Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the February 5, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Entrepreneurship For Engineers
Three organizations — the IEEE, Princeton POEM and
NJSBDC — are collaborating to help engineers and technical
professionals
from Lucent and other telecom firms consider new careers in
entrepreneurship.
“From the time that the big Lucent layoffs were announced in the
summer of 2001, I wanted to deliver one or more seminars for the
engineers
and other technical professionals who were being laid off,” says
Randy Harmon of the New Jersey Small Business Development
Center.
“I figured that many of them would probably consider a new career
in entrepreneurship.”
Harmon envisioned a seminar similar to one he had given with attorneys
of Hale and Dorr for the Venture Association of New Jersey on
Launching
and Financing a Sci/Tech Business in New Jersey. “I thought it
could dissuade the faint of heart from entrepreneurship while helping
the true entrepreneurs get started on the right track.”
“Over a period of several weeks I tried to penetrate the Lucent
maze to identify the right person who could help make this happen.
I hit a dead end on their website and with the voice mail of their
outplacement firm and was very disappointed. Even Hale and Dorr was
unable to find a door in,” says Harmon.
That door came through Joe Montemarano, the industrial liaison at
Princeton University’s POEM Center. “He asked if we might do a
workshop on Small Business Innovation Research grants that was
targeted
to the IEEE’s Princeton/Central Jersey membership, many of whom were
laid off Lucent engineers considering entrepreneurship,” says
Harmon.
So Harmon scheduled an SBIR Phase II conference on Friday, February
28, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Princeton University’s POEM center
on Olden Avenue. Abhay Joshi of Discovery Semiconductors, winner
of the SBA Tibbets Award for commercializing SBIR Technology, is the
keynote speaker. Cost: $90. Call 800-432-1832.
Harmon also scheduled a seminar that would cover a broader range of
entrepreneurship topics: “Launching and Financing a Business in
New Jersey,” co-sponsored by the IEEE, the NJSBDC Technology
Commercialization
Center, and Princeton Poem. It is set for Wednesday, February 19,
from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the POEM center, Princeton University
Engineering
Quad, on Olden Avenue in Princeton. Cost: $35 in advance, $50 at the
door, and free to IEEE members. Call 973-353-1923 or register online
Presenters for the three-hour workshop are David Breithaupt
and Larry Chong of Princeton Strategic Management on Mercer
Road; Debra Dorfman, Richard Mattessich, and Louis
Sapirman
of Hale and Dorr; and Randy Harmon of NJSBDC Technology
Commercialization
Center.
Says Harmon: “We found a back door in to tapping the pool of
Lucent’s
unemployed technical professionals. This is a two-year-old plan come
to fruition.”
Creative Marketing Alliance , with offices at 191ClarksvilleRoad, has added six new companies to its client roster. They are LynchMartin Attorneys At Law in North Brunswick, Homasote in West Trenton,Claims Management Services in Princeton, Preservation and DevelopmentAssociates in Ridgewood, International Nanny Association in PrincetonJunction, and International Furnishings Design Association EducationalInstitute in Princeton Junction.Assignments for these clients range from strategic and creative designservices for Preservation & Development Associates to associationmanagement, support services, and strategic public relations for theInternational Nanny Association.The Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village has awarded itsadvertisingand public relations account to Hollyrock/Miller MarketingCommunications ,a marketing communications agency with offices at 116 VillageBoulevard.Princeton Communications Group , an advertising, marketing,and communications firm with offices at 20 Nassau Street, hasannouncedthat Gillian E. Sterling has joined its public relations departmentas public relations manager.Prior to joining the Princeton Communications Group, Sterling wasdirector of public relations at Wesley, Brown & Bartle, aminority-focusedexecutive search firm on Madison Avenue. A graduate of the Universityof Washington in Seattle, London’s Ealing College, and Queens College,she grew up in England, where she retains a 17th Century thatchedroof cottage home. She has been a Princeton resident for 11 years.Top Of PageApply NowProspective students interested in enrolling in aspecializedtraining course aimed at helping not-for-profit organizations increasetheir self-sufficiency and reduce their reliance on grant fundingmust complete a needs assessment with the Seton Hall Institute onWork no later than Monday, February 10.The eight-week course, sponsored by the New Jersey DevelopmentAuthorityfor Small Businesses, Minorities’ and Women’s Enterprises (NJDA),will be held on Tuesdays in Newark beginning on March 4 and Thursdaysin Trenton beginning on March 13. NJDA programs are managed by theNew Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA).The Newark class is held in the PSE&G Building, 80 Park Plaza, secondfloor. The Trenton class is held at the Mercer County TechnicalSchool,Assunpink Campus, Building A, 1085 Old Trenton Road.The needs assessment can be arranged by calling the Seton HallUniversityInstitute on Work at 973-313-6103. There is a $200 assessment feeand $100 special facilitation fee payable to the Institute in additionto the $295 nonrefundable ETI course fee. Seton Hall staff memberswho understand small business and the world of not-for-profits willserve as facilitators, working directly with students.Students enrolled in the specialized course complete a market analysisto identify the needs for their services, review planning, marketingand financial fundamentals, and learn how to develop resources andorganize boards to ensure that their organizations run efficientlyand effectively, according to a written statement by EDA ExecutiveDirector Caren S. Franzini.”The ETI program offers practical information that helps studentsdevelop a strategic, organized, step-by-step business plan,” shesays. “Twelve students who completed our not-for-profit programlast year were among the record 108 ETI students who earned graduationcertificates last June.”For registration materials and more information about the ETI program,visit www.njeda.com, call ETI at 609-292-9279, or send an E-mail toeti@njeda.com Payment must be received for an applicant to be fullyregistered and eligible to attend classes.The NJDA is committed to fostering the growth of small businesses,especially woman-owned and minority-owned enterprises, and not forprofits by offering a wide range of programs and services. For moreinformation on NJDA programs, call (609) 292-1800, or visitwww.njeda.comCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
