Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week will start in November to help local entrepreneurs and University students meet and mingle.
BREW is a four-day celebration from Nov. 17-23 hosted by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and several regional entrepreneurial groups that seek to excite and entice anyone in the community, especially University students, interested in entrepreneurship.
The week’s festivities occur in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week and will feature events including pitch competitions, educational lunches, panel discussions, networking and opportunities for investors to see new businesses.
In addition, the second annual LSU Elevator Pitch Competition on Nov. 19, put on by the LSU Student Incubator and the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, will give University students the opportunity to compete in a 90-second business pitch competition for a free one-year membership to the LSU Student Incubator.
“The Elevator Pitch Competition is a great opportunity for students to pitch their businesses or ideas and get feedback on their pitches,” said Associate Director of the Student Incubator Shannon McCormick.
Registration for the competition and all BREW events is now open.
“Students can benefit from all of the events happening during BREW,” McCormick said. “There are a lot of great networking opportunities and a chance to win money for their businesses.”
The second night of the week will include the Food Truck Wroundup. Food and culinary entrepreneurs are working to put Baton Rouge on the map when it comes to the national food truck industry and hope to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs.
John Snow, co-owner of Taco de Paco, said food trucks are representative of the entrepreneur mindset.
“Trucks have been able to help folks understand what it’s like to start and operate a business,” Snow said. “Taco de Paco has been in the community at all levels, and that just reinforces how when an entrepreneur is daring to do something different, it can pay off in the long run.”
Snow said all the food trucks that will be downtown for the event are doing something inventive and fresh to coincide with what the week and the Wroundup event are all about.