UMaine center for entrepreneurs opens

University of Maine student Kelly O'Dell has a dream.

The senior from South Portland wants to "flip" houses - buy, then quickly resell the real estate for a profit.

But she isn't sure how to go about turning her idea into a business opportunity.

Now, thanks to UM's new Innovation Center, she can get all the guidance she needs from faculty, businesspeople, alumni and students who have been involved in successful ventures.

"I'm so excited about this center," O'Dell said Thursday during an open house at the new facility. "There will be lots of entrepreneurs to touch base with and help me find somewhere to start and then point me in the right direction."

The Innovation Center won't open officially until Oct. 13, but students already see it as a place to gain the knowledge, tools and inspiration to become entrepreneurs.

Classes, seminars and workshops will be offered in the 5,000-square-foot building which features cubicles for students to use for work as teams on market research and business plans. There are small rooms where business counselors and patent lawyers can meet individually with budding entrepreneurs. And there are larger spaces for trade shows and conferences where students can mingle with representatives from firms that invest in new businesses and technologies.

A glassed-in section in the front of the building has been dubbed the "Aha!" space. Bright and airy, overlooking a grove of towering trees, the area will be furnished with comfortable furniture where people can gather together to brainstorm and perhaps be inspired.

You never know where, when and how great ideas happen, said Debbie Neuman, director of the Target Technology Incubator in Orono. "But just by being here, that kind of magic can happen."

Paid for with a state bond, the $1.5 million center enables students, faculty and the community to "interact in ways to foster creativity," UM President Robert Kennedy said during Thursday's event.

Students will receive help developing prototypes, raising money, solving technical problems and even establishing a corporate structure.

"We have all these connections with the community and the state and we can open these doors," said Renee Kelly, director of economic development initiatives at UM.

The hope is that students will learn how to be part of today's economy, which places a premium on coming up with ideas and new solutions to problems, said Jake Ward, executive director for research and development at UM and one of the driving forces behind the center.

But even if students never become involved in a new project or invention, they may work at a bank, law firm or accounting firm whose clients are innovative companies, he said.

"Can you imagine a bank loan officer who understands about patents and new inventions?" he said. "Right now they don't."

The site for the new facility - next to the Advanced Engineered Wood Composite Center - was chosen because of its proximity to a number of academic research buildings and to many of the residence halls, according to Ward.

"We're hoping for lots of traffic," he said.

Kevin Paul, 24, a senior from Waterville who attended the open house, said he wants to start an Internet site where people with similar interests can meet. The technical know-how he hopes to get from the experts at the Innovation Center could give him a head start in the business world.

"I'd love to see what they can do for me," he said.

Richard Grant, director of UM's business graduate programs, said the center may encourage would-be entrepreneurs to "get beyond the critics who say an idea is never going to work.

"It might help dreams become reality," he said.