Chicago, U.S.A. — Culinary school will never be the same. Triumph Higher Education Group announced on June 28th the launch of the first-ever online culinary school, the Escoffier Online International Culinary Academy. Never before has a program of this caliber been paired with the accessibility and affordability of the web. Modeled after the most prestigious culinary institutes in the world, Escoffier Online offers a comprehensive curriculum of cooking techniques and fundamentals – without the physical, financial, and time constraints of a traditional culinary school – through an online platform that combines learning essentials into one intuitive, easy to use interface.

The first of its kind in the world, Escoffier Online puts culinary school within reach for beginners and enthusiasts alike – from the aspiring chef seeking a career to the hobbyist taking a passion to new heights. Tuition is only $5,000, which includes access to a detailed curriculum, a professional kit of essential cooking tools, and a personal culinary mentor gleaned from a team of accomplished professional chefs.

The chef-designed program focuses on the building blocks of a culinary education, with core courses covering Culinary Basics, Culinary Groundwork, Culinary Essentials, and Culinary Careers. Each course includes a series of interactive learning modules addressing a multitude of topics, from basic knife skills to stock and mother sauce preparation, braising and roasting, and more. Every module culminates with an assessment that includes a self-evaluation, recipe preparation, and one-on-one mentor review. The program is designed to take two to four months, with up to one year to complete coursework. No set start dates means that students can begin their culinary journey anytime, anywhere, as long as they have access to a kitchen and a computer.

In addition to delivering a prestigious and wide-ranging program with expanded flexibility and convenience, Escoffier Online’s on-demand, interactive platform offers unique features for both personal and professional development. With 24×7 access to lessons and support, students can continuously work on perfecting techniques and share ideas, tips, and questions with fellow classmates in an inviting, collaborative online environment. They also begin building a customized online portfolio the instant they enroll, with details on completed coursework and skills, images of successful dishes, comments from chef mentors, and more that can be easily shared with prospective employers. A final course sharpens students’ abilities in the workplace, with modules on conflict resolution, teamwork, resume writing, and interviewing, plus a Q&A with mentor chefs to discuss their own experiences in the kitchen.

“This is truly a revolution in the world of culinary education because we’re doing so much more than simply bringing a great program online; we’re using the Internet to completely change the definition of a culinary education and who can get it. Our program won’t just level the playing field, it will give our graduates a real competitive edge,” explained Jack Larson, Escoffier Online co-founder and Executive Chairman at Triumph. An entrepreneur with a deep background in traditional and online education and vocational training, Larson worked closely with top industry chefs and instructors to bring the pioneering vision of legendary French Chef Auguste Escoffier to the web.

Upon completion of the program, students become “Escoffier Certified,” with a diploma signed by Michel Escoffier, great grandson of the esteemed chef. Escoffier Online has been approved and recognized by a number of leading culinary organizations, including the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Chicago Chefs of Cuisine Inc., the American Personal & Private Chef Association, and others.

“Whether you have a $50,000 education from a renowned culinary school or you’re self-taught, you still start your career on a kitchen line – that’s just the reality of the restaurant profession,” said Chef Mark Dowling, Vice President of Academics and Executive Chef at Triumph. “Escoffier Online gives aspiring chefs an entirely new option, with an opportunity to learn the essential building blocks of cooking, at a fraction of the price – no matter where they live – and putting them on the fast track to a culinary career.”

The article Group Launches First-Ever Online Culinary School appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Dearborn, U.S.A – For more than a century Ford Motor Company has been a leading automotive industry innovator, launching breakthroughs in areas as diverse as manufacturing, safety, propulsion systems and vehicle design. On 31 May 2012 Ford is reaching beyond its boundaries to encourage entrepreneurship and the sharing of ideas to facilitate innovation that can help not only the company, but more importantly, the community at large to create a better world.

“There was a time not so long ago in this business when ideas that were ‘not invented here’ got easily dismissed,” says William Coughlin, CEO, Ford Global Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company that manages the company’s intellectual property portfolio. “The competitive pressures in the auto industry today are greater than ever, with demands for improving quality, safety, technology and of course fuel efficiency, so we are both encouraging and looking for new ideas wherever we can find them.”

Ford is launching several major initiatives to support entrepreneurship and surface technological innovation in southeast Michigan. In addition to the recent improvement to the Patent Incentive Program that provides Ford employee inventors with a three-month free membership to TechShop Detroit, Ford is also looking for new ideas from outside.

“TechShop is a place where entrepreneurs and other makers have access to over one million dollars of tools, software and high-end equipment that allow them to rapidly and inexpensively prototype,” said Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop. “Innovation happens when you add community and crowdsourcing into the mix – which is exactly what the Motor City Innovation Exchange will do for our members, the automotive industry and anyone in the greater Detroit area who has an idea they want to turn into a reality.”

Motor City Innovation Exchange, AutoHarvest and TechTown

Creators with ideas that have been fleshed out need to put them into action and that’s where the Motor City Innovation Exchange comes into play.

“Bringing TechShop to Detroit was the critical first step in the creation of the Innovation Exchange,” says Coughlin. “It will be an open meeting place that will enable inventors to showcase what they create in TechShop and then negotiate, network and even sell their prototyped solutions to players in the automotive industry, from manufacturers and suppliers to research institutions and startups.”

The Innovation Exchange is also a physical extension of Detroit-based AutoHarvest Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up by several respected automotive executives to facilitate connections between the industry and Metro Detroit’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ford Global Technologies, along with other automakers, suppliers, universities and research centers actively support AutoHarvest. The goal is to build a vibrant marketplace for licensing technological innovation across and beyond the auto industry.

Until now, there has been a major disconnect between having a great idea and being able to sell or license it to companies that can actually put it to use. For those not already in the industry, making the right connections to present a new concept or product has been a daunting task. AutoHarvest and Innovation Exchange hope to provide a platform for commercializing the intellectual property created by everyday inventors, industry insiders, universities and research labs.

TechTown, the Wayne State University business incubator, will hold regular “office hours” sessions at Innovation Exchange to provide informal business support to TechShop members and other innovators. Exchange participants will be able to take advantage of free or low-cost workshops on a variety of relevant topics presented by TechTown instructors.

“Innovation Exchange is all about helping to spread the word about the innovation happening both inside and outside of TechShop, and giving the creators the foundational resources they need to understand how to sell and commercialize their idea and connect with the right players while respecting their intellectual property,” says Coughlin.

Jump Start Program

TechShop members with big ideas for a startup and a need for affordable working space can participate in a new Jump Start Program that offers discounted rental rates in Ford Land buildings in the Allen Park and Dearborn area.

Because of the diversity of projects being developed at TechShop, Ford Land will be flexible in providing suitable space that fits the specific needs of participants. The space, including locations adjacent to TechShop Detroit, can be used by individuals or small businesses for a variety of purposes including office, garage, lab and assembly use. Interested TechShop members can access information at http://fordland.com.

“Supporting innovation and entrepreneurialism benefits the entire region,” said Donna Inch, chairman and CEO, Ford Land. “By lowering startup costs, we will enable more businesses to get off the ground and have a better chance of being successful.”

“Like every industry, the automobile business was built and thrived on innovation,” said Coughlin. “As personal transportation is reinvented in the 21st century, the challenges facing the industry are greater than ever and fresh ideas are essential to success.”

“Ford is pleased to be leading the way through its connections with TechShop, AutoHarvest Foundation and TechTown,” he added.

Image Courtesy of  Darren Brode / Shutterstock.com

The article Ford Facilitates New Innovation appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

San Francisco, U.S.A – When game maker Doug Arduini received a cease and desist order from the largest board game company in the country, he agreed to stop selling his award-winning game, change the name and start all over. However, with no cash flow, he turned to crowd funding to save the day.

His inspiring story has a lesson worth learning for all entrepreneurs who find themselves in a cash flow crunch.

“I had orders for my game in hand from our distributor and the best way I could think of to meet new orders was to change the name of our game, and redesign the artwork to fit the new name,” said a hopeful Arduini. “Because I had already spent $130,000 of my own money dealing with the legal issues on our previous game’s name, I was not sure where to turn. Then a colleague told me about Kickstarter.com and I knew I’d found the answer to my prayers,” said Arduini excitedly.

Arduini thinks big. He is an electronic engineer with a passion for writing and developing games that turn serious learning into fun. He sees a need and fills it and began his quest with a solid purpose to turn important things people need to know into fun and create games with a social purpose.

His original game was called Non-Trivial Quest. Now it is called Non-Trivia Quest. It helps kids and adults learn things like history, geography, finance and math. The concept is noble — as kids grow up into adulthood, they need to know these things to be well-rounded, good communicators and to fit into society. The game is not a test, but an education and experience. It is intended to open up discussions, be interesting, and improve memory and develop awareness.

“I started working on Non-Trivial Quest in the summer of 1987. After I took early retirement from Cisco Systems, I thought I could finish the game in three months, but quickly discovered it would take me several more years. I finally introduced the game in March, 2011.”

Arduini’s first lesson for entrepreneurs is that things take longer than you think, but you can always go from hopeless to hopeful.

“If you run into cash-flow problems as we did, this economy makes it tougher to find funding. However, a brilliant site like Kickstarter.com really changes the name of the game for entrepreneurs,” said Arduini.

The article Crowd Funding is the Name of the Game appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

What can we learn from Apple, Groupon, and Facebook? That it pays more than a billion dollars to be the first team off the starting block. They have been rewarded with billion dollar IPOs by successfully predicting market behavior. Three years ago, WealthForge began developing their own prediction model focused on the idea that “crowdfund investing” would be legalized in the U.S. and only moments ago, their prediction came true.

President Obama just signed the JOBS act into law, signifying new legislation that will lift several SEC restrictions on soliciting investors, while permitting “crowdfunding” the ability for entrepreneurs to raise equity capital from larger groups of small investors.

Investments must be made through an SEC registered “funding portal” or website and investors may be limited in their total crowdfunding investments based on their net worth. (For detailed JOBS act information) click here.

Mat Dellorso and Fred Bryant co-founders of WealthForge are glad to see this day come, but neither are surprised about the overwhelming approval of the JOBS act. The two former University of Richmondstudents founded WealthForge in 2009 with the idea that smaller businesses should have greater chances of raising capital.

“Being a startup ourselves, we experienced the challenges of fundraising,” says Dellorso. “Our goal was to create a more efficient and simplified marketplace where entrepreneurs and investors could locate funding opportunities and complete the fundraising transactions in one place.”

It took almost 3 years for WealthForge to prove the model and register with the SEC. However, it appears their due diligence has paid off. While the JOBS act awaits the SEC’s 270 day review period, WealthForge stands ready to handle “crowdfund investing” NOW.

At WealthForge, entrepreneurs create a business profile and outline their funding objectives in a secure environment. Once the business is ready to fundraise they can use the platform to expose their business and funding objectives with a community of potential investors. This isn’t your typical Kickstarter project where entrepreneurs seek donations, rather where entrepreneurs raise equity capital for their business.

“WealthForge vets company profiles for strong investment opportunities,” Dellorso remarks, “we also vet investors to ensure they are a good fit for the company who is seeking capital and guidance.”

A new marketplace for small business fundraising has emerged and WealthForge is armed and ready. Create your profile at http://wealthforgeonline.com.

The article WealthForge Ready for Crowdfund Investing After JOBS Act Passed appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.