Lara Tai
Reorter-Editor
The Global Entrepreneurship Week had many events focused on the fields of business, fashion, culinary and international students, “celebrating George Brown College Alumni Entrepreneurs as well as staging a number of events to help equip current George Brown College students build on their entrepreneurial journeys or foster the development of an entrepreneurial mindset.” (www.startgbc.com). We had our reporters from the Dialog visit the School of Fashion & Jewellery #WhyNotMe Alumni Entrepreneur Founders Panel and Speed Mentoring Workshop.
The event was held on November 14 of 2019. There was a panel group platform where four keynote speakers shared their experience starting their business in the fashion industry from the ground up. Panelists in attendance:
Luis Padilla – Supramorphous
Sarah Dougall – Made You Look
Lilia Costa – Brazil Heels
Betsy Campos – Ūnika Swim
We interviewed Neal Lilliot, Manager of StartGBC the creator of the Global Entrepreneurship his perspective on the event
What benefits have you seen putting this event on for students or the career centre?
GBC alumni entrepreneurs help to motivate students to believe in themselves by demonstrating that people from a similar academic background have managed to achieve remarkable journeys for themselves. By adding the speed networking with industry professionals, it allows students to gain valuable insight from organisations that they would normally come across on a day to day basis. This also gives students exposure to networking opportunities that often students lack confidence within. This allows students to network in a safe and secure environment that helps them build confidence in a skill set that we would define as a soft skill. For the career centre it provides an opportunity for collaboration with other support areas of the college which helps all of us deliver a much more impactful college for students.
What was the reason behind the creation of this event for students?
The events run in November were staged as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week where we are pleased to say that George Brown College staged the highest number of events in Canada this year. startGBC stages events throughout the year but we try whenever possible to champion initiatives that students can relate too, such as being the first College in Canada to be part of Women Entrepreneurship Week which in October was our third year of participation.
What events or programming can we see in the future?
The Fundamentals workshop program will be repeated during the Winter semester.
On completion of all four workshops students earn an electronic badge. We will be running a Work Integrated Learning pilot that will lay the foundation for an on-going program and we hope to be able to run a funding competition in April.
Why do you feel it is necessary for students to attend these events?
Entrepreneurship is going to play a bigger part in the workplace in the decades ahead of us and although we know not all students will be entrepreneurs we do know that employers are looking for employees who have a more developed entrepreneurial mindset. This includes skills in self-motivation, time management, critical thinking, design thinking and an agile and adaptable approach.
The panelists shared that it was a trial by fire for them and through dedication and hard work they were able to create successful online businesses. They hold networking as a key component towards success after a student graduates. This event was catered and student participated in fun and lively Speed Networking meet and greets with each other, it was created in collaboration with the StartGBC program. More about this program
https://www.georgebrown.ca/research/startgbc-entrepreneurship/
