WKU News

Have you ever considered opening your own business, but really did not know how to get started? Perhaps, you have a creative idea or invention that you would like to pitch to prospective investors. Whatever your situation, you will definitely want to be on hand for the First Annual Entrepreneurial Summit:  Turning Your Great Ideas Into Gold!

Fort Knox Education Center will host an entrepreneurial summit on Oct. 19.

Fort Knox Education Center in partnership with the Kentucky Innovation Network-Elizabethtown, WKU Elizabethtown-Fort Knox and Dell Computers will host its first entrepreneurial summit from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Building 65, Layou Hall, located at 31 Warehouse St. on Fort Knox.

Summit participants will have the opportunity to attend sessions presented by professional experts on such topics as how to write business plans; Kentucky tax incentives for business start-ups; how to export products; franchise opportunities for veterans; crowd funding business start-ups; and what investors are seeking. The event is free and open to the public.

Featuring networking opportunities and successful entrepreneurs such as Rebecca Wheeling, who raised $1 million in venture capital in one week and is the co-founder and CEO of Schedule-It, and Charley Jordan, an active duty U.S. Army soldier, award-winning farmer and owner of the Circle J Ranch near Fort Campbell, the summit will be a day filled with tested, tried and true strategies for getting new businesses off the ground.

In recent years, many service members have capitalized on their military training, organizational skills, critical thinking ability and high levels of determination to achieve a mission by choosing to become business owners in the “civilian” world. Dr. Jacqueline Jenkins, Education Services Officer at the Fort Knox Army Education Center, has been carefully listening to “future” business owners assigned at Fort Knox and has made significant strides in supporting service members’ interest in entrepreneurship through collaboration with Lisa Williams, Director of the Kentucky Innovation Network-Elizabethtown, and Bea Cobb, Coordinator of Military Programs for WKU Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, to launch this inaugural event focused on entrepreneurship.

The keynote speaker will be Jim Fugitte, a Hardin County entrepreneur, national Ernst and Young Winner and entrepreneurial motivational speaker. Val Claycomb of Republic Bank of Elizabethtown will present a session on Patriot Express Loans for veterans; patent attorney Chris Tanner will provide information on how to file your own patent; and Aleta Botts from the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development will present a session on agriculture business grants and agricultural business plan development. A presentation titled “Sharks in the Heartland-Veterans’ Edition” will help coach summit participants on what makes a good business pitch, while providing the rules of engagement for anyone interested in seriously testing the “waters” of entrepreneurship.

Registration for the “First Annual Entrepreneurial Summit: Turning Your Great Ideas Into Gold” event is on a first-come, first-served basis and limited. Individuals interested in attending an inspiring and productive day of networking, learning and information-sharing can register and access the day’s agenda at www.wku.edu/etown-ftknox/summit.php. To register by phone, contact Melissa Ballinger at (270) 745-2629.

Contact: Dr. Jacqueline Jenkins, (502) 624-2424