Making An Impact on Canada’s Entrepreneurial Landscape

The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is Canada’s largest non-profit, student-run organization dedicated to encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit amongst youth in Canada and becoming a starting point and catalyst for youth interested in entrepreneurship and leadership. Since 2004, Impact has developed programs both at the national and local level that reach over 10 000 young people each year. Consisting of over 100 student volunteers nationwide, Impact is dedicated to driving the entrepreneurial spirit.

Will a set-up to promote youth entrepreneurship here in Singapore work? I believe it can. There are local programmes like Startup@Singapore (link) organized by the NUS Entrepreneurship Society, but I’ve argued earlier that entrepreneurship could be taught even as early as in primary school. More can be done to channel all that youthful energy and disruptive, creative minds to productive, entrepreneurial efforts. The question is who could, or should, take a proactive role in starting a holistic, comprehensive program such as the one run by Canada’s Impact.

In any case, if you’re an aspiring young entrepreneur based in Canada, do check out some of the programs and activities it organizes:

Impact National Conference (November 20-21st 2009)

During Global Entrepreneurship Week, and as Impact’s flagship event, the annual Impact Conference attracts the 500 best and brightest high school, university and college students from leading academic institutions across Canada to learn about entrepreneurship and connect with prominent industry leaders.

Global Youth Entrepreneurship Congress (November 20-21st 2009)

Modeled after the Kauffman Foundation’s prestigious Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Impact is bringing together the 25 top international student entrepreneurs and leaders to build awareness among millions of international youth during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Impact Ventures

Modeled after Y-Combinator in California, Impact Ventures aims to provide seed funding and a 12-week mentorship program to three entrepreneurs in hopes to bring ideas to creation.

MicroCredit Competition

The MicroCredit Competition is a nation-wide  challenge amongst high schools to see how much students can fundraise using $100 in only a single week with all proceeds going to the charity of the high school’s choice.