Throughout the year a series of conferences and speaker events are organized both at the University of Virginia as well as throughout the Charlottesville community and region.
Darden Entrepreneurship Conference
The annual Darden E-Conference features prominent entrepreneurs, investors and executives in a daylong series of lectures and workshops held each academic year. Students learn innovative strategies for building new businesses and have the opportunity to network with successful alumni and community entrepreneurs. Since 2014 the conference has been organized by the student leaders of Darden's Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club.
Social Innovation Summit
The Social Innovation Summit is a cross‐disciplinary gathering of students and faculty members who are passionate about entrepreneurship and social innovation. The theme of the summit in 2016 is "Social Entrepreneurship in Urbanism" and the keynote is Mike Curtin, CEO of DC Central Soup Kitchen.
Tom Tom Founders Festival
The Tom Tom Founders Festival is a week of music, art, and innovation held in Charlottesville each April that converges hundreds of bands, startups, artists, and visionaries around a three-fold purpose:
Celebrate Founding, in the effort to inspire the next generation of artists, entrepreneurs and civic leaders;
Connect Resources, by matching visionaries with the mentors and the means to create; and
Leave Legacies, by transform the City year-round through public art, new ventures, and new ideas.