Today's young entrepreneurs must be geared up to enter a globalized market. One man leading their preparation is USC Dean Jim Ellis.

On Wednesday, February 25th, Gen Next hosted the energetic Dean of the USC Marshall School of Business.  Guests enjoyed the city lights of West Hollywood in the Terrace Room at the landmark, Sunset Towers Hotel. Members and guests were treated to an open bar, delicious hors d'oeuvres, and a truly memorable discussion lead by Dean Ellis. Jim, an expert on innovation, gave animated advice for today's business owners and entrepreneurs. Remarkably each question, comment and insight to and from Dean Ellis includes an analogy or reference to a piece of business history with an emphasis on a particular innovation or entrepreneur.

In the midst of today's challenging times, Dean Ellis gave a refreshing and optimistic perspective of the need to look forward.

Gen Next Members and guests were pleased to spend an evening with Washington's top law enforcement officer Rob McKenna. Attorney General McKenna has been leading the State of Washington on drug enforcement, identity theft, child safety and just about every other effort to help maintain a safe and orderly society. And at our roundtable with him, we covered just about everything! The event took place in the Blewett Suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seattle. AG McKenna spent about an hour socializing with Gen Next Members before we began the roundtable discussion.

During the presentation AG McKenna mostly focused on his current legislative priorities; however, the Q&A opened the floor to a wide range of questions.  The evening ended with AG McKenna receiving a bottle of Gen Next wine as a gift.

With a beautiful sunset, delicious hors d’oeuvres and wonderful company, Gen Next kicked off its member happy hour with a bang!

Atop the rustic Spanish-style La Casa Del Camino overlooking Laguna Beach, Members were able to take a break from the high stress of their work environments and casually reconnect with friends.

In an intimate meeting with Members, Gen Next had the privilege of hosting U.S. Senator John Thune. Covering topics ranging from the stimulus plan to housing markets to tech policy, Members engaged a dynamic and relatively young U.S. Senator.

In one statement describing our current economic crunch, social security and our future, Thune said, “We are asking the future generations to sacrifice for us so we may have a better life now, unlike the pioneers of our country who went without for their children and their futures. It's a complete reversal of generational ethics.”

When discussing the subject of taxes and entitlements, many Members were concerned about the current and future costs.  Thune mentioned that entitlement reform is one area he would like congress to think about. The conversation also delved into small business issues, entrepreneurship, trade, competitiveness, H-1B visas and more. In addition to issues, we also spoke of themes and principles to guide us.  As one guest stated, “We all want to be capitalists on the way up and socialists on the way down, and it just doesn't work like that.”

Senator Thune not only offered candid answers to questions, but he reached out to them for their opinions and suggestions, making for a fascinating discussion.

We would like to extend a special thank you to Senator Thune for his time and moreover the polite and forthright dialogue with Members.

Senator Thune, the youngest current member of congress, held a seat in the House of Representatives before defeating a sitting Senate party leader in 2004. The committees for which Senator Thune sits are: Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, and the Small Business Committee.

Inflection points approaching the 21st Century was a major talking point at Gen Next San Diego's most recent event featuring Michael Barone of U.S News & World Report. Mr. Barone's presentation was an intriguing discussion on historical changes in our economy and what we can expect in the years to come under President Obama's Administration.

“You can sum up much of 20th century history by saying that in the 1930s Americans decided that markets didn't work and government did, and that in the 1970s Americans decided that government didn't work and markets did,” said Barone. This led to the big question of the evening…what can we expect in the 21st Century?

After Barone's presentation he answered questions from members on the challenges we will face with inflation, the Fed, the housing market, American's youth vote and much more. The audience communicated their curiosity, enthusiasm and interest in finding solutions to these challenges.

Currently, Michael Barone is at U.S. News and World Report, a FOX News Channel contributor, principal co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, and the author of Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan. Barone has also written for many major market publications, including The Economist, The New York Times, The Detroit Press and The Daily Telegraph of London.