UCL School of Management hosted the first-ever face-to-face UCL Entrepreneurship Community of Practice (ECoP) event, bringing together colleagues from all parts of UCL around entrepreneurship research and education. On October 25th, 2022, UCL School of Management welcomed the Entrepreneurship Community of Practice (ECoP). The ECoP is a community for UCL staff sharing a deep interest in entrepreneurship. It aims to help staff build networks, share knowledge and resources, and break down silos to promote the entrepreneurial mindset and skills across the university.
The UCL School of Management was delighted to welcome representatives from 13 different faculties such as Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose; UCL East; and Institute for Global Prosperity, the Global Business School for Health, and the Faculty of Engineering, to name a few.
In the first part of the event, we heard from the SoM Director, Professor Davide Ravasi, who provided an overview of the UCL School of Management’s existing activities in entrepreneurship, including the provision of undergraduate entrepreneurship module electives to Schools across the university, and the latest entrepreneurship research in the digital space and sustainability and social change. Simon Hulme, MSc Entrepreneurship Programme Director, presented an overview of the MSc Entrepreneurship, SoM’s flagship programme in entrepreneurship, and the plethora of trailblazing entrepreneurs who graduated from the programme. He also presented the “Hall of Fame” listing all alumni entrepreneurs from the School of Management, two of them being at the event to recount their startup journey during and after UCL.
Itxaso del Palacio, Associate Professor and Venture Capitalist, presented the latest updates on the launch of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Club aimed at helping students pursue a career in the VC and PE space. We then heard the latest updates on entrepreneurship initiatives from Emanuela Tilley (Faculty of Engineering Sciences), Anne Preston (UCL East), Jerry Allen (Innovation and Enterprise), Ramash Sangaralingam (UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies) and Konrad Miciukiewicz (Institute for Global Prosperity).
After a tour of the SoM facilities, the second part of the event consisted of an informal networking drink where UCL colleagues could engage with the speakers as well as connect with new colleagues from other parts of UCL.
This event was organised by ECoP Co-Leads Pierre-Jean (PJ) Hanard (SoM) and Anne Preston (UCL East) with the strong support of SoM colleagues Simon Hulme and James Hickie.
Following the event, Pierre-Jean (PJ) Hanard said: “This event demonstrates how diverse, vibrant and driven the entrepreneurship academic community is at UCL. Bringing together colleagues is key to ‘innovate’ in entrepreneurship research and education and we hope that this first in-person Entrepreneurship Community of Practice event will spark new ways to collaborate among UCL colleagues.”
The next face-to-face event will take place at UCL East in January 2023. The focus will be on sharing the cross-faculty entrepreneurship activities at UCL East as well as providing the opportunity for extended networking. For more information, please contact Anne Preston.
For more information about the ECoP, please contact Anne Preston or Pierre-Jean Hanard. You can join the Entrepreneurship Community of Practice Teams channel to start networking with fellow innovators in entrepreneurship!
