Innovation Bridge

Welcome to the Innovation Bridge series, designed to help you discover aspects of innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset. The series is open to all University of Alberta students and postdoctoral fellows (PDF) who want to explore how their skills can open opportunities, whether your goal is to start a new initiative yourself or assist other organizations in successful ventures.

Students and PDFs are in a unique position — they are talented, creative, analytical, problem solvers and innovators, yet they rarely rank themselves high in their business skills. Having an entrepreneurial mindset means more than starting a business that sells a product or service. You need innovation and creativity to create solid policies, develop new processes and establish best practices. These are the skills that graduate programs and fellowships build and can be transferred to any organization.

The Innovation Bridge series will explore questions that relate to the entrepreneurial mindset and will help you bridge your skills with the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem — an ecosystem that needs you.

Upcoming Sessions

Is Business Development for You?

October 23, 2024 | 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. MT | Online

When Leanne Petrin started her Masters degree in City Planning at the University of Manitoba, she was not expecting to find her future self navigating an innovation and entrepreneurship landscape. After 20 years of community development and business development experience in private and public sector organizations, she definitely describes herself as having an entrepreneurial mindset. What does that mean? How did her graduate degree lend itself to setting her up for success? What does it mean to be in the area of business development? If you are interested in building networks, having an impact on your community, and have organizational skills, this could be a direction to consider.

Zoom Link » | Register on CampusBRIDGE »

Presenter: Leanne Petrin is the Business Development Project Manager for the Vice-President Research Innovation at the University of Alberta. Her LinkedIn caption reads "Do Something Great". Following her graduate degree in City Planning, Leanne's early experiences were as a project manager and research associate for Function Four LTD that set her up on a journey of being a Manger of Business Development and Client Relations, Policy Analyst, Project Manager, and more recently Business Development Officer for Artic Response Canada. She has exemplary strategic planning and project management skills from working 20 years in government, industry, and not-for-profit that have ensured the organizations she works with can deliver and promote their services.

Finding Your Place in the World of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

November 27, 2024 | 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. MT | Online

As a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow, do you find many of your waking hours are consumed by your research project? Well you may have a lot more in common with entrepreneurs and innovators than you think. The opportunity to be creative, solve problems and have an impact on the world around us are common motivators to both groups. Join this Innovation Bridge conversation to learn about how you can leverage your strengths to benefit an entrepreneurial venture ? whether for social causes or for profit. Any venture requires people with different talents. There is a community out there to help you take the steps to be successful in starting a venture.

Zoom Link » | Register on CampusBRIDGE »

Presenter: Mark Benning is the Founder and CEO of Founderly.co, as well as a managing partner with Sprout Fund, investing in innovative Western Canadian tech start-ups. He is an experienced entrepreneur who founded and led four investor-backed, technology start-ups in Silicon Valley, California over a 20-year period. In addition to managing strategy, business development, sales, and finance, Mark raised over $100 million in angel and venture funding for his start-ups and others he advised. Over the years, he has worked for various private equity and venture capital firms, to learn what start-up life was like "from the other side of the table." Mark is also a CTI-trained, Co-Active Leadership executive coach, a Valhalla Angels investor, an A100 group entrepreneur member, and a VMS start-up mentor. Mark has a BA in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University, where he focused on leadership and entrepreneurship. Between his time at Harvard and Stanford, he played professional ice hockey in Europe and traveled extensively throughout the world. Mark now enjoys sharing his knowledge, experience, and network with other technology entrepreneurs to help grow their start-up companies into profitable and successful businesses.

More sessions are to be announced for 2025. Stay tuned...

Previous Presentations

To see previous presentations, view the list below. Past presenters welcome questions from current graduate students and PDFs. To connect with them, email gradpd@ualberta.ca.