At this point in our Venture Forum research our group has begun to conduct primary research. Up until this point we had mainly focused on secondary research that we were able to access online through the consortium, we decided to focus on the seven schools within the consortium because the Venture Forum has already disclosed that they had changed the name of the organization from the WPI Venture Forum to the The Venture Forum in hopes of attracting a wider variety of people and also because they planned to spread to other schools with Clark University being the first school that the new Venture Forum would branch out too othere colleges. To collect our primary data our group which was focused on collecting data in regards to how The Venture Forum could build a better relationship between them and the students in the consortium which consists of seven schools and a little under 23,000 students. The surveys that our group created were directed at least one to two professors are each college where we asked them:
1. How important is innovation as part of the curriculum for students?
2. How do you cultivate innovation among students and faculty?
3. Are you aware of the Venture Forum and what it does?
4. The Forum is interested in broadening. Its work beyond the technology sector. What would kind of services. Could it provide that could both benefit your students and encourage them to participate? (i.e. provide free transportation, offer mentor/internship programs, establish a guest speaker network, etc.)
These questions asked, so that our group could gain a better understanding on how teachers in the consortium use innovation and Entrepreneurship in their classrooms, how can The Venture Forum service them and how can The Venture Forum be beneficial to their students. As we were conducting this data our group ran into many road blocks in regards to communication with the professors from the other seven schools.
