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Oxford: Saïd Business School prepares to host Europe’s largest student entrepreneurship conference

29 June 2018
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This summer, the Saïd Business School will be welcoming entrepreneurs, founders and speakers from all over the world for Oxford Inspires 2018. The annual conference is coordinated by Oxford Entrepreneurs, the world’s largest student-led society promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. Launched in 2002, the society has since spun out a number of seed-stage companies through their Ideas2Market Programme; six receiving angel funding and one recently being sold for nearly £4 million.

Oxford Entrepreneurs hosts three flagship events each year, the most notable being Oxford Inspires. This year’s conference will take place on July 14 and 15 and, in view of last year’s success, is expected to attract hundreds of professionals with an interest in business, technology and social impact.

This year’s primary themes are diversity and technology but talks and workshops will encompass a vast field of topics including mindfulness, ethics, fashion, education and childcare, artificial intelligence, green tech, mobile first, robotics, and chatbots.

In partnership with 1 Million Women To Tech, a Silicon Valley educational charity, Saturday’s discussions will shed light on the empowerment of one million women, using remote learning platforms to increase their technological expertise, thereby combatting uneven gender balances across STEM fields. The pinnacle of this is the Summer of Code 2018 – a free online program on increasing the representation of females in software development. The program’s 12-week coding courses and hackathons will be launched on the Saturday of the event for the 15,000+ women and non-binaries who pre-registered from over 145 countries worldwide.

Professional hackers and coders will also be on hand to mentor the participants of the Developer Circles Community Challenge. Run by Facebook, this year’s challenge comprises an online Hackathon. Participants are welcome to bring their own hacking or team up with 1 Million Women To Tech’s hackathon to build a Facebook Messenger chatbot. Prizes will be awarded to those with the best software project.

Sunday’s main focus is to support aspiring entrepreneurs, as speakers address how start-ups can raise their first million from angel and venture capital investment, while fine-tuning their visions to execute business concepts.

Between talks from almost 40 specialists, Oxford Inspires offers a unique opportunity for tailored mentorship. All attendees can sign up for one-to-one sessions to discuss potential project ideas, request feedback or seek advice on how best to proceed in specific fields such as Strategy, IT, Digital Analytics, Human Resource, Public Relations, Marketing, and Fundraising.

Guests with prior experience or specialist knowledge in their disciplines can benefit from masterclasses with industry experts and nurture soft skills in five distinct areas. All masterclasses are specially designed to be small in size, ensuring an intimate and personal training environment.

Oxford Inspires 2018 is certainly not limited to entrepreneurs in the making. Attracting a diverse mix of dedicated students and professionals, the event’s primary focus is to offer a critical insight into the ever-evolving corporate world and society’s response to it. Attendees can expect to leave the conference feeling inspired, informed and appropriately equipped to transform their ideas into reality. 

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