The Race to BE, a nationwide competition that encourages young creative artists to become entrepreneurs, hit Austin on Wednesday. The signature U.S. activity during Global Entrepreneurship Week, the competition is focusing on the genres of film, music and fashion. Each competition takes place in its respective artistic center: Los Angeles (film), Austin (music) and New York (fashion).

Russell Simmons, the host of the Race, joined five finalists with entrepreneurial aspirations in the film industry who met with a team of mentors and presented their ideas to a panel of judges.

Take a look at the following video to get an idea of what happened…

Stay tuned for the announcement of winners from BE. The Style in New York! In the meantime, meet the Austin finalists and learn more about the Race to BE.

The opening leg of the Race to BE, a nationwide competition that encourages young creative artists to become entrepreneurs, started in Los Angeles on Monday. The signature U.S. activity during Global Entrepreneurship Week, the competition is focusing on the genres of film, music and fashion. Each competition takes place in its respective artistic center: Los Angeles (film), Austin (music) and New York (fashion).

Russell Simmons, the host of the Race, joined five finalists with entrepreneurial aspirations in the film industry who met with a team of mentors and presented their ideas to a panel of judges.

Take a look at the following video to get an idea of what happened…

Stay tuned for the announcement of winners from BE. The Sound in Austin and BE. The Style in New York! In the meantime, meet the finalists.

Did you know Russell Simmons got his start promoting Run-DMC? Even better, did you know his brother is Run from Run-DMC? Do you know that he is a serial entrepreneur with a record label, a television show, a clothing line and, yes, even an energy drink? How did I get to know so much about this huge media mogul? Well, I became a little bit cooler and a lot closer to Russell (in the seven degrees of separation way, unfortunately, not in terms of physical proximity….).

Russell has signed on to host Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA’s Race to Be. The Race is a conceptual relay race from LA to Austin to NYC with a focus on film, music and fashion respectively. It will involve groups of students participating in daily competitions. You can check out the launch event he held at the NYSE exchange earlier this week, here.

The coolest part is that we are looking for you to become involved.

Why get involved? (more…)