HOSTED BY EO PHILADELPHIA
Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards
Date: January 18, 2024
Time: 9 AM - 1:30 PM
Venue: Villanova University - Room TBA
Attendees: EO Philadelphia Members, EOA Participants, SAPs, and Guests.
Overview: The EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) is the premier global competition for students who own and operate a business. Nominees compete against their peers from around the world in a series of local, national and regional competitions in hopes to qualify for the GSEA Global Finals. GSEA supports student entrepreneurs who require much-needed mentorship, recognition and connections to take their businesses to the next level of success.
In this talk, past GSEA winner Catherine Connelly will discuss her 18-year entrepreneurial journey, navigating two successful exits, and the lessons she has learned:
How to stay focused as an entrepreneur and leader while having fun.
The importance of asking for help and surrounding yourself with the right people.
The role of failure and luck in any entrepreneurial journey.
About our guest speaker, Catherine Connelly:
Catherine Connelly is a marketing leader, entrepreneur, and author of the newsletter Growing Up Startup.
Catherine co-founded The Meet Group, a NASDAQ-listed social dating and livestreaming company connecting millions of active users globally. The Meet Group was acquired in a $500 million sale in 2020. Catherine served as SVP of Marketing, leading marketing and communications across its portfolio of social entertainment apps and livestreaming and creator economy solutions.
As a passionate storyteller, Catherine leads strategic initiatives that engage audiences. Catherine grew MeetMe from nothing to millions of active users through engineering virality. While at The Meet Group, she was instrumental in growing apps like MeetMe and Tagged into two of the top 10 dating apps in the U.S., as measured by consumer spend and downloads, and creating a platform that touches over 10 million monthly active users.
Catherine’s 18 years of experience includes co-founding myYearbook, creating what would eventually become The Meet Group, and leading brand strategy and performance marketing for The Meet Group through a series of mergers, acquisitions, and rebrands.
Now, Catherine writes a weekly newsletter on Substack, Growing Up Startup, sharing lessons learned from her entrepreneurial journey. Catherine also works closely with the Oasis Consortium, an organization working to reduce online toxicity and bring safety and belonging into the digital space.
Catherine graduated from Georgetown University and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner for the Philadelphia Region in 2011. Catherine has been reported on extensively on CNBC, Wall Street Journal, MTV, ABC News, Fox News, CosmoGIRL, BusinessWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, and CBS.
EO Philadelphia Board Event Policy
Registration & Cancellation Deadline: Registration or cancelation of an EO Members, EO Accelerators, or their guests' registrations within 72 hours of the start of an event will incur a charge per person.
This event's deadline is on or by 9 am on January 15, 2024.
No-Shows and Party-Crashers: EO Members, EO Accelerators, and their guests who fail to attend an event, or attend without registering will incur an event charge per person, plus any event-specific charges.
Charges: A $50 event charge applies to any EO Member, EO Accelerator, and/or their respective guests that fall in any of the above categories.
Charges will be automatically collected via eonetwork.org using the EO Member/EO Accelerators card on file or billed directly from the EO Philadelphia Finance Chair.
Please note, that all event-related charges collected due to late registration/cancelation/no-show/party-crashers will be allocated towards EO Philadelphia's annual GSEA competition prize package.