If you’ve used a Samsung cell phone, played on video game systems such as the Sony PlayStation 2 or marveled at the intricacies of a BMW dashboard, you have come in contact with the technology that the luncheon speaker for the E-nnovations 2007 Mid-Atlantic Entrepreneurship Conference helped create and market.

          Dean Chang, Ph.D., the new director of MTECH Ventures in the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute of the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, will discuss both the real life and the academic sides of entrepreneurship in technological and innovative products.

          He holds 30 U.S. and international patents and helped build an entire industry around haptics, the science of simulated touch in human-computer interactions. The technology can be found in diverse products, from surgical training simulators to 3-D modeling and animation and video game systems such as Microsoft Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 2.

          The luncheon speech is just one part of the E-nnovations 2007 conference. Hosted by the Entrepreneurial Studies Institute at Anne Arundel Community College, the conference is endorsed by The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship and meets 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at the BWI Airport Marriott Hotel, 1743 West Nursery Road in Baltimore. Culminating the day will be the Paul S. Sarbanes Spirit Awards Dinner at 6 p.m.

          In addition to Chang, the keynote speaker is Richard Sharoff, founder of Maggie Moo’s International and chief executive officer of FranPoint Partners, who will discuss entrepreneurial opportunities in the food and franchising sectors, and a panel of student entrepreneurs will talk about their journeys to successful ventures.

          Speakers for the break-out sessions include:

Lillian Bailey, program developer and manager for the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence at Tidewater Community College, Workforce Development, on social entrepreneurship recruiting and volunteer management;

Maureen Caviola, founder of Comity Consulting LLC and co-founder of Partners in Care on creative funding strategies for nonprofits;

Jayfus Tucker Doswell, Ph.D., founder, president and chief executive officer of Juxtopia, LLC, a privately held biomedical and information-technology company that is known as an innovative leader in human performance monitoring products and services on securing SBIR and STTR grants for technology;

Kevin Lancaster, co-founder and managing partner of The Winvale Group, a government consulting firm, and Roger London, director of technology scouting for the Chesapeake Innovation Center, on doing business with the government;

Rob Levit, a multi-faceted artist and national speaker, on recognizing opportunities and creative tools for entrepreneurs;

Claudia Morrell, executive director of the Center for Women and Information Technology at University of Maryland Baltimore County, on special opportunities for businesses owned by women and minorities;

Stephen F. Steele, Ph.D., an applied sociologist and director of the Institute for the Future at AACC, on tools businesses can use to predict future trends; and,

Stephanie Watkins, regional administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, on resources for small businesses.

          The Paul S. Sarbanes Spirit Awards Dinner, co-hosted by the Paul S. Sarbanes Center for Public and Community Service at AACC, recognizes social entrepreneurs.

          Attend both the conference and the dinner or just the dinner. Costs for the conference and dinner are: $95, student; $145, nonprofit; $195, business/other. The cost to attend only the Paul S. Sarbanes Spirit Awards Dinner is $85 per person.

          Conference costs, hotel room reservation information and registration forms are on the E-nnovations Web site. For information, go online or contact AACC Continuing and Professional Education, 410-777-7057 or cpe@aacc.edu.

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