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First annual QUEST declared a success
March 12, 2004
2004-03-12 - KINGSTON, ON – Proving that the determination of entrepreneurs can never be underestimated, a snowstorm didn’t stop a stellar line-up of entrepreneurial and financing experts from joining business students from across Canada for the first annual QUEST – Queen's University Entrepreneurial Summit.
Just under a year ago, Queen's MBA for Science & Technology Class of 2004 student Nav Bubber, a former entrepreneur from India, and classmate Aaron Stein, a former senior executive of a family-owned business in Calgary, jointly took over leadership of Queen's New Ventures Club which had been founded the previous year by MBAst Class of 2003.
They were soon joined by five MBAst 2004 classmates – Fraser Schad, Chris Feltin, David Pereira, Hartt Goldman and Mel Ye – who together formed the executive committee. Another dozen classmates took interest and became members of the New Ventures Club.
The idea for QUEST2004 came as Club members researched the New Venture scene in Canada, and decided that an event bringing together business students, entrepreneurs and new venture financiers was needed. Under the mentorship of Dr. Elspeth Murray, a faculty member at Queen’s School of Business who specializes in the field of New Ventures, QUEST2004 began to take shape.
It was decided that QUEST2004 would feature series of expert speakers along with a business concept competition – all focused on informing and challenging business students with entrepreneurial ambitions.
On the day of the grand event a formidable contingent of experts gathered at Goodes Hall, speaking on topics ranging from ‘getting started’ to ‘managing growth’. Speakers.included: David Adderley (Partner-Celtic House), Robert Wilkes (Founder-Wilkes Patent Law), Peter Tobias (Partner -Viner, Kennedy, Frederick, Allan & Tobias LLP), Robert Foldes (CEO-Cytochroma Inc.), Richard Janeczko (Exec. VP-TM Bioscience), John Malloy (CEO-PARTEQ Innovations), Paul Walker (CEO- Spectral Diagnostics Inc.), Niraj Bhargava (Queen’s School of Business faculty member & CEO-Energate Inc.), Peter Andrews (Founder-PRA Strategic Group), Barry Gekiere (Senior Vice President-Ventures West), Andrew Waitman (Managing Partner-Celtic House), Brad Ross (Angel Investor), Victor Scutaru (Director-BDC), Sunil Selby (Managing Director-Trellis Capital), Gillian Brouse (Partner-Reid Eddison), Rob Woyzbun (President-The Marketing Works), Douglas Loe (Dlouhy Merchant Group) and David O’Neill (AstraZeneca).
For the second feature of QUEST , the Business Concept Competition, a preliminary round earlier in the winter had narrowed the field to six teams. The final round on March 12 featured a battle of presentations and Q&A between teams from Queen's MBAst program, Queen’s Executive MBA program and the Rotman School at the University of Toronto. The final honours went to Queen's MBAst student Raza Hasanie who presented a solution for the oil and gas industry. Other winning ideas including a solar energy solution for purifying water, a streaming music service and a software marketing initiative. Cash prizes totaling $9,000 were presented by Dr. Perry Bamji, Director of the Queen’s Small Business Consulting Group and Dr. Jeff McGill, Director of the MBAst program.
The event was brought to a close with a dinner at which Dean David Saunders congratulated the case competition winners and thanked the organizers, speakers and participants who made the event a success. He added his hope that QUEST would become a legacy event, in the tradition of long-standing successful student-led events at Queen's School of Business.
After the success of QUEST2004 it is expected that the Summit will emerge as an annual forum for entrepreneur-minded business students from across Canada and the U.S. to meet, network and gain from the experiences and knowledge of Venture Fund managers, entrepreneurs, legal advisors, faculty from business schools and students from a variety of educational streams.
A report by Nav Bubber, MBAst’04