DifferenceMaker^TM held its third workshop event last week, on Friday February 28^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. Despite being held on a Friday evening, over 30 students were in attendance! This workshop taught DifferenceMaker students how to develop a solution to their projects problem.

The night began with networking, pizza and soda. Then Professor Valerie Kijewski, Associate professor in the Manning School of Business engaged the student audience through an exciting PowerPoint presentation that included fun educational video clips. This presentation, as well as the videos discussed the ways to go about developing a solution to a chosen problem. This included talking to specific customers, assessing the pains and gains associated with that problem and solution, and conducting market research.

At the end there was an open discussion where students were able to talk about and address any problems they were facing thus far. Professor Kijewski, Professor Tom O’Donnell, and Professor Deb Finch, all from the Manning School of Business were at the workshop and able to answer each question asked. The student audience found this quite helpful because each of their projects are very different from one another (for profit, non-profit, technology based, service based and so on) so it allowed for specific feedback and guidance.

If you could not make it to this workshop, please view the DifferenceMaker resource page where all workshop materials will be posted for your convenience within 24-48 hours after each event. In addition, please attend our last workshop (Identifying Resources) this Wednesday, March 5^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. For more information regarding the DifferenceMaker Program, please visit www.uml.edu/differencemaker or email us: differencemaker@uml.edu.

DifferenceMakers^TM held its second workshop event last night, on Wednesday February 19^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. The audience surpassed all expectations again with 45 students in attendance!  This workshop taught DifferenceMaker students how to assess the opportunity that is associated with their chosen problem.

The night began with networking, pizza and soda. Then Professor Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development engaged the student audience through another informative PowerPoint presentation. This presentation discussed the ways to go about assessing the opportunity associated with a given project.  This includes, who are the customers, where are they located and so on.

He then asked each student to break into their DifferenceMaker teams and begin discussing their projects opportunity by writing information on a poster board. Each team then had the chance to present their opportunity to the entire audience. To end the night, Professor Tom O’Donnell from the Manning School of Business discussed the importance of protecting ones intellectual property and the resources DifferenceMakers has to assist with that.

If you could not make it to this workshop, please view the DifferenceMaker resource page where all workshop materials will be posted for your convenience within 24-48 hours after each event. In addition, please attend Workshop 3: Developing Solutions, on Friday February 28^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. For more information regarding the DifferenceMaker Program, please visit www.uml.edu/differencemaker or email differencemaker@uml.edu.

DifferenceMaker^TM held its first workshop event last night, on Tuesday February 11^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. The expected audience was approximately 30 students; however, an astonishing 60+ students attended this workshop in order to learn more about the program, how to identify the problem they want to solve and proactive ways they can build their teams.

The night began with networking, pizza and soda. Then Professor Steven Tello, Associate Vice Chancellor for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development engaged the student audience through an enlightening PowerPoint presentation. This presentation discussed the DifferenceMaker Program, $25-50k Idea Challenge, how to define and refine a concrete problem to solve and ways to build an effective team.  He then asked each student to stand up and give a 1-2 minute introduction of themselves, their major, idea and team. This introduction activity spurred conversations between teams and individuals and also aided in the team building process.

To end the night, Professor Ralph Jordan discussed why team building is imperative to a successful project. He then asked each student to write their project idea on a poster board and stick it to the wall in order to promote networking amongst the entire audience. Each student had the opportunity to meet one another, share their ideas and build their teams.
Workshop 1 proved to be a great success.

If you could not make it to this workshop, please view the DifferenceMaker resource page where all workshop materials will be posted for your convenience within 24-48 hours after each event. In addition, please attend Workshop 2: Assessing Opportunities, on Wednesday February 19^th from 6-7:30pm in Kitson 309 on North Campus. For more information regarding the DifferenceMaker Program, please visit www.uml.edu/differencemaker or email differencemaker@uml.edu.