All attendees are invited to our Networking and Keynote on Thursday, January 26 at Red River College Polytechnic – Manitou a bi Bii daziigae.

Michael Henderson, Managing Director at Ubisoft Winnipeg

Originally from California, Michael Henderson spent more than 20 years in the film industry in feature animation and visual effects before joining Ubisoft. His work includes time with the core technology group of Disney and founding the production engineering team Dreamworks Animation. he then took on studio leadership, opening international studios in both India and China before returning to the United States as a production executive. He joined Ubisoft Winnipeg in 2020 as the Director of Technology and took over the role of Managing Director for the studio in 2021.

CHALLENGE #1 Campus Safety

How might we create and deliver Campus and bus safety training for post-secondary students, and a system for reminders to help these practices become habit. – Dan Saltel

CHALLENGE #2 Fintech Startup, Access Credit Union

Open banking is set to change financial services in Canada. Design a fintech (financial technology)start-up company that leverages open banking principles and design a new innovative payment or financial service for a Manitoba Credit Union System. – Access Credit Union

CHALLENGE #3 Renterii Challenge

Renterii is a platform that allows rental merchants and individuals to lend their items or space.   How might we incentivize existing rental merchants to use the Renterii platform in a low-cost or cost-effective manner?

CHALLENGE #4 City of Winnipeg Snow Clearing

How can we change the City of Winnipeg snow clearing into the smartest snow clearing in Canada? – City of Winnipeg

CHALLENGE #5 IntegrationWorx – Engaging Virtual Office

Integrationworx has no physical office.  How can we foster an engaging work environment and company culture, when all employees work virtually and are located across Canada? – IntegrationWorx

CHALLENGE # 6 Selection of Candidates – CIPS

How might we develop a system using the SFIA Skills Credentialing Framework to objectively and responsibly evaluate job candidates and candidate resumes, while improving over time? – CIPS Manitoba

CHALLENGE #7 I’m Leaving On A JetPlane

How might we engage passengers post-security while they wait for their flight to board. – Winnipeg Richardson Airport

Thank you to our Title sponsor Access Credit Union, Support sponsor BHER, and Event sponsors City of Winnipeg, Riipen, InvisionEdge, University of Manitoba-Faculty of Science, Red River Mutual, CIPS Manitoba, National Research Council Canada, and Integrationworx. We have $15,000 in prize money for our winning teams!

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.

Email Cristy at ckubara@rrc.ca for more information

Our Sprint to Innovate mentorship team will specialize in the following areas to provide well-rounded support to the student teams throughout the weekend.

·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

Email Cristy at ckubara@rrc.ca for more information

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? 

Email Cristy at ckubara@rrc.ca for more information

Do you want to learn how to be innovative, and win some money?
Sprint to Innovate is about learning innovation, being innovative, building deeper relationships, problem-solving and developing solutions to real business challenges. Whether you win, or not, you will have the skills to innovate, problem-solve, and work as a team.

How the event works
Teams of 4 to 6 students will choose from a variety of business challenges provided by industry. Students and mentors will then work together on a solution, including developing a prototype to be presented to judges on the final day. 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.

As part of the weekend festivities, student groups will attend various workshop sessions. Facilitators will be leading workshops on Innovation, requirement gathering skills, mind mapping, the design sprint, and to help them get started thinking innovatively.  The workshops will be integrated within the challenge and throughout the weekend.

What to expect

• To attend the orientation, networking, and kick-off training sessions
• Work on a real business challenge
• Meeting with a client regarding the challenge
• Business mentorship
• Teamwork experience
• Sunday pitch presentations to judges, participants, and mentors

Sprint to Innovate Competition Guidelines

Prize Money

Semi-Final Challenge Prize

The winning team that is selected to advance to the Final Presentations will be awarded $550.

Final Presentation Prizes

First Place – $6000

Second Place – $3000

Third Place – $2150

Registration is closed.