April 19th, Junior World Entrepreneurship Forum (JWEF) kicked off for the first time at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou. Derived from World Entrepreneurship Forum (WEF), JWEF has dedicated itself to facilitating junior entrepreneurs across the globe, and adds a youth dimension to the main theme.
As a founding member of WEF, the School of Management has been committed to cultivating students with the spirits of entrepreneurship, innovation, globalization and responsibility.
The forum featured opening ceremony with guest speeches, roundtable discussions, workshops, pitch contest and cocktail party. More than 300 participants attended the forum, ranging from social, political and business leaders to young entrepreneurs and university professors. The event was broadcasted live through Sina Weibo.
Guest Speeches and Roundtable Discussions
In the morning, Professor CHEN Ling, Associate Dean of School of Management, and Mr. LI Jianhua, CEO of Wensli Group and EMBA alumni from SOM shared their insights regarding the asset-light strategy. As an exponent and promotor of Silk Culture in Hangzhou, Mr. LI talked about his experience of reinventing the business to the junior entrepreneurs from the perspective of silk and Chinese culture.
In the subsequent roundtable discussion, Mr. CHAI Hong, Deputy General Secretary of Zhejiang Young Entrepreneur Association, Mr. FANG Yi, Founder and CEO of Everyday Tech and Professor YAO Zheng, Head of Department of Accounting and Finance ZJU-SOM, interacted with the audience closely and tried to resolve the puzzles arose when starting a new business in their own viewpoints.
JWEF Workshops, Pitch Competition and Cocktail party
The workshop in the afternoon divided participants into four groups, each of which was assigned one theme respectively and expected to present a final theme report in the end. Associate Professor Mark Greeven from SOM also joined in the contest to listen, coordinate and give advice from the academic level. The pitch competition sat by four star investors attracted the most enthusiasm from participants. More than 200 teams applied for it via @ ZJU GEP official Weibo; and among them, 12 teams made their ways to the finale. The competition ran fiercely and prized-winners were revealed at the end. ZJU students LU Xinchuan and LIU Ning took the first and third place respectively. Surprisingly, the second prize went to the 16 years old SHENG Ting from Genshan High School.
The forum successfully ended with an evening cocktail party. Guests and participants all over China had the opportunity to know and talk with each other in a more relaxed atmosphere.
