Dean Dan O'Hair, who created iNET, leads a discussion on one of iNET's programs, the University of Kentucky Venture Challenge. Panel members include iNET Director and Venture Challenge coordinator Deb Weis and Venture Challenge judge and iNET board member Matt Wiley. Matt has been involved in the Lexington startup community for 12 years and is the CEO/Founder of uHAPS Media. UK Venture Challenge was held on Feb. 16 with 30 student entrepreneurs participating in teams and pitching their innovation-based ideas for potential startup ventures. A graduate team and undergraduate team were named winners and will advance to the state competition, Idea State U, in April. The Bluegrass Business Development Partnership sponsored $3,000 in scholarships to the winning students.

Moderator Derek Lane, associate professor in the Dept. of Communication, and the academic director for iNET, talks to undergraduate students Liz Pawley from Elizabethtown, KY; Chelsea Haas from Ft. Thomas, KY; and Danny Byrd from Louisville, KY. The students are currently enrolled in Dr. Lane's Communication Training and Development class, where they form teams and become consulting firms for a local non-profit business to create online training for an organizational communication challenge. The students discuss how they apply entrepreneurial thinking to this course project and lessons learned.

The Innovation Network for Entrepreneurial Thinking, better known as iNET, is a unique undergraduate academic initiative in leadership and entrepreneurship for all University of Kentucky students. iNET provides interdisciplinary entrepreneurship education and meaningful experience beyond the textbook to help students succeed in an entrepreneurial world. Students learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to their courses of study. Students are offered a continuum of learning opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills and gain experience through the iNET programs.

The first Colloquium on Entrepreneurship for the 2012 fall semester addressed nurturing a culture of entrepreneurship at the University of Kentucky. College Dean Dan O’Hair, who also serves as Chair of the iNET Advisory Board, moderated the panel of UK educators, including Judy “J.J.” Jackson, UK’s first Vice President for Institutional Diversity, and associate professor of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation; Michael Tick, dean of the College of Fine Arts; and John Nash, associate professor of Educational Leadership Studies and founder of the Laboratory on Design Thinking in Education, known as the dLab. The panelists agreed on the importance of a culture that allows students to be creative and try out new ideas, and gives students permission to challenge what exists and freedom to discover something new. All three panelists also serve as members of the iNET Board of Advisors.

In the third College Colloquium on Entrepreneurship, College Dean Dan O’Hair moderates a discussion with panelists Kirsten Craft, executive vice president of Software Information Systems, Randall Stevens, CEO of Punndit, and Kris Kimel, president of the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation. The panelists discuss why failure is so important to entrepreneurship and share their experiences with learning from failures quickly and cheaply. They agree that entrepreneurship is not only a way of thinking, but also a process and often happens at the intersection of disciplines. The recent growth in entrepreneurship in Kentucky is discussed.