Global Entrepreneurship Week | Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth, and expand economic welfare. We’re celebrating all across Iowa with activities designed to reach every type of entrepreneur, from Main Street to corporate, from test lab to home office. Over 30 entrepreneur and small business related events will be happening all across Iowa during Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17^th through the 21^st. IASourceLink has compiled these events and made them available on the Iowa Global Entrepreneurship page at iasourcelink.com/gew.

The Cedar Valley is kicking off this week with several entrepreneurial initiatives. First is the official launch of Cedar Valley 1 Million Cups (1MC), on Wednesday at 9:00am. Each week, the 1MC program offers two local entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their startups to a diverse audience of mentors, advisors, and entrepreneurs. Presenters prepare a 6 minute educational presentation and engage in 20 minutes of feedback and questioning after they present. Entrepreneurs gain insight into possible ways they can improve their businesses. More information at cedarvalley1mc.com.

The presenters for Wednesday’s event will be Trace Steffen with HowFactory, and Dan Beenken with Advance Iowa. HowFactory is revolutionizing the way manufacturers and other companies create, use and update work instructions, standard operating procedures and training. HowFactory just completed the Iowa Startup Accelerator and was chosen for a $50,000 investment from Built By Iowa at Launch Day just last week. Advance Iowa is the State of Iowa’s comprehensive consulting program designed to work with midsized companies to enhance their growth.

Thursday from 12pm-1pm UNI MyEntre.Net will host a free business webinar on “Small Business, Big Profits: Advanced Google Analytics,” made available on IASourceLink. During this online webinar, Megan Horn from Cedar Falls based Far Reach will teach participants how to optimize Google Analytics to provide data quickly, analyze visitor traffic to gain key marketing insights, run a/b testing for real results, and show how landing pages can improve conversions.

Finally we’ll celebrate the ending of Global Entrepreneurship Week in style with Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend is a 54 hour event powered by Google where developers, designers, marketers, product managers, and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, build products, and launch startups. More information at swcedarfalls.com.

For more information contact Rob Williams at (319)273-4333 or by email at rob.williams@uni.edu

Waterloo – 1 Million Cups, a weekly event to engage, educate, and connect entrepreneurs, is set to launch during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The public is invited to attend at nine the morning of Wednesday, November 19^th at the UNI Innovation Incubator (8120 Jennings Drive in Cedar Falls).

Cedar Valley 1 Million Cups is a regional initiative where two area entrepreneurs are given six minutes to deliver a prepared presentation about a new idea or business startup. This is then followed by 20 minutes of dialog with the audience in attendance. Organizers hope the audience will be successful existing area business owners, peer startup entrepreneurs, public sector service providers, lenders, and potential investors. The location of 1 Million Cups will rotate throughout the Cedar Valley, but will start on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.

According to Randy Pilkington, director of UNI Business and Community Services, “UNI Business and Community Services has a rich tradition of supporting entrepreneurs, both statewide and here at home in the Cedar Valley. We know that the Cedar Valley 1 Million Cups program will connect innovators in the Cedar Valley to each other and to other entrepreneurship networking events to make the region a leader in entrepreneurship support and development.”

The Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber supports the effort. Steve Dust, CEO Alliance & Chamber, believes that “the prosperity of the Cedar Valley still depends on fostering, growing, and attracting entrepreneurship in all types of businesses. We want to encourage more people to build on our history of successful entrepreneurship, and the Alliance & Chamber is excited to work with the 1 Million Cups team to enhance the strong, growing startup scene throughout the Cedar Valley economic area.”

“1 Million Cups is a program for entrepreneurs, driven by entrepreneurs,” said Alyssa Nolte, Director of Marketing for iTracking Research. “It’s a true collaborative effort of a committee comprised of 23 varied public and private sector organizations coming together to make this a reality in the Cedar Valley.” Other entrepreneurially-minded firms on the planning committee include Visual Logic Group, Monday Creations, iGus Marketing, Spinutech, Pixel Labs Creative, Sidecar Coffee Roasters, Far Reach, and Luann Alemao & Associates.

The Cedar Valley joins dozens of other communities across the US where 1 Million Cups is already in operation, including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City. The public is invited to sign up to present startup business ideas, RSVP to attend (not required), or to learn more about the initiative via the website at www.cedarvalley1mc.com. To find other local Global Entrepreneurship Week events coming up visit www.iasourcelink.com/gew.

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