LAB Virtual Experience 2020
Entrepreneurs: Building a Taste for Business
June 15 - July 17, 2020

Presented by:  
LAB Learning About Business in collaboration with Entrepreneurship Education Consortium and Lake Erie College

General Information:
Webinars will be presented and recorded on Zoom. Click here for Zoom instructions.
Regular communication, assignments and Zoom webinar links will be posted using the Remind app.
Assignments will be posted using a Google Form for all students who wish to earn college credit.
The LAB staff will preregister participants for all EEC webinars.


Presentation Schedule:
June 15 at 4pm                             LAB Virtual Experience Orientation (LAB)                                    Marie Graf, Executive Director,
                                                                                                                                                      Christine Carnett, Program Facilitator

June 17 at 4pm                       Who are My Customers & Where Do I Find Them (EEC)              Doan Winkel, John Carroll University

June 23 at 4pm                 Should I Think Bigger? Am I Leaving Money on the Table? (EEC)                     Bill Nemeth, JumpStart

June 25 at 4pm                                 How Can I Sell Online? (EEC)                                                                       Matthew Poyle,
                                                                                                                                                         Lorain County Community College

June 29 at 4pm                      How Do I Incorporate My Business & Protect My Idea? (EEC)                       Gary Spring,
                                                                                                                                                Director of SEED Legal Clinic, University of Akron

July 1 at 4pm                                     What’s my Profit Plan? (EEC)                                              Phelan Spence, Deal Flow & JumpStart
                                                                                                                                                         Jaclyn Williams, JumpStart

July 2 at 4pm                            Strategy Planning in Times of Crisis (LAB)  (ppt pres.)        Morgan McIntosh, OmegaOne

July 7 at 4pm                             Hiring & Managing People  (LAB)  (ppt. pres)                          Tim Bleich, Vector Technical Inc.
                                                                                                                                                      Matt Renfro, The Cleaning Authority

July 9 at 4pm                              A Movable Feast: A Food Truck Experience (LAB)                   Elvis Serrano, former food truck owner

July 13 at 4pm                              Online Simulation Training (LAB)                                                           Celeste Gonzalez, LAB
                                                                                                                                                                 MacKenzie Mramor, LAB

July 14-16 at 4pm                         Online Simulation Chat Room  (LAB)                                                              LAB staff

July 17 at 4pm                                  LAB Awards Ceremony (LAB)                                                                        LAB staff           

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person LAB Week camp was cancelled. In its place, we collaborated with the Entrepreneurship Education Consortium to develop a series of online sessions geared to the entrepreneurial mindset. 35 students registered to participate in LAB Virtual Experience 2020. The culmination of the summer program was a week-long virtual competition where the students ran a Food Truck operation. We had a tie for first place. The top six performers won Amazon gift certificates:

First Place for $200 – Colleen Weden

First Place for $200 – Finn Alexy

Second Place for $100 – Zoe Wiley

Third Place for $50 – Abdullah Syed

Fourth Place for $50 – Joe Pahoresky

Fifth Place for $50 – Nicole Pappas

The winners also received a $2000 per year scholarship to Lake Erie College. All other participants received a $1000 per year scholarship to Lake Erie College. Congratulations to all the students!
Requirements for College Credit:

Students wishing to earn one college credit from Lake Erie College must complete all assignments posted for each of the 8 webinars and view all session listed in the schedule above. In addition, these students must also complete a minimum of 6 hours independently on the Go Venture Food Truck & Create Your Own Business simulations. Click here to view the webinar assignment format. All assignments are due by July 13, 2020.

About the Presenters:

Doan Winkel 
John J. Kahl, Sr. Chair in Entrepreneurship & Director, Edward Muldoon Center for Entrepreneurship, John Carroll University
Doan’s passion is giving students a voice, and motivating younger generations to tackle their dreams through creating their own careers. Doan teaches entrepreneurship courses in the Entrepreneurship minor for undergraduates, and in the MBA program. His teaching interests include creativity, innovation, lean startup and new venture creation. His passion is to bring an experiential approach to his students.

Bill Nemeth 
Director, Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program, JumpStart
Bill Nemeth leads JumpStart’s Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program. A former mentor himself, Bill now works to connect a growing network of experts from a broad range of backgrounds with early-stage entrepreneurs who will benefit from their advice and experience.

Matt Poyle 
Program Coordinator, LaunchNET, Lorain County Community College
Matt develops and delivers specialized entrepreneurship curriculum to 2000+ students and community partners each year. This year, Matt started teaching the Amazon Small Business Academy curriculum. Seven colleges across the nation were selected to partner with Amazon for new business courses, and Lorain County Community College is one of them.

Gary Spring 
Associate Clinical Professor, Director of the SEED Clinic, University of Akron
Gary Spring joined The University of Akron School of Law in Summer 2010 as Clinical Professor of Law and serves as Director of the Small Entrepreneur and Economic Development (SEED) Clinic. SEED provides small businesses with non-litigation assistance with business entity selection and filing requirements, operating agreements, transaction agreements such as sales, supply and hiring contracts. All work is produced by law students and is reviewed by licensed supervising attorneys.

Morgan McIntosh 
 President, AMFM Incorporated dba Omega One
Morgan McIntosh is the President and owner of Omega One (formerly AMFM). Employed with the organization in 1997 as Operations Manager, he succeeded the founder as President in 2002. AMFM pioneered the metal hose industry developing a product known as brain band. Since becoming company president, McIntosh increased revenue over 350% through organic business growth and acquisition of other small businesses.

Tim Bleich 
Owner, Vector Technical Inc.
Tim Bleich is the owner of Vector Technical Inc. helping companies find the right candidates using cutting edge assessment and screening techniques to grow their human capital.

Matt Renfro 
Owner The Cleaning Authority
Matt Renfro is trading over a decade of experience in the financial services industry for a new venture into small business ownership. The Ohio native worked for several banks in the Cleveland/Akron, OH area, and after recently receiving his MBA, he decided to look for a way to have more control of his career. Matt also serves on The Mentor Area Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Lake County. 

Elvis Serrano 
Former Owner , Jibaro World Eats Food Truck in Cleveland, OH 
Elvis Serrano is the former owner of the first official food truck business servicing the Cleveland area from 2010 –2014.

Questions and Technology Support:
The LAB Staff is available for questions throughout the program through private messaging on Remind or by email VirtualLAB@learningaboutbusiness.org
Join Remind: #ONLINE https://www.remind.com/join/labweek2 or TEXT @labweek2 to 81010.

LAB Staff: 
 Marie Graf, Executive Director Celeste Gonzalez, Camp Counselor
 Christine Carnett, Program Facilitator Mackenzie Mramor, Camp Counselor