Galant Challenge presentation

Entrepreneurship Events

Throughout the year, the Galant Center develops or supports a range of entrepreneurship events in an effort to catalyze entrepreneurship efforts across and beyond Grounds.​

Speakers 

Throughout any semester, both the Galant Center and students organizations (e.g., Entrepreneurship Group, Social Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, HackCville) bring a wide range of speakers from across the globe to the University of Virginia.

Speakers have included Rebecca Watson (RadiumOne), Rob Daley (4Moms), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Tim Westergren (Pandora), Alex Wu (Quora), Stephanie Nguyen (Silica Labs), Jacqueline Novogratz (Acumen Fund), David English (author of Expatriate Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets), and many others.

Interview with Alexis Ohanian, produced by the HackCville Media team

 

Symposia
In spring 2014, the Galant Center sponsored McIntire's Spring Symposium, "Beyond the Big Idea: from Garage Startups to Global Empires." The event brought together alumni founders; corporate executives; Under Armour's Kevin Plank; and more than 500 students, faculty, and community members to discuss the issues faced by startup founders as well as corporate innovators.
 
Tom Tom Founders Festival
The Galant Center partners with and sponsors the Tom Tom Founders Festival in the spring as well as Tomtoberfest in the fall. Taking place around Founder’s Day in April, the Tom Tom Founders Festival hosts back-to-back talks, workshops, panels, art installations, concerts, and block parties. The festival revolves around the idea that by converging disciplines of music, art, design, entrepreneurship, science, and technology, people can connect and together inspire new ideas for the future.
 

Video on the Tom Tom Founders Festival, produced by the students at HackCville Media

Wahoowa
The Galant Center is a founding partner, alongside Entrepreneurship Group at U.Va. and HackCville, in what will hopefully become a longstanding tradition at the University of Virginia: Wahoowa, a series of gatherings in various cities (e.g., New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Austin, RIchmond, and more) organized to connect founders, funders, and other alumni working in and around the new venture community with students.
 
Workshops
Throughout the year, the Galant Center partners with various student organizations across Grounds in the creation of an array of workshops, including: 

The Entrepreneurship Group at UVa, which has hosted rapid prototyping and problem-solving workshops, and organizes a weekly get-together dubbed “Brewin’ Creativity,” at which students share ideas and inspirations over coffee.

The Virginia Venture Fund, which hosts venture capital investing workshops to prepare students for not only the National Undergraduate Venture Capital Investment Competition (taking second place in 2013), but also careers in venture capital and angel investing.

HackCville, which host a variety of short courses and workshop on a broad range of topics, for example: managing a professional online presence, user experience and design, digital media production, investment pitches, etc.

Beyond the Galant Center

Darden Entrepreneurship Conference
Darden's E-Conference is a series of entrepreneurship events bringing together students, alumni, and community entrepreneurs to share their experiences building businesses and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
 
Innovation Roundtable Series
This popular seminar series brings University and community innovators together to share in dynamic programming, networking opportunities and refreshment.
 
U.Va. Entrepreneurship Cup Workshops

Hosted at OpenGrounds on the UVA Corner, all individuals interested in submitting an application for the U.Va. E-Cup are encouraged to attend any or all of the workshops, which provide opportunities to network, collaborate, and learn from experts. Topic of past workshops have included ideation and team building, telling and selling your “story,” intellectual property, and anatomy of a pitch.