On September 5, 2012, LaunchLab, KEDCO, Innovation Park, and the wider Kingston entrepreneurship community convened at the Discovery Centre and Old Fort Henry Historic Site to develop ideas and action plans to better support entrepreneurs in Kingston and better foster a local entrepreneurial culture.
To kick off this coming together of nearly 200 entrepreneurs and members of the enterprise support community, Kingston's Mayor proclaimed September 5th to be Kingston Entrepreneurship Day in celebration of Startup Canada's visit to the region. The day featured a Community Leaders Luncheon, a Town Hall, special workshops for entrepreneurs, and a panel reception with successful entrepreneurs in the region imparting their advice. Click here to see photos from the day.
Inspiring the next generation of Kingston entrepreneurs - How can we inspire, engage and retain young talent and entrepreneurs?
meCEO - As the Kingston region has a dominant public servant mentality and individuals are unaware of entrepreneurship as a viable career option, this program would bring entrepreneurs into schools to inspire young people in elementary and secondary schools with local entrepreneurial success stories.
Youth Solutions - Targets students in the 15-21 age group and works with them in a big-brother / big-sister type of relationship through providing speakers, volunteer mentors, seed funding, and low cost physical space to students.
1000 Ideas - A competition that aims to retain entrepreneurial youth, ideas and talent, wherein 1,000 young people will submit ideas, 100 will be invited to participate in a Startup Weekend event and $25k will be invested in starting 10 real businesses.
StartMeUp - A complete online infrastructure to inspire, educate, connect, and support youth entrepreneurship.
BYPIK - An entrepreneurial bootcamp for young entrepreneurs over the course of a year toward a recognized certificate.
Action Now - A program to re-affirm to kids that "anything is possible".
RECESS - Exposes students to the entrepreneurship community through an entrepreneurship co-op program.
Starting up the Kingston community - How do we create a more entrepreneurial community in Kingston and fuel an entrepreneurial culture?
MentorMe Kingston - An eHarmony for entrepreneurs to connect with qualified mentors.
Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Kingston (EEK) - A central physical space and website to find support and mentorship in Kingston.
Limestone Launch - Creation of a capital community fund in Kingston.
KickStart Kingston - Aims to inspire entrepreneurship and reduce barriers to entry through a Kingston crowd funding website.