PRECONFERENCE

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The ICBI38 Preconference offers the opportunity to get in-depth professional development and earn industry-specific certificates.

This year’s Preconference workshops provide in-depth professional development opportunities tailored to entrepreneur support professionals. Affiliated with a university? The Building a Successful University Entrepreneurship Center course will provide strategies, resources and insights to create a thriving ecosystem. Looking to increase your professional credibility? Earn InBIA’s credential for serving entrepreneurs – the Entrepreneurship Center Management (ECM) certificate – in a single weekend to save both time and money (the four-course bundle is discounted by $200).

Entrepreneurship Center Management (ECM) Certification

BUNDLE AND SAVE

ECM Course Descriptions

ECM Course 1:
Fostering Your Entrepreneurship Center’s Role in Your Community

Saturday, April 13, 8:30am – 12pm

Focus on how attendees existing or new centers will fit within the greater context of their communities’ existing assets while meeting gaps identified by funders and entrepreneurs.

Topics include:

 

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

  • In this section, attendees will explore the interconnected networks and factors that support and drive entrepreneurial success. Uncover the roles of stakeholders, funding mechanisms, policy impact, innovation, collaboration, and global perspectives. Learn how to navigate this complex landscape to thrive as an ECM and contribute to fostering innovation and economic growth.

About Entrepreneurship Support Platforms

  • ECMs can take advantage of a wide variety of programs and tools in their efforts to support successful entrepreneurial ventures. From hackathons to seed accelerators, attendee will discover how to best leverage these programmes to the benefit of the entrepreneurs they support.

 

Pricing: $550 InBIA members, $650 nonmembers

Register for Course 1

ECM Course 2:
Building Profitable Programs That Serve Entrepreneurs

Saturday, April 13, 1pm – 4:30pm

This course focuses on the development and deployment of relevant services and programs to various target client portfolios (i.e. sector-specific, focused on a particular demographic, etc.), as well as how to establish effective resource or mentor networks.

Topics include:

 

Supporting the Entrepreneurial Journey

  • ECM professionals support entrepreneurs across several stages of development and growth. In this In this section, we explore each of these stages and show how attendees can align their services and support across the entrepreneurial journey.

An Introduction to Value-Added Services

  • What separates an EC from commercial real estate is the creation of high-impact value added services. In this session, we identify the key activities of an ECM and how managers can create dynamic programs via training, events, mentoring, advisory services and more.

 

Pricing: $550 InBIA members, $650 nonmembers

Register for Course 2

ECM Course 3:
Finance and Operations for Sustainable Entrepreneurship Centers

Sunday, April 14, 8:30 – 12pm

This course helps entrepreneurship center managers find the right mix of diverse funding sources to best keep operations running smoothly and sustainable.

Topics include:

 

EC Business Models

  • Entrepreneurship centers demonstrate a wide-range of business models. Some are able to generate revenue through services targeting its community, whereas others are limited in what they can and cannot do. In this section, we examine the range of revenue-generating options for ECM professionals, including rents and fees, sponsorships, grants, projects, and more.

Staffing

  • An entrepreneurship center’s success is driven by its ability to attract and retain quality leadership and support staff. In the second half of course three, the course examines the key staffing decisions EC managers and organizers must make, and will end with a discussion on how to implement an effective succession strategy.

Pricing: $550 InBIA members, $650 nonmembers

Register for Course 3

ECM Course 4:
Space Design, Software, and Other Ways to Streamline Operations

Sunday, April 14, 1pm – 4:30pm

This course will teach you how to select, manage and maximize your location(s) and your processes for management and monetization.

Topics include:

 

Policies and operations

  • ECMs are effective when they have clearly defined policies on who they serve and how they provide those services. This section examines several of these key policies areas, including board structure, recruitment, intake policies and graduation.

KPIs and other performance metrics

  • The ECM course concludes with a look at how entrepreneurship centers can track and evaluate their impact. This session looks at the key metrics that define a program’s success, and considers how a manager can create and track a meaningful set of key performance indicators, or KPIs.

Pricing: $550 InBIA members, $650 nonmembers

Register for Course 4

Building a Successful University Entrepreneurship Center

This course will provide the knowledge and tools to create a robust, successful entrepreneurship ecosystem within a university environment.


Sunday, April 14, 8:30am – 4:30pm

Topics include:

 

  • Appropriate tech transfer models
  • Best practices in migrating research from the lab bench to the market
  • Leveraging regional resources to support university startups

  • Granting, donor/sponsorship, and self-funding models, from know-how or licensed intellectual property.

  • Exercises to help identify the best staff for their centers while also finding student or other talent throughout the university community

 

Pricing: $550 InBIA members, $650 nonmembers

Register

GrowthWheel Workshops

Workshop 1: Client Journey
The Job to Be Done: Mastering the Customer Journey from Onboarding to Impact

Saturday, April 13, 2pm – 4pm

This workshop will teach you how to create high-quality customer journeys – to be able to take clients through an individual client journey rather than a generic client journey. Practical business tools included. 

Topics include:

 

  • How to onboard clients for future success
  • How to assess and triage clients
  • How to define the scope of work
  • How to track and report results to all stakeholders

Register

Workshop #2: Client Mindset
Your Mind at Work: How your Attitude Can Change Your Client’s Mindset

Sunday, April 14, 10am – 12pm
This workshop will teach you how to influence your clients by displaying certain attitudes and behaviors – and become role models for our clients. Practical business tools included.

Topics include:

 

  • How to cultivate an open mind and positive outlook
  • How to adopt a mindset to keep things simple
  • How to cultivate an action-oriented attitude
  • How to install resilience with clients
  • How to demonstrate mindsets in practical ways during sessions.
Register

Workshop #3: Client Engagement
Keep Them Coming Back: Engaging Client Companies for The Long Haul

Sunday, April 14, 2pm – 4pm
This workshop will teach you how to overcome the client’s mental and emotional barriers for engaging in the advisory process – and shift our attention from merely enhancing their business to also excite their minds and engage their hearts. Practical business tools included. 

Topics include:

 

  • How to identify your client’s true needs
  • How to captivate client’s minds with relevance, insights
    and practicality
  • How to engage client’s hearts with vision, identity
    and small wins
  • How to change the game with rules, norms and habits
Register