IVLP in Washington D.C

My IVLP in  Washington D.C ended yesterday. 

Here are the summary of the meetings I've had in D.C. between the 30th afternoon and the 4th, minus the weekends.

In total I had attended 5 meetings and a talk on Federalism.

 

The meetings were with the following organizations:

- Ashoka (www.ashoka.org)

- The US Department of State (www.state.gov)

- The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) (www.nfte.com)

     
- The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) (www.cipe.org)

- The U.S Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and 

- The Small Business Administration (SBA)

Some of the key experiences from these amazing meetings were:

1. At each meeting, a senior person who had done sufficient homework on me and the work of my company will be the one meeting me;

2. The person would be there on time and provide an overview of the organization, the type of work they do and also will share very openly some of the challenges they face;

3. They will listen attentively to your story, your work and then there will be an exchange of question and answers.

4. At the end of it, areas of synergies and future possibilities will be explored and very actionable steps will be outlined to be followed-through.

5. Before I reach the hotel or within 24 hours, email exchanges will take place thanking me for my time and also for coming over for the meeting and I will do the same.

This is the general format of all the meetings so far.

Take note - I have  emphasized the words "followed-through".

This, in my opinion is key to building a vast network.

I know some people in Malaysia - they will talk the big game but will not even have the courtesy to reply your emails or messages. 

These are some of my impressions and key lessons from these meetings:

1. Both the US Government and the private sector ( "for-profit" and "non-for-profit") display an immense amount of resolve to continuously find, fund and foster entrepreneurship. 

2. They do this in a very dedicated and systematic manner and every organization "talk" to each other to ensure the efforts are not duplicated but complimentary.

3. These organizations are in themselves entrepreneurial - they operate with a very lean team but they seem to achieve a lot;

4.Relevance -the system continuously find ways to keep their seniors relevant and functional.

Some of their programs such as SCORE has retired business people act as mentors or "door-openers" for the young entrepreneurs.

5. I see a lot of passion in the promoters.

There are many specific examples of these lessons which I will share as we go along.

Wanted to quickly provide and overview of the D.C IVLP experience.

Apart from the meetings, I also attended a talk on the US Government System titled Federalism. It was a very interesting lecture on the politics of America.

The lecture was by a professor from the George Washington University.

Overall, a great experience.