American entrepreneurs can gain a foothold into the European market by participating in the second annual Technium Challenge International, a global business planning competition operated by Technium, a network of business incubators, and International Business Wales.

The winner of the contest will earn one year of free office space within one of 10 Technium incubators in Wales, UK, strategic counsel on financing, business planning, technical issues, as well as networking opportunities. The contest is geared towards biotech and IT startups. The deadline for sumission is March 28th, 2008.

Finalists will receive introductions to established business networks, direct guidance on developing a U.K. market entry business plan, as well as detailed briefings about European markets. From there, they will present their business plans in front of the final Technium judging panel, which will determine one overall winner. Judges include Sony Corporation Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer, a Welshman, as well as Gordon Innes, Director of UK Trade & Investment USA, and Geraint Jones, Chief Executive, Americas, International Business Wales

Detailed information about the competition including submission deadlines, terms and conditions, and background on last year’s winner is available on the Technium Challenge International website, www.technium.co.uk/challengeinternational.

About Technium

Technium is a network of innovation centres in Wales/UK supporting the growth of technology companies.  Technium offers the optimum environment to enable knowledge-based start-up and spin-out companies to realise their potential.  Technium includes a network of state-of-the-art facilities across Wales served by the latest information technology and fibre optic bandwidth capabilities.  Inside Technium, companies are supported by a team of business and technical support staff and have access to specialist laboratory facilities and communal networking areas.  Strong partnerships forged between Technium and local Centres of Research Excellence provide specialist academic support for research & development projects.  For more information, visit www.technium.co.uk.

About International Business Wales

International Business Wales is the economic development arm of the Welsh Assembly Government with the responsibility of helping international corporations locate operations in Wales, and with promoting international trade by Welsh businesses. IBW can assist businesses in finding suitable properties in Wales for their operations, help them in finding employees and in obtaining financial assistance from the Welsh government, when appropriate.  For more information, visit www.ibwales.com

All entrepreneurs run into certain challenges with running their business. These crossroads are often called pivotal points. Pivotal Point workshops are intended to help entrepreneurs get past them.

Our first Pivotal Point Workshop will focus on “How to Organize and Systemize Your Business”

Can you think of a time when you and someone else were completely in sync? Chances are, you thought alike or felt the same way about something. Unfortunately, it’s not always like this when running your own business. You wear many hats and chaos is often the word of the day.

This workshop helps business owners address the importance of being flexible and resourceful. It is the process of alignment and then redirecting communication accordingly.

When you effectively organize and systemize your business, you can deliver consistent results to your customers. You’ll learn to duplicate the things that work well in your business, thereby eliminating the things that don’t. It’s about being efficient and effective. This workshop will show you how.

About the presenter;

Angie Segal is a certified Business Coach with ActionCOACH, the World’s #1 Business Coaching Franchise (Entrepreneur Magazine, Jan. 2004 & 2005).

As a business coach, she works with entrepreneurs in five key areas. This includes sales; marketing and advertising; team building and recruitment; systems and business development; and customer service.

Time and Place

Wednesday, September 19th 2007.

TeqCorner Building
1616 Anderson Road
Mclean, VA 22102

Please be sure to enter building from the front. The back of the building is locked. Because of security concerns, Teqcorner locks visitors from entering the building after 6pm. Please be sure to enter the building by no later than 6pm as we do not have the ability to let people in afterwards.

Agenda:

5:30-6pm- Mix and Mingle

6-7:30pm- Workshop

7:30pm-7:50pm- Mingle and close out event.

Cost is free if registered. Otherwise, $15 at the door.

Register here

This month’s Founder’s Table theme is focused on those who run a business aimed at providing a service to other entrepreneurs and small to mid sized businesses. If you are a service provider to other businesses and wish to meet and collaborate with others who provide their own distinctive services to entrepreneurs, then this event is for you.

We’ll be dining at J. Gilberts which is a great seafood and steak house in McLean, Virginia.

The two co-hosts for this event will be two lovely and successful ladies, Mali Phonpadith and Jen Sterling.

For complete details of the event, read and register here.

I found this at the Webmaster World forum. It’s a compilation of tips that designers give when creating an ecommerce website. Being a designer myself, I do see some of the most common mistakes being made to these sites. I’ll list a few that I like; Read more »

Co-working is a rather new movement that has emerged in the last couple of years. Due to the entrepreneurial and small business spirit that is fostered in the U.S, we have more freelancers and independent professionals who make up a significant portion of the small business nation. Many of which are working from home. Read more »

They started in Chicago. Not NYC, not SF, not Sillicon Valley, but Chicago of all places.

And now Tech Cocktail just launched their first event here in DC. Judging from the Flickr photo set like these below, it seems that the idea will do just well here in our Nation’s Capitol. Read more »

The OpenCoffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow. Read more »

Our next Founder’s Table event is May 24th. The last one that we had two weeks ago was great. I took a few pictures below. I know there were a few possible synergies that emerged between some of the attendees. Tak picked a great restaurant with Zaytinyas in DC. I stuffed myself silly with their tapas style version of Mediterranean food. It was a very cosmopolitan place. That event was geared towards young entrepreneurs under 40. Read more »

“I keep six honest serving-men: (They taught me all I knew). Their names are What and Where and When and How and Why and Who.”

Rudyard Kipling, in Just-So stories: The Elephant’s Child (1902)

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The above quote is as good as any start who wants to make a change, with awarness, whatever change may be. Collect the answers, and get yourself a one page summary, and head on to get your first customer. Then you can make yourself a Bigger Plan.

Setting out a route to become an “entrepreneur”, is less static “to be” and a huge amount more of “to do”. Planning is not doing, it is planning. Doing is not planning. Doing is doing. Read more »

These are one of my favorite type of events to hold for people. This event combines my love for three things in life;

1. My love for good food. This holds especially true here in Washington DC with all of the great multi cultural dining scenes.
2. My love for collaborating and meeting up with other entrepreneurs. Because I run my own business, I love hanging out and meeting other entrepreneurs who are doing the same.
3. My love for people and their stories. I am a firm believer that everyone has a great story to share. This especially holds true if you run your own business. You can learn so much from listening to another person’s story.

Who is this event for?

1. If you like to meet up and share stories with other young entrepreneurs (B2C, B2B, startup, indie professionals & consultants), then this is for you.
2. If you are looking for an alternative environment from the typical suit and tie “networking” mixer scene, then this is for you.
3. If you love to dine and try out new restaurants while being in the company of like minded folks, this event is for you.

Register here