Inaugural IgniteAC open house a success
Posted on Thursday, September 15th, 2016
IgniteAC hosted an open house last week welcoming 175 visitors to learn about and open up discussions on innovation and entrepreneurship at the college.
“This week was so exciting — to see and speak to all the students at the college who were interested in innovation and entrepreneurship and to give them insight into all the ways that we can help them,” said AC Entrepreneurship Manager Leanna Verrucci. “Our goal at the centre is that anyone who walks through our doors, be they students, faculty or staff, leave with an answer to their question. If we are unable to help them through the people, programs and resources that we have here at the college, then we direct them to who can help them in the larger Ottawa ecosystem.”
Open house week offered students help to understand the offerings available to them and hear about personal experiences shared by four SUMMIT2016 graduates; Godfrey Joekumar (Startup Algonquin and BookPort), Len Bunce (Safe Point), Patrick Mahaffy (Go-Free), and Gillian Cochrane (Ottawa EcoDome).
SUMMIT is a three-month summer entrepreneurship boot camp designed to offer students workshops, offsite events, funding, mentoring, and the confidence to move their ideas forward.
“The most helpful thing I got from Summit was meeting my mentor,” explains SUMMIT2016 graduate Len Bunce. “She was helpful and pushed me a lot. She was instrumental in my making progress.”
“You might fail, you will probably fail — learn from that mistake and keep going forward. Everyone here wants to help and that’s the beauty of this,” said SUMMIT2016 graduate and Startup Launchpad founder Godfrey Joekumar when asked about his experience with the IgniteAC Centre.
Andrew Foti, Executive in Residence and Chris Doré, Entrepreneur in Residence, both known as EIRs, were also available during open hours last week to answer questions and provide guidance to interested entrepreneurs.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction. Creating the environment where students can come in with creative and innovative ideas, and then implement them in the real world. A lot of people come in here with a big idea, but no direction. We have a ton of services that help guide them,” said Doré when asked how IgniteAC has impacted the college’s entrepreneurship resources. “There are people here that have these dreams and that’s what this centre is about — fulfilling these dreams and giving them a shot to achieve something better than themselves.”
Doré will continue to be available in the centre for “Ask the EIR” open hour sessions on Wednesdays from 12 to 3 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. beginning the week of September 12th.
The centre is tangible evidence of the college’s commitment to EXPOSE, ENGAGE and ENABLE innovation and entrepreneurship. IgniteAC is a hub that provides co-ordinated, integrated and seamless services to students and faculty who have curiosity or aspirations around entrepreneurship to ensure they have access to the range of people, programs, partnerships, education and resources available to them within the College and the wider Ottawa ecosystem.
This diverse ecosystem consists of people and organizations such as; Startup Garage, Lead to Win, L-Spark, Invest Ottawa, The HUB, YENGO, TIE Ottawa, Collab Space— to name a few — who help support young entrepreneurs and innovators in Ottawa.
The IgniteAC Centre launched in February 2016 and is located on “Main Street” in the C Building of the Ottawa campus. It offers three boardrooms and two areas for entrepreneurs to congregate and work. Space will be provided on a first-come-first-served basis and available for entrepreneurship-related activities — starting a business, moving a business forward, meeting with clients.
“Ignite” your spark at Algonquin College’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (C151).
For more information:
IgniteAC launch video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60UueodZ3Po
Contact us via email – entrepreneurship@algonquincollege.com
Twitter – @igniteacc
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