The Kevin and Debra Rollins Center for eBusiness at Brigham Young University will host its first e-business conference on Friday, 17 Nov. The conference will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a ribbon cutting ceremony to launch the school’s new e-business web site (ebusiness.byu.edu)on the second floor atrium of the Tanner Building. Students, faculty and partner companies are invited to participate in the conference.
“The new web site, designed and built by our students, is state of the art,” said Owen Cherrington, director of the Rollins Center for eBusiness at the Marriott School. “Our web site will serve as a virtual e-business center.”
The site will showcase students’ e-business expertise, provide a forum where students and professionals can collaborate, contain a streaming video of e-business news articles and give students the means to launch their own e-business.
Josh James, co-founder and CEO of MyComputer.com, will be the conference’s keynote speaker. In October, James and his partner, John Pestana, sold their company, which provides tools and services to websites, to Net Objects for $57 million. Prior to MyComputer.com, James co-founded JP Interactive, Utah’s largest web development company and ScriptSearch.com. James is a former BYU student of business management.
The conference will also include a panel discussion with speakers from Sun Microsystems,Thoughts.com, iAccess Capital, Nowalls.com, Trade.com, Videoaxs.com, Iomega, Netdocuments.com andOmniwhere.com. “Panel participants will be invited to speak about their company’s products and services, how they’re using e-business to enhance revenues, what they’re contributing to the eBusiness Center and how students can take advantage of their contribution,” Cherrington said.
The conference will close with a pizza lunch and workshops—designed to facilitate students’ interest in starting and managing dot-com companies. For information, call Jeni at (801) 378-2815.
The Rollins Center for eBusiness is directed by Marriott School professor, J. Owen Cherrington. The Center fosters the study and teaching of how information technology is changing business and management processes. It serves as an intermediary between the high-tech business sector and the faculty and students at the university—forming new partnerships and undertaking joint research projects. The center also works to attract and maintain the highest quality faculty and staff, develop new course materials, expand the number of e-commerce classes and provide students with new employment opportunities, internships and field study projects.
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Writer: Carrie Beckstead