When you wear a Nogginbos hat with the GCU logo in Thailand Robert Vera Let people know about the university and let them know it’s not located in the Grand Canyon.
The oversized hats seen at NFL games (and soon the Olympics) and made by GCU’s Canyon Ventures dazzled crowds at the Global Entrepreneurship Center Consortium’s New Frontiers Bangkok Summit in June.
“A lot of people knew about us,” Vella said of the 184 attendees, who were university professionals and members of the global consortium, “and I don’t think they knew how big we are or how robust our ecosystem is. I was able to show how our curriculum is connected to extracurricular programs in entrepreneurship.”
The Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Center brings together business accelerators and incubators from universities around the world, which seemed like a good fit for GCU, which helps launch startups through its own business incubator, Canyon Ventures.
Vera, the founding director of Canyon Ventures, wanted to get involved in expanding GCU’s global reach and meet with experts from other universities to glean best practices for supporting university businesses and students.
“I’m very proud to be an ambassador for the GCU brand,” he said.
Vera joined the global consortium a year ago and was selected as a presenter to discuss “Fostering a Vibrant University Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.”
The theme of the summit was sustainability and how entrepreneurs can develop businesses that benefit the economy, society and the environment. The summit began with a team-focused game where participants were challenged to balance economic growth with benefits to society and build companies that do no harm to the environment.
This was the international organization’s first event in Asia, and Bella brought along a RingMe Smart Ring, jewelry made by GCU students that contains a chip that stores business card information, and a Noggin Boss hat.
He also introduced attendees to multi-purpose apparel company 1920, lip balm holster CarChap, Big Time Jerseys, Hoolest, full-stack sales and marketing consulting firm Branch49 and other companies operating out of Canyon Ventures. He wanted to show how these companies provide students with a competitive advantage and drive economic growth in the Valley.
Berra said his presentation was well received.
“There were a lot of questions about how we were doing it (at GCU). It seemed really innovative how we combined extracurricular activities with the curriculum.”
As an example, Vera described how the Canyon Angel Investor Program, Student Marketplace, IDEA Club, Founders Forum and Canyon Challenge are “embedded into the curriculum and provide experiential learning” for students, providing incredible opportunities and adding “real value” to a GCU education.
He emphasized that entrepreneurship is open to all students, regardless of their major.
“It’s a very collaborative atmosphere,” Bella says. “We’re all looking for new ideas to improve what we do.”
The two organizations were so impressed with the model that they invited GCU students to two presentation events and offered them a $2 million prize for their innovation.
“They believe, just like us, that entrepreneurs change the world,” said Bella, who was impressed with the hospitality shown by the Sasin School of Business, which hosted the event, “and it felt like we were part of one big team, sharing ideas and helping to improve them. It was a great experience getting to know everyone.”
Two ideas Vera plans to bring to Canyon Ventures from Thailand are creating QR codes for tour visitors and tombstones for companies that have graduated from Canyon Ventures.
Vera’s mission to meet entrepreneurs continued after the summit, when he traveled to Chiang Mai, near the Laotian border, to visit a university and an elephant sanctuary.
He noticed that the owner of one elephant sanctuary was employing a team of workers, including cooks, tour guides, cleaners and drivers who provided transportation from hotels in Chiang Mai. “This is sustainable entrepreneurship,” Bella said.
Tourists spend the day with the elephants, feeding them and swimming with them in the river that is part of the 1,000-acre facility.
This region, known as the Golden Triangle, was once a major drug export area and has since transformed into a sustainable, entrepreneurial tourist destination with coffee plantations.
The journey to Krabi, down the southern coast, was an eventful one, with Vera meeting boat tour owners, more entrepreneurs and the ubiquitous tuk-tuk taxi driver.
“I always say that entrepreneurs follow the rules about 60% of the time, if possible, 20% of the time,” says Vera, “and believe it or not, tuk-tuk drivers follow them much less than that. Road signs and lanes are just suggestions.”
With the U.S. college student population on the decline for the first time since World War II, Vera sees opportunities for Asian and Latin American students to come to the U.S. and to GCU.
There is also the flexibility for students to start their program here and finish it online.
“I think this is a great opportunity for us to promote our brand,” says Bella. “A lot of people in Bangkok know about GCU. I had dozens of people wanting to take photos of me wearing a Noggin Boss hat.”
This could help boost momentum in overseas markets and attract students to study in the United States, the largest market for the entrepreneurs’ products and services.
“We are really excited to expand the GCU brand and entrepreneurial ecosystem to entrepreneurs around the world,” Vella said.
Ideally, Vera added, partnerships would be developed with Christian schools and Christian communities that want to continue their education in a way that welcomes Christian values.
He gave the example of a professor at a university in Texas who takes a group of eight to 10 students overseas each summer to help them solve entrepreneurial problems for 30 days.
“If we can do that with Christian students, it will be a great opportunity to demonstrate our faith in a way that will benefit many people,” Vella said.
Vera’s mountaintop observations show GCU is leading the way.
“While each university has a different approach to where GCU stands in terms of entrepreneurship, I believe we offer one of the top collegiate entrepreneurship programs,” Vella said. “It’s encouraging to see how we’re all working to develop the next generation of great entrepreneurs.”
GCU News Senior Writer Mark Gonzales can be contacted at [email protected]
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