For More Information:
Jennifer Bechtel
(217) 244-4850
FOURTH ANNUAL ENTREPRENEURIAL LIVING-LEARNING COMMUNITY ROUNDTABLE TO TAKE PLACE IN GAINESVILLE
The fourth annual Entrepreneurial Living-Learning Community Roundtable (ELLC) event will take place at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, from Thursday to Friday. Created in 2012 by the Innovation Living-Learning Community (LLC) within the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the ELLC Roundtable is a participant-driven event that provides the opportunity for attendees to gather in one spot and network with other faculty, staff and students from around the world.
At past ELLC Roundtable events, participants were able to discuss their successes and challenges faced in their campuses’ entrepreneurial LLCs. Participants were also able to provide support and advice for universities considering starting new LLCs for their campus.
This year, the University of Florida plans to have 25 to 30 attendees representing several universities across the world including University of Central Florida, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Pittsburgh, Ohio State University, Florida State University, Stanford University and more. Representatives from various startups in Brazil will also be in attendance this year. Facilitators will be hosting events such as facilitated discussions, networking meals and a hardhat tour of the University of Florida’s new LLC, Infinity Hall.
Mary Jordan, Academic Initiatives Specialist and member of the Department of Housing and Residence Education of University of Florida, said that Infinity Hall is a new residence hall and incubator for 308 student entrepreneurs in Gainesville's Innovation Square, which she said is quickly becoming known as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast.
“I am so excited to show this facility that my colleagues and I have designed and built from the ground up over the past five years,” Jordan said. “We will do a hard hat tour on Thursday to see this space which will accommodate three styles of student rooms, four incubator spaces, a classroom, 3D printing, laser cutting, a fabrication lab, and a mobile app development environment.”
A part of this year’s ELLC Roundtable is also a discussion on plans for next year’s ELLC Roundtable event to be held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s campus.
Jennifer Bechtel, Program Director for the Innovation and Sustainability Living-Learning Communities at the University of Illinois, said she has high hopes for this year’s and next year’s ELLC Roundtable.
“It’s nice for us to visit another institution and take a backseat in the programming this year, but I also want to encourage people to attend our program next year,” Bechtel said. “We have never hosted this event on our campus in the past. We want to host it in our community so we can show off our programs and facilities, such as the Innovation Garage, 3D printing labs and our other entrepreneurial resources. We want to show off what this campus has to offer.”
In 2012 and 2013, the University of Illinois hosted the ELLC Roundtable in Chicago, with 20 attendees and 11 different universities represented in 2012, and nine attendees and five universities represented in 2013. Georgia Tech University hosted last year’s annual event in Atlanta, Georgia, and had 14 attendees with four different universities represented.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world leader in research, innovation, teaching and public engagement where it is distinguished by the breadth of its programs, broad academic excellence, and internationally renowned faculty. For more information on the University of Illinois, visit www.illinois.edu .
ABOUT LIVING-LEARNING COMMUNITIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
The University offers its students 9 living learning community (LLC) options: Global Crossroads, Health Professionals, Innovation LLC, Intersections, Leadership Education through Academic Development and Service (LEADS), Sustainability, Unit One, Weston Exploration, and Women in Math, Science, and Engineering (WIMSE). These 9 different communities have unique focuses varying from health professions and leadership, to academic sustainability and giving students a smaller college feel. The Entrepreneurship Living-Learning Community Roundtable event will be highlighting the Innovation LLC and other LLC’s across the nation that focus on entrepreneurship.
ABOUT THE INNOVATION LLC
The Innovation LLC is a residential community at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that houses students that are passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation or creativity. This community is focused on allowing students to explore the entrepreneurial process by providing them with resources to further develop their ideas. The LLC provides students with mentoring, resources, networking opportunities and skills to help them achieve their entrepreneurial goals. For more information on the Innovation LLC, visit http://www.tec.illinois.edu/innovation-llc .
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