Veterans

Inaugural EBV national conference invites 130 graduates Oct. 13-15 in Orlando

Monday, October 10, 2011, By News Staff

The no-cost, cutting-edge Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) business training program for post-9/11 veterans with service-related disabilities will hold its inaugural national conference Oct. 13-15 at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort, Orlando. The conference is hosted by The Florida State University, in coordination with the EBV National Consortium and EBV Foundation. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the EBV. To-date, more than 350 veterans from across the nation have graduated from the program, which has spurred the creation of more than 170 new businesses.

EBV National offers a series of intense refresher courses, breakout sessions, keynote speakers and networking opportunities, and serves a reunion for 130 graduates of the nationwide program, from the classes of 2007-2010. An advanced training and networking experience, the conference offerings include a range of topics designed for both the start-up entrepreneur and those looking to grow their existing ventures.

This is not simply “EBV all over again,” but a program based on what EBV graduates have said they need to further their entrepreneurial goals. Courses and sessions will reinforce what graduates learned during the EBV; in addition to updating them on changes that have occurred since their time in the program—from changes in the national economy to those that affect them personally as veterans. Keynote speakers for the national conference include:

  • Larry Broughton, former U.S. Army Green Beret, best-selling author, award-wining entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Broughton Hotels;
  • Ted Lachowicz, retired investment banking senior leadership, private equity investor, and president of the EBV Foundation, established in 2009; and
  • Eric Weihenmayer, world-renowned author, accomplished climber, only blind person in history to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and adventurer who has climbed the Seven Summits.

“The EBV National Conference is an opportunity for graduates from our programs across the country to reconnect and gain new exposure to entrepreneurs, academics and community leaders—experiences that will further motivate and inspire them to realize their full potential as business people and as citizens,” says Mike Haynie, a former Air Force officer and founder of the EBV. Haynie is executive director of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families and Barnes Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

Created at Whitman in 2007, the EBV is now offered through a national consortium of seven world-class schools that includes Whitman, the College of Business at Florida State University, the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University, the Krannert School at Purdue University, the School of Business at the University of Connecticut and the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University.

The EBV assists veterans in pursuing the American dream of business ownership. It is widely acclaimed as the nation’s premier veteran entrepreneurship training program, recognized as a national best practice by the Department of the Army and is one of the 10 best entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. according to the editors of Inc. magazine.

Syracuse serves as the EBV national consortium’s home base. On the SU campus, the EBV is administered under the auspices of the IVMF, an academic center that leverages the national resources of higher education in service to the veteran and military families community.

For more information on the EBV national conference, contact Tina Kapral, director of education programs at the IVMF at Syracuse, at (315) 443-8795 or tkapral@syr.edu.