NEN hosts 'Youth Entrepreneurship Meet' for Students at Chennai

National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), the flagship initiative of Wadhwani Foundation organized the first annual Youth Entrepreneurship Meet in Chennai today. The programme held at Ethiraj Womens College has witnessed the participation of passionate aspiring entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship leaders and visionary students from various educational institutes across the city.

The energetic &enthusiastic participants shared their ideas, learnings and best practices to take their campus E-cells and individual entrepreneurial initiatives to the next level. The program offered the participants, access to unique tools & essentials of entrepreneurship from a leading consultant, insights on creating a sustainable start-up eco-system on campus, exposure to the mentoring process, expert advice and a positive space for networking opportunities with peers and key entrepreneurship drivers.

The days session also sensitized the participants on the experience of being an entrepreneur, and helped aspiring entrepreneurs to work on a development plan for their E-Cells which includes advocating the benefits of considering entrepreneurship as an alternate career option.

Dr. K. Srikrishna, Executive Director, National Entrepreneurship Networksays Chennai has always been a vibrant space for entrepreneurial activity. When NEN was started, only a handful of colleges or universities in India had any entrepreneurship programme. Today, we have more than 350 active entrepreneurship cells across India and many of the most active ones are in Chennai. The first annual Youth Entrepreneurship Meet in Chennai has witnessed an overwhelming response and we are greatly encouraged to pursue more such Youth Entrepreneurship Meets in other cities of India.

E-cells on educational campuses play a major role and are a focal point to inspire the student community and create a vibrant entrepreneurial eco-system. It aims to unlock students latent inventive potential to help in the development of India's entrepreneurial ecosystem by nurturing entrepreneurship through entrepreneurial education & learning. These E-cells connects students to entrepreneurial resources through various events such as seminars, workshops, webinars, start-up show cases, networking opportunities with industry leaders, mentors, peers, prospects, potential employees, vendors and help sustain the entrepreneurial spirit through educational, inspirational videos and mentoring platforms.

NEN is Indias largest and most dynamic community of new and future high-growth entrepreneurs, with over 70,000 members in 30 cities and 470 top-tier academic institutes in India as partners. It provides support to start-ups and early-stage entrepreneurs through offerings such as High-impact entrepreneurship education, Access to mentors, experts and advanced pedagogy, Fast-track access to incubation, Funding learning tools and materials.

NEN is playing a key role in developing entrepreneurship eco-system in the country by building institutional capacity and inspiring, educating & supporting high potential entrepreneurs to create high-value jobs. After the power packed event the participants expressed the strong desire for similar programmes on a regular basis to keep the spirit of entrepreneurship alive and to build on their dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur.