There are a variety of events taking place through the month of November. These free events will build your entrepreneurship mindset, develop your skills and connect you with other innovators.

Check out all the free events and registration information here.

Witness a live pitch competition, visit the Indigenous Winter Market, participate in lunch hour learning opportunities, and so much more.

EIT Month coincides with Global Entrepreneurship Week and International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, but UM supports are available year-round.

• Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship
• Partnerships, Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation
• The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
• IDEA START
• Faculty of Science – Science Innovation Hub
• Lab 2 Market Prairies

Explore the many opportunities that support and celebrate entrepreneurship and innovative thinking at UM.

The twelve types of experiential learning identified by the University of Manitoba reflect our commitment to the education of the whole student, the diversity of learning experiences at UM, and the dynamic, seamless nature of the experiential learning landscape. During November we are shining a light on one type of experiential learning: entrepreneurship.

For our inaugural Entrepreneurship and Innovative Thinking month, we have gathered events in November that help you foster an entrepreneurial mindset. These events will provide faculty, staff and students with opportunities to learn about, for and through entrepreneurship.

“These events are for everyone,” says President Benarroch, “Even if you don’t see yourself as a traditional entrepreneur. At UM we nurture entrepreneurial thinking in every faculty as part of our pursuit of big ideas. Big ideas that help mitigate climate change, bolster human health, advance Reconciliation and so much more.”

President Benarroch invites you to participate in an event or two. Take in a talk from UM alum Dr. Anastasia (Stasi) Baran, co-founder and COO of nQube Data Science, witness a live pitch competition, participate in lunch hour webinars, or attend a 2-day learning event to build your entrepreneurial thinking skills, and so much more.

Visit the Entrepreneurship and Innovative Thinking Month webpage for all event details and registration information.

For more information about how to bring an entrepreneurial mindset into your learning environment, get in touch with Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist: Entrepreneurship.

To spark your entrepreneurial spirit, visit The Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship.

To move your invention or research into a practical application, visit Partnerships and Innovation.

We are looking for instructors who would be willing to explore embedding Map the System into a for-credit course.

• Do you teach topics such as qualitative research methods, social and environmental issues, systems thinking, social entrepreneurship, consulting, social change, innovation, entrepreneurial thinking, UN Sustainable Development Goals, advocacy, etc?
• Are you interested in offering a new experiential learning opportunity to your students?

Map the System Information Session

In this one hour online Zoom meeting, Faculty Specialists Rebecca Brooks and Janine Carmichael will share: 

• More about Map the System, including key dates and deliverables
• Benefits to students of participating in Map the System in a for-credit course
• Available supports for instructors to make any necessary course adjustments

Date: Monday, June 19, 2023
Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Delivery method: Remote – UM Zoom

Register now

Learn more

To learn more about Map the System, contact Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist in Entrepreneurship at janine.carmichael@umanitoba.ca.

To learn more about past Map the System competitions, visit the Map the System Canada website.

To learn more about the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, visit their website.

Register for the Map the System information session.

Improving processes

One example of Farzana’s “nosiness” paying off is that she helped the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning streamline their timesheet process. Timesheets had been labour intensive for the operations team at the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, with Word documents needing to be filled out each week, emailed and manually entered into a timesheet system. The process often took the operations team seven hours a week.

Farzana used her professional development time to become a Power Platform App Maker Associate through Microsoft. Farzana then created the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning’s Timesheet App, which makes submitting and approving timesheets a matter of a few clicks for staff and managers, and gives the operations team much-needed time back.

Mentoring colleagues

Farzana is the kind of person coworkers look to to help them streamline their work. Recently, a colleague came to Farzana ready to make a change. The colleague used Outlook, Word and Excel and had grudgingly adopted Teams. Her to-do list was on a piece of unlined paper and it had been for years. She knew it was time to upgrade but needed guidance. She wanted Farzana to show her how she kept herself organized. Farzana set up a meeting and took her through her personal workflow that involved automated emails and the To Do app. Farzana then talked to her colleague about her needs and showed her how a few apps and some automation could streamline her days. Farzana’s tech-hesitant colleague left inspired to make a change.

Building an inter-departmental community

Farzana would be the first to tell you that she does not work alone. She participates in a Microsoft 365 community of practice, where users from across UM share what they have learned by playing around in the new apps and technologies available through Microsoft 365. Her Microsoft 365 community of practice has users from departments across the university including Faculty of Graduate Studies, IST, Human Resources, Donor Relations, Student Engagement and Success, the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management and the Faculty of Law.

“Trying out new technologies, figuring out how they work; that’s my dream job,” says Farzana, whose official title is Learning Technologies Support Specialist. Farzana’s curiosity and problem-solving make her the consummate intrapreneur, someone who executes innovative ideas and projects within an organization.

Get entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial at UM

For more information about how to bring an entrepreneurial mindset into your learning environment, get in touch with Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist: Entrepreneurship.

To spark your entrepreneurial spirit, visit The Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship.

To move your invention or research into a practical application, visit Partnerships and Innovation.

What comes to mind when you think of the term “entrepreneurship?” For many at UM, we think of business and particularly start ups. That’s a common misconception that President Benarroch is looking to dispel. “For me, entrepreneurship is about taking an idea, and exploring ways to use that idea to have an impact.”

The changing nature of work and the value of failure

President Benarroch developed his ideas about entrepreneurship throughout his career; as an economist, in launching the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Winnipeg, as Dean of the Asper School of Business, and as Provost and Vice-President (Academic) at Toronto Metropolitan University. During that time, he’s noticed a shift. Each year, more and more students would express interest in creating something of their own, exploring their own ideas around technologies, inventions and social innovations, and bringing others along with them.

As president, Dr. Benarroch has the opportunity to meet with many who are engaged in entrepreneurial thinking and was struck by how much they talked about their mistakes. “They’d spend ninety per cent of the time talking about their failures instead of their successes. I think those failures inform their success.” That journey of entrepreneurial thinking is where deep learning can take place, as competencies like empathy, problem solving, innovation and communication are developed. If a business results, great, but that’s not a primary driver. Entrepreneurial thinking is about the willingness and ability to add value or have an impact, whatever that may be.

Breaking down silos

“One of the things we see in successful organizations now is that they break down silos. Entrepreneurial thinking naturally welcomes collaboration with outside partners, and also within our UM community as we work in interdisciplinary teams to explore ideas. For anyone – students, staff or faculty – who have ever said, ‘I’ve always had this crazy idea. What do I do with it?’ UM has the spaces, connections, expertise to explore those ideas.”

What does success look like?

The president acknowledges there are many wonderful initiatives that embed these competencies in curricular and co-curricular experiences, yet we have more work to do to build an entrepreneurial and innovative thinking culture at UM. But he has vision: “I would love to think that in five or ten years we see some real big winners that come out of this. Organizations and businesses that have a real impact. And I don’t just measure that impact by profit and whether they are able to sell, but whether they have a social impact, whether they really can help overcome a challenge we have in society.” And in terms of our reputation as a university he’d like the University of Manitoba to become the institution of choice for students who want to develop their entrepreneurial mindset.  

Get entrepreneurial at UM

For more information about how to bring an entrepreneurial mindset into your learning environment, get in touch with Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist: Entrepreneurship.

To spark your entrepreneurial spirit, visit The Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship.

To move your invention or research into a practical application, visit Partnerships and Innovation.