Posts Tagged ‘Universities’

You might be wondering why foursquare choose these colleges first. That is easy to answer because just about every school that is getting a badge has an active foursquare presence. For instance, the University of Oregon and Texas A&M both have sponsored an on campus foursquare-based scavenger hunts. Then, USC quite often asks the student body to check in to campus events, offering incentives to encourage them even more.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Anyone can join Reel Playmakers. It is free to sign up and there are no monthly subscription fees. Users can create their own profiles and begin uploading videos, as well as communicate with an ever-growing user base of athletes and college recruiters.

Two nights ago I had the opportunity to speak on a panel held by the entrepreneurial club at the Kogod School of Business. Big thanks to Robert Neelbauer for putting the event together. We had the opportunity to speak with a large group of entrepreneurs at the university and it was the first time that I was involved in a local university event. Following the event I was engaged in a number of discussions about how universities can play a larger role in building entrepreneurial communities and what role they should play.

Andrew Wright attended the event and told me about some of the challenges he had faced when working with one of the local universities in trying to build engaging events and getting the university to play a larger role in the community. Ultimately there is a conflict of interest that I see at universities. They frequently invest more heavily in the brand name of the university then in the students. Case and point: bringing large keynote speakers that students find it difficult to relate to.

In my own opinion it is best to have local universities involved with the local professional event producers to get jobs for students and to increase the likelihood of students finding mentors. While I’m not quite sure what the role of a local university is, I believe that investing in the students should be a priority over investing in the brand name of a university. When those students become talented individuals in the professional world, it will come back to benefit the university when those individuals return to speak.

How do you think local universities should be involved in building entrepreneurial communities?