Walking through the Enterprise Development Center Showcase, I was able to meet with Stephanie Macias, the Marketing and Events Manager of the center. From her, I was able to get more insight as to what the Enterprise Development Center is.
Housing more than 90 companies, the Enterprise Development Center serves as a place for people to develop their networks, enhance their business, and grow to become a bigger organization than what they already are. The Enterprise Development Center is also one of the biggest incubator centers in the state.
The center, while being a professional house of young companies trying to make it big, felt like a family. You wouldn’t know it unless you were at the showcase, but every company knew each other. Everyone was willing to show off what they had to each other and laugh at the successes and mistakes of what they have made so far. Stephanie told me that for every new company in the center, there is always a mentor waiting to help them out with developing their enterprise. With this biome of companies helping one another, there is no way they can’t be one giant family.
The Enterprise Development Center is also a great place for NJIT students to find work. As you may know, the Enterprise Development Center just had their own little career fair last week, showing off what their companies do while looking for interns capable of carrying out their dreams. The center works closely with Career Development Services, with credit of running the showcase also going to Jane Garner of Career Development Services, students have opportunities almost begging for them across the street.
As I continued talking with Stephanie, something was clear about the goals of the Enterprise Development Center. These companies are creating jobs and opportunities. As risky as a lot of the ideas at the showcase are, a lot of them were hiring. These companies are growing. Soon, these companies will net even more money and jobs with the kinds of services and work they are providing.
Looking at the Enterprise Development Center through the eyes of an independent game developer, there’s a deep connection. You can see the sweat and dedication these startups had to put into their work. Some of these company founders had to sacrifice their regular lives in order to pursue their dreams.
Like independent game developers, of whom I have spoken of as being dedicated and earnest, young entrepreneurs have just as much of that spirit which makes starting a business sound fun.
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As spring is approaching, students are busy getting the most out of their academics and keeping an eye out for the opportunities of their desired companies, to start their careers and excel in their field.
To help the students get further opportunities and have stronger networking with the competitive companies, NJIT, for the first time, hosted the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) showcase, which was managed by the Enterprise Development Center at NJIT.
EDC is a community of individuals and start-up companies all facing many challenges and aspiring to succeed in the marketplace. The start-up companies have collaboration with NJIT through EDC, which helps the students gain a practical experience and understanding of solving the tough challenges, and at the same time, also helps the start-up companies overcome their business/technical challenges, and find their required talent.
The showcase comprised of about 20 start-up companies, all with different backgrounds and career goals. These companies showed and demonstrated their products and their company background, goals, mission statement, and other such related fields to the students who went to their tables. The amount of creativity and ideas with startup companies were amazing. For one company, ‘Vizzical’, their idea was to categorize the importance of phone calls with reason. If a person receives a call, he/she will see the reason and the level of importance of the phone on the screen before even picking it up. Another company, ‘Wickr’, has an idea very much like that of SnapChat, but here, the communication is through text messages, not pictures. Once the recipient views the message that was sent, it is deleted from the system after 15 seconds. Their mission is to provide a secure communications that leave no trace. Several other companies from different fields showed off their innovative ideas and marked their presence in the event. Many companies also had internships and full-time job opportunities for qualifying students and accepted student resumes.
Approximately 206 students, from different majors and all academic standings were seen at the event. Many were formally dressed with their resumes ready, and were all set to network with their desired companies. “It’s pretty good. Some companies here look very promising with their great ideas and I like working with new ideas. This event is pretty helpful for those who have the ideas already but need networking to promote them”, said Khalil Brown, student majoring in Computer Science at NJIT.
Apart from students, faculty and staff members were also seen at the event. Around 30 faculty and staff members came to the event to learn about what the companies do and think about research collaborations for students.
This was the first time NJIT hosted an EDC open house showcase but the atrium was packed with optimistic companies and passionate students, willing to work together and create a new benchmark in the market. Students, as well as the faculty, will look forward to all EDC events that’ll come in future.
Matthew Maravilla & Pavan Rana
