Dr. Aileen Huang-Saad, the University of Michigan Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, will discuss “The Rise of Entrepreneurship” on Thursday, March 13, at 7 p.m. in Stevenson Center Room 1100.
Prior to her talk, which is part of the MCC Lecture Series, a panel discussion from 6-7 p.m. will feature local entrepreneurs and be moderated by Dave Stradal, who coordinates MCC Entrepreneurial Studies Program. Both events are free and open to the public.
Over the last 10 years, entrepreneurship has become the panacea for all things wrong with the economy, education and social ills. While entrepreneurship itself is not a new idea, the field has been evolving as entrants from different disciplines begin to explore the potential value of the idea. Huang-Saad will share what she has learned from her experiences bringing entrepreneurship to the U of M College of Engineering and how entrepreneurship education benefits from the integration of learning across disciplines.
“Many people have dreams of starting their own business or have an invention that they want to develop, but they don’t know how to get started,” said Andy Wible, MCC faculty member and coordinator of the MCC Lectures Series. “The panel discussion and lecture should change that. They will not offer easy answers, but will provide a path and experts who will be available for questions from students and the community.”
The panelists include: Joe Finkler, president of both the Grand Rapids Inventors Network and the Muskegon Inventors Network; Eric Seifert, an administrator at Muskegon Angels LLC, finance and strategy specialist at Grand Valley State University Small Business Development Center and co-owner of Unified Health Partners and Michael Suman, a West Michigan business owner, product and market development consumer goods specialist, multiple patent holder and host of an entrepreneur radio show.
For more information on the lecture, contact Andy Wible at (231) 777-0626 or David Stradal at (231) 777-0304.