Issue 37

Keep Pushing

One day, a teacher wrote the following on the blackboard (notice that I just aged myself):

9 X 1 = 7
9 X 2 = 18
9 X 3 = 27
9 X 4 = 36
9 X 5 = 45
9 X 6 = 54
9 X 7 = 63
9 X 8 = 72
9 X 9 = 81
9 X 10 = 90

When she was finished, she looked to the students who were all laughing because she had gotten the first equation wrong. Then the teacher said, “I wrote the first one wrong on purpose, because I wanted you to learn something important. I want you to know how the world will treat you.”

“You can see that I wrote the RIGHT thing nine times, but none of you congratulated me for it. Instead, you laughed and criticized me because of the one thing I did wrong.”

“The lesson I want you to learn is that the world will never appreciate the good you do a million times. But it will criticize you for the one wrong thing you do. Don’t get discouraged. Always rise above the laughter and criticism. Stay strong and continue to do all that you do so well, even if no one notices.”

In other words – Think BIG!

OPPORTUNITY FOR EARLY STAGE ENTREPRENEURS

Economic Development Regina and Square One are holding our semi-annual event for early stage entrepreneurs on Tuesday, May 14 called Ignite Your Ideas. The event is set-up as a speed networking session where each entrepreneur is given seven minutes of one-on-one time with established local business owners and professionals to talk about their business/business idea and gain feedback. The event is application-based with only 11 entrepreneurs/businesses being chosen to participate – Deadline to apply is Wednesday, May 1. https://squareonesask.ca/event/ignite-startup-regina-2019/

If you have any questions about the event, please contact:
Jasmine Patterson
Director, Entrepreneurship & Business Services
jpatterson@economicdevelopmentregina.com

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 101: THE BIG ONE THAT DIDN’T GET AWAY

By Bruce Johnstone

It’s not every day that an economic development agency gets to play a key role in bringing an industry to its region that could generate more than $10 billion in economic activity and more than 4,500 jobs in 10 years.

But that’s exactly what happened when Protein Industries Canada was announced as one of five winning consortia in the federal government’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI).

ISI is a $950-million program to establish “superclusters’’ or areas of dense economic activity that will “energize regional economies, help build a skilled workforce, enhance Canada’s global competitiveness and create thousands of well-paying jobs,’’ according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

What is a supercluster? It is a made-in-Canada Silicon Valley, or in this case five Silicon Valleys that will create potentially tens of thousands of jobs.

Protein Industries Canada (PIC) was one of nine consortia shortlisted for funding out of more than 50 proposals involving 1,000 firms and 350 organizations and associations. PIC is an alliance of more than 120 private sector companies, academic institutions, research facilities, and non-profit organizations, based in Western Canada, which is aimed at developing the full potential of plant-based protein from oilseed and pulse crops.

Read more.

Read all of the articles in this series here

30 SECONDS ON…

Val Sluth tells us about her role as the Woman Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Regina:

REGINA AREA BUSINESSES RECOGNIZED AT THE 30TH ANNUAL SASKATCHEWAN TOURISM AWARDS

Tourism Saskatchewan presented their awards last week and two of our local businesses were recognized! Over the Hill Orchards and Winery secured the Business of the Year Award (Under 20 Full-time Employees) and Regina Exhibition Association Limited won Business of the Year Award (More than 20 Full-time Employees)!
To see the other amazing winners, click here.

ANNUAL REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

EDR’s Annual Report for 2018 touches on a number of achievements:

  • Developing stable long-term funding to augment the city’s core funding of our initiatives. 21 companies and organizations have made commitments to the EDR Investment Partnership program which will generate a minimum of $1,250,000 in new revenues over three years.
  • Promoting Regina as the choice destination for business and leisure travel by projecting a defined and succinct competitive identity, focused on growing Regina. The national digital marketing campaign has generated over twenty million impressions among our target audiences in 14 key target markets.
  • EDR stakeholders are now fully engaged in realizing our community entrepreneurship strategy and celebrating entrepreneurs through the Audacity initiative.
  • Working closely with industry partners to maximize local opportunities for development growth through the Protein Industries Canada supercluster, which is now a non-profit based in Regina with access to $153 million of federal government funding.
  • In partnership with the City of Regina developing a comprehensive Industrial Land Inventory and Industrial Growth Strategy.
  • Assisted stakeholders to create the Regina Tech Working Group to foster the growth and development of technology-enabled companies in the GRA.
    See the whole report here.