Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Terry Semel and Paul Orfalea,
founder and chairman emeritus of Kinko’s, will speak Friday
at the Anderson School at UCLA as part of the Entrepreneur
Association’s annual conference.
This year’s conference will consist of panel sessions
centered around entrepreneurship, as well as two-hour presentations
by the keynote speakers. Orfalea and Semel are expected to speak
about building enduring value ““ the conference’s title
and theme ““ as it relates to their experiences in the
business world, said J. J. Lewis, an MBA student at the Anderson
School at UCLA and president of the EA.
Bringing Orfalea and Semel to UCLA is part of the EA’s
effort to encourage students to turn their attention to real-life
experiences instead of concentrating solely on their classes, said
Nishen Radia, the EA’s director of events and an Anderson MBA
student.
“Entrepreneurship is not so much something you can always
learn out of a textbook. … The biggest thing ““ and this is
what the professors preach ““ is getting out and hearing what
other people have been up to,” Radia said.
Topics that focus on issues that new businesses and growing
organizations face, such as how to sell “intangibles”
such as health and convenience, will be the focal points of two
morning panel sessions. An afternoon panel session will focus on
industries, including biotech, high tech, wireless and real
estate.
The panels will work to provide information to students who are
curious about entrepreneurship, said Mark Garmaise, a professor of
finances at the Anderson School who will moderate a panel about
financing business growth.
“It’s going to present students with a variety of
insights into the dynamics of entrepreneurship … tips for finding
product niches, general advice on operating firms,” Garmaise
said.
Each panel will feature key figures in business industries,
including CEOs, entrepreneurs and marketing directors. Among the
panelists will be Ivy Ross, senior vice president of worldwide
design and development for the girls’ division of Mattel
Inc.
The conference’s theme of building enduring value
addresses issues related to entrepreneurship in light of surfacing
corporate scandals and the necessity to achieve business
sustainability in the current economy, Radia said.
“It’s talking about building long-term and
sustainable value for entrepreneurs … topics that people want to
know about right now,” Radia said.
As the EA’s flagship event, the annual conference serves
not only as a presentation of facts to an audience, according to
Radia. One of the goals of the conference is to create a chance for
students and the rest of the Los Angeles community to network with
people in industries of interest.
The cost of attending is $60 for UCLA students, faculty and
staff. Visit http://www.uclamba.com/eac/registration.htm to
register.