The Leadership and Service Center hosted this year’s Start Conference, an event designed to build leadership skills with regard to entrepreneurship, on Friday afternoon. The event featured presentations from local entrepreneurs on their experiences in business, networking opportunities and workshops on different aspects of starting a business.
It was held in conjunction with the USC / Columbia Technology Incubator, a nonprofit sponsored by the school and area governments for the purpose of fostering new businesses in the region.
Fourth-year business student Ann-Marie Nunziata, who also works with the USC / Columbia Technology Incubator, was one of the three organizers of the event along with Tradeversity co-founder Mike Meyers and Coleman Carlisle of the Leadership and Service Center. Nunziata stressed that the event was meant to highlight the potential for start-ups in the region.
“The main purpose of the event was to teach people about the start-up community in Columbia, that they don’t have to go out to Silicon Valley,” Nunziata said.
While this was the first Start Conference, Nunziata and her partners hope to make it an annual event at USC.
Jim Stritzinger, himself a successful entrepreneur who now works with up-and-coming business persons in Columbia as executive director of Connect South Carolina, emphasized the idea of remaining “confidently humble” in his keynote address.
“You need to recognize that you’re good at something but you’re not good at everything,” he said.
Stritzinger described himself as an example of “Entrepreneur Version 2.0,” meaning he has already gone through the creation and eventual sell-off of his business venture and can now offer valuable advice to students who exemplify the younger “Entrepreneur Version 1.0” who can afford to take more risks.
“Being a student and at the starting point of your career is a great time to give it a go,” he said. “I think every new entrepreneur should have an Entrepreneur Version 2.0 as a consultant.”
Stritzinger also acknowledged the importance of networking, especially via social media like LinkedIn.
“As you meet people, have the attitude that you can learn something from everybody you meet,” Stritzinger said.
Other events at the conference included workshops on finding customers, working with designers and developers, developing a nonprofit and developing a starting business plan. These workshops were also run by area entrepreneurs.
Nunziata noted that each workshop had different values for students with different aspirations and levels of experience.
“I think they’re all valuable based on where you are,” she said.
The conference was originally slated to include a pitch competition where participants would have the opportunity to compete for time with local experts and consultants from different areas of business, but this portion of the event was canceled due to inclement weather.