Sprint to Innovate: The Innovation Challenge Powered by Canada Life
REGISTRATION – We have reached our registration capacity. Thank you for your interest.
Sprint to Innovate, powered by Canada Life, brings together post-secondary students from varied disciplines such as technology, business, entrepreneurship, and more. Sprint to Innovate is brought to you by University of Manitoba – Faculty of Science, Red River College Polytechnic, and Tech Manitoba. All Winnipeg Post Secondary Students are invited to participate. Students will learn about innovation while collaborating in a fun and exciting challenge to build a minimum viable prototype in two days.
We are pleased to announce that our next Sprint to Innovate: The Innovation Challenge is the weekend of February 1 to 4, 2024! This year we will be starting the event with a Networking session on Thursday, February 1 with a keynote speaker at University of Manitoba.
We invite all companies to review our sponsorship and mentorship opportunities, and to consider submitting a business challenge; and for post-secondary students to consider participating.
HOW THE EVENT WORKS
Teams of 4 to 6 students will choose from available business challenges provided by industry. Students will then work together with support from mentors to create a solution, including developing a prototype to be presented to judges on the final day. Thanks to our sponsors there is $11,000 in prize money!
A prototype is a simple experimental model of the proposed product used to learn from. Prototypes range from low-fidelity (paper-based) prototypes that are used to explain concepts all the way to high-fidelity prototypes that have functional elements with more detail. Teams may consist of technology and business students.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
As an Organization
- Sponsor the event.
- Volunteer your time as a mentor.
- Provide us with a Business Challenge that your organization has by emailing ckubara@rrc.ca or sgrusko@rrc.ca.
As a Student
Students from any Manitoba post-secondary student may participate in a team at Sprint to Innovate.
Students may register a team of 4 to 6 students. Register by Friday, January 19, 2024. REGISTRATION has reached capacity and is now closed.
Title Sponsor
Thank you to our Title Sponsor Canada Life!
Refreshment Sponsor
Thank you to our Refreshment Sponsor Access Credit Union.
Networking Event Sponsor
Thank you to our Networking Event Sponsor Bioscience Association Manitoba
Event Sponsors
Thank you to our Event Sponsors.
Challenges
CHALLENGE #1 How might we raise cybersecurity awareness and preparedness among SMEs and small and medium-sized non-profits? – Popp3r Cybersecurity
CHALLENGE #2 How might we create a safer and more secure Winnipeg, significantly improving the well-being of its citizens in their daily lives and places of work? – City of Winnipeg
CHALLENGE #3 How can we create opportunities for post-secondary students to connect with their peers and give students the best chance at developing new friendships and connections? – My Student Wellbeing
CHALLENGE #4 How can we use technology to help improve the mental well-being of Canadians? – Canada Life
CHALLENGE #5 How can we revamp Riipen’s user experience, leveraging innovative strategies and potentially AI, to empower learners in discovering, registering for, and engaging in meaningful work-integrated learning projects? – Riipen
CHALLENGE #6 How might the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) develop a program focused on enhancing and supporting the careers of students and early-stage IT professionals? – CIPS
Sponsorship Opportunities
REFRESHMENT SPONSORSHIP – $3500
We are looking for a sponsor to provide $3500 for
our student participants on Sunday, February 4.
Your $3,500 sponsorship would earn you:
- Recognition on Sunday, February 4 at our
refreshment table at breakfast, snack, and
lunch - Recognition on event materials, website and
registration. - Social media recognition
- The opportunity to be a mentor to a team
throughout the weekend.
EVENT SPONSORSHIP – $1000
We are looking for sponsors to provide $1000
towards prize money to the winning teams.
Your $1,000 sponsorship would earn you:
- Recognition throughout the event
- Recognition on event materials
- Social media recognition
- The opportunity to be a mentor to a team
throughout the weekend.
Be a Mentor
We are looking for professionals to mentor one team throughout the Sprint to Innovate event weekend.
Mentors are asked to provide well-rounded support to their student team in the following area.
- Help the team establish and foster a positive
team environment - Provide ideation tips and tricks
- Advise on prototype development
- Advise on pitch preparation
- Review final pitch presentation and provide
advice - Be available for support throughout the weekend
Provide a Business Challenge
Student teams will be provided with a list of business challenges that they will have a choice between to work on. This is where you come in! We are asking a few different companies to provide a general business challenge and students would create a solution.
Do you have a general business challenge that our student teams can help solve?
Commitment:
- Prepare your Challenge Information document with Challenge Context and background, a description, challenge statement, and relevant resources.
- Prepare a 2-3 minute video pitching your business challenge outlining what the problem is, and why you need it.
- Assign at least one person to speak about the problem and be prepared to answer questions about it from a student team on Friday, February 2 (Around 4:00/5:00 PM).
- Available to answer questions from the teams on Saturday
- Attend and judge the final presentations for your Challenge on Sunday to see what solutions the teams came up with; select one team to advance to the finals.