15.399  Entrepreneurship Lab

Hi there E-labbers, just a reminder that a short personal reflection essay is due from you by the end of the day on Wednesday.  Please send to Brad/Meredith.  Notes on the content of this essay are contained in the syllabus, but the overall aim is to highlight what you personally will take away from class - 2-3 pages is more than sufficient.  See you soon,

Cheers, Alan.

Dear E-Labbers,

The format for the final class consists of short “elevator pitch” presentations (i.e., three minutes maximum per team) followed by a poster-board session, in which you can move around the class to learn about the outcomes achieved in other projects.

Your presentation should consist of only THREE slides.  Slide 1 lists your firm’s name and those of your team members.  Slide 2 should be used to summarize the outcome of your project.  What were you asked to do?  What did you find?  What are your main recommendations?  We are particularly interested in what you can now tell the firm that it did not know at the start of the project.  Assume that we remember what your firm does, given we have heard you present twice already.  Slide 3 should be used to communicate the top five lessons you will take away from E-Lab.  The lessons can relate to any aspect of the course:  content, process, or team dynamics.  For example, if you had to overcome some adversity in your project, we might all learn from sharing your experiences.  Feel free to be creative.

For the poster sessions, the aim is to develop a visual story as to the aims of your project, the analysis you conducted, and the conclusions you draw.  At a minimum, you can take a few of the key slides from your final faculty presentations, and blow these up to display on your board.  Remember, slides that show graphs, charts, pictures, or frameworks for understanding your project are worth a thousand lines of text.  You should also display a picture, screen shot, mock-up or other visual representation of the product, to remind people of the project you are working on.  Ultimately, it is up to you to decide exactly what to show, and how to show it.

The format for the evening is as follows:  From 6.00pm to 6.30pm, we will set up the posters around the class.  From 6.30pm-7.00pm we will hear the elevator pitch presentations.  From 7.00pm to 8.00pm we will have the poster session, in which you can take turns to walk around and learn from other teams experiences.  At 8.00pm, we will hand out course evaluations, which should be handed to the TAs.

This session will be great preparation for the final faculty presentations the following week.  We look forward to a great evening!

Cheers, Alan.

Class,

Hope the semester is wrapping up well for you.  A few quick notes while you're preparing your final presentations:

• Please bring print outs of your final presenation for the Professors to mark-up and provide feedback
• Be sure to include the E-Center and host company logos on the title slide along with your names
• No blue or dark backgrounds
• Number your pages
• Include your names and contact information on the last slide

Finally, I would just encourage all teams to focus on your recommendations/action items (taking the direct approach) as opposed to the process. 

If you have other questions Meredith and I are happy to share with you how we approached the presentation last year. I also have my presentation which I'd be willing to share (but you shouldn't regard it as a template by any means - there are many ways to approach the presentation).

Thanks,
Brad

All E-Lab students are expected to serve as hosts for the reception tonight.  As part of this, you will welcome the guests as they get off the elevators and help them get their name badges and a host of other duties.  Each team has been assigned a duty(s), listed below.  Teams and individuals should split the time at these stations in order to have time to join the reception.   Those assigned to carry over name badges and help with set up should be at the E-Center by 5:55 pm tonight. 

Welcome and directions from elevator to reception-iMotions, SSCI, Ember
Carrying over the name badges etc. from E-Center (report to E-Center at 5:55 pm) SSCI, Ubitexx
Name badge tables and at the name badge making table. Cogito, Odotech, Tap N Tap, Ubitexx, Stion
DOTS table-Virtual Proteins, Ember
Carrying the items back to the E-Center at the end of the evening.- Stion, Quanterix

E-Labbers,

I have added the attendee list for the E-Lab CEO Reception to the Materials section. 

Look forward to networking with you all tomorrow.

Brad