Rescripting a conference is not enough, it needs to be UNscripted.

As USASBE’s CEO, one of my main responsibilities is to deliver, every year, a remarkable Annual Conference. It funds our mission-driven organization and provides demonstrable value for our members. For 2021, we decided months ago to not have it in-person. It was a risky decision, especially for a new CEO. Was this a baby-bathwater decision?

Time will tell, but as we engage with tech platforms, solution providers, and members in this new digital landscape, we see that it has opened new doors. We are now about to recreate the way our community connects. Many of our members fall within high-risk categories, and others have budgets impacted by financial reverberations in the academic community. Yet our purpose and mission has never been more keenly felt. Collaborations and intentional connectivity is the playground our minds need to keep mentally sharp and develop professionally.

The USASBE team challenged many members to share what they wanted to see, hear, and feel during a virtual event. An example of the ethos that arose throughout these conversations was captured by Dr. Christoph Winkler at Iona College, “Wouldn’t it be nice if our conference challenged us to rethink what it means to participate in a community?”

Indeed! Members want to share research, teaching successes, and programming ideas, and they also want to come together in small groups around challenges and opportunities to create new research ideas, teaching exercises, and riff on new program ideas. They want to hear from solution providers, get inspired by keynote speakers, and connect and laugh with each other. While it may be difficult to enjoy the drink tickets of yesteryear, they want to metaphorically drink deeply the hopes, challenges, and successes of each other through a community-based program.

This provocative thought is exactly what the USASBE team will proudly deliver: a new USASBE and a community that can now connect more than just a few days each year.

Planning or “scripting” of the “unscripted” feels counter-intuitive, but we are building the framework for our members. Changes to this year’s gathering include the following:

• Moving the event’s dates to weekdays: Tuesday, January 5 — Friday, January 8. We will convene together around keynotes, plenary panels, competitive tracks, technology demonstrations, social interest groups, Teaching & Learning Scholar projects, Awards, and other celebrations. Scheduled presentations will only happen for half the day, and will allow for more flexible times to explore, collaborate, and socialize with each other, partners, sponsors, and mentors.
• Emerging Tracks will become targeted Curated Creative Cohorts and will collaborate throughout the month of January before presenting the results of their endeavors in a virtual festival.
• USASBE’s outstanding Doctoral Consortium will now be a 4-month developmental experience and celebration rather than 1 day.
• Virtual Workshops and Learning Journeys will be held throughout January instead of 1 day right before the conference.
• The exciting addition of Virtual Case Studies will allow for a deeper connection with their respective entrepreneurial case subjects.
• The 4th edition of the Annals of Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy edited by Dr. Charles Matthews and Dr. Eric Liguori will be launched in electronic format in real-time at the conference and will have supplemental video interviews and content from contributors.

And more surprises are in development.

The beauty of the new virtual community is that new contributions — innovative ideas — to the discipline are often serendipitous. So, here we go! USASBE’s members will endeavor into the unfamiliar and make the most of this opportunity to Be Boldly Unscripted.

-Written by USASBE CEO, Julienne Shields