UTRGV organization attends entrepreneurial global conference

Two members of UTRGV’s Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization attended the 39th annual Global Conference & Pitch Competition, where they saw how “business ideas are implemented.” 

SM Sarwar and Abigail Garcia, alongside faculty adviser Derek Abrams, traveled to Chicago for the conference, which took place Oct. 28-30. 

“At this conference, you learn about various things that have to do with entrepreneurship,” said Abrams, who is associate director for the UTRGV Center for Innovation and Commercialization and an associate professor of practice. “… They focus on different aspects of it. [Those] could be on social entrepreneurship … or corporate entrepreneurship. … All these aspects we saw in this type of conference here.”

Garcia, an entrepreneurship and innovation senior, said the conference shows how what is learned in class is implemented.

“We’re able to see how these actual business ideas are implemented,” she said.

Sarwar and Garcia participated in events at the conference, including the “Marketplace Simulations Entrepreneurship Challenge” and the “Venture Valley E-Sport $10,000 Tournament.”

Sarwar, a computer science graduate student, said Venture Valley is one kind of video game and Marketplace Simulations is more data-based.

Garcia and Sarwar described the game as fast-paced and said many factors must be considered while playing. 

“It’s just, like, a lot of things to think of at once,” Garcia said. 

The goal of “Venture Valley” is to have the highest profit by the end of the game. At the end of the conference, the top 10 played in a tournament. 

“You have only 10 minutes,” Sarwar said. “… I could remember that last, probably 10th participant, he [had] $18 million [in] revenue. $18 million.  I [made a] maximum of $5 million.”

The conference also had other aspects that the UTRGV attendees found engaging.

“There was this networking event where they served us food and we could all interact with each other,” Garcia said. “I realized how important it is to network because you might never know when you need help from [your] peers.”

Sarwar attended a workshop hosted by Lucy Brennan, program manager at TechRise by P33,  titled “How to Structure a Successful 4-Minute Pitch.” 

“That was so exciting and it was so engaging and it was so good to me,” he said. 

Abrams was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award while at the conference. 

“I had the opportunity to work with the CEO headquarters leadership a lot and had an impact on the offering … in terms of the sessions and things for this conference that we had this year,” Abrams said about the work he did for this conference. “There was a marked increase in terms of the quality of the conference this year compared to last year.”

Abrams also spoke about the conference in terms of size. 

“This year there were over 500 students,” he said.

Asked about his work as faculty adviser for CEO, Abrams spoke about the methods used to recruit students for the Global Conference.

“Students can be recruited right at the beginning of the semester,” he said. “Also, word of mouth, students meeting other students in their respective major.”  

Abrams noted that students do not have to be business majors to attend the conference.

“It doesn’t matter what your major is,” he said. “Entrepreneurship touches all industries. … Students in the college environment should take the opportunities to further their development as much as possible. It’s an opportunity to go and learn. … The conference is good in that … it is a healthy learning environment, so nobody should be afraid to take the chance.”

Sarwar and Garcia agreed. 

“You don’t need to be a business student,” Sarwar said. “I am from the Computer Science department. You could learn many things.”

Garcia said the conference is eye-opening.

“Just go if you can,” she said. “You learn a lot.”

Asked about plans for the Collegiate Entrepreneurs, Abrams was ambitious.

“Although this organization is in the business school, it is open and welcoming to students regardless of their majors and we want to recruit more students,” he said. “There is no reason this should not be one of the biggest organizations on campus.”