ReINVENTing Iowa, College of Business & Innovation
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| Skyler Wistrom 
|
David Miller |
We had a jammed-packed entrepreneur schedule today. We left this morning bright and early to head up to Ames and visit the Sauer-Danfoss plant. There we spoke with Matt Bendler from human resources (more on him later), the mayor of Ames, and our first keynote speaker, Vada Grantham. Grantham currently teaches his ways of entrepreneurship at DMACC and spoke to us about how we should become leaders and possibly entrepreneurs. He spoke on the traits that he believes all entrepreneurs need to have; achievement motivated, creative, decisive, energetic, a networker, self-confident and persuasive. For me these traits seem very doable. I need to focus on developing more of a persuasive talent but that is ok for now. After touring the manufacturing plant at Sauer-Danfoss, we went over to the research and development area of Ames and heard from three interesting speakers. Our first speaker, Mike Coon, spoke on his development of flexible, solar panels called PowerFilm. We then listened to Alan Bierbaum discuss his Priority 5 company and I learned that the government uses decade old technology to my disbelief. Bierbaum said that because Windows 2000, XP, and Vista are not safe yet, the government would not use them yet. Crazy! He was followed up by two gentlemen discussing computer programming that seemed to be way over most peoples heads, but subtly interesting nonetheless.
We had a chance to listen to a panel later in the day. This was an opportunity for me to talk about Matt Bendler from Human Resources at Sauer-Danfoss. I got to know him a bit as we discussed the HR career path. I have some interest in it at the moment but I am still unsure. He agreed to provide me some insight whenever I need it in the upcoming future. Thanks Matt. We finished the day by recapping the simulation that had happened the day before. While our pitch did not persuade as much as we thought, Sigma’s still placed and I was proud of the end result. |
Aug 11, 2009 8:49 PM
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Leadership Iowa University is a program of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) Foundation. The program is designed to bring together two ABI Foundation programs, Leadership Iowa and Business Horizons, to create a unique opportunity for college students. Leadership Iowa University will educate, inspire and develop young leaders as the foundation for Iowa’s future economic growth and encourage their on-going involvement in local communities and the state to create a better future for all Iowans. |  |
