Upcoming events
Call for Applications: Innovation for Impact Competition!
Entrepreneurship & Innovation Initiative in partnership with the Sustainable Growth Initiative is excited to announce the 鈥淚nnovation for Impact鈥� competition 2025! This follows the success of 2024, and we are thrilled to extend this competition in 2025 to our talented undergraduate students too!
Master鈥檚 and undergraduate students will compete in separate categories. Both competitions have a cash prize budget of $5,000. The finals will take place at the Dobson Centre on March 14 (Undergraduate Finals) and March 21 (Master鈥檚 Finals).
Please see the call for applications and details here:
- Innovation4Impact: Call for BCom
- Innovation4Impact: Call for MBA, MMA, MMF, MMR
The call for applications is open to both profit and non-profit initiatives, and projects should focus on any aspect of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. Some examples include climate change, equal opportunities, financial inclusion, fairness, governance, fraud prevention, and democratization. The list is not limited, and other innovative ideas will be considered as well. The projects are expected to be at the ideation stage.
Beyond the cash prizes, this event will be a great opportunity to interact with and showcase your talent in front of local business leaders and venture capitalists and perhaps take your idea further!
The stage 1 deadline is February 28, 2025.
Past events
Women in Technology Conference
Women in Technology Conference The inaugural Women in Technology Conference (WITC), was hosted by the Desautels Technology Club and Girls Who Code 9I制作厂免费, took place on January 31st, 2025, at Espace CDPQ in Montreal. The event welcomed over 50 female-identifying undergraduate and graduate students from 9I制作厂免费 for a day of insightful discussions, technical workshops, and networking opportunities.
The event was sponsored by 9I制作厂免费鈥檚 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, Sustainable Growth Initiative, Inovia Capital, and AlayaCare.
The first panel, "Breaking Barriers: Charting Careers in Tech" featured an impressive lineup of speakers: Julia Kreutzer (Cohere), Irene Kim (Meta), Shruti Maheshwari (Google), Vidisha Srivastav (SpaceX), Katie Pypes (OpenAI), and Sanchi Gupta (Atlassian). The panelists discussed their inspirations for pursuing careers in technology, the differences between hardware and software industries, and strategies for building credibility and confidence.
The conference also featured two workshops for 30 delegates. Yiou Huang, Product Marketing Manager at AlayaCare, led a session on go-to-market strategies for tech solutions, covering the landscape of HealthTech players, product development stages, and real-world examples from AlayaCare鈥檚 portfolio. Participants engaged in hands-on activities to deepen their understanding. Bhushan Suryavanshi, VP of GenAI Products at Morgan Stanley, conducted a workshop on generative AI, providing an overview of key platforms, technical terminology, best practices for crafting effective prompts, and live demonstrations of applications he developed.
The evening session, with 70+ attendees, began with opening remarks by Tasmia Abbas from Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, followed by Aya Filali and Tina Huan, co-presidents of the Desautels Technology Club, who shared the club鈥檚 vision. Chloe Najem, co-president of Girls Who Code 9I制作厂免费, also provided insights into their initiatives. Monika Brozyna, a career advisor at 9I制作厂免费, then introduced students to available career coaching resources.
The final panel, "Tech for Good: Innovating for Equity & Sustainability," featured Claudia Khoukaz (IBM), Marie-France Ouimet (Accenture), Petrina Kamya (Insilico Medicine), and Rania Ajakane (Inovia). Panelists explored how technology can be leveraged to drive social and environmental impact, discussing topics such as ethical AI, equitable access to technological advancements, and sustainable innovation strategies.
Venture Pitch Workshop
On January 20th, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative (E&I), in collaboration with the 9I制作厂免费 Entrepreneurship Society (MES) and 9I制作厂免费 Ventures, hosted the Venture Pitch Workshop at 9I制作厂免费. This event introduced participants to the fundamentals of venture capital and guided them through crafting compelling venture pitches.
Led by Diagram Ventures, the interactive session covered key elements of a great pitch, included a live brainstorming activity to refine pitch storylines, featured student pitch presentations, and provided an exclusive look at a real-world pitch deck. Diagram Ventures, a Venture Builder and Investor specializing in FinTech and ClimateTech, has been instrumental in launching and scaling over 25 ventures since 2016 by combining access to capital, hands-on support, and a deep ecosystem of partners.
The workshop was led by Emily Tiessen and Mingze Deng, two senior venture builders from Diagram Ventures, each with experience in founding and scaling startups that successfully raised Seed funding. They shared their expertise on creating strong pitch decks designed to capture the attention of venture investors and taught attendees how to craft compelling entrepreneurial stories.
The event inspired students to explore entrepreneurship, equipping them with the tools to tell powerful stories and captivate potential investors.
2024 Desmarais Global Finance Lectures
The Desmarais Global Finance Lectures is a conference series that brings together thought leaders and decision-makers from academia, public policy, and the business world with the goal of promoting thought exchange, dialogue, and the exploration of solutions to global challenges in finance and economics.
Date: Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
The topic for the 2024 Desmarais Global Finance Lectures is 鈥淣avigating the (Responsible) Uses of AI in Finance鈥�, and the conference is co-organized by the Desmarais Global Finance Research Centre and the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Initiative at the Desautels Faculty of Management. It featured an academic keynote address by Lin William Cong, Rudd Family Professor of Management and Professor of Finance at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and a private/non-profit sector keynote by Evan Miyazono, Founder and CEO of Atlas Computing. Lin William Cong holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Stanford University, and Evan Miyazono holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Caltech.
The keynote speakers were joined by Mitali Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Strategy & Organization at 9I制作厂免费; Laurent F茅ral-Pierssens, Founder and CEO of BlockZero and Venture Studio & Advisors; and Marc Tass茅, CEO of SIRA International Risk Advisors and Professor at the University of Ottawa, for the panel discussion.
Yale Professor Jorge Torres 鈥� 鈥淰enture Capital and Beyond: How to Raise Money for Your Startup.鈥�
On Thursday September 19th, 2024, Yale Professor Jorge Torres came to 9I制作厂免费 to present a beginner-friendly sessions on how to fund early-stage companies and build long-lasting relationships with venture capitalists. Hosted in collaboration with Maxwell Kaspy, the 9I制作厂免费 Entrepreneurship Society, 9I制作厂免费 Ventures Club, and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative, this event brought over 140 students to listen to the talk.
Professor Torres gave a 1 hour and a half talk on his experience as a venture capitalist, and shared some invaluable insights to students on raising venture capital money, while navigating today鈥檚 competitive start-up ecosystem.
Dare to Venture Pitch Competition
On March 22nd, 2024, the 9I制作厂免费 Entrepreneurship Society (MES) in partnership with the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative (E&I), and the Dobson Center of Entrepreneurship held a student-based start-up pitch competition. Five teams picked from a pool of fifteen presented their ideas in front of a panel of four judges, including Professor Robert Nason from E&I, Zehra Khoja from the Dobson Center, and industry experts in marketing and talent. The teams presented their ideas as a traditional venture pitch in front of potential investors, and they received live feedback from the judges.
The winning team presented an AI tool that empowered users when accepting terms and conditions by bringing to their attention any potentially suspicious clauses.
DTech鈥檚 Den Pitch Competition
On February 17th, 2024, the Desautels Technology Club (DTech) hosted a Dragon Den style pitch competition in collaboration with E&I. At the event, teams presented their business ideas to a panel of jury members, and received feedback.
The 1st place was awarded to a group of students who presented their business idea, 鈥淏loody Brilliant Solutions鈥�.
听
Innovation4Impact Competition
On May 13th, 2024, the E&I Initiative, in collaboration with the Sustainable Growth Initiative, hosted the Innovation for Impact Master鈥檚 Student Project Competition with a prize budget of $5,000. This event showcased groundbreaking projects from master鈥檚 students, emphasizing innovative solutions with tangible, positive impacts.
Five teams competed in the final and the winning team was EcoRizz, comprising MMA students Arnav Gupta, Jatin Suri, Lakshya Agarwal, and Om Sangwan, who pitched LaunchLens, a web-based AI tool designed to enhance the venture evaluation process for 鈥済reen ideas.鈥� The runner-up was MBA team SystainStyle Collective, led by Amvrini Samadder Choudhury, Jaivik Mehta, and Shree Krupa Krishna Prasad, proposing a platform to address environmental and ethical challenges in the fashion industry. Third place went to MMF team FundMyFuture, with Clara Assouline, Michelle Poupart, and Siddharath Kansal, who presented a crowdfunding platform for student grants.
The competition was judged by an esteemed panel, including Kika Aramata (9I制作厂免费 Dobson), Jennie Coleman (Equifruit), Laurent F茅ral-Pierssens (BlockZero), Mitchell McEven (TD), Robert Nason (9I制作厂免费), Richard Pistilli (Gambit Rewards), and Ipek Yavuz (9I制作厂免费). Katrin Tinn (9I制作厂免费) chaired the jury
Design Jam
On February 16th, 2024, E&I hosted a Design Jam Event where students and faculty came together to imagine a School of Entrepreneurship at 9I制作厂免费. A total of 20 students participated in this event, sharing their vision of a school of entrepreneurship, and suggested ideas centered around the question: 鈥淗ow might we imagine an interdisciplinary School of Entrepreneurship鈥�.
This event allowed E&I to gather student voices in how best to shape the future School of Entrepreneurship by discussing the following topics: making it interdisciplinary, a practical curriculum, funding opportunities, and the school鈥檚 signature activity. Some key takeaways were the creation of a Design Thinking Bus; increased internship opportunities and talks from founders; courses on alternative funding strategies; and an emphasis on ethical business practices and social forms of entrepreneurship.
9I制作厂免费 Chancellor 鈥� John McCall McBain
On October 30th, 2023, E&I hosted a joint event with the 9I制作厂免费 Entrepreneurship Society (MES) where attendees had the privilege of listening to John McCall MacBain, 9I制作厂免费's Chancellor, and the accomplished Founder and Chair of the McCall MacBain Foundation, as well as the President of Pamoja Capital SA, its investment arm.
During the event, the Chancellor shared advice from his career, provided insights into what allowed him to succeed, and left students with his life of 50 life lessons. This list includes advice that span both personal and professional life. The event finished with a networking opportunity for students to talk with the Chancellor, express their gratitude for his shared lessons, and ask him any further questions.
A total of 90+ students attended this event, ranging from faculties across 9I制作厂免费.
Harley Finkelstein - Shopify
As part of the MGPO 364: Entrepreneurship in Practice course, led by Niels Billou, students had the unique opportunity to learn from Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, as a recurring instructor.
On September 12th, 2023, Harvey Finkelstein invited students from the MGPO 364 class to the Shopify offices where he gave a talk alongside 9I制作厂免费 Chancellor John McCall MacBain. He left students with three takeaways: to look for non-obvious mentors, to do things you love, and to start a business!
