Looking back at EIW 2021: Our key takeaways on innovation, diversity and inclusion, and the future of venture building.
When diversity of thought, inclusive networks and equitable impact connect we find innovation.
This year, our second annual entrepreneurship@UBC Immersion Week brought together our UBC and regional innovation ecosystem to educate, build and inspire entrepreneurship through a 4 day event packed with 26 sessions bridging academic and industry environments.
True innovation comes from a myriad of ideas that cross sectors, experience and points of view: by uniting our ecosystem, we hoped to mimic this framework through our week-long conference set to bolster our community and inspire intra and entrepreneurship.
EIW 2021 at a Glance
We welcomed over 600 members of our community to EIW 2021 featuring 70+ leaders and innovators across industries.
2021 saw three tracks of content: Track 1, Creative Transformations and How to Build for Change touching on transformative thinking and changing the status quo; Track 2, Innovation Pathways: Funding, Partnerships and Entrepreneurship, centering around academic institutions as the rich bedrocks of innovation and; Track 3, Entrepreneurial Foundations & Leadership Development, speaking to our pipeline of early-stage entrepreneurs and innovators, connecting them with founders, investors and ecosystem supporters to help build tactical knowledge to hit the ground running.
Sessions included featured speakers including Frans Johansson, Author of The Medici Effect (of which this year’s conference theme was inspired!) and Founder of The Medici Group, Dr. Pieter Cullis, innovator, academic and scientific leader, Miranda Lievers, Co-founder and COO of Thinkifiic, Graham Lee, Entrepreneur and Generous donor of the Graham Lee Innovation Centre, Sabina Russel, Principal and Co-Founder of Zen Clean Energy Solutions, Nicholas Donofrio, Former EVP of Innovation at IBM and Champion of Diversity, Alwar Pillai, Co-Founder and CEO of Fable and many more!
This year we introduced 2 new session types: Themed Roundtable Lunches and Faculty Spotlights. The themed Roundtable Lunches allowed us to bring together our Studio communities to help create connections and build awareness around the pressing issues innovators are facing in the climate crisis, socially sustainable businesses and human health.
Our Faculty Spotlights allowed us to showcase the incredible innovations and examples of entrepreneurial thinking happening across UBC and the many pathways to innovation, outside of venture building. We featured collaborators from the Faculties of Applied Science, Land and Food Systems, Journalism, the Reseau Centre for Mobilizing Innovation and UBC’s Research Based-Theatre Cluster.
We were privileged to have Scotiabank as a Bronze Sponsor and BLANKSLATE HR as a Community Collaborator. Each supported a panel, bringing their expertise to our community through curated sessions designed to build knowledge and understanding in their respective areas.
(Some of) our Key Takeaways:
This year we saw themes touching on building inclusive teams, designing for everyone and being forward thinking in our approaches to innovation.
"It’s not about designing for 15% of the population, it’s about making products usable for everyone. You do this by engaging with people who have more customized requirements."
- Alwar Pillai, Co-founder and CEO of Fable
From Accessibility in Design
"When we at The Medici Group talk about diversity, we are talking about who you are(your gender, race, age, sexual identity/orientation), what you do (your education, function in a company, industry), how you do it (are you extraverted, introverted, able bodied, disabled) and with whom are you doing it (who are your networks in your community and in life)?"
- Frans Johansson, Author of The Medici Effect and Founder & CEO of The Medici Group
From our Fireside Chat with Frans Johansson hosted by Dr. Shannon Bard
"If you are not at the table, you are on the menu. And if you don’t show leadership, your competition will be the one writing the rules."
- Robert Niven, CEO of CarbonCure Technologies
From Climate Innovators
Thank you to our fantastic community for showing up once again to champion entrepreneurship and innovation! We couldn’t do this without you, and look forward to seeing you next year at EIW 2022.
Review who joined us for EIW 2021 on our event website.