Opportunity Fest highlights Beedie School undergrad student ventures

An upcoming event at Simon Fraser University Surrey and hosted by the Beedie School of Business will give students the opportunity to showcase their in-class developed entrepreneurial ventures to the wider business community.

“Opportunity Fest” will be held on April 7 from 7 to 9 pm in the Mezzanine of SFU’s Surrey Campus. Students will be tasked to develop trade-show exhibits that include product prototypes, videos, graphical display boards and more. Judges from industry, academia and the wider business community will informally meet with participants to evaluate the products showcased, and express their financial interest or commitment through investment of emulated venture capital dollars.

Over 50 students from several different classes will take place in the marketplace-style exhibition, which will include themes of sustainability and social innovation along with traditional entrepreneurship and business strategy. A male and female winner will be crowned as “Mr. and Ms. Opportunity,” respectively.

“This is like a Capstone experience for these undergraduate students,” said Eric Gedajlovic, Professor at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. “In today’s inter-connected world, where things are happening so rapidly and your plans are outdated as soon as they are established, success and growth depends on your ability to continuously identify and pursue opportunities.”

A wide range of student-generated business ideas will be shown, including a bluetooth embedded ski helmet; a bus-tracking GPS device; inflatable skates; and smart exercise machines that upload workout data to the Internet.

“This event is a little bit of Dragon’s Den, and a bit of Apprentice,” he said. “The teams take this opportunity to develop a full-blown project. These are ideas and new ventures that come from dissatisfaction with the way things are done currently – and now represent viable business concepts.”

Opportunity Fest is not just restricted to the commercial area. Gedajlovic points out that students and entrepreneurs from a wide range of discliplines can adopt this strategic entrepreneurial mindset, and identify opportunities that are consistent with areas they care about — whether they be not-for-profit initiatives, environmental causes or cultural activities.

“It’s part experiential, but is also theory and problem driven,” said Gedajlovic. “The opportunities that people discover can be highly idiosyncratic. This is something people can take ownership of, and is derived from their own background or experiences or network. It’s something that they will really care about.”

For more information:
Eric Gedajlovic, SFU Beedie School of Business
erg@sfu.ca; 778-782-5168
Twitter.com/gedajlovic