APRIL 5-6, 2014
SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY
ST. LOUIS, MO
Primary sponsorship comes from the Kauffman Foundation with scholarship support from the Coleman Foundation and additional support from the Kern Engineering Entrepreneurship Network (KEEN).
BACKGROUND
Since its start in 1987, Saint Louis University's Gateway Series for Entrepreneurship Research has promoted advances in scholarship on entrepreneurship and related disciplines. At the Gateway Conference, a general foundation is laid by the keynote speaker. The keynote address starts the meeting and provides a common frame of reference and point of departure. Work will then take place in small to medium sized groups exploring research and techniques applicable to the theme. The goal is to create an environment that maximizes opportunity for informal group discussion and provides connections and research opportunities for the participants. Other than the keynote speaker, no other Gateway participant needs to submit a paper to attend the conference.
2014 CONFERENCE THEME AND SPEAKER
The theme for the 2014 conference is:
Mindfulness, Trust & the Education of Courageous Entrepreneurs: Lessons from Engineering Education Reform, presented by
David Goldberg, Ph.D., President of ThreeJoy Associates and co-founder of the Big Beacon Movement. Much of the entrepreneurship curriculum deals with fairly tangible and rational items: business plans, raising capital, product and business development, and so forth. But much of an entrepreneur's success or failure depends on mastering a tricky and diverse array of emotional skills: managing fears and anxiety, tapping into joy and passion, inspiring and trusting others in the face of massive uncertainties, to name a few. This presentation is divided into two parts. In the first part, a set of stories is told from the experiences of Olin College and the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (
ifoundry.illinois.edu) in which attention to emotional variables led to surprisingly transformational educational changes in which first-year students unexpectedly exhibited surprising courage and initiative at very low cost with extremely modest amounts of faculty effort. In the second part, a set of hands-on experiences is shared in workshop form to help participants experience the power of these different ways of being present in class. The presentation/experience closes with reflections on how these ideas and skills can be taken back to other schools and contexts.
Dave Goldberg is known to academic audiences for his pathbreaking work in (1) genetic algorithms & complex adaptive systems, (2) philosophy and engineering, and (3) engineering education reform (
ifoundry.illinois.edu), and for co-founding
www.sharethis.com. In 2010, he resigned his tenure at the University of Illinois to start ThreeJoy Associates, Inc. (
www.threejoy.com) a training, coaching, and change management firm specializing in higher education. Today, he is a conceptual, social & aspirational long jumper who delights in taking on impossible missions with his clients. This passion and these skills enable him to act as guide and Sherpa to coach clients to climb new summits and reinvigorate themselves, their faculties, their student bodies, and cultures. In 2012, he founded and now leads Big Beacon (
www.bigbeacon.org), a global movement for the transformation of engineering education. In Q3 2014, Dave will publish his latest book with Mark Somerville of Olin College, A Whole New Engineer: A Surprising Emotional Journey.
SCHEDULE
The Gateway Conference will run concurrently with the Missouri-Illinois Regional Idea to Product®
Competition (I2P) which begins on Friday afternoon, April 4 with the Semi-Final Competition and continues
on Saturday morning, April 5 with the Final Competition. We will convene the Gateway Conference with a
lunch for participants from I2P and Gateway followed by the keynote address from Dave Goldberg. The
afternoon will continue with small group sessions which will continue on Sunday morning ending at 1:30pm
with group presentations and lunch.
REGISTRATION
For doctoral students and faculty facing travel hardships, there are registration scholarships available from
the Coleman Foundation. Those who need a formal role in order to receive institutional support can serve as
facilitators or correspondents. If either of these apply to you, please contact Jeanne Rhodes at
The registration fee is $200. Go to:
http://bit.ly/1dJclRa (SLU Marketplace) and complete the registration
process. If you have any questions, please call
314-977-3850.
HOTEL AND SHUTTLE
Accommodations can be made at the Pear Tree Inn Union Station, located at 2011 Market Street in St. Louis, MO
63103. Rate is $116.95 for a variety of rooms. Reservations can be made online at
www.druryhotels.com or call
1-800-325-0720 and ask for the "Gateway Conference" block of rooms or refer to the group number 2205207.
Reservation deadline for Pear Tree Inn Union Station is March 21, 2014.
A shuttle will be provided to transport guests from the Pear Tree Inn to Saint Louis University and back to the
hotel on Saturday, April 5 and to the campus on Sunday morning, April 6.
CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have questions regarding conference content, please contact Conference Organizers, Sridhar Condoor