Summer News
Venture Capitalists,
are you working on your
golf swing? Because the 14th Annual
Entrepreneur Invitational Golf Tournament is
schedule for August 1st 2006! Help support the
Dingman Center and enjoy a round of golf with us.
Entrepreneurs,
check out what one of our Portfolio Companies,
Geocentric,
is up to in the
Portfolio Company Spotlight.
Also, mark your calendars for all of our
Fall 2006 events!
Students, be sure to read up on our
latest
trip to China. Our Managing Director, Asher Epstein,
took 4 MBA students to China to work on a unique and
exciting project implemented by our founder Michael
D. Dingman.
Other interesting
links:
-
The Dingman Center
was featured on Smith Business Close-Up,
a television segment co-produced by the
Robert H. Smith School of Business and Maryland
Public Television.
-
Our
Fall 2006
Calendar is ready, mark your calendars!
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Upcoming Events
Entrepreneur Invitational Golf
Tournament
Tuesday, August 1st
P.B. Dye Golf Club, Ijamsville, MD
Featuring the $1 Million
Dollar Shootout!!!
The 2006
Entrepreneur Invitational is the fourteenth golf
tournament to support entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland,
benefiting the Lamone Entrepreneur Scholars Program.
 Recognizing the popularity of golf and the benefits of
doing business on the golf course, this exclusive event will take place
on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 at the beautiful P.B. Dye Golf Club in
Ijamsville, Maryland with close proximity to the Greater Baltimore and
Washington, D.C. area. As the name implies, invitations to the
Entrepreneur Invitational are extended to presidents and CEO's of
high-growth venture businesses, as well as principals of firms that
provide services to entrepreneurs.
An incredible day of golf and corporate hospitality has
been planned for sponsors and guests, including an exhilarating 18 holes
of championship golf, cocktails, dinner, and entertainment. Participants
will enjoy the opportunity to gather at a beautiful golf setting, while
creating and enhancing business and social associations with each other.
All guests will be provided with a memorable golfing and corporate
entertainment experience, while benefiting the Lamone Entrepreneur
Scholars Program.
For more information about the tournament
and to register please see the
Entrepreneur Invitational website
or the tournament's
Brochure.
|
Tournament Agenda: |
|
11:30 am |
Welcome
Registration |
|
12:00 noon |
Golf Exhibition by
Professional Golfer Phil Bundy |
|
1:00 pm |
Tee Time |
|
6:30 pm |
Cocktails on
Clubhouse Patio and the $1 Million Dollar Shootout
|
|
7:00 pm |
Dinner/Awards
Program
|
Smith
China Business Plan Competition
The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School
of Business is sponsoring its second annual China
Business Plan Competition. The competition, themed
"Building Leaders for the Digital Economy" is
organized by the Smith School's Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship and will bring together
entrepreneurs and business executives from around
the world to compete for a total of $50,000 in prize
money, including a $25,000 grand prize,
$15,000 second prize and $10,000 third prize.
For
more information please see the
Smith website.
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Event Summaries
Dingman Center Hosts Real Life version of The
Apprentice in China
By Amanda Buchanan ‘08
On May 28, 2006, four
MBA students from the Robert H. Smith School of
Business began their journey overseas to China to
work on a case study of the Magnesium Industry. The
project, initiated by Shipston Group Ltd.,
a private equity investment firm
directed by Michael Dingman, sought to conduct
market research and analysis on the magnesium
industry in China. Unlike The Apprentice
their assignment was not to compete for an
employment opportunity with Mr. Trump but to work as
a team to compete to capture markets trends and draw
conclusions.
 Asher
Epstein, Managing Director of the
Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurship, along with MBA
students, Amanda Buchanan ‘08,
Greg Gordon ‘06, Niya
Kocheva-Stouffer ‘06 and Henry Li ‘08 worked
together to formulate novel solutions and an
innovative market approach to the Chinese magnesium
industry. The team then presented these findings to
the Chinese management team for Shipston consisting
of Jamie Dingman, Steven Huang. Shipston is an
investor in Quay Magnesium, a magnesium alloy
production company.
Quay
recently built a magnesium alloy production
facility in Mainland China as part of a business
strategy to offer high-quality
magnesium products at premium
prices. Since the formulation of this
strategy, however, market conditions have changed
dramatically. Some of the most notably changes have
been local competitors' production technology
upgrades and a significant increase in idle capacity
at upstream primary magnesium production
facilities. As the company prepares for commercial
production of an increasingly commoditized product,
it must now adapt its long-term strategy, involving
potential vertical- and/or horizontal- acquisitions.
Therefore, the students needed to
focus on providing upstream and downstream
recommendations.
Prior
to their departure, the team
had weekly discussions to build a base of knowledge
regarding major trends, market price
forecasts, customer demand, legal regulations and
competition in the magnesium industry in China.
Once in China, the
students met with executives at Quay Magnesium and
worked in conjunction with Jamie
Dingman and Steven Huang. Mr. Dingman and Mr. Huang
provided the students with valuable information
specific to the case while teaching the students
their first important Chinese phrase, “Ganbei!”
This phrase is often used in celebration of a
successful business interaction and roughly translates
to “Drink Up!” The students, being very successful,
used this phrase often.
The
Magnesium case study in China proved to be a once in
a lifetime opportunity for this team of students.
Greg Gordon summed up the student's overall
experience during his introduction to their final
presentation, “We learned more about Magnesium in
this past week than we ever wanted to know!”
The
Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in partnership
with Robert H. Smith School of Business continues to
explore new opportunities and looks forward to
enhancing the academic experience of students
through additional case studies abroad. The Dingman
Center also operates a global China Business Plan
Competition held each September in Beijing.
Dingman Center
for Entrepreneurship featured on
Smith Business Close-Up
Smith Business Close-Up is co-produced by the
Robert H. Smith School of Business and Maryland
Public Television. The television segment
focuses on the latest thinking in business
management, and features in-depth interviews with
Smith School faculty and other members of the
school's community of business leaders.
June 22 -
The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
Tune in for this
special edition of Smith Business Close-Up,
to find out how the
Dingman
Center for Entrepreneurship has supported
entrepreneurship in the Washington, D.C. area for 20
years.
The Dingman Center
and its team of about 20 people, which includes
entrepreneurs-in-residence, senior fellows and MBA
students, offers students and regional entrepreneurs
assistance evaluating business plans, mentoring,
early stage capital networking and a host of other
services.
The Dingman Center
has helped students develop a company that sells
university-branded jewelry; a board game company
that has just put out two games called “Cluzzle” and
“Wits and Wagers,” and a beer company that's up and
running and on tap in restaurants in the D.C. region
– and these are just a few examples of how the
Dingman Center encourages entrepreneurship in a
practical way. Reporter Lou Davis talks to Dingman
associates and scholars, providing a history and
overview of the successful center.
Watch
the Video:
Windows Media:
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/sbcu/wmv/Dingman.wmv
Real:
http://realtime.rhsmith.umd.edu:8080/ramgen/BMGT/sbcu/Dingman.rv
iTunes Podcast:
http://realtime.rhsmith.umd.edu/media/podcasts/SBCU_Dingman.m4v
Audio/MP3:
http://realtime.rhsmith.umd.edu/media/podcasts/SBCU_Dingman.mp3
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Check out our
Portfolio! - Feature Company:
Geocentric
Philadelphia's
Center City District Selects
Citylight Software for Destination
Marketing
Bethesda, MD,
June 27, 2006 -- Geocentric
announced today that the Center City
District in Philadelphia, PA has
selected Geocentric's Citylight
hosted software service for location
driven destination marketing.
"We are extremely
excited to work with Geocentric to
improve the capabilities of our
website and to better serve our web
visitors with new interactive
features," said Michelle Shannon, VP
of Marketing for Center City
District.
Citylight allows
destination districts to organize
and dynamically publish location
based content in a way that appeals
to both web visitors and search
engines. Center City will use the
software to provide rich,
interactive web content including
detailed interactive city maps,
merchant directories, and other
location driven features.
The Center City
District (CCD) encompasses 120
blocks and more than 2,100
properties, and includes notable
landmarks such as the Pennsylvania
Convention Center, Philadelphia City
Hall, and Rittenhouse Square. The
district is a business improvement,
or special services district,
supported by mandatory assessments
on real property and governed by a
private-sector board.
About Center City
District:
The Center City
District, a private-sector
organization dedicated to making
Center City Philadelphia clean, safe
and attractive, is committed to
maintaining Center City's
competitive edge as a regional
employment center, a quality place
to live, and a premier regional
destination for dining, shopping and
cultural attractions.
About Geocentric:
Geocentric is a
specialty software and services
company dedicated to improving
internet maps and local search by
enabling destination marketing
organizations, such as business
districts and tourism destinations,
to self-manage and self-publish
high-quality interactive maps and
guides within their existing
websites.
The company is
based in Bethesda, Maryland. The
company's website is
www.geocentric.com.
For more
information contact:
Michele Blakeslee
1-888-570-8760
michele@geocentric.com
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For the
complete list of events go to the
Events page of our website.
Open House
This annual event is open to all
students and regional
entrepreneurs. It is an opportunity
to hear about the programs and
events which the Dingman Center is
planning for the upcoming year, to
meet the Dingman Center staff and
new Dingman Scholars, and to get
involved with our activities right
from the beginning.
Date: Tuesday, September 5
Dingman
Process Workshop
This informative 75 - 90 minute
workshop explains the Dingman
Process, which consists of Ideation,
Assessment, Implementation, and
Iteration. The most successful
entrepreneurs are not necessarily
those with the most innovative
ideas, but those who can find gaps
in the market and develop products
to meet consumers' needs. The
Dingman Process helps entrepreneurs
systematically analyze and develop
businesses based on this concept.
This workshop is presented once each
academic year, and this year it will
be held at College Park as well as
at each of our satellite campuses
for our part-time MBA students.
Dates: September 18th –
22nd
Women's
Entrepreneur Event
This event is co-sponsored by the
Smith Association of Women's MBAs. The event
will include a group of dynamic
women who are successful
entrepreneurs talking about their
experiences and answering questions
from the audience. A
networking reception with
refreshments will be provided
throughout the evening.
|
Thursday, September 28
5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. |
Exec Dining Room 2517 VMH |
CIO Forum
featuring Ted Leonis, Vice Chairman
of America Online, Inc.
Established in
1999, the CIO Forum is a yearly
meeting of top chief information
officers, technology strategists,
and academic researchers, in
Mid-Atlantic states. Events are
highly interactive and focus on the
most important issues confronting
technology strategists in the
emerging digital economy, including
e-commerce, the IT talent shortage,
Internet strategy, multi-sourcing,
next generation architectures, and
other topics.
Date: Friday, November 3
Pitch Dingman
Review
Students are invited to pitch their
ideas to the Dingman Center every
Friday between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00
p.m. Each student will have 5-10
minutes to give an overview of their
business idea, which will later be
reviewed and evaluated according to
specific criteria by the Dingman
Center staff. Periodic Pitch Dingman
competitions will be held during the
semester. Business ideas found
viable will find further support in
the Dingman Center.
|
Every Friday
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm |
VMH 3570 |
Pitch Dingman
Competition
Similar to the Pitch Dingman
reviews. Business ideas found
viable will find further support in
the Dingman Center.
|
Friday, September 29
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm |
3570 VMH |
|
Friday, October 27
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm |
3570 VMH |
|
Friday, December 8
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm |
3570 VMH |
Dingman Day
Lunch
These catered luncheons are open to
undergraduate and MBA students and
members of the entrepreneurial
community. Successful entrepreneurs
will talk about their experiences
and answer questions from the
audience.
|
Friday, October 6
12:00 - 2:00 p.m. |
Executive Dining Room |
China Business Plan
Competition Overview
|
|
Friday, October 27
12:00 - 2:00 p.m. |
3rd Floor Atrium |
Andy Farrar from HandsOn
Toys |
|
Friday, December 1
12:00 - 2:00 p.m. |
3rd Floor Atrium |
Allen Andersson, Serial
Entrepreneur and founder of
PaperBoy Ventures |
CAN Breakfast
(invitation only)
The CAN Breakfasts are by invitation
only to angel investors who are
qualified investors in the CAN
network. Investors will have an
opportunity to hear a 10 minute
presentation from approximately four start-up entrepreneurs who are
seeking funding for their business.
For more information on the CAN
Program and to participate, contact
Melissa Carrier.
Tech Visionary
Panel (invitation only)
See what's on the horizon in the
world of technologies. These panel
discussions will look at some of the
cutting edge trends and innovations
to come to market. Learn how these
technologies are going to affect
healthcare, entertainment, financial
services, defense, media, and the
entire range of human interaction.
Cupid's Cup
Cupid's
Cup is a ten thousand dollar
monetary award given to the best
student start-up business. The
first annual Cupid's Cup was
awarded by Kevin Plank, CEO and
founder of Under Armour, to North
Star Games, makers of Wits and Wager
and Cluzzle, on May 19th
2006 . The winners received a
$10,000 cash prize to invest in
their company and possession of
Cupid's Cup for a one year period.
Save the date for this exciting
event!
Date: Friday, May 4
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THE DINGMAN CENTER FOR
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Founded by Rudy Lamone in 1986, the Dingman Center was one of
the first of its kind in the country and has emerged as a
top-ranked entrepreneurship center. Thanks to initial funding
with a generous grant from Michael D. Dingman, founder of the
Signal Corporation (now part of Honeywell International), the
Dingman Center continues to grow as a regional and national
catalyst in the field of entrepreneurship. The Center is now
aggressively evolving, and in some areas, is expanding its
services to further its role as a leader in the student,
regional, and academic entrepreneurial communities.
The Dingman Center is currently led by:
Asher Epstein, Managing Director
Dr. Charles Heller, Chairman of the Board and Director Emeritus
Dr. Scott Koerwer, Associate Dean,
Professional Programs and Services
Please visit our website at
http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman.
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