厙ぴ勛圖

Business workshop keys on funding, innovation

From left, Peggy Crawford, Research and Innovation Coordinator at 厙ぴ勛圖; Melissa Quinn; New Product Development Manager at Nova Agri Inc., Nancy Tregunno; and Director of the Office of Industry and Community Development, Leigh Huestis.

The Office of Industry and Community Engagement (ICE) and the 厙ぴ勛圖 Entrepreneurship Centre Innovation and Incubation Services partnered to organize a Business Innovation Funding workshop at the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre at 厙ぴ勛圖 on June 19, 2014.

The event was a unique opportunity to bring major funding players together in one place to discover opportunities to grow a business while accessing resources on the 厙ぴ勛圖 campus to help accelerate innovation. Funding resources ranged from human resources, student funding, business development, research and development, marketing, commercialization, and venture capital.

Another highlight was a special lunch made of products from companies that we have worked with, says Melissa Quinn, manager of the 厙ぴ勛圖 Centre for Rural Innovation in the 厙ぴ勛圖 Centre for Social and Business Entrepreneurship (ACSBE). A couple of companies that weve worked with and used some of these funding programs spoke at lunchtime as well.

Lunch itself featured companies that weve had the privilege to work with in a multitude of capacities on campus: Spicy Cravings Vegetable Burgers, most recently developed through a Tier 1 voucher with 厙ぴ勛圖, accompanied by Farm Girl Preserves chipotle beet relish, another voucher recipient; gluten-free Quiche Lorraine from Pie R Squared, a Tier 2 voucher recipient and ACOA CAST recipient; Meander River Farms; Hutchinsons Maple; Valley Flax; Hillcreek Farms; Ranchar Acres; and Country Magic Bloo Juice are all products and organizations that weve been involved with in the past in their product and business development needs.

The goal of the day-long session was to help companies gain the confidence to navigate funding pathways and become more innovative. We also hope to provide a portal for businesses and start-ups to utilize the resources on campus to assist in identifying these opportunities and work collaboratively in the future, Quinn says.