BENTONVILLE -- Bentonville High School students will be tasked to solve real issues for area businesses during the inaugural Biz+Ed Conference on Tuesday.
The conference will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bentonville High School. It's hosted by the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce's NWA Tech Council.
About The Event
Admission is free for students, $10 for Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce members and $15 for non-chamber members.
Coffee will be provide and lunch will be served.
Registration can be done online at http://bbvchamber.c…
Registration can also be done the morning of the event.
Source: Staff Report
Students will collaborate with businesses to solve an issue by using technology, according to a news release. Students will work in teams and compete to solve real issues that local businesses face.
There will be at least six teams of two to three students, said Jon Cadieux with NWA Tech Council.
The winning team will receive $1,000 to continue developing its solution, a two-week paid internship, and will present its idea at a Tech Summit in November, the release states.
"I'm so excited because I think they're going to blow away these business leaders when they come back with their solutions," said Michael Poore, Bentonville Public School superintendent, about the high school students.
Poore said the conference is the same concept that's behind the district's soon-to-be launched CAPS program that will pair students and local businesses together while the students learn to solve real-world business issues.
It allows students to receive training and also become solution makers to small-business problems, he said.
The CAPS program is slated to launch in the fall with a Tech Solutions course held in the Tata Consultancy Services building near the Wal-Mart home office, Poore said. Wal-Mart also will offer students internships as part of the CAPS program, he said.
Other courses that the program will offer include Construction Trade, Logistics Management, Video Marketing and Med Prep, Poore said.
The NWA Tech Council wanted to hold an event that engaged students and gave them practical technology experience that may help them in their future careers, Cadieux said. The Biz+Ed Conference will connect students to businesses in a similar way to the CAPS program.
The day-long conference also will have breakout sessions for business attendees while students work on their solutions. Session topics will include Google AdWords, Pricing Service Competitively, How to Avoid Burnout and Bookkeeping Basics for Businesses.
"My passion is helping small business so I also wanted to have educational workshops," Cadieux said. "We kind of just tied the two together."
Rick Webb, senior vice president of global processes with Wal-Mart, will begin the conference with the keynote speech about solving business issues with technology solutions. Jeff Amerine, founding principal of Startup Junkie Consulting, will follow with a presentation on the Lean Canvas approach to developing business plans or solving business problems.
RevUnit, a digital product and marketing agency, is sponsoring the conference and is a partner of the Bentonville CAPS program.
NW News on 06/20/2015