Growing Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Charles Lord Region 3 Leadership Development Chair and Ron Jensen IEEE-USA Presiden Elect presented on Growing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in your Section.
This presentation was really interesting because Charles provided very good examples and went into details about the future of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He was quick to point out the importance of Small Business's and that they account for 39 percent of the country 's gross national product creating two out of every three new jobs.

Having a innovative plan is another key factor that Charles highlighted in his presentation. Vision goals, means to get there, tool's material needed, milestones were among the several factors he mentioned. Personal plan is also of importance because it involves good financial planing (IRA) and great organizational skills.

Charles also engaged with the audience by asking what is the definition of an Entrepreneur?
"One who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise"
A consultant is an entrepreneur but not all entrepreneurs are consultants.
Consultant "one who gives a professional advice or services: expert".

IEEE-USA with its members should get involved and use the resources to make your local section the "go-to" source for growing entrepreneurs and growing innovation. The IEEE members should work together to make things happen stated Charles.

There are number of websites available for training SCORE provides a great deal of advice and useful tools, FastTrac helping people peruse their entrepreneurial dreams, Innovation Institute focuses on programs to advance the preparation of leaders responsible for innovation of new products and services by sharing the experiences of successful innovators in a coordinated program of interaction, mentoring and networking, Facebook and LinkedIn.

In conclusion he added it is really important to establish a web presence (google documents, web pages), form a steering community (invite other groups to participate), establish a budget (materials). Also look for possible PACE funding and region MGA and don't forget to PUBLICIZE!