Although those fresh out of college hope to make their business ventures a reality, you don’t have to be graduated and living on your own to have your ideas come to fruition. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs, including ISU students, started their business as college students.

Students in the ISU Entrepreneur Club and entrepreneurship and innovation learning communities went to the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization annual conference in Chicago over the weekend.

For the past 10 to 12 years, 15 to 25 students have attended the annual conference which usually takes place in Chicago, said Judi Eyles, program coordinator for the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship.

The conference featured keynote speakers and workshops with approximately 1,400 students from universities around the country participating.

The Coleman Foundation, Entrepreneur Club and the Pappajohn Center helped fund the trip. Some of the expenses also came from personal student accounts.

Helen Greiner, inventor of the iRobot Roomba Vacuuming Robot, and Jimmy John Liautaud, founder of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich Shops, were among the keynote speakers at the conference.

“I see every year the students’ gears start working, they start to meet people,” Eyles said. “They start to realize they can do it.”

Amanda Thomas, freshman in pre-business and member of the learning community, was inspired by the conference.

“You have to be a people-person, you can’t just be all about the numbers,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the most important thing she learned from the conference was the importance of teamwork. She said a lot of times people will try to do things on their own and keep failing, but you can’t do something as big as starting a business on your own.

She said you can’t always rely on the people around you and sometimes need to go outside your comfort zone.