In late June, the venerable Collision Conference descended for one last time into Toronto.
Next year, the iconic event for tech startups swings westward to Vancouver—which is good news for the fifty-plus Alberta-based companies who make the annual trek.
Supporting the province’s strong presence at Collision was a University of Calgary booth powered by Innovate Calgary and the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking.
The Hunter Hub is a component of uCalgary that is “dedicated to fostering entrepreneurial thinking and innovation,” according to an official history of the organization.
The Hub was established in 2017 following a gift from the Hunter Family Foundation, which was launched by entrepreneurs Doug and Diane Hunter.
“When I graduated—when Diane graduated—I don’t think I had even heard the word ‘entrepreneur,” recalls Doug.
Today, “Entrepreneurial thinking is what the Hub is all about,” he says.
The Hunters want entrepreneurship to positively impact others in the same way that it did for them.
“Finding a way to help other people along that same track and make it work; that’s what we wanted to do,” says Diane.
The Hunter Hub seeks to “embed entrepreneurial thinking within the UCalgary landscape for students and researchers,” thereby supporting the local community and also strengthening the regional economy.
“Our mission is to cultivate and support game-changing innovators and changemakers, helping to accelerate their ideas from conception to impact,” reads a statement from the Hub. “Students, researchers, and faculty from across the university are encouraged to take part in our events and programs, no matter where their careers take them.”
The goal of Hunter Hub, according to its founders, is “to see entrepreneurial thinking used by leaders and in organizations across the country, allowing early-stage ventures to grow and established organizations to adapt and innovate to thrive in an ever-changing world.”
With a forward-thinking approach, the Hub aims to cultivate “future-ready leaders.” Indeed, the word “future” features prominently on an artsy wall in the Innovation Sandbox, a physical amenity that supplements the Hub’s various programs.
Located on the 4th floor of the Hunter Student Commons, the Innovation Sandbox provides a “dedicated co-working environment tailored for entrepreneurial ventures.” The space includes work stations, meeting rooms, quiet zones, and a communal kitchen to stay fuelled.
Anyone enrolled in a program at the Hub is welcome to access the Sandbox. Those programs include Launchpad, a six-month co-curricular program aimed at building entrepreneurial thinking skills in students and researchers from every faculty at the University of Calgary, and The Summer Accelerator, which is designed to help promising startups in the UCalgary community continue to build and develop their startup.
In a nutshell, the Hunter Hub supports uCalgary’s vision to become “Canada’s most entrepreneurial university”—a target for which the institution currently has a bull’s eye aim.
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