Workshop for Student Entrepreneurs Features uHAPS Media Founder Dec. 5

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 4, 2013) ― Matt Wiley, CEO/founder of uHAPS Media, is the featured speaker 5-6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, in James. F. Hardymon Theater in the Davis Marksbury Building for the semester’s last workshop for student entrepreneurs. Last year’s UK Venture Challenge winners Matt Dieruf and Grant Weherley will also make their presentations for the students.

Wiley, whose company provides guerilla marketing, branded promotional events, and local interactive strategies for clients in 35 states, is also a member of the Bluegrass Angels, the iNET Advisory Board, and was a judge for last year’s Venture Challenge competition.

“I want to tell the students that bringing their passion is just as important, if not more important, than the quality of their idea,” Wiley said. “It is also really important to surround yourself with the right people and put together a great team. The right team makes ideas work.”

Matt Dieruf was a UK Venture Challenge winner last year, and went on to win the Governor’s Innovation Award at the state competition Idea State U, judged to best demonstrate innovative thinking and possess a “wow” factor.

“These competitions are extremely important because they encourage innovation and entrepreneurial experiences, and compel us to expand our knowledge and capability in ways beyond what we learn in a classroom,” said Dieruf, who graduated last spring with a degree in electrical engineering.

Another Venture Challenge winner Grant Weherley, an economics major who graduated last December, won first place at Idea State U in the undergraduate business concept category for Control My ADHD. This is a subscription-based online resource including video lessons for adults living with ADHD.

“Working on Control My ADHD was a hands-on, real-world crash course in all aspects of entrepreneurship,” Weherley said. “It was invaluable in terms of connecting with others within the entrepreneurial space, which created a snowball effect of business opportunities. It was very intense but so much fun!”

Registration opens Jan. 24 for the 2014 UK Venture Challenge on March 1. Venture Challenge allows students to show off their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit and get 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 scholarship prizes, and advance to the state competition, Idea State U.

UK Venture Challenge will be held at the James. F. Hardymon Theater in the Davis Marksbury Building on Rose Street.

The student entrepreneur monthly workshops and UK Venture Challenge competition are organized by iNET, the Innovation Network for Entrepreneurial Thinking, hosted by the College of Communication and Information with the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship / Lexington Innovation and Commercialization Center in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, and the Big Blue Starters student entrepreneur organization.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Ann Blackford, ann.blackford@uky.edu