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EntrepreneurshipWeek USA Underway www.entrepreneurshipweekusa.com (02/24 - 3/3/07) In front of an auditorium packed full of more than 500 students, faculty, alumni and others at Stanford University, EntrepreneurshipWeek USA officially kicked off yesterday with a high-energy launch. The fast-paced event featured inspirational and informative remarks from John Hennessy, the entrepreneurial Stanford president who also happens to be involved with a host of Silicon Valley success stories like Yahoo and Google. Hennessy challenged the standing-room-only crowd to think on a grand scale in coming up with creative solutions to some of society's ills. Participants also heard from the head of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Carl Schramm, who punctuated real-world advice with his trademark dry wit. On a more serious note, Schramm emphasized that it is the entrepreneur who creates wealth that simultaneously improves society and drives the economy. And finally, venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, a Stanford alum and partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, urged participants to pay attention to the ideas of their friends and classmates since entrepreneurial pairs -- from Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs of Apple to Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google -- were more easily able to find the right blend of skills to grow a start-up. Learn more about The Week. If you are interested in daily highlights from the previous day's activities, sign up for The Update. Innovation Challenge Unveiled... and Featured in Upcoming Documentary Film What if you gave students around the world the same common household object and asked them to innovate? What would they do? That's the premise of the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA Innovation Challenge. At the national launch, Jonathan Ortmans, the executive director of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA , and Tina Seelig, executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, unveiled the mystery item at the center of the Challenge -- a pack of Post-it notes. More than 4,000 packs of three-by-three Post-its were distributed to more than 150 partner organizations all across the United States . Teams have until Saturday, March 3 to create as much value -- however they define it -- as possible before uploading a three-minute video (or three digital slides) to the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA website for peer rating. The top entries will be forwarded to a panel of judges to select the final winners. In addition to the national contest, numerous partners are hosting local versions of the Challenge -- determining their own prizes and picking their own winners. The contest will be the focus of attention in imagine it!, an exciting feature documentary filmed during EntrepreneurshipWeek USA by the creators of Mr. K. With an exotic backdrop of ten countries -- Japan, Thailand, Australia, India, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia and the USA -- imagine it! seeks out and tells the most fascinating competitors’ stories as they endure six exhilarating days and nights in their attempt to create the most value. Visit the Challenge site to learn more -- and start rating entries at noon (EST) on Sunday, March 4. Learn more about the film, imagine it! 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... The Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics, Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University became the "Times Square" of the Entrepreneurship world by counting down to 12:00 a.m. EST, February 24, 2007, the official start of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA . A few days before the Oscars on a campus not far from Hollywood , the countdown was followed by an Entrepreneurs' Film Marathon. The films started with "Mr. K: A Common Man with Uncommon Vision" a documentary on Ewing Marion Kauffman and his beloved Kansas City Royals. The marathon also included Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Huges in 'Aviator', Julia Ormond as a free-spirited chocolate shop owner in 19th century France in 'Chocolat', Tom Cruise as a sports agent who starts his own agency in 'Jerry Maguire', and Jeff Bridges as Preston Tucker, the gutsy maverick with a revolutionary concept car, in 'Tucker: The Man and His Dreams'. Guest entrepreneurs commented on the portrayal of entrepreneurs in the films and answered student questions. After the countdown, one of those guest entrepreneurs, alumnus Keith Pham, pledged a $100,000 gift to the entrepreneurship program at Chapman University and handed over the first check for $50,000. Chapman University's entrepreneurship program, led by P.K. Shukla, was ranked #15 nationally for undergraduate programs in 2006 by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. To learn more about it, visit the Leatherby Center website.