Co-sponsored by Calit2, Student Entrepreneurs in VentureForth Hear from Experts; Video Now Streaming

By Doug Ramsey, 858-822-5825, dramsey@ucsd.edu

San Diego, CA, December 1, 2007  -- The fall Entrepreneurship Conference has become an annual highlight for the VentureForth student group at UCSD, which also puts on a Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Conference each spring. On November 17, the 2007 VentureForth Entrepreneurship Conference packed the large auditorium of Atkinson Hall, Calit2's headquarters on the campus, with students and other attendees lured by keynote talks and free-wheeling panel discussions featuring well-known San Diego company founders and professionals.

Former Advanced Tissue Sciences CEO Gail Naughton -- now Dean of SDSU's College of Business Administration -- led a  market research workshop, giving aspiring entrepreneurs the tools to gauge the current market, value of a product, and a roadmap for executing a business plan. In his morning keynote, former Alliance Pharmaceutical CEO Duane Roth -- now CEO of CONNECT -- outlined how the latter organization helps San Diego technology companies get up and running. A panel on succeeding with an engineering-related company included advice from two Jacobs School of Engineering faculty members who recently started successful companies: computer scientist George Varghese, who created NetSift and sold it to Cisco Systems, and electrical engineer Sujit Dey, who founded Ortiva Wireless. Both are back at UCSD full-time after leaves of absence to get their companies off the ground.

Sponsors of the 2007 conference included platinum sponsor Intuit, gold sponsors Calit2 and UCSD Associated Students; and silver sponsor McDermott Will & Emery.

Archived webcasts of the conference's keynotes and panel discussions are now available for on-demand viewing [Windows Media Player and broadband connection required; click for information on the latest version, and on players for Mac and Linux users ]. To watch each video, click on the image or highlighted video link.

VENTUREFORTH ENTREPREURSHIP CONFERENCE


November 17, 2007
Duane Roth
Morning Keynote
Duane Roth, CEO, CONNECT
Length: 55:02 [video]
Sujit Dey
Engineering Panel
Anne O'Donnell, Jacobs School (moderator); Sujit Dey, Founder, Ortiva Wireless (pictured at left); George Varghese, Founder, Netsift; Janet Vohariwatt, CEO, iChanneX; Brad Chisum, CEO, Lumedyne.
Length: 1:09:36 [video]
Gail Naughton
Market Research Workshop
Gail Naughton, Dean, College of Business Administration, San Diego State University.
Length: 52:47 [video]
Web 2.0 Panel
Web 2.0 Panel
Dan O'Neill, CTO, Trusonic (moderator, pictured at left); Brian Dear, founder, Eventful.com; Blake Ross, co-founder, FireFox and Parakey; Seth Greenberg, Director, Online Advertising and Internet Media, Intuit; Seth Sternberg, founder, Meebo.com.
Length: 1:02:32 [video]
IP Finance Panel
Intellectual Property/Finance Panel
Joe Lesko, Partner, Gordon & Reese LLP (moderator; pictured at left); Neil Senturia, CEO, Blackbird Ventures; Jane Moores, Director, UCSD TechTips; Astrid R Spain, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP; Peter N. Townshend, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
Length: 57:22 [video]
Blake Ross
Afternoon Keynote
Blake Ross, co-founder, Mozilla FireFox, and Parakey (purchased by Facebook in 2007).
Length: 53:00 [video]

See the conference website for talk abstracts and other information.

Related Links
VentureForth Entrepreneurship Conference 2007