On April 26, two dozen graduate students and faculty representing Temple University’s business, law, engineering and medical schools convened for the inaugural TechConnect Idea to Invoice Workshop. The workshop, which was a joint effort of the Fox School’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute and Temple’s Office of Technology Development, aimed to foster collaboration among students with different backgrounds through teamwork and to increase the number of successful business ideas that are conceived of and commercialized at the university.
The overarching goal of TechConnect is to educate innovators who lack a business background with the skills and knowledge they need to successfully pitch strong business plans to potential investors and research organizations. According to Assistant Professor Andrew Maxwell, “most technology developers, including those I have met at Temple, don’t understand the commercialization process and how market considerations should influence the technology development itself…You have to be able to look at business issues from the beginning.”
Event participants together introduced seven technologies they developed prior to the workshop. After discussing these ideas, four were selected to move beyond concept to a development phase. To apply their newly acquired business acumen, students discussed the value propositions, potential growth plans and go-to-market strategies of these proposed ideas. Following the workshop, some of the more promising teams started to complete feasibility studies and draft grant applications.
The next TechConnect is tentatively scheduled for the last week in August.
