The COVID-19 Virtual Idea Blitz: Marshaling social entrepreneurship to rapidly respond to urgent grand challenges

Abstract

In response to societal grand challenges, professors have unique opportunities to effect change, repurposing their expertise to deploy relevant, timely, practical, and research-backed knowledge for the betterment of communities. Drawing on scholarship on postcrisis organizing, entrepreneurial hustle, and social entrepreneurship, we provide a firsthand, real-time case description of a three-day "virtual idea blitz" organized in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The event was organized and executed in less than a week and ultimately involved 200 individuals, including entrepreneurs, coders, medical doctors, venture capitalists, industry professionals, students, and professors from around the world. By the end of the weekend, 21 ideas with corresponding pitches were developed in five thematic areas: health needs, education, small businesses, community, and purchasing. We describe how the community was rapidly rallied, and we discuss the key learning outcomes of this spontaneous entrepreneurial endeavor. We provide evidence from participants and mentors that showcases the value of the time-compressed virtual idea blitz in accelerating social entrepreneurial action. We offer practical guidance to academic, community, and professional institutions that would like to replicate or build upon our approach to stimulate the formation of community and to coordinate efforts to thwart the ongoing threat of COVID-19, as well as other societal challenges that might emerge in the future.

Covid-19 and entrepreneurship education: Implications for advancing research and practice

“…Border closures and cuts to international travel have further restricted international student mobility and business activities ( Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020 ). To respond to these changes there has been a rapid uptake in remote and digital learning entrepreneurship education methods ( Bacq, Geoghegan, Josefy, Stevenson and Williams, 2020 ).…”

A gap analysis of farm tourism microentrepreneurial mentoring needs in North Carolina, USA

“…The COVID-19 pandemic supershock brought the entire service industry to its knees, but small and microbusinesses have been affected the most (Bartik et al, 2020;Fairlie, 2020). Moving forward, as authorities implement recovery plans and make resources available for microentrepreneurs, we argue that mentorship can play an important role in accelerating entrepreneurial action (Bacq, Geoghegan, Josefy, Stevenson, & Williams, 2020).…”

Online learning as a result of globalization during the pandemic Covid-19

“…Within a short period of time, the faculty members had to change the format of the educational process in the current situation and provide conditions for a full transition to EDE, and students had to start assimilating information at a new level. [11] SHS Web of Conferences 92, 010 (2021) Globalization and its Socio-Economic Consequences 2020 20 https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20219201020…”

“…Due to a lack of universal educational platforms and a lack of technical literacy of most teachers, educational institutions are at a stalemate and "entrepreneurial hustle" [10], being forced to urgently create new types and forms of online education. [11] A new educational platform for developing WEB applications is presented by Zhang L. in the work "Development of an information-based online foreign language teaching platform with ASP.NET" [6].…”