NCET

So you’ve got a great innovation on your hands–a new product or service that is going to change everything. Well, soon you’ll face your first battle: How to explain the thing. If it’s new, it’s going to take some explaining, but long explanations make for lousy marketing. So how do you talk about your innovation without killing the excitement?

The first thing you’ve got to do is anchor in what people already know. So let’s say I had to explain Netflix to somebody who’d never heard of it. Well, I could start by saying, Netflix is like Blockbuster. Now at least you’re in the right mental space–okay, I get it, it’s a movie rental business. But then I can add to it: Netflix is like Blockbuster–but it’s by mail. Or it’s Blockbuster with no late fees, or Blockbuster that actually has the movies you want in stock.

So Blockbuster is the "anchor" here–it gives you very quick intuition about what Netflix is. As another example, think about the first generation of cars–how are you going to explain a "car" to someone who’s never seen one. Well, they were called "horseless carriages." "Carriage" is the anchor–people understood what that was.

Notice that an anchor alone isn’t enough. An anchor is about creating similarity–Netflix is like Blockbuster, a car is like a carriage. But the whole point of innovation is that it’s something new, something different. So you’re anchoring to help people understand, but you also need a twist. A twist is what gets them excited. Read more:

Technorati Tags: Dan Heath,FastCompany,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

The Henderson Space and Science Center’s board of directors will meet today to discuss and possibly approve elements of a strategic plan that would allow the group to move forward with the project.

The goal is to have the center open within the  next five years, said Ray Shubinski, project manager for the Henderson Space and Science Center.

Shubinski said he hopes the group will have initial strategic goals — including a marketing plan, building partnerships with schools and organizations within the community, and creating a conceptual design for the building — completed by June 30, which is the end of the fiscal year in Henderson. Read more:

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas Sun,Erin Dostal,Henderson Space and Science Center,Ray Shubinski,Henderson City Council,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

NCET is pleased to announce that we received 91 “Intents to Compete” – a record number – for the 6th annual Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition.

Next steps:

• These students team now have until March 17 to finish their business plan and submit them for preliminary judging by NCET’s judges. 
• On April 1, NCET will announce the finalists in the Graduate Track, the Undergraduate Track and the Lt Governor’s Award, which is presented to the best energy-related business plan. 
• On April 21, the finalists will make oral presentations to panels of judges.

NCET will announce the winners at the Award Dinner and Gala on April 22, 2010 at the Atlantis Resort Spa Casino.

Save the date for this great event, which will feature:

• Live “Elevator Pitch” Contest
  Guest of Honor – Governor Jim Gibbons
  Master of Ceremony – Lt. Governor Brian K. Krolicki
  Keynote Speaker – Ben Casnocha

Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup
Collegiate Business Plan Competition.Awards Dinner and Gala
Atlantis Resort Spa Casino
April 22, 2010
VIP Reception > 5:00 pm
Cocktails > 5:30 PM
Dinner and Awards > 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Individual Tickets > $100, Tables of 8 > $750
Purchase tickets and tables here
Sponsorships Available

For more information, please visit www.GovCupNevada.com
or contact Emily at Emily@NCET.org or (775)-853-4226

Timothy Ericson can quickly sum up what he and his business partner knew about the bike-sharing industry before launching a business in the field two years ago.

"We started from nothing," says Ericson, CEO and co-founder of CityRyde, a bike-sharing consulting firm. "We basically spent our first two years becoming experts in an industry that was totally new to us."

Today, the business is expanding with services such as software that tracks everything from usage to cyclists’ carbon offsets.

Ericson, who had experience in business and information technology before founding CityRyde, is one of many entrepreneurs to start a business either with no "domain" experience — experience in the industry in which they’re looking to start a business–or with strong domain experience but little entrepreneurial know-how.

Experts say entrepreneurs in both scenarios can find success by heeding the following tips. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneur,Amy Reinink,Timothy Ericson,CityRyde,Derek Pedersen,Goal Tracker,Mark Loschiavo,Drexel University’s Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship,Evan Solida,Cerevellum,Vernon Hill,Commerce Bank,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

Team Aerial, a group of University of Nevada, Reno business students, made its mark in the recent international GLO-BUS competition, a simulated online competition that focuses on competitive business strategy, finishing the competition in a tie for first out of 1,402 teams from 94 different colleges and universities around the world.

Professor Rafik Beekun’s Management 496 class divided itself into 12 team s, all of which competed against each other and other schools in the competition. The teams were in charge of a virtual camera company and made decisions regarding their company’s marketing, products and costs each week. At the beginning of the fully online exercise, all teams’ companies were given equal sales volume, revenue, profits and brand recognition. Each week, teams rose or fell in the company rankings, based on the decisions they made.

Teammates Stephen Graves, Jon Ansolabehere, Maureen Mensing, Jace O’Mallan, Jonathan Pluvinet and Katie Keating, who comprised Aerial, developed a strategy of evaluating their competitors before each weekly deadline, trying to guess what moves the other “companies” would make and making their own decisions accordingly.

“We tried to be one step ahead, so we could be proactive and lead the course instead of having to react to all the other teams all the time,” said Graves, the team leader and a December graduate with a dual international business and management major.

Beekun has had students participating in GLO-BUS for 15 years, but this is the first time one of his teams has reached this level of success. He said one of the most essential factors behind their achievement was Aerial’s ability to work cooperatively as a team.  Beekun expects the collaborative aspects of GLO-BUS to help students in their careers later on.

“This is the best learning experience because it forces them to work with different kinds of people from many different disciplines, like they will have to do in the real world,” he said.

Technorati Tags: University of Nevada Reno,GLO-BUS,Rafik Beekun,Stephen Graves,Jon Ansolabehere,Maureen Mensing,Jace O’Mallan,Jonathan Pluvinet,Katie Keating,Aerial,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology