Cost: 
This workshop, as with all Mitacs Step workshops, is free for both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. However, the preauthorization of a valid credit card is required as part of the registration process. A $50 penalty will be applied to all late cancellations (cancellations that are not made 5 days or more before the workshop date), no shows, or incomplete attendance. These penalties are only charged after the completion of a workshop and no charges are ever made to students who participate in full.

Description:

Discovering the Entrepreneur Within has participants analyze successful entrepreneurial ventures and identify what it took for those entrepreneurs to reach their goals. Using an interactive, team-based approach, this full-day workshop builds awareness of the current Canadian entrepreneurial landscape and resources available to those looking to start their own business. Using the tools and techniques used in the first part of the workshop, teams create a product or service concept that they will present to the group. May the best idea win!

Workshop Objective:

To expose participants to the benefits and trials of building a business while building awareness of the current Canadian entrepreneurial landscape and the resources available to entrepreneurs. The aim of the workshop is to broaden awareness of the entrepreneurial world to build confidence and expand a sense of possibility.

Learning Outcomes

Through participating and completing this workshop, participants will:

  • Have a broadened understanding of the elements that make a successful business and an unsuccessful business
  • Gain a greater sense of what it take to be an entrepreneur
  • Gain personal insight into taking the entrepreneurial routs
  • Understand different types of businesses
  • Build awareness on different sources of financing
  • Gain in-depth exposure to business planning
  • Understand and have practiced creating and presenting the elements of a successful pitch

Key Topic Areas:

What makes a good entrepreneur?

  • Self-assessment
  • Entrepreneurial attributes
  • Obstacles
  • Risk tolerance
  • Common pitfalls
  • Changing face of entrepreneurialism