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The Indiana Daily Student

RECESS tour inspires future entrepreneurs

Paper Diamond performs at the Bluebird in Bloomington on Tuesday evening. The concert was part of the end of the day celebration presented by RECESS, IU's music and ideas festival.

A turntable and large speakers played electronic pop music through the Solarium on Tuesday. It was an unexpected, upbeat vibe for a networking fair and precisely what RECESS aims to provide — an entrepreneurial experience with a fresh perspective.

RECESS is an all-day music and ideas festival founded by IU alumni Deuce Thevenow and Jack ?Shannon.

Colin Cadarette, who is in charge of marketing and content for RECESS, said returning to IU was especially gratifying for the RECESS team.

“We started here,” he said. “The company was started here, our first tour started here ... It’s kind of like home, coming back here.”

To kick off the festival, students entered the Playground in the Solarium of the Indiana Memorial Union. The Playground is an interactive networking experience filled with booths from new brands and ?startups.

Pro Sky, featured in the Playground, is a startup focused on the training and recruitment of interns for companies, said co-founder Matt Ang. He said the company loves connecting with students in a more engaging environment.

“I think students are motivated to talk to us,” he said.

Co-founder Alexis Ang said the students at IU specifically had a genuine drive to gain opportunities and make connections.

“I want to hire them,” she said.

Alexis was especially impressed with the innovative minds of the aspiring entrepreneurs, some of whom even created their own majors at IU to cater to their broad interests.

“We’re looking to change up job training and recruiting, so it’s awesome that, while you’re pursuing your education, you’re also mixing it up,” she said.

Global Voice Hall Live is a media startup dedicated to covering trending news and politics through the eyes and voices of millennials.

Co-founder and President Cheryl Montalvo said GVH Live is responsible for some of the video coverage of RECESS and has been involved with them since last year.

“We got involved with RECESS because it is a like-minded organization that focuses not only on embracing this millennial generation but also uplifting this generation,” she said.

The panel of speakers in Study Hall took the advancement of millennials to the next level by providing advice from seasoned veterans in the entrepreneurial field.

Co-founder of advancement company SproutBox Mike Trotzke and Senior Analyst for the Innovative Indiana Fund Maggie Musgrave spoke about persistence in networking.

Trotzke said being at IU was a huge networking opportunity in itself.

In his years at IU before dropping out to start his own company, Trotzke said he made an effort to learn as much as he could and make connections.

“IU was really the place where I started my business life,” he said. “My time at IU was less to do with class and more to do with access to materials and people.”

Networking in the professional world, Trotzke said, simply means not giving up on communicating.

Musgrave said young entrepreneurs should not be afraid to cold email potential partners or investors and maintain those connections.

“It wasn’t until after undergrad when I realized I don’t need permission,” she said.

Trotzke said young entrepreneurs should also not be afraid of setbacks. Taking risks stands out in the entrepreneurial world, he said.

“Anyone who’s taken that risk, we’re probably going to get along really well,” he said.

The keynote speaker, former NFL player and current entrepreneur Dhani Jones, said taking the initiative in communication is a valuable networking skill he uses. Even as a child, Jones said he was constantly asking questions, which helps him now in entrepreneurial engagements.

“I’m not okay with people not wanting to talk to me,” he said. “I’m not okay with people not calling me back. And, most importantly, I’m not okay with myself allowing that to happen.”

In the beginning of his NFL career, Jones said he tore his ACL falling on his own accord during a game. He said he has taken his recovery period as an example of his work.

“It’s the moments that you fall that you realize you have to pick yourself up in order to succeed,” he said. “Just keep going and have the same amount of energy as you started.”

The final portion of the festival, the Pitch, gave five teams the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of a panel of judges in an atmosphere similar to the television show “Shark Tank.”

Senior Courtney Chamberlin pitched her concept Crayonball, a patented line of children’s crayons whose shapes make them more durable.

She said most groups were students from the Kelley School of Business and had more experience ?pitching.

“I’ve never pitched before, ever,” she said.

Chamberlin said it was valuable to give a pitch, which is something entrepreneurs must get used to. The experience as a whole allowed students to learn from and be inspired by other students’ ideas, she said.

“It’s easy to kind of sell a product that you’ve made and you know,” she said. “For my first pitch, I’m ?happy.”

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