More than 350 young entrepreneurs, from all over the world, gathered in Manhattan, N.Y. recently to encourage, inspire, and collaborate with each other. The Next Gen Summit, a conference created by and for millennial entrepreneurs, was the perfect venue for The University of New Mexico’s innovationAcademy to spread the word about what UNM and the academy have to offer these future leaders.
As part of the City of Albuquerque Innovation Central national marketing campaign, Rob DelCampo and Tiffini Porter attended the conference to connect with entrepreneurial-minded young people.
“We wanted to get a message out about UNM, the innovationAcademy, and Albuquerque’s entrepreneurial climate,” Porter said. “Our goal was to make sure every attendee walked away knowing about the resources we can offer them and about the importance of weaving a college education into their current experience as an entrepreneur.”
The team from innovationAcademy connected with more than 100 conference attendees, many of whom are still high school students still deciding where to attend college. The unique iA program offerings drew interest from these emerging entrepreneurs who understand the value of earning a degree while pursuing the entrepreneurial enterprise.
The conference featured a lineup of entrepreneurs from all over the United States and six contients, sharing their diverse experiences and learning from one another.
“We met two 16-year-old girls who are in the process of building an entrepreneurial curriculum for high school students and selling it to public, private, and home-schools across the country, and a 10-year-old entrepreneur from the UK who was just incredible,” Porter said. “I was so impressed with their idea, and passion to continue to build on their ideas.”
NextGenSummit was named one of the “Can’t Miss Conferences for Entrepreneurs” by Forbes Magazine and has also been featured in USA Today, Inc. and The Huffington Post for its unique and powerful opportunities. “This is where we need to be in order to play on the national stage for young entrepreneurs,” Porter added. “There was significant interest in the program we offer at UNM.”
There was an impressive lineup of motivational and informational speakers who have built companies such as FanDuel, GoDaddy, and Steiner Sports and the Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine.
The iA team also connected with Host Gator representatives and created an affiliate program to provide low cost web hosting for iA students.