NEWSROOM

Entrepreneurship centre staff represent New Zealand in Washington DC

CIE Director Darsel Keane and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Engagement Manager Naomi Bradshaw at US Congress

13 July 2022

Staff from the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) represented New Zealand at the 2022 World Congress of the International Council of Small Business, the world’s largest international SME organisation dedicated to small business and entrepreneurship. In 2021 CIE won ICSB’s global award for Entrepreneurship Education Excellence, given in recognition of Summer Lab – the University of Auckland’s free four-week intensive entrepreneurship development programme.

The theme for the 2022 ICSB World Congress was the Entrepreneurial Revolution. CIE Director Darsel Keane and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Engagement Manager Naomi Bradshaw participated in a Women in Leadership panel, attended US Congress to hear testimonies about the importance of entrepreneurship education, and delivered a workshop based on their co-written paper Creating an Inclusive, Cross-Disciplinary, Entrepreneurial Campus.

CIE is a Business School centre that offers free co-curricular and curricular innovation and entrepreneurship education opportunities to students and staff of all faculties at the University. By international standards, its model is somewhat unusual. CIE Director Darsel Keane says “The University of Auckland funds CIE to operate in this way in recognition that innovation comes from diversity of knowledge and experience and that representation matters when solving the world’s problems.”

Experiences shared by CIE staff during the workshop they delivered included the importance of role modelling, staff champions, specialised offerings, low barriers to participation and tailored communication utilising diverse platforms in order to ensure participation from students who may not self-identify as an innovator or entrepreneur. Keane says “Our drive to ensure CIE’s opportunities are taken up by all University of Auckland students and staff is still a work in progress. Over the last few years, we have seen the gender balance shift from women making up a quarter of CIE participants to now around half. Our continued challenge is to ensure that we increase participation from our University’s Māori and Pacific students through relationship building, specialised programming and showcasing how involvement in our offerings meets our students’ values and priorities. We aspire to reflect the diversity of the University community in all areas.”

The presentation portion of the workshop also covered the evolution of CIE’s funding model and governance. Keane says “CIE has a board of advisors who regularly meet composed of Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Deans and other senior university leaders whose wisdom and support have been invaluable in driving CIE forward.”

Group discussion during the workshop covered measurement, how to develop inclusive programming and what diversity and inclusivity mean in different national, regional and institutional contexts.

While in America, Keane also met with entrepreneurship educators and entrepreneurship centre staff in Boston, Washington DC and New York. She says “It was invigorating to meet with peers who are similarly driven to create graduates who will be the change makers the world needs. Globally there is a move towards humane entrepreneurship – developing graduates and ventures that will tackle the world’s social ills and environmental problems as well as growing economies. I return to New Zealand with new knowledge, networks and ideas and am excited for what’s next.”