The IE Entrepreneurship Club has fostered multiple initiatives, ranging from expert-led seminars to useful entrepreneurship advice. Their main goal is to help develop and teach members the necessary skills to set up their potential startup and business foundations.
Last year, the Entrepreneurship club hosted the IE Entrepreneurship Summit, a multi-staged event consisting of Startup presentations, panel guests, and networking opportunities.
“The club directly promotes entrepreneurship, which in essence is creativity applied to solve real-world problems for profit, social or other causes. This is a cornerstone of IE’s values and we do our best to showcase the entrepreneurial focus of IE to our members and to the greater public,” – Keenan Hanmer, Coordinator IE Entrepreneurship Club.
Find more about the IE Entrepreneurship Club below.
Interview with Keenan Hanmer, Co-President of IE Entrepreneurship Club.
What does the Entrepreneurship Club do?
It is a student-led club with a mission of fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in the IE community. The club organizes events that bring individuals together for entrepreneurship-related activities, talks, discussions and workshops.
Who can join the Club?
Membership is open to all current students of IE University and IE Business School as well as the entire IE Alumni community.
What is your club most proud of?
We believe that partnerships and collaborations are the perfect examples of what entrepreneurship is ultimately about: connecting the dots. To this extent, the club has managed to partner with several entrepreneurs and other IE clubs to give our members a uniquely diverse perspective on what it means to be an entrepreneur. We’ve collaborated on events ranging from company registration workshops, e-commerce opportunities, preventative-care, disruption in agriculture, and even entrepreneurship in the blockchain arena.
What has the club’s biggest achievement or event been so far?
The club hosted its first annual Entrepreneurship Summit event last year, which was a 2-day event attended by nearly 200 people.
What is the club looking forward to next year?
We have our second annual Entrepreneurship Summit event coming up in November, and we plan to go bigger than last year. We should be sending out flyers in the coming weeks, so stay posted!
How can people contact you, join, or participate?
People can contact us on the following channels!
Instagram: @ie_entrepreneurshipclub
LinkedIn: IE Entrepreneurship Club
Campus Groups : IE Entrepreneurship Club
Email : entrepreneurship.club@ie.edu
Why does IE need a club like this one?
Entrepreneurship is one of IE’s core values, and the IE Entrepreneurship Club is the perfect way for students and alumni to interact with each other and the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem outside of their academic programs. At the end of the day, business is about people, and the club is there.
How has the club changed over the years ?
The club has grown tremendously over the years and currently has over 3000 members. With this comes a lot of responsibility in maintaining a regular event schedule and a level of quality in our events. The coordinator team now comprises 8 exceptional people and we frequently call on the assistance of advisors to assist with our planning. In addition to this, collaboration has become a core focus of the club in recent years as we see entrepreneurship as being central to most things happening around IE.
What highlighted events did the club host this year?
A Life of Meaning with Katerina Vackova
I thoroughly enjoyed the talk by Katerina as it was a really inspirational story on how adversity could be turned into entrepreneurial success. She walked us through her journey as a cancer survivor, into forming on of the largest female-led preventative care organizations in the Czech Republic, making the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and becoming a UN ambassador. I thought this was a phenomenal example that absolutely anyone can entrepreneurial success if it comes from the right place.
How did the club adapt to the COVID19 pandemic?
The initial weeks of the state-of-alarm in Spain were tough for us. I think we took some time to adapt, but then really came out strong with a schedule of interesting events that we hosted virtually. Fortunately, IE Campus Life equipped us with a premium Zoom account which really gave us the initial push to get going.
Entrepreneurship is a massive drawcard for many people that choose IE, but academics and programs can only go so far. The club is there for everyone, to fill in the gaps, to enrich everyone’s experience, and to deliver on the entrepreneurship expectations that we all have in coming to IE. It’s my sincere hope that the club can grow and continue to serve its members on their entrepreneurial journeys.
“I’ve learned the value in partnerships. A wise entrepreneur told me that you don’t have to re-invent anything to be good in business, but that it’s about pulling together the right people. I think the Entrepreneurship Club has given me first-hand experience of this notion, from the team coordination and event planning, but also from the incredible profiles we get to interact with.” -Keenan Hanmer
_______________________________________________________________________________________
