2008 RIT Entrepreneurs Conference Focuses on Building Networks, Oct. 10

‌

A. Sue Weisler

RIT will host the 2008 Entrepreneurs Conference Oct. 10.

Learn how experienced serial entrepreneurs like Ross Mayfield utilize social computing to create and grow businesses.

Mayfield is co-founder, chairman and president of the first wiki company, Socialtext Inc., an enterprise social software company based in Palo Alto, Calif. He will deliver the keynote address at the 2008 RIT Entrepreneurs Conference, scheduled at Rochester Institute of Technology during the campus’ Brick City Homecoming weekend on Friday, Oct. 10.

Opening remarks will be delivered at 8 a.m. by Jeremy Haefner, newly appointed RIT provost and senior vice president for academic affairs who comes to RIT after previously serving in a number of administrative roles at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Building Networks for Success is this year’s theme for the all-day conference, which begins at 7:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast at RIT’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. Following Haefner’s morning keynote address, participants will be able to attend concurrent sessions/panels from 9:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the Golisano College and the Louise M. Slaughter Building, with luncheon and Mayfield’s keynote address scheduled from noon to 1:30 p.m.

A sampling of sessions include: Starting a Business 101, Locating Your First Customers, Funding for Entrepreneurs, Starting a Video Gaming Company, and Growth Internet Marketing to Grow Your Company. Workshop presenters include Paul Stiebtz, associate director of RIT Golisano Sustainability Institute; CEO Thomas Bjurlof, Ratatoskr Entertainment; Tim McCauley, president of Hope Advertising and the Rochester Black Business Association; and Jenny Servo, president of Dawnbreaker-The Commercialization Company.

Marketing sponsors for the conference are Digital Rochester, Greater Rochester Enterprise, High Tech Rochester, Students in Free Enterprise and the Educational Technology Center at RIT.

The conference is open to the public, and the cost is $75, $50 for RIT alumni, and free for RIT faculty and staff (excluding luncheon and keynote address, which ranges from $7 to $10). Spaces are limited; online registration is available at RIT's Entrepreneurs Conference, or call Donna Slavin at (585) 475-2199.