📛 Coach's Corner: GCEC 2021 Recap
Miss the good times in GCEC Baltimore 2021, hon? Coach's Corner has got you covered.
“We have the greatest job in the world.”
As the 2021 Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) Conference drew to a close, University of Notre Dame’s Michael Morris, a recipient of one of three GCEC Legacy awards for a lifetime of pioneering work in advancing entrepreneurship in universities, succinctly summarized how many of us feel about the work that we get to do.
Working with student entrepreneurs, helping them overcome nascent challenges, and building out pathways for them to continue their ventures after graduating is an absolute privilege.
And having a forum to share these experiences in-person with colleagues around the world is - especially after the last year and a half - is something that we should not take for granted.
This was a common theme throughout the 25th annual GCEC Conference, which convened entrepreneurship center leaders from around the globe in Baltimore, MD (aka The Greatest City in America™️).
Hosted by Loyola University Maryland, GCEC 2021 was the first opportunity for members of this community to come together in-person since the 2019 conference held in Stockholm, Sweden. Last year, UNLV in Las Vegas was supposed to host the conference ... but ... well … things happen.
First off, Henry Mortimer (University of Baltimore) and Wendy Bolger (Loyola University, Maryland) - the two co-organizers of this conference - deserve a huge shoutout. The amount of logistics they were able to navigate through this hybrid format is incredibly impressive.
By the numbers, GCEC Baltimore 2021 was a jam-packed conference:
320 in-person attendees
200+ virtual attendees
70 breakout sessions
4 keynotes
and countless conversations/connections
While I could do a session-by-session recap of everything that happened at GCEC, I don't believe that would do it justice. With so many divergent sessions and breakout opportunities, no two attendees had the same experience.
Instead, I thought it would be helpful to break down GCEC into three themes that emerged throughout. No matter which sessions you attended, or the people you spoke with, these seemed to be the undercurrent of what GCEC 2021 is all about.
Before we get into it, I would sincerely appreciate it if you subscribe to this newsletter. I send out monthly resources such as grant funding, competitions, accelerators, and other opportunities of interest for student entrepreneurs (here’s the October issue). Please use me as a free resource to make sure your students are able to take advantage of all of these opportunities available to them.
Stellar Keynotes
The keynote spot at a conference is a precarious position to be in. As the speaker takes the stage - all eyes on them - they have a few precious seconds to convince the audience that they have something worthwhile to say. If you've been to enough conferences, you've likely had the misfortunate of running into a bland keynote and mentally prepared to tune out for the next 30+ minutes.
That was not the case for any of GCEC's four keynote speakers.
Keynote #1: Marcus Bullock, CEO of Flikshop
Marcus Bullock was a stellar choice to kick off GCEC's Friday morning sessions. He took us on a raw, heartfelt journey wrapped around what he calls the worst mistake of his life - participating in a carjacking at 15 years old. After receiving an 8 year prison sentence, Marcus spent adolescence being beaten down by a system that aimed to punish rather than rehabilitate.
The light that kept him going? His mom wrote him letters and sent him pictures every single day to show him that there was indeed life after prison waiting for him beyond those walls. After getting out of prison and becoming a successful businessman in his own right, he realized that there was no simple way to let family/friends send postcards to their loved ones in prison. So he started Flikshop to let people do that with a few taps on their phones.
This summary truly doesn't do Marcus' story justice - and I'm leaving out a ton - so I highly encourage you all to give Flikshop/Marcus a Google to learn more. Of particular interest, they've launched the Flikshop Angels program to help children stay connected to their incarcerated parents for Free.
Keynote #2: Nnadaga and Louise Isa, Co-founders of Lor Tush
Baltimore sisters Nnadaga and Louise Isa brought the hometown flare to bring Friday's sessions to a close. In an interview moderated by UVA Darden's Saras Dr. Sarasvathy, the Isa sisters gave a perspective that our particular crowd is probably missing in our everyday life. Not all entrepreneurial ventures are spun out of a lab or classroom. Sometimes they come from two sisters who grew up in West Baltimore and wanted to help both people and the planet.
The key takeaway here? Be curious and just start. Do something. Try out a new concept. And when it inevitably doesn't work as planned, tweak it instead of throwing it away. The Isa sisters exemplified this mindset perfectly when trying to build their Lor Tush bamboo toilet paper prototype, having to navigate time zone and communication challenges with their first manufacturer in China. But by getting the first batch back ahead of the Great TP Shortage of 2020, they were able to provide a service for members of their community and jumpstart their business which has since carved out a unique eco-friendly niche in the toiletry space.
A highlight of the GCEC swag bag was a roll of Lor Tush TP. I've already made the commitment to swap over and be a Lor Tush household going forward.
Want to experience Lor Tush for your own behind?
Keynote #3: Philip Gaskin, VP of Entrepreneurship of the Kauffman Foundation
The throughline of Philip Gaskin's story is that barriers in our society are both visible and invisible. Sometimes they are a boulevard that demarcates the "good" neighborhood from the "bad" neighborhood. Other times they are a bank refusing to give you a business loan despite having all the right qualifications on paper. Philip experienced both of these systemic barriers growing up with his family in Los Angeles.
The Kauffman Foundation is not a stranger to anyone who does work in this space. It's clear that they have an incredible influence and impact on entrepreneurial education and ecosystem building. That's why I'm so thrilled that Philip Gaskin is serving as their VP of Entrepreneurship. He views entrepreneurship as a tool to eliminate systemic barriers and empower people, and with his role in the Kauffman Foundation, he can drive that mission forward with a robust set of resources.
Keynote #4: Allysa Dittmar, Co-Founder of ClearMask and Ryan Maliszewski, CEO of Mozzeria
Finally, Allysa Dittmar and Ryan Maliszewski closed out GCEC's session with an incredibly powerful keynote speech. Allysa and Ryan both are a part of the Deaf community in the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia region, for you non DMVers) and have made a massive impact on the entrepreneurial scene by making it more accessible.
Ryan was the Executive Director of Gallaudet University's Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute (GIEI) for nearly 3 years, where he and Allysa first crossed paths. Ryan since has become CEO of Mozzeria, a pizzeria DC/SF that’s operated entirely by Deaf or hard-of-hearing workers. Mozzeria was created with the goal in providing customers a welcoming, memorable, and visual environment to experience Deaf culture while working to increase career placement opportunities for Deaf people.
Allysa's entrepreneurial journey stemmed from a dehumanizing experience in an operating room. Before a major surgery, with no access to an interpreter or ability to read the masked surgeon's lips, she had no way to understand all of the final pre-op protocols that were happening. What if there could be a way to create a clear mask - or a ClearMask ™️ - so that you could see someone's masked face without compromising safety? The ClearMask team got to work in 2017 building out prototypes and in April 2020 got FDA approval for their mask. From there, the ClearMask team met the moment and provided a much-needed, accessible product during the global pandemic.
There is so much more to the Mozzeria and ClearMask journeys than I can include in this short little write-up, so please take some time to learn more about each of these fantastic companies below.
Baltimore on Display
With 13 college and universities located in Baltimore, it served as a fitting backdrop for GCEC's 25th anniversary. Loyola University Maryland served as a scenic host for most of the conferences' programming, but the rest of the city had its moment to shine as well.
On Thursday night, most of the 300 attendees had a chance to experience Power Plant Live! - a music/entertainment complex right in the heart of Inner Harbor. GCEC attendees were treated to some Baltimore staples - such as crab cakes and pit beef - as well as some music from a local funk band.
After the breakout sessions wrapped on Friday night, attendees had the opportunity to visit one of three accelerator/incubators in the city:
FastForward U (Johns Hopkins' student startup incubator)
As a former founding employee for FastForward U, I reveled in the opportunity bring so many university educators to our new innovation hub. Josh Ambrose - the Director of FastForward U - gave all of our attendees an overview of the nascent work being done within the Johns Hopkins entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Finally, I would be remiss not to mention the beautifully unique event venue for the GCEC Awards - The American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM). AVAM specializes in original thematic exhibitions that seamlessly combine art, science, philosophy, humor and especially social justice and betterment. They also recently got some notoriety for being selected as one of only five museums nationwide to exhibit three “weird works of art” selected by Last Week Tonight’s television host John Oliver.
And for anyone who stayed to dance the night away after the GCEC Awards’ Ceremony, be sure to check out Nelly’s Echo - the fantastic house band who got the party jumping from the moment they started playing.
Baltimore’s community and culture are huge contributing factors to the vibrancy of this city, and it thrills me that so many attendees got to see our city in this light.
A Willingness to Teach & Learn
Briefly, I wanted to touch on the final theme of education.
Maybe it should come as no surprise since this is a conference full of educators, but I think it deserves mentioning that there was a ton of knowledge transferred at GCEC 2021.
Instead of viewing other university centers as competitors, the spirit of GCEC was to facilitate the flow of information from one institution to another.
My favorite, totally not-at-all biased example came from Pava LaPere - the Founder/CEO of EcoMap (my employer). During her session on Techniques for Mapping Your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, she laid out methodology that any university could use to take inventory of and display the resources that exist in their own ecosystem to better serve one’s students.
No matter which of the breakout sessions you were able to attend throughout the course of the two days, you were sure to walk away with helpful tips & tricks that you could use back at your own university entrepreneurship center.
Congratulations to the 2021 GCEC Award Winners
Finally, I wanted to give a shoutout to all of the GCEC Award Winners - you should all be incredibly proud of the work you’ve put into building up your entrepreneurship centers in the strangest of times.
Of particular note, I wanted to highlight the three 2021 GCEC Legacy Award winners, which recognize an individual for a lifetime of “pioneering work in advancing entrepreneurship in universities and/or directing a university entrepreneurship center that created a legacy impact on the field of entrepreneurship”.
LINDA DARRAGH
The Larry Levy Executive Director of the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative and clinical professor of entrepreneurial practice at Northwestern University.
JACK GILL
Professor of the practice of entrepreneurship at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business
MICHAEL MORRIS
Professor of entrepreneurship and social innovation at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs
In the interest of space (Substack is telling me this recap is getting long …) you can check out the rest of them via the link below:
What’s Next?
GCEC is headed to Vegas, baby!
After being scheduled to host the 2020 Fall conference which became virtual for obvious reasons, UNLV is taking up the mantle of host again for 2022. So I hope to see both old & new faces at the next GCEC in Las Vegas on October 27-29, 2022!
Until then, just remember the wise words of Michael Morris:
We have the greatest job in the world
See y’all in Vegas.