Marc Hall
Students work in the Garage on Centennial Campus. Photo courtesy of Marc Hall
The Triangle Startup Factory will hold its inaugural Triangle.edu event Wednesday, Jan. 16 from 6-8 p.m. on Centennial Campus at the Convocation Center located at the College of Textiles.
Triangle.edu is an entrepreneurial catalyst event created for students interested in entrepreneurship, technology development and management fields. The goal of the event is to make students aware of the many opportunities available in the Triangle.
The event will begin with speeches from local entrepreneurs. Afterward, students will get the chance to speak with them, get insight into the field and make valuable connections for their future careers.
The Triangle Startup Factory, the company sponsoring the event, is the Southeast’s largest capitalized technology accelerator. By holding events at the universities of the Triangle, students with the right education will learn about the company and the opportunities they have at their disposal right here in the Research Triangle Park.
Dave Neal, factory managing director of the Triangle Startup Factory, has talked to hundreds of students around the Triangle. Neal has found that many of them do not know about the vast amount of opportunities available for small company startups. Therefore, the company created an event that will first be showcased at N.C. State with two main goals.
“There are more technical majors at N.C. State than anywhere else, therefore we wanted to start a Triangle.edu event so more people with the right education will know about these startup companies,” Neal said. “Representatives from other schools will also be present. Twenty-five entrepreneurs from N.C. State, Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill will talk for 30 minutes and the remainder will be informal networking.”
Students will have the chance to find out why entrepreneurs chose the field, how it works and how to approach it. Attendees will have the opportunity to see if the entrepreneurial field is right for them.
Triangle.edu is not limited to N.C. State students, and events in the future are likely. Neal said this event will be held again in the first couple weeks of future academic semesters and will rotate to other schools in the Triangle. UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke will hold Triangle.edu events in the future.
“The event will change locations, so other students can be acquainted with possibilities,” said Neal.
Students who are interested should not feel restricted from registering because of their major. Seth Hollar, the associate director of the Engineering Entrepreneurs program, a division of the NCSU Entrepreneurship Initiative, stressed this event will give students who are unsure of the entrepreneurial field insight into what it entails.
“All students interested in this type of event are welcome, not just engineering and business students,” Hollar said.
Organizers expect an audience of more than 200 students. Two hundred sixty-five were signed up as of Friday, Jan. 11, and tickets are still available. The event requires pre-registration, but the process is easy and no fee is involved.
Students interested should register on the Triangle.edu Eventbrite website at traingleedu.eventbrite.com as soon as possible, as tickets are limited and are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Students may purchase a general admission ticket, which reserves a spot at the event but requires attendees to find their own means of transportation. A bus will be departing from Duke University, while a separate bus will be departing from UNC-Chapel Hill on the night of the event. Tickets that reserve a seat on the bus and a spot at the event are also available.
Opportunities in the current entrepreneurial and technological community are numerous, and new opportunities will continue to arise. The Triangle.edu series will keep students aware and up to date on opportunities that may become their future careers.