Innovate This! – 2012 Registration is Now Open

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Microsoft Campus, Mountain View, CA
March 17, 2012
8:30am – 5pm

Innovate This! is a “Teen Invention Convention”. Attendees will participate in an entire day of fast-cycle product invention mash-up, meeting Silicon Valley big thinkers and design gurus. They will learn how to take new products to market, interact with company executives and work in teams with passionate peers.

Here’s how it works:

Participants will form teams with 3–8 members. Attendees can come to Innovate This! already knowing who they want in their team or they can join a team the morning of the event. Time will be given at the beginning of the day to form teams. Anyone who is interested should register today.

A mystery product will be revealed no sooner than one week prior to the event. Teams will spend the day innovating and improving this mystery product.

Here’s what attendees will get:

  • The winning team will launch their product on Kickstarter.com
  • The winning team will receive a full color product design rendering and the opportunity to take their design to the prototype stage with the design experts from WAGIC
  • “One & Done” fast prototype team design competition
  • Be inspired by Silicon Valley Big Thinkers and Design Gurus from companies like Facebook, Apple, and more
  • Get a limited edition event collectible

Space is limited – register now for just $295. Don’t miss this launch event and be sure to invite your friends to sign-up and join you in a team of 3–8 members. Did we mention that attendees will receive special commemorative prizes?

Register Now!

Event Sponsors

Save the date: BizSmart Global Launch!

Who: BizSmart alumni and friends (ages 12-19)
When: Saturday, March 17, 2012  (8:30 am – 5:00 pm)
Where: Microsoft Corporation, Mountain View
What: A “Teen Invention Convention”. A whole day of fast-cycle product invention mash-up, meeting Silicon Valley big thinkers and design gurus, learning how to take new products to market, interacting with company executives and working in teams with passionate peers
Why: Is it possible to change the world in one day?

You’ve never seen anything like this! Did we mention that attendees will receive special commemorative prizes?

Save the date! Limited spaces available.

All alumni will be notified via email once registration is live. If you are not an alum, or have since changed your contact information, please email elaine.wu@bizsmartglobal.com to get on this exclusive list.

This event is generously sponsored by Garage Technology Ventures, Chief Alliance of Executives, Keiretsu Forum, Microsoft and WAGIC.

Call to parents: Help shape education for the next generation!

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To parents, when was the last time you thought “what if” or “if only” when it comes to your son or daughter’s education? This is your chance to see your opinions come to life. We at BizSmart Global have always prioritized parents, because we are partners in aiming to provide students with the best training for the real world.

Help us as we shape a never-before seen program for high school students. We guarantee there will be all-new elements that can only come from thinking big, like you do when it comes to quality education. We are ready to test assumptions and push limits.

To help us gain the best understanding of your needs, please take 20 minutes to fill out this questionnaire. We value your input greatly, as we work to launch our next parent-focused, student-centric program.

Thank you to our BizSmart parents for your continuous support and inspiration!

We aren’t afraid to ask the hard questions

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Hydrovolts CEO, Burt Hamner and Zamzee CEO, Jonathan Atwood with Randy Williams, CEO and Founder of Keiretsu, and Sonja Markova, Managing Director. Keiretsu Forum Angel Capital Expo, Julia Morgan Ballroom, San Francisco, CA; photo courtesy of Keiretsu Forum

At the Keiretsu Forum’s Angel Capital Expo event, where our students were honored in front of seasoned angel investors and where we heard pitches from rising entrepreneurs in all industries, the same questions were asked repeatedly. What problem are you solving? Why will customers buy your product or service? How will bring value to your investors? What help do you need to succeed? Without proper preparation, these questions might become quite the stumper.

As expected, the winning pitches for the title of Most Valued Company were the ones best able to answer these questions with confidence. Hydrovolts CEO Burt Hamner’s pitch was especially popular with BizSmart students in attendance. Zamzee CEO Jonathan Atwood’s pitch was also well-received, and BizSmart students were excited to hear from a company that had previously worked as one of our company sponsors. Hydrovolts came away with first place, and Zamzee won second.

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Congratulations to ZamZee!

BizSmart Global would like to congratulate the Zamzee team for being voted first runner up at the Keiretsu Forum’s Angel Capital Expo yesterday!

Zamzee is a platform for fun that’s powered by your movement. Their meter records how much you’re moving around, and your activity fuels your online experience. Go shopping, take on challenges, and compete with your friends online. The best part? The more you go, the more rewards you get.

BizSmart Global will expand opportunities for high performing graduates

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In business today, there is no substitution for hands-on experience and customer feedback. This ensures that the product going to market solves the customer’s problem or provides a new solution in a way that will engage and deliver desired results.

Two companies that have provided business problems for our students to solve, HopeLab/Zamzee and NeuroSky, are great examples of companies emphasizing user feedback in their product development cycle. Both companies include our graduates to test their products as end users.

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Coming up for BizSmart Global…

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We’ll tell you upfront – if you’re looking for a sports camp or a generic summer camp, you are probably in the wrong place. That’s not to say we don’t love sports, outdoor activities and arts and crafts, we do! But BizSmart Global programs are about taking interests and passions, and learning how to turn them into exciting products and services that are valuable to the public. For example, if you are interested in sports, see how our students designed and created a business plan behind fitness tracking devices.

You ARE in the right place if you love creating and innovating, enjoy working with smart people from around the world, want to learn from successful entrepreneurs themselves. Our programs will challenge you and push your limits, but you will learn the magic behind entrepreneurship for yourself.

Instead of reading about it, hearing other people talk about it, DO it.

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We’ve gone global!

CEOs of student teams saying thank you to judges at Microsoft Aug 12 2010

Welcome to the launch of BizSmart Global’s website and blog! You might know us from our rapidly expanding Camp BizSmart programs for middle school students. We are now expanding program offerings both locally and internationally.

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