Previous VentureClasses
- June 17, 2010 -The Corridor
Speaker is drs. Arie Kraaijeveld.
Topic: “A Regional focus on Global entrepreneurship & Innovation”
In his VentureClass, Arie will address the challenges of internationalization, innovation, and high-tech high-growth business, in relation to the stimulation of a regional economy. He will illustrate his view with experiences from his various board positions, and the many international trade missions he joined.
Certification ceremony and Book presentation
This edition marks a special occasion: the participants who started in May 2009 completed their participation in the VentureLab Twente programme for business development support. It is with great pride we invite you to also share in their certification ceremony and the book presentation of the entrepreneurs’ portraits to Dr. Anne Flierman, President of the Executive Board of the University of Twente.
Schedule
17.30-18.30 Certification ceremony
18.30-19.45 Network dinner
20.00-21.30 VLT VentureClassThe book presentation will be 15 minutes before or after the VLT VentureClass.
- May 20, 2010 – The Corridor
Speaker is Dave Blank.
Prof dr. ing. Dave H.A. Blank (1953) is scientific director of MESA+, a leading research institute in the field of nanotechnology in the Netherlands and one of the largest in the world. More than anybody else, Dave is able to clarify nanotechnology’s secrets and provide an understanding of the technology’s commercial potential.
Dave has over 180 papers in refereed journals and is also the author of non-specialist literature. His other activities amongst other things include being editor in chief of Natuurkunde.nl (science.nl) a website to raise awareness and interest for “hard science” among pre-university students. He was also involved in the formation of the Student Union at the University of Twente.
In his VentureClass, Dave will lecture about the importance for MESA+ and the High Tech Factory to be embedded in entrepreneurial networks, to make the most of nanotechnology’s opportunities for valorization.
- April 15, 2010 – The Corridor
Speaker is Matthias Fink.
Topic: Business Development and Growth – Complex Answers to Simple QuestionsThe question is simple: “What Do I need to do to make my business successful?”. Defining and realizing interventions into the development of the business that induce growth, is a key challenge for entrepreneurs. It implies to anticipate future situations based on historical data. Researchers have tried to identify patterns in business developments which served as a basis for stage theories. More recent attempts to explain business development aim at identifying the major forces behind the development of businesses by reconstructing individual processes. Probably most promising are configurational/gestalt theories which basically come up with bad news for practitioners: “Business development is too complex to be fully understood!”
Short bio of Matthias Fink:
Matthias Fink is an assistant professor at the Department for Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship at the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. He has been a habilitation scholar (APART) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a visiting professor at Vaasa University (Finland), and an EECPCL participating professor at Harvard Business School (USA).Furthermore, Matthias Fink is a senior researcher at the RiCC (Research Institute for Co-operation and Co-operatives), visiting professor at the Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona (Spain) and University of Twente (The Netherlands), vice chairman of the IMFK (Institut für Managementforschung Köln e.V.), and country vice president of the ECSB.
For his research, Matthias Fink received the Erste Bank Prize for Research on CEE and the Rudolf Sallinger Award. His research projects have attracted external funds worth over 500.000 Euros. A number of these projects and resulting publications were honored by the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
- March 18, 2010 – The Corridor
Speaker is Job Elders (‘64), Business Director Thermo Fisher Scientific Enschede. He was co-founder and CEO of C2V until its acquisition by Thermo in 2009. Since the mid nineties Job Elders was involved in leading positions, in start-ups, mergers and acquisitions, including Alcatel and recently Thermo. Prior to founding his first company, Dr. Elders directed pan-European projects at the MESA+ Research Institute (Netherlands) and IMM (Germany). Dr. Elders is the author of more than 80 technical papers, business papers and patents and has chaired, sponsored and presented at several MST events around the world. He received his Masters degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Amsterdam. Read more here.
- Februari 18, 2010 – The Corridor
Dr. ir. W. (Wybren) Jouwsma is technical director, and joint owner of Bronkhorst High-Tech B.V. since 1981. Jouwsma will talk about “Bronkhorst High-Tech, in motion for 29 years” from his point of view as a technical entrepreneur.
From its headquarters in Ruurlo, Bronkhorst High-Tech developed into world leader in the measurement and control of mass flow and pressure. This achievement has been based on a commitment to customer care. The Customer Service Department now boasts 15 fully equipped service points across the world. Research and Development is also pivotal to the success; 25% of the personnel are involved with R&D and 15% of annual turnover is re-invested in R&D. Today, worldwide staff amounts to approx. 350 people.
Wybren Jouwsma was a member of the Board of Programmatical Advice of TNO TPD (Dutch institute for Applied Physics), and the Innovation Platform. Presently his is amongst others a member of the Board of Directors Sensor Technology Club and Industrial Electronics (FHI), and Chairman of Minacned, the Micro- en Nanotechnologie Cluster Nederland that supports economic activity based on these technologies.
- January 21, 2010 – The Corridor
The speaker is Danny Mekic’ (23), founder and Chief Executive Officer at DomainDesk.com (domeinbalie.nl), which he founded at the age of fifteen. His expertise is reducing complexity of situations, projects, dilemma’s and conflicts & combining knowledge from different disciplines (internet, media, technology, law& practical psychology). Danny has been spotted as one of the 50 most talented people in The Netherlands (Elsevier June, 6th 2009) and awarded the title Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 (Sprout). He is co-author of the book ‘Internetrecht 2.0′, an publication of the Dutch NVvIR (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Informatietechnologie& Recht).
Without finishing his high school, Danny was accepted as Law Science-student at the University of Amsterdam. One year later he became President of the Student Counsel and was asked as lecturer at the same university and study. This week, he was speaker at the Big Improvement Day (BID) where he pitched his new consultancy agency in front of CEO’s of the biggest Dutch companies.
During his presentation he will guide you through his story as young entrepreneur and will share lots of inspiring stories and practical tips. Some topics:
- Networking;
- Work/life-balance;
- ‘Focus’;
- How to be creative with ristricting situations and rules.Meet Danny Mekic’ at VentureLab!
- December 10, 2009 – The Corridor
VentureClass: Wim de Ridder
“Tomorrows fortune Lets create the 2020 world we deserve”This time embedded in a festive program to celebrate 25 years TOP arrangement.
Entrance is free of charge.
- 16.30 – 17.45 drinks and speeches
- 18.00 – 19.45 buffet dinner & coffee
16.30 – 17.45 speeches continued
16.30 – 17.45 photo shoot of TOP-entrepreneurs - 20.15 – 21.15 VLT VentureCLass
- 21.30 – 24.00 drinks, party & band
Wim de Ridder is chair of `Futures Studies`, University of Twente
Introduction
Before 2020 the age of information and telecommunication will come to an end. The start – the big bang – of this revolutionary period was the launch of the Intel 4004 chip in 1971. Almost forty years later the chip has become extremely powerful and very inexpensive. The chip created the network society that changed the world radically. Accordingly we are redesigning our business processes, the venture market is disparately searching for new opportunities and many large companies suddenly realize that the best people doesn’t work for them.
A new age is entering the stage…
Europe´s chance will be the early adoption of the so-called peer society. European countries are in the best position to profit from the challenges of mass creativity and peer production. This inevitable future already has begun, we only have to invent our own possibilities.
