New Hunter Hub funding boosts scope of Entrepreneurship Week events

Innovators, trend-watchers, futurists and entrepreneurs will convene at the University of Calgary Nov. 14 to 18 to mark the 10th anniversary of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), a worldwide event involving millions of people in 170 countries.

The university’s involvement in GEW grew this year thanks to funding from the newly launched Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking. A wide range of on-campus events are open to everyone to attend, running the gamut from a speaker series, trivia night, workshops and pitch competition, to an escape room and a fully immersive virtual reality experience.

“We are excited to see how the week’s events animate faculty and student groups and create a collision space of ideas and opportunities that drive entrepreneurial culture,” says Kim Neutens, interim executive director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking. “We had interest from across campus in the new Global Entrepreneurship Week Engagement Fund, and chose 18 projects to showcase.”

Entrepreneurial thinking from across the university

Some of the Hub-funded initiatives are student driven, while others were proposed by faculty and other researchers, connecting participants to potential collaborators both on and off campus. The proposals extend beyond the Haskayne School of Business, and include the Cumming School of Medicine, Schulich School of Engineering, and the Faculty of Science, and others.

The week kicks off Nov. 14 with experiential classroom activities, including a case study session with local entrepreneur Cara Wolf. Among many other activities over the week, there’s an introduction to bio entrepreneurship at the Foothills campus, a tech startup feedback party at Scurfield Hall, and a big data networking reception at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel.

All-day Imagine Tomorrow event to feature immersive experiences

One of this year’s marquee events is a day-long entrepreneurship expo on Nov. 16 called Imagine Tomorrow. Speakers include well-known entrepreneur-in-residence at the Hunter Hub, Jim Gibson, with his cautionary tale of innovation and disruption in a human world. There’s a panel with local entrepreneurs who are actively building startups, and there’s also a virtual reality experience hosted by VRKADE.

Another GEW highlight is Startup Spaces, a full-day adventure across Calgary for aspiring and established student entrepreneurs to visit some of this city’s most inspiring businesses, including Orpyx, Benevity, Bassbus, and Undrcard.  

The Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking is the University of Calgary’s new multidisciplinary initiative to engage and immerse students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community in a culture of entrepreneurial thinking, challenging them with a new and bold approach to teaching, learning, discovery and knowledge-sharing.