Media Alert: December 17, 2010For reporters, editors, producersContact: Carrie Handwerker; 301-405-5833 Entrepreneurial Outlook: Is 2011 the Year to Start a Business?

College Park, Md. – November 4, 2010 – The University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business won the top award for innovative teaching methods from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC). The organization recognized the Dingman Center with the “Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation” award at its annual conference at Pennsylvania State University on Oct. 23.

Dominic Crapuchettes, MBA ’04, bet his future on North Star Games, a board game company he created in 2004 with Satish Pillalamarri, MBA ’04. Now you can find his games — Wits & Wagers, Say Anything and Cluzzle — in your neighborhood retail stores. He's won numerous awards in the past six years and he's nominated for "Rising Star Inventor of the Year" in the Third Annual Toy and Game Inventor Awards, presented by the Chicago Toy and Game Group and sponsored by Hasbro. His competition is movie star Daryl Hannah, and he needs our support! The deadline for voting was Wednesday, Nov.

A group of student entrepreneurs got an unusual opportunity to present their big ideas to an audience of University of Maryland Trustees and the university’s new president, Dr. Wallace Loh, as the Smith School’s weekly Pitch Dingman competition went to the Riggs Alumni Center on Friday, October 29. The event followed a University Board of Trustees meeting which focused on the importance of entrepreneurship to the university and the state of Maryland.

College Park, Md. – Sept. 22, 2010 – The University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurshipat the Robert H. Smith School of Business kicked off its 25th year of helping students and regional entrepreneurs turn their business ideas into successful startups with a visit yesterday from benefactor Michael Dingman, an international investor, businessman and philanthropist. The center also named a new board chair, Mark Walsh, CEO and chairman of GeniusRocket, a leading provider of user-generated advertising media.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship will host Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, on Thursday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m. in the Hoff Theater, Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland. Hsieh will discuss his new book, “Delivering Happiness,” which shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion and purpose both in business and in life.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship began its year-long 25th anniversary celebration on September 21, 2010 with a day of festivities concluded by a keynote address from University of Maryland alumnus Michael Dingman, the entrepreneur-philanthropist whose gift helped transform the center into a world-class entrepreneurial institute with a worldwide reach.

When senior accounting major Greg Waldstreicher enteredEntrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2010 contest at the suggestion of a University of Maryland alum, he didn’t tell his family or friends. Other than his business partner Gideon Platt, a senior at NYU, he didn’t share his decision to enter with anyone, because the chances of becoming a finalist seemed slim.

College Park, Md. – May 10, 2010 – Social Growth Technologies, an online digital payment company, took home $15,000 as the top winner at the fifth annual Cupid’s Cup business competition, hosted on May 7 by the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

On Wed., March 10, the Smith School and the Maryland Undergraduate Society of Entrepreneurs will host a "Marketplace" from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Van Munching Hall's Pownall Grand Atrium. The event showcases student-run businesses and Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship portfolio companies that will make their various products available for purchase to the general university population.