Wow!  It was standing room only at the first session of Spring Vol Court (1/31/12) — we had 45 people show up.  And what was even better was that the mix of attendees was incredibly diverse: 

• We had a combination of students, faculty, staff, and the public.
• For the first time EVER, people with science or technology interests outnumbered people with business interests.
• In fact, when you combine other interests (for example, law and even anthropology!), business people were outnumbered 3:1!

This is exactly what we hope to achieve with this series – we try to foster an entrepreneurial culture across the campus and in the community, not just in the College of Business.  Why?  Because evidence suggests that the most successful business start-ups happen because of a multi-disciplinary team with diverse skill sets. At Vol Court, we try to bring people together with the common interest of starting a business, and help people connect with each other to form these teams.  We also try to give people a taste of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, and the things it takes to create a successful business.

Vol Court is open to anyone who wants to learn about starting a business (there is no admission fee).  And who knows?  If you pitch your idea, you could win up to $1000!  We hope you can join us — we meet every Tuesday evening at 5:15 p.m. in room 701 of the Stokely Management Center.  The last session is the competition itself, which is on 3/13/12.