Team:Calgary/Outreach/Conferences/Summer

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Summer Workshop

This was the second conference put on by the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures for the three iGEM teams from Alberta. It was great to be able to communicate with the other two teams and see how their projects were progressing. On Saturday we spent the day with two entrepreneurs, and on Sunday we presented our progress thus far and sat with experts to discuss the future of our project.

Saturday

On Saturday, we participated in an entrepeneurship workshop hosted by Randy Thompson and Don Chapman. Randy and Don taught us about market analysis (the first step in creating a successful company), the value of believing in your product, marketing, sales, 30 second sales pitches, how to be an interesting speaker, intellectual property and other start-up costs, and the make-up of an entrepreneur. They also amused us with their stories and we learned a lot.




Sunday

The day began with each of the Alberta iGEM teams (that is Calgary, Lethbridge, and Alberta) presenting mock iGEM presentations on their progress so far. The teams were then questioned by a panel of judges and by the other teams about the various aspects of their projects. This was then followed by sessions wherein each team sat with an expert who advised them on how to improve their presentations and provided guidance on various issues of the projects. We received quite a few helpful tips from the guests and are very thankful that they took the time to sit and discuss our project with us.