The new school year is typically associated with lectures, textbooks and study groups - but at the University of Toronto, students are also encouraged to think about how all that knowledge can be wielded to start game-changing companies that address important challenges, create jobs and foster innovation.
That's one of the goals behind the inaugural AcceleratorFest, which takes place Sept. 18 at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus.
Organized by U of T Entrepreneurship - which is ranked among the top five university business incubators in the world - AcceleratorFest offers a handy introduction to U of T's thriving entrepreneurship scene.
"With students back on campus, this is an opportunity to expose the internal entrepreneurial ecosystem to all the different accelerator programs we have at the university," says Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship.
There are 12 campus-linked accelerators across the tri-campus, and the number of startups emerging from them continues to balloon - in 2019, U of T supported 380 entrepreneurial teams; last year, that number rose to nearly 1,000.
"This is one of the rare opportunities where we can bring staff, alumni, accelerator leads and companies to talk to the next generation of up-and-coming entrepreneurs about resources and tools and the different accelerators in a classic University of Toronto way," French says.
AcceleratorFest features three key elements.
In classic trade show fashion, booths will be set up for attendees to chat informally with entrepreneurs about their startups.
Later in the afternoon, attendees can hear from Zain Zaidi, CEO of document verification and management startup Transcrypts, and Catherine Chan, founding CEO of clinical trials startup Honeybee (which was recently acquired by global clinical trials firm Leapcure), at the Desjardins Speaker Series.
Finally, an open house on the seventh floor of the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus will invite visitors to check out ONRamp, a co-working and collaboration space for U of T's entrepreneurship community.
Registration to AcceleratorFest includes a raffle ticket, with potential to win some unique swag (think a MOTUS U of T hoodie or Nanoleaf smart bulb) and a ticket to one of the tech industry's premier events, Elevate Festival.
French says he encourages everyone in the U of T community to check out the event, noting U of T Entrepreneurship has a "no-wrong-door philosophy" - no matter what you're studying or where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, "there's a door that you can open in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and there are people and alumni and resources that can support you."
AcceleratorFest is the first of several exciting entrepreneurship events on the calendar for the upcoming academic year. A key date to watch out for: Oct. 15, which is when applications for the Desjardins Startup Prize will open for companies vying to win $100,000 in non-dilutive funding.
The prize is one of the highlights of the annual U of T Entrepreneurship Week, which will take place March 3-7.
