UNH Entrepreneurship Center Annual Impact Report 2019-2020

Above: ECenter students at the BU Idea Conference; Below: Agile Bootcamp
BU IDEA CONFERENCE
For the second year in a row,
the ECenter and over 50 UNH
students attended the IDEA
Conference hosted by Boston
University’s Innovate@BU
Initiative. Everyone piled into a
coach bus early in the morning
(7:00am on a Saturday!) on
February 15th and made their
way to Boston. This conference
allows for students and
professionals to come together
to share inspiration for ideas,
technology, social impact, arts,
and culture.
Throughout the day, attendees
listened to speakers from
all over, including: the CEO
& Founder of Holdette,
the Executive Director of
Greenpeace USA, and the
ECenter’s very own Joel
Nkounkou, CEO and Cofounder
of ecoText, and UNH
alum! Between speakers were
workshops centered around
networking, financing ventures,
funding non-profits, creating
a perfect pitch, pursuing your
passions, and many more.
The ECenter loves providing this
opportunity to students, and
we're glad the students love it
too. It is wonderful to be able
to provide a venue for UNH
students to meet their innovative
peers from other Boston area
colleges. This year, a grant from
the UNH Alumni Association
helped to offset the cost for
students to attend.
Thank you, Alumni Association!
BOOTCAMPS
The ECenter offers a variety
of hands-on bootcamps every
academic year, with a range of
topics. They provide students
with a hands-on environment to
practice the entrepreneurial skills
they are developing both inside
and outside of the classroom. This
year we offered bootcamps on
idea creation, pitching, and Agile
methodology.
In fall 2019, we had another great
semester with our flagship Idea
Creation Bootcamps, sponsored
by Bottomline Technologies. More
students attended than ever
before! At the first Bootcamp,
the group was led by Alexandra
Suarez, a facilitator and trainer
focused on innovation and
human-centric research and
insights. Our second Idea Creation
Bootcamp of the semester was
led by Marc Sedam, Associate
Vice Provost of Innovation and
New Ventures and the Managing
Director at UNHInnovation.
At the Pitching Bootcamp in the
spring, students learned not
only how to transform a great
idea and written summary into
a successful pitch, but also how
to present themselves in front
of a crowd or panel. These are
essential skills, regardless of
career path. The presenter for
the evening was Todd Boucher
'03, co-founder and partner at
Hidden Collective and principal
and founder at Leading Edge
Design Group.
Finally, just prior to campus
closing down in the spring we
hosted two Agile Bootcamps,
sponsored and run by
Bottomline Technologies, an
ECenter Premier Sponsor.
Students learned the agile
process framework and
the importance of the agile
methodology in business.
Thank you to Bottomline
Technologies for sponsoring and
for engaging students in these
unique experiential learning
opportunities!
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