UK Venture Challenge Kickoff Sept. 23 Features Former UK President Lee Todd

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 23, 2014) — Inventor, serial entrepreneur, and former president of the University of Kentucky, Lee T. Todd Jr., is the featured speaker at the UK Venture Challenge Kickoff 5-6 p.m. today, Sept. 23, at the Davis Marksbury Building, James. F. Hardymon Theater. The event is open to all UK undergraduate and graduate students who want to learn skills to be entrepreneurs, and kicks off monthly workshops leading up to UK Venture Challenge, March 7, 2015.

“One of my most rewarding accomplishments in my career was the creation of jobs for UK graduates through entrepreneurship,” said Todd, who founded two worldwide technology companies and is a well-known public advocate for university research and an entrepreneurial economy. “In today’s challenging economy, it’s no longer, ‘Go to college and get a job,’ it’s ‘Go to college and create a job.’”

UK Venture Challenge allows students to show off their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit and gain real world experience by competing. Undergraduate and graduate teams develop their ideas into potential startup ventures, prepare a written proposal, and pitch their venture to judges from the local entrepreneurial community. The top winning teams — two undergraduate teams and two graduate teams — share $3,000 in scholarship prizes, and advance to the state competition, Idea State U.

The October workshop will cover the Business Model Canvas.

For the fourth year, the lead Venture Challenge sponsor is the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership, an economic development partnership that includes the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Commerce Lexington Economic Development, and the University of Kentucky. The Gatton College of Business and Economics and the College of Communication and Information are also sponsors

Venture Challenge and the monthly workshops are organized by iNET, the Innovation Network for Entrepreneurial Thinking hosted by the College of Communication and Information; the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship and the Lexington Office of the Kentucky Innovation Network, Gatton College of Business and Economics; and the student Entrepreneurship Club.

MEDIA CONTACT: Ann Blackford at 859-323-6442 or ann.blackford@uky.edu