Venturelab Weekend: Developing Entrepreneurial Skills From Idea To Action

The VentureLab Weekend is a three-day intensive learning event in which participants work in teams and have the opportunity to develop their business ideas into well-developed business models and convincing presentations. The initiative is organized by the University of Groningen Centre of Entrepreneurship as an extracurricular activity every spring and autumn. In this chapter, we explain the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of the VentureLab Weekend. The initiative focuses on the development of strategic, economic, cultural and social capital as crucial competencies for entrepreneurial success. The event is designed following an effectuation logic to enable participants to understand the role of uncertainty in the entrepreneurship context. Finally, the VentureLab Weekend relies on an experiential learning approach by simulating an entrepreneurial learning context throughout the initiative. We reflect on our experience in organizing this event over the years as well as on the aspects that make the VentureLab Weekend a unique initiative.