18th February, 2008: Arriving in California…
So, the previous entry was of course written in a sleepy state in the KCI departure lounge, where we ended up being stuck for about six hours in total whilst a snowstorm raged outside. When my laptop battery died (I’d accidentally checked my power supply), I kept myself occupied by playing on my PSP, and luckily I found a newsagent selling PC Gamer, and EGM – a magazine I’d heard lots about thanks to 1up.com, but had never actually read for obvious reasons! I was very pleased to be faced with a construct-your-own Companion Cube when I opened PC Gamer:
Eventually, we were able to board the plane, which essentially ended up feeling like a bit of a private jet because the Global Scholars were virtually the only ones on the flight!
Some more pictures of arriving in San Francisco, and our hotel in Palo Alto:
Tomorrow, as it’s President’s Day (and therefore a free day for us) we’re heading out into San Francisco for some typical touristy sight-seeing. I can’t wait!
A very exciting opportunity which I’ve been dying to blog about for ages is the fact that whilst we’re here in California, it is obviously also time for GDC 2008 (18th-22nd February). Thanks in part to NCGE, and to my university (the Department of Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth), I’m actually going to be attending this year (the main conference, from Wednesday-Friday), and I’m just completely indescribably excited at the prospect, as it’s a fantastic opportunity to not only attend a variety of sessions that’ll help me with both my PhD research and my venture, but also to do lots of valuable networking within the industry. It’s going to be a really fun and exciting week ahead! :D
Note to self: I need to upload my later photos to Flickr – I finally jumped on the Flickr bandwagon a couple of weeks ago, and have started uploading all my photos to there – you can access it via Mitu.nu too however, just by going to http://www.mitu.nu/photos. However, my uploading software seems to be broken today, so I’m linking direct to Facebook for now!
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17th February, 2008: Global Scholars Program – Month 1 Brief Roundup!
So today marks my having been in Kansas City, and indeed, the USA for four whole weeks. Four weeks ago today, I was on my way to Heathrow Airport, waiting to fly out to Kansas City – today, I’m in Kansas City International, waiting to fly out to California! Very excited. Or at least, I would be, if the flight hadn’t meant getting up at 4am (after only 2 hours sleep thanks to delayed packing!). Also, our flight is currently delayed thanks to the snowstorm outside, and we’re not sure how long it’ll take them to clear the runway. So, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to actually get a moment to sit down and update my much-neglected blog!
Firstly, I do apologise for the total lack of updates since I’ve been here – my first four weeks as a Kauffman Global Scholar have been incredibly busy, but also lots of fun. I’ve already gained a lot since I’ve been here in terms of learning about business, about being an entrepreneur, and about developing my ideas – we’ve essentially been doing a crash-course MBA in four weeks!
Just to keep you updated, and more importantly, for my own reference, here is a round up of some of the things I’ve been up to since I’ve been here, and more detail about the great guest speakers we’ve had the opportunity to meet.
Before I begin, just to recap, I’ll explain the program I am on for those who may not be sure!
From the Kauffman Foundation website:
“Global Scholars Program fosters international entrepreneurship by immersing top young entrepreneurs from around the world in America’s entrepreneurial culture. The Kauffman Foundation, America’s leading foundation on entrepreneurship, founded the Global Scholars Program in 2007 in collaboration with the United Kingdom government, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, and the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship. The program gives select young engineering, science, and technology scholars from other countries the opportunity to study entrepreneurship in America. For six months, Kauffman Global Scholars study, exchange ideas, and work with U.S. entrepreneurial experts.
An International Give-and-Take
In today’s economy, companies must think and act globally to succeed. The Kauffman Global Scholars Program forms the cornerstone of an important transnational dialogue that benefits all who participate.
Upon completing the program, Scholars take home a keen understanding of how they can apply their ideas, technical skills, and knowledge to create successful, high-impact ventures in their countries. And, the U.S. companies that host the Global Scholars as interns gain an insider’s view of the resources, cultures, and business practices that characterize the countries with which they may do business.”
My Press & Media section outlines just some of the press releases that have focused around my place on the Fellowship. It’s opened up all sorts of amazing opportunities and I’ve done some interesting things – not the least of which was meeting the PM of course!
Global Scholars Program Speakers & Activities – The First Four Weeks
Mainly for my own reference, but also for those of you who are interested, here is a round up of some of the guest speakers we were lucky enough to have visit and meet with us. As mentioned, I got very ill with flu in Week 2, so I did end up missing a couple of sessions, so had to catch up with notes. If you’re interested in a more complete list of speakers, please do visit the blogs of some of the other Global Scholars – Tony and Stuart have particularly been blogging quite a bit throughout and have a more complete round up of our activities at the Foundation!
So, Just some of the things we got up to at the Foundation were as follows:
Carl Schramm – President, Kauffman Foundation
Our very first lecture began with Carl Schramm, President of the Kauffman Foundation, welcoming us, and explaining the importance of entrepreneurship to economy. I actually found this really useful, and although he talked about the ‘lonely journey’ faced by entrepreneurs, he also emphasised entrepreneurship as being one of the most valuable contributions an individual can make to society. Interesting stuff. He also talked a bit about his beliefs that entrepreneurship should be taught practically, rather than the usual American business school model of theoretical teaching taking place in the classroom, centred around writing business plans.
This was an interesting point, and made me think that perhaps the best entrepreneurship learning takes place with a combination of the two – and I then realised that that is essentially how this program is designed, what with our academic learning being complemented by our 3 month internship from March to early June.
Oh, and on the first Friday during our visit to the Foundation, this meeting took place here in Kansas City, between Carl Schramm, President of the Kauffman Foundation, and another kind of president…
KTEC Pipeline Innovators Event
The Global Scholars were very kindly invited along to the judging and finale of the KTEC Pipeline Innovators program – this is a fellowship program that has been running for the past year for already-established entrepreneurs in Kansas, to receive mentoring and further their business. As this was the final, the participants were asked to pitch their business in front of a prestigious panel of judges, and we were lucky enough to be able to watch this process – watching already established entrepreneurs, and particularly, listening to the feedback from the judges, was very valuable, and I’m glad we were invited. The day ended with a lavish awards ceremony – all in all, a very useful day!
Ted Zoller, Executive Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at University of North Carolina & Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
I personally found Ted Zoller’s three sessions with us to be amongst the most useful and productive of all during our time at the Foundation – I learnt so much new information about all sorts of aspects from entrepreneurship – including, but not limited to, the importance of considering oneself a ‘Global Entrepreneur’, value propositions, finding your target market, and lots, lots more. Incredibly useful, and a very engaging speaker.
Peter McDermott, Banner Witchoff Ltd and Chair, Business Law section, Massachusetts Bar Association & Dr Andrew W. Torrance, Associate Professor, University of Kansas School of Law
Peter McDermott came in to speak to us about “Gathering, Protecting & Avoiding Intellectual Property” – I found this really insightful, as he spoke about patenting as a ‘game of attack and defense’ – indeed, this point was further illustrated by Dr Andrew Torrance, who demonstrated his ‘Patent Game’ – which perfectly supported the points that Peter had made earlier in the day. Great fun, and a great learning experience which gave me lots to think about in terms of whether or not patenting is always the way to go.
Melissa Schilling, NYU School of Business, Associate Professor of Management
This was one of the speaker sessions when I was still rather ill with flu, but I came in anyway nonetheless because Melissa’s slides looked very interesting – she came in to speak to us about ‘Strategic Management of Innovation’ . We had been given a case study to read regarding Microsoft’s Xbox, and it’s entry into the market back in 2002, so this immediately grabbed my attention of course!
Just to finish (and because my battery is running out!) here is one of the pictures from our official photo shoot 2 weeks ago:
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