The Mason Enterprise Research Conference gave six George Mason School of Business students a special opportunity to sell 75 business leaders and entrepreneurial academics on their ideas and inventions.
The annual conference holds its focus on innovation launchpads, that is, co-working spaces, incubators and accelerators. Six “seed level” teams of Mason-based innovators were given time to present during the Mason Innovation Lab Patriot Demo Day session. The groups showcased their ideas in an attempt to convince one of the bigwigs in attendance to help them, either with advice or their checkbook.
According to Mason business professor and conference organizer Mahesh Joshi, more than half the audience came from the MIT Enterprise Forum, an important stat to note because the pitch session is supposed to provide a platform for students to pitch in front of non-Mason representatives. Joshi says Mason’s relationship with MIT provides the decade-old conference with a fresh perspective.The Mason Enterprise Research Conference was presented by Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the School of Business and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington, D.C.
“I realized it needed to have more than an academic outreach,” he said, “and with this collaboration it is more practice-oriented. And that benefits the student entrepreneurs.
Mason’s School of Business is also doing more than providing an academic platform. We’re trying to create a physical workspace, a community and a process,” Mason School of Business professor and Innovation Lab director David Miller told the audience. “We are trying to discover new business models.”
Information and quotes from this post originally appeared on the Mason News Desk in an article by Buzz McClain.