Brock University celebrated the second annual “Entrepreneurship Week” last month from March 21- 24th, with many major entrepreneurship advocacy forces joining the party this year. This year, the ripples have been expanding to younger age groups and a wider geographical range of youth from across Niagara participating in activities throughout Entrepreneurship Week. We, at BioLinc, have been v pleased to collaborate with Brock University Students’ Union, Niagara College’s ncTakeOff, Niagara College Student Administrative Council, Brock Innovation Group and many other supporting organizations to make this happen!
Starting with “E-Night” featuring world renowned inspirational speaker Eric Thomas, followed by Tuesday’s panel discussion, “Innovation Matters” and Brock Innovation Group’s flagship event “Monster Pitch” featuring CBC’s Dragon’s Den Judges Jim Treliving and former Dragon, Bruce Croxon; Jason Sparaga, founder of Spara Capital Partners; and Deborah Rosati, Corporate Director and Cofounder of Women Get On Board; world-class entrepreneurial insight and motivation were being circulated from the start of the week. On Wednesday March 23rd, BioLinc hosted its annual entrepreneurial pitch competition “Blueprint” with the winning awards valued more than $15,000 in cash and in-kind services, thanks to BUSU, the Nitsopoulos family, Fogler Rubinoff LLP, BioLinc, and Brock Graduate Council’s contributions. Meanwhile, Niagara College hosted their own pitch competition, “Pitch Perfect”, with Niagara Angel Network representatives present; local young entrepreneurs were provided a great platform to pitch their business ventures, receive valuable feedback, and gain potential mentoring and funding opportunities. Entrepreneurship week concluded with a networking event “NEXTNiagara Social”, which aimed to provide a platform for like-minded young professionals to connect and share their ideas and ambitions on how to make a better Niagara community.
“Innovation and entrepreneurship matter to the world of business, perhaps more than ever before,” says Barry Wright, Interim Dean of Goodman School of Business. We, at BioLinc, feel the same urge for youth entrepreneurship and it is always our mission to reach out and support these young entrepreneurs in their innovative journeys. We were very pleased to see the incredible pitches at Monster Pitch and Blueprint, and even more pleased to see youth from Youth University program attending the Blueprint event to see first hand how entrepreneurship could change our lives. To more efficiently serve young entrepreneurs in Niagara Region, our Program Administrator, Alexis Kleiman of the Niagara Youth Entrepreneurship Network has consolidated all the service providers that assist young entrepreneurs between the ages of 12-29 into one support network. More information about these supportive organizations can be found here.
We firmly believe that innovation and entrepreneurship is a strong driving force for the Niagara’s future. We’re happy to support these emerging young entrepreneurs along the way.
Chris Jia
BioLinc Ambassador
