Hello folks,
We hope you are enjoying your reading week. This is a great time for you to relax, recharge, catch up on your work for the semester, and even more importantly, keep thinking about your evolving ideas, emerging or existing businesses, and your future as an entrepreneur as the Hub transitions into its hybrid programming for the rest of the term. We have a slew of speakers and mentors who will be doing events and office hours in the Hub from next week, alongside the Incubator coaches you have been getting messages from.
Small Business Week in Ontario
This week, October 20-26, is also Small Business Week in Ontario. Many of our partners have events in Ottawa this week including the Ottawa Board of Trade, BDC, and Invest Ottawa. You will probably have noticed links to messages from the Prime Minister, The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister of Small Business, and a host of other folks chatting about the support for entrepreneurs and small business owners in Ontario and initiatives we want you to be aware of, including the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, the Black Entrepreneurship Program, the Indigenous Growth Fund, and the 2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program. Our team is also supporting the committee organizing the Sustainable Finance Forum which returns to the Shaw Centre in Ottawa on November 28-29, 2024. New speakers have been announced and the Program outline is now available.
Upcoming Events
Now that you have made it to Reading Week, The Innovation Hub Team is facilitating a larger number of speakers and events for the students and founders in our incubator programs to attend. There is a lot going on in the Hub and even more in Ottawa’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem throughout the months of October and November so think about your goals, focus on what you need to explore and accomplish, and let us know what we can do to help. You don’t need to attend everything but fit as much as you can into your schedule and remember to keep up with the online videos and questions on Brightspace, in your downtime between classes and assignments. We try to keep a curated list of activities on our events page but there is a lot more happening in Ottawa so keep an eyes on our site, on our social media channels, and on the sites of any community partners you want to follow.
Last night, some of our coaches attended the Ottawa Board of Trade’s keynote and fireside chat with Pierre Cléroux, Chief Economist with the BDC. The topic: Preparing for the Future: Leveraging AI Technologies for Growth and Productivity where the findings from BDC’s latest AI study, which surveyed over 1,200 Canadian business owners was unveiled. Today, we join the Mayor’s Breakfast for an interview with Erik Hoffman, President – Music at Live Nation as well as OBOT’s Business After 5 event at Burovision on Sparks Street and A Ton of Demos at the Prescott on Preston. Sprott will be hosting the next OBOT Business After 5 event on campus in the Nicol Building Foyer on Wednesday November 27, a great opportunity to bring more members of the Ottawa Business community to campus to chat about our students and founders, and about the opportunities for Sprott to engage with them in the future.
Come into the Hub and chat about the monthly events that we attend where you can join us. A growing number of students and founders have been accompanying us to Tech Tuesday in Kanata on the first Tuesday of each month, to AI Tinkerers and A Ton of Demos where student founders and community members can get involved with entrepreneurs looking for help on a host of new projects, and to TiE Ottawa events where speakers have been engaging us in a host of new topics and discussions. The Hub will also be covering the cost for 30 students to attend TiECon Canada 2024 – Disruptive Entrepreneurship – AI & Emerging Technology on November 8th in Richcraft Hall on campus. Register as soon as you can so that we can confirm the list of folks we are taking. We still have 16 seats left. If we run out, you can also cover the cost on your own. .
In addition to facilitating discussions about raising Capital and facilitating opportunities for our students and founders to connect with Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists when they have exhausted their bootstrapping options, The Hub is also encouraging students and incorporated founders to apply for Nicol Internships and Non-Dilutive Grant Funding respectively. While funding is not guaranteed, these are additional opportunities for you to get funding to help take your businesses and ventures to the next level. Come into the hub and learn more about these opportunities. Applications for both are open over the next two weeks. We are also exploring information sessions for other grant opportunities, and discussions with our partners at Gowling WLG, IPON, ISED and CIPO about supporting those of you with IP which could be patentable. Look out for more information about that soon.
Upcoming Innovation Hub Events
| Event | Day | Date | Time |
| EdMission Product Launch hosted by alumnus Milan Sanghani | Monday | October 28 | 1:00-3:00 pm |
| Business Development for Startups with Justin Urquhart & Harry Koundakjian | Tuesday | October 29 | 4:00-5:30 pm |
| Networking for Results with Michael J. Hughes | Monday | November 4 | 5:00-6:30 pm |
| Interview with Entrepreneur Sarah James-Jamieson | Wednesday | November 6 | 4:00-5:30 pm |
| Innovation Hub November Open House for incubated students | Wednesday | November 6 | 4:00-5:30 pm |
| Lunch and Learn with Dr. Kinga Petrovai | Tuesday | November 7 | 12:00-1:00pm |
| The Plantaform Story: Interview with Alberto Aguilar, | Tuesday | November 19 | 5:00-6:30 |
| Pitch Perfect: Crafting a Persuasive Message that Converts with Carl Richards | Monday | November 18 | 12:00-1:00 pm |
| Practice Makes Perfect: Pitch feedback session with Carl Richards | Monday | November 18 | 4:30-6:00 pm |
| Capital Kickstart: Your Guide to Fundraising Success with Julie McClure | Friday | November 22 | 3:00-4:30 |
Enjoy your week.