Business & Entrepreneurship

The Center for Social Development at the Brown School is advising and helping to test innovations in asset building — strategies that increase financial and tangible assets for families and businesses — in several countries in East and Southeast Asia.

Top experts in Chinese law will gather at School of Law Thursday, Feb. 25, for a panel discussion and open public forum. The event, co-sponsored by the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. A live webcast also will be available through the program.

Before athletes grabbed the limelight at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Olin MBA student Shaun Hudson found glory in hot wings at the “OLINpics” Feb. 11 in the Knight Center. The OLINpics continue at 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18, at Brandt’s Cafe in the University City Loop with an Olympic trivia contest.

Marketing students at Olin Business School are gearing up for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games with a series of events to educate, entertain and raise funds for an adventure camp sponsored by Variety the Children’s Charity of St. Louis. The kick-off event for “OLINpics” begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11, in the Knight Center on the Danforth Campus. 

The Danforth Campus has more than 12,000 students, 4,500-plus faculty and staff and 5,168 parking spaces. Teams of Olin Business School students have been crunching the numbers since December in hopes of solving the campus parking challenge and winning the grand prize of $5,000 in the first Olin Sustainability Case Competition. Four teams compete in the final round Friday, Feb. 12. 

Experts from the St. Louis Federal Reserve and around the country will be on the Washington University campus Friday, Feb. 5, to discuss the Federal Reserve’s role during the recent recession and future directions for policy. The free public conference, “Monetary Policy Amid Economic Turbulence,” begins at 2:30 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Court Room, Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Don’t be fooled by a company’s recent attempt to market smokeless tobacco as “harmless,” says Douglas Luke, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Tobacco Policy Research at the Brown School. “Part of what we’re seeing here is the tobacco industry trying to position smokeless tobacco products so that they either do not come under the new Food and Drug Administration regulations or they come under weaker regulations,” Luke says.

Creativity at the World Economic Forum? That may seem like a bit of stretch. But according to Keith Sawyer, PhD, associate professor of education and of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, the two go hand-in-hand. Sawyer moderated two sessions at last month’s forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“High-quality research is the lifeblood of a great research university,” says Olin Business School Dean Mahendra Gupta.  It’s also how faculty create knowledge, inspire their students and transform business.  Abstracts and links to the lastest research from Olin’s faculty have just been published.

Dancing classrooms, online philanthropy, a resale shop, produce market and programs to empower youth are among the projects in the final round of this year’s social entrepreneurship competition.  The YouthBridge SEIC competition will award $155,000 in April to the business plans with the most promise and solutions to help resolve social issues.