Duke Entrepreneurs to Hold Workshops to Spur New Ventures

Friday, January 26, 2001

The Duke University Network of Entrepreneurs (DUNE) will host the first "All-Triangle Entrepreneur Games" on Feb. 24 to give students the opportunity to learn first-hand about the business-building process from Triangle entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The "All-Triangle Entrepreneur Games," to be held at the Holiday Inn near the Raleigh-Durham airport, is a workshop for Triangle-area university students and small business leaders with an interest in entrepreneurial ventures. The event is open to all area students, both graduate-level and undergraduate, who share an interest in entrepreneurship. Participating colleges and universities include Duke, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University and Meredith College.

Students and business leaders will spend the afternoon in a workshop formatted as an interactive gaming simulation. They will be assigned to diverse teams of eight people, representing different schools and fields of study. For example, a team might include a Duke undergraduate economics major, an NCSU engineering Ph.D. candidate, an UNC law student, a Meredith education major, etc. The activity will take students through four primary stages of building a business:

Idea generation;
Market identification;
Acquiring funding;
Building a management team.

Local business leaders with expertise in each simulation topic will present their own experiences and teachings at the start of each simulation round. Following each presentation, teams will compete in activities that give participants a chance to apply their skills, make difficult decisions and see the impact of their choices as the game progresses.

DUNE leaders said they hope the event will foster the growth of new entrepreneurial ventures by bringing together the talents of students from all the institutions of higher education and local business leaders in the Triangle area.

For more information, contact Brian Bunn at brian.bunn@duke.edu or Jeremy Cotter at jpc2@duke.edu. Business professionals should contact Judd Staples at judd.staples@duke.edu.