HOUSTON – (Oct. 8, 2009) – When the economy goes down and entrepreneurship activity goes up. This phenomenon as well as how to educate and assist these new entrepreneurs will be a top of mind for the 340+ university entrepreneurship educators and center directors attending the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) conference Oct. 15-17, at Rice University.

The theme for this year’s conference hosted by The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business is Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Driving the Global Economy.

“Entrepreneurs are responsible for the most of the job creation, economic development, and wealth creation in our world. We are proud to be celebrating these entrepreneurs and university leaders who are helping to develop the next generation of successful entrepreneurs,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. 

The three-day conference provides a unique opportunity to network and learn about best practices in university entrepreneurship education, innovation and technology commercialization, research, fund raising, and outreach programs.  The GCEC conference attendees include all of the top entrepreneurship university programs, as well as new and emerging centers.    

The GCEC is the premier global organization for university-based centers of entrepreneurship. It has become the primary vehicle by which top entrepreneurship centers work together to share information, best practices, develop programs and initiatives, and collaborate and assist each other in advancing, strengthening, and celebrating the contributions and impact of university entrepreneurship programs.

Successful entrepreneurs, educational leaders, preeminent grant making organizations (Kauffman Foundation, Coleman Foundation, and NCIIA), as well as national media (WSJ, Bloomberg, Fortune Small Business), and early-stage venture capital firms will present at the conference.

Speakers include:

Michael Holthouse, Successful Entrepreneur and Founder, Lemonade Day

Jeff Sandefer, Successful Investor, and Founder, ACTON MBA in Entrepreneurship Program

Catherine Rohr, Founder, Prison Entrepreneur Program

Dr. Ed Roberts, Founder/Chair, MIT Entrepreneurship Center

Dr. Jack Gill, Founder, Vanguard Ventures
Dr. Bernard Harris, former NASA astronaut and successful entrepreneur turned venture capitalist who will speak at a networking dinner at NASA Space Center Houston on Friday.

The Downtown Houston Aquarium will be the setting for the awards dinner on Saturday, Oct. 17.

Sponsors of the conference include Microsoft BizSpark, NASDAQ OMX, Administaff, PKF Texas, UK Science and Innovation, British Consulate-General, Houston, NCIIA, Acton Foundation, Pearson, Plug and Play Tech Center, Fortune Small Business, and BusinessMakers Radio Show.

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is Rice University's flagship initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship. The Rice Alliance's mission is to provide entrepreneurship education and to support the commercialization of technology innovations and the creation of new companies in the Texas and Houston region. Since its inception in 1999, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 230 new technology companies, which have raised more than half-a-billion dollars in early-stage funding.  Of these, approximately 35 companies have been launched based on technology developed by Rice faculty and researchers and licensed from the Rice Office of Technology Transfer.

Unique among many entrepreneurship centers, the Rice Alliance was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools at Rice University: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

In 2009, the Rice University Entrepreneurship MBA program was ranked top 5 in the U.S. by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine and the Rice Alliance was named the Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program for technology entrepreneurship in the U.S. by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and Houston’s Greatest Economic Development Ally by the Greater Houston Partnership.

In 2007, the Rice Alliance was recognized as the No. 1 university entrepreneurship center in the U.S. for enterprise creation by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers.

For more information about the Rice Alliance, visit www.alliance.rice.edu.