Academic Initiative working with universities worldwide to train IT students on open standards and prepare them for the "on demand" jobs of the future.  

Gina began her career with IBM in 1984 as a programmer in the personal computer division.  She has held a number of management positions in IBM's software and hardware divisions including:  strategy and operations, technology and industry relationships, product management, and software development.  Gina is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds degrees in computer science, business management, and economics. (www.ibm.com)

Kevin Nix, Co-Founder of Siebel Systems and currently EVM & CMO of Roamware

Topic: "Starting a Global Start-Up - The Strategic Issues"

Kevin Nix is the EVP and CMO responsible for corporate marketing, product marketing and strategic alliances at Roamware. He has been with the company for 6 months now. Prior to joining Roamware, he spent over 11 years at Siebel Systems as one of the founders of the company, growing its call center business from $0 to over $1.6B in revenue. While at Siebel, he has spoken to both Haas and Wharton MBA classes about entrepreneurial excellence. Nix also successfully managed the evolution of Siebel’s industry verticals, and next generation web service components. Prior to joining Siebel, Nix worked at Rational Software (now part of IBM), running the Rational Apex development environment products and the Rational Rose object modeling tools. Nix has a B.A in Computer Image Processing/Remote Sensing from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Roamware serves 12 of the 16 global GSM alliances servicing more than 200 networks across 83 countries. (www.roamware.com)

The speaker event will be followed by a networking reception.

This event is co-hosted by SDForum (www.sdforum.org)

***Free and open to the public***



March 1st, Thursday:

Speaker: Debbie Hall, Board Chair, Village Enterprise Fund

Topic: "Social Entrepreneurship and Starting Microenterprises in Developing Countries"

Where: Room 225, King Library

Time: 6pm to 8pm

Debbie Hall is a Graduate of Duke University (BA '78) and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA '81).  She has twenty years of consulting and marketing experience with Boston Consulting Group and several high tech companies (Metaphor Computer Systems - bought by IBM; Banner Blue Software - bought by Broderbunde;  consulting to VCs and their start ups). She is currently the Chair of Board of Directors for Village Enterprise Fund.  She has been on the board for 10 years, and is heading a 4-year fund raising campaign (now in year 3).

Since 1987, Village Enterprise Fund (VEF) has been providing small business grants to impoverished men and women in Africa and Asia. VEF's efforts capitalize on the powerful wealth creation of the private enterprise system. Currently, VEF is active in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. To date, VEF has funded the development of more than 12,000 small businesses. In addition, each business that VEF funds directly improves the lives of at least 15 people. (www.villageef.org )

***Free and open to the public***
 

March 2nd, Friday: Start-up University

Where: Room 225, King Library

Time: 10am to 2pm

An Open House for aspiring entrepreneurs, to seek advice on different aspects of starting your own venture. Attend panel discussions on what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how to find customers and sell your product, what San Jose can offer, what you need to ask your lawyer, and fundraising for starting up a company. Network with experts and professionals from industry and the university.

This event is co-hosted by SDForum (www.sdforum.org)

For more details of the event, click here

 

Saturday March 10 - Business Plan Prep Workshop

Where
Martin Luther King Library / Room 225
Time
9:00am - 12:00pm

This Workshop will offer tips on how to conduct effective market research and create a successful marketing plan that maximizes sales resources. It has been organized specifically to help all those planning to enter the Silicon Valley Business Plan Competition being held in May, with confirmed cash prizes of $15,000 (see www.cob.sjsu.edu/svbpc for details). The Competition is open to ALL SJSU students, alumni, faculty and staff. Many thanks to Joel West for organizing this workshop.

The Workshop will be presented by Bob Goedjen and Mark Levi, counselors and instructors for Silicon Valley SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives).



***Free and open to the public***

To get a complete list of events for the 2005-2006 academic year, please go to the SVCE web page and click on Event Calendar: SVCE.

Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship
College of Business
San Jose State University
1 Washington Square
San Jose CA, 95912