In today’s rapidly moving business world, two of the keys to success are innovation and networking -- creating a product that is fresh, and using connections to get that product to market.
The thing is, for some aspiring business students, getting that foot in the door can be a bit of an issue. With so many ideas covering so many aspects, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, no matter how good your idea might be.
It’s with that in mind that Sask Polytech held their inaugural School of Business Student Showcase this past Thursday night at the Western Development Museum.
The event featured a total of 45 students from all four Sask Polytech campuses showing off their projects to businesses from all over Saskatchewan. Stations were set up throughout the museum displaying the different projects -- ranging from Indigenous Student recruitment plans to strategic financial advising and a handful of other potential money-making ideas.
“These are all projects they’ve been working on this semester and last semester, anything related to supply chains, marketing, insurance, human resources,” said Kristen Craig, associate dean of the School of Business. “We have some students who have developed some neat marketing plans and apps that relate to HR, all sorts of interesting things.
We just really wanted to showcase the students and the work they’re doing, as well as the faculty that stands behind the students, and give them a chance to network.”
One of the biggest issues when it comes to bringing ideas to the market is simply getting those ideas out there. Businesses might not be aware of what up-and-coming students have to offer, which is where the Showcase comes in.
“Industry doesn’t see what students are doing in the classroom until they get to meet the students and they get to explain what they’ve been doing, the innovation in their projects,” Craig said.
“I really think that if these students are given a chance to join organizations, they’re going to create waves and they’re going to be able to implement change that organizations might not have thought of.”
Some of that change is going to revolve around advances in technology, and that’s where the event’s keynote speaker had much to offer. Karen O’Brien, partner with Deloitte Canada, spoke on the future of work and how individuals can stay ahead of the curve when it comes to how things are changing.
The overarching message? Never stop learning and don’t be afraid to embrace new technology if it can help with productivity and employee work-life balance.
“Because things are changing so much, we wanted our students to be able to showcase themselves, but we also wanted them to be able to hear what else is going on in industry and where industry is going,” Craig said of O’Brien’s keynote address.
The venue itself even figured into the Showcase’s plans, with participants able to tour the museum while checking out the projects.
“We wanted to think about the past with all the great things that are here as well as the future,” Craig said. “The future is our students and this is a great venue, so we wanted the students to have a chance to visit. A lot of them probably haven’t been to the Western Development Museum, so this was a chance for them to check things out, too.”
With the success of the inaugural event, Craig hopes to see it become even bigger and better in future years.
“We definitely want to grow it, and I could see next year having more students from other campuses and more people from industry as well,” Craig said.
