PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

A friend of mine sent me this video which shows the beginnings of Google , one of the World's most influential companies. More than anything else, it demonstrates the initial entrepreneurial spirit of founder Larry Page and the relationship with Eric Schmidt, the "outsider"brought in to manage Page and Sergei Brin. Enjoy!

Western Mail column 25th June 2011. Last Thursday, I was over in Dublin to chair a postgraduate awards panel for the Irish Research Council on Humanities and the Social Sciences when, at 6am in the morning, I read an email stating that our appeal to get a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Richard Burton had been successful. For those of you who have read the Western Mail over the last few months, you may have become aware that despite being the best actor of his generation, or indeed any generation, Richard Burton has never been honoured with a star on the iconic Walk of Fame that snakes around Hollywood and is visited by over 10 million tourists every year. However, if you didn’t know this before, then you are not alone. Two years ago, I was sitting in a pub with Geraint Jones, former head of Barclays Wales, expounding on the international success of Wales and its icons over a few beers. The talk turned to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the inevitable bet of how many Wel...

"Congrats to you and the people of Wales!" That is the message I received earlier this morning from Ana Martinez at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which has responsibility for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. To be honest, I haven't been able to stop the smile off my face today, even when chairing a postgraduate research awards board at the Irish Research Council, which made many of the esteemed academics sitting around the table wonder why I was finding such pleasure in Ph.D applications on Irish History, management studies and humanities! The BBC has already run the story  and it is starting to go viral globally, which is good news as we still need to raise money for the star. We are having a meeting next week to discuss our strategy but I have already been in touch with Welsh expats in LA who are hoping to do a fundraising dinner in the Autumn. I hope we can also do one here in Wales and in London, as well as holding a film premiere (the Apollo in Port Talbot...

Western Mail column 18th June 2011. This week, Sir Roger Jones, serial entrepreneur and former chairman of the Welsh Development Agency (WDA), made an impassioned plea for the return of an independent body similar to the WDA which would be controlled by a private sector board with strong trade union representation. Responding to the House of Commons Select Committee on Welsh Affairs, Sir Roger's evidence focused predominantly on the fall in inward investment since the WDA was finally closed as part of the Bonfire of the Quangos back in 2006. Yet whilst the attraction of foreign direct investment was the main role of the agency in the 1980s and 1990s, it is easy to forget the revolutionary role that it played in developing the World's first regional enterprise strategy, the Entrepreneurship Action Plan for Wales. One of the first calls for the development of a ‘regional enterprise strategy’ came in a paper  I wrote whilst a Professor at the University of Glamorgan which,...

As I am at the annual World Conference on Entrepreneurship research, here is a video of President Barack Obama launching the presidential summit on entrepreneurship, talking to young muslims about the importance of enterprising people around the World.

Currently in my favourite European city, Stockholm, where I am presenting a refereed paper at the International Council for Small Business World conference with my colleague and good friend Professor Magnus Klofsten of Linkoping University. We have been working on it for the last six months and it probably still needs a bit of work over the summer to get it ready for a decent journal. Hopefully, comments from the session will help that process. And just to make sure that the organisers get their pound of flesh for my three day visit, I have also been asked to be a panelist on three workshops. The first two, on enterprise education and regional development are well within my area but the third, on entrepreneurship in the European Space Industry, is pushing the comfort zone! According to the workshop organisers - Spaceport Sweden -  this workshop will focus on the  development and cross-fertilisation of the space and creative industries create unforseen opportunities for ...

Daily Post Column, June 13th 2011 Back in May, the Welsh Conservatives’ increased their Assembly Members to fifteen, leapfrogging Plaid Cymru to become the official opposition party. However, thanks to the electoral system within Wales, Conservative wins in the Mid and West Wales region meant that leader Nick Bourne lost his own seat. As a result, one of the first acts of the Welsh Conservatives following the election was to seek a new AM to lead the group during the next five years of the fourth Assembly for Wales. Whilst political commentators had seen Jonathan Morgan, the AM Cardiff North AM, as the heir apparent, he also lost his seat to the former MP Julie Morgan during a bruising election battle. So, those of us who are members of the Welsh Conservative Party are now faced with a choice between two highly able Assembly Members, both of whom were first elected in 2007, but have very differing styles and approaches to the future of not only the party, but to its policies ...

Western Mail column June 11th 2011 Some people may have thought that they were watching an episode of “Ashes to Ashes” when George Osborne, in his first full budget, announced that twenty one new enterprise zones would be created across England. In fact, that has been the knee-jerk reaction of many critics to the new scheme, namely that the enterprise zones created in the 1980s by the then Conservative Government simply did not fulfil expectations. For example, they point to research that indicates that as much as 80 per cent of jobs created in areas such as The Docklands in London were displaced from other places and that each job cost £23,000 to create. However, there is one major difference between the old model from thirty years ago and the one proposed by the current Government, namely that the new enterprise zones will be focused on areas of high growth potential, not those that are in industrially declining areas. In addition, the enterprise zones will focus on creating ...

This is an incredible presentation from MIT's Media Lab. Please perservere and go through the whole 70 slides Enchanted Objects: The next wave of the web View more presentations from David Rose

In a move that will propel innovative Welsh companies into the heart of the American venture capital market, the University of Wales has opened an office in San-Jose, the self-proclaimed ‘capital of Silicon Valley’. The Irish Innovation Centre (IIC), a launch-pad organisation for Irish start-up businesses in Silicon Valley, has invited the University of Wales to base itself within their company in a nod to a shared Celtic heritage and entrepreneurial spirit. Together with its affiliate organisation, the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG), the Centre offers a wealth of resources to technology companies making the difficult transition across the Atlantic, including office space, legal and administrative help, conference facilities, and media/PR support. The support network of the IIC, coupled with its location in Silicon Valley, will present a goldmine of opportunity for Welsh companies wishing to penetrate the US market. The establishment of a Welsh entrepreneurial base in t...

Western Mail article June 4th 2011 Last week, I was in Tunisia for the OECD, the global economic development body. The aim of the mission was to support the development of enterprise education within Tunisian universities in order to help more young people to develop their enterprise and employment opportunities. It was a fascinating couple of days not only to experience the dedication and passion of the participating academics but because, only five months ago, Tunisia started a revolution that has since swept through the whole of the Arab world. For many of us living in the UK, this small North African nation that is located between Libya and Algeria is seen predominantly as a Mediterranean holiday destination. Yet the country has a rich and varied history encompassing the great empire of Carthage whose most famous general, Hannibal, nearly defeated the might of the Roman Empire. Indeed, even when the Carthaginians were eventually conquered following the third Punic War, t...

The photos from the British American Business Council (BABC) event last month in San Francisco have finally arrived. This was the final day morning session with myself, Melinda Richter (Prescience International), Peter Moore  (EA Sports) and Lt General Sir Robert Fry (McKinney Rogers) discussing innovation (yes, I am wearing the University of Wales tie for all to see!) The most important thing about conferences is not the speech itself but the contacts you make - I have already linked up Melinda with the Institute of Life Sciences in Swansea and Peter with a games company in Wales. I also hope to get Sir Robert, who was born in Penarth, to return home soon to give a lecture on his exceptional career. A successful event all round!

Interviews with Steve Jobs, Ted Hoff, Lew Wolff, Scott Cook, John Gage and John Warnock discussing Silicon Valley's convergence of high-technologies, start-ups, the venture capital industry and the arrival of the microprocessor - the personal computer became a reality.