Attended by entrepreneurs, researchers, policy makers involved in entrepreneurship and staff at the University of Liverpool, the event was an opportunity to outline the vision and objectives for the Centre going forward and to recognise Paul Brett, University of Liverpool alumnus, whose donation contributed to the foundation of the Centre.
Chairing, Professor Robert Blackburn, Director of the Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship outlined the plans for the Centre:
“We want to establish ourselves as a world leading centre for entrepreneurship research and contribute to shaping agendas and activities across 3 focus areas of people, place and performance.”
“Our vision also involves developing and running a programme of courses on entrepreneurship across the University. And finally, we want to engage with entrepreneurs, support bodies and policy makers to help influence the environment for entrepreneurship.”
Supporting the launch were international guest speakers Professor David A. Audretsch, Professor of Public & Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, USA and Dr Jonathan Potter, Head of the Entrepreneurship Policy and Analysis Unit, OECD, Paris alongside entrepreneurs Zhimin Zang, VEEEGO, Grace Harrison, Kitty’s Laundrette, Sanjay Aggarwal, Spice Kitchen, Paolo Paoletti & Sebastiano Fichera, Robotiz3D, all sharing their experiences of setting up start-up businesses.