An inspiring weekend: Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition 2010
The Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition was an amazing event. Even though I was complaining about the work and the insanity the consumed my life last week, it was all worth it when everything fell into place this weekend.
First off, congratulations to Chris who won first place award with www.buildmylanyard.com - his passion, confidence and enthusiasm shone through and there was no doubt that he was serious business. Like he said, “it has to happen.”
I think we all need to remember to exude that type of confidence when we go through life sometimes.
There were 16 teams that came from all over the world - Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Michigan, Texax… each one of them were absolutely inspiring. The stakes were high - $15,000 - the judges/speakers were top notch and competition was intense. The amount of thought, time and courage that these competitors put into their entrepreneurial dreams left me in awe. After watching the presentations, I felt like I had so much more to learn… so much more to improve upon. Our co-chairs, Ahmad and Kevin did an absolutely fantastic job keeping up QEC’s reputation for the 22nd year and made it a wonderfully rewarding experience. We’ll be featured online on New York Times on Monday or Tuesday, so check it out!
One of the most important things I’ve gained through this experience was the interaction while working with the executive.
I almost wish we had more time to get to know each other, beyond crunch week. Nonetheless, it was an amazing time and I felt like I did finally get something out of such a conference/competition. Seeing the handbook in print, the banner hanging front and centre of the Queen’s School of Business atrium, the installation at the final gala… it was just… rewarding. Of course, I’m not a professional designer and I know that there are a lot of mistakes here and there in the book and even the logo could have been designed a little better… but I’m content. Publications is not an easy job - at least not as easy as I originally thought it would be. I say I’d never take up such a position again, but it really helped me learn… so maybe, maybe I’ll give it another chance for another conference in fourth year.
It’s time to work on something else - networking skills would be handy at this point.
For now, I’m focused on my fashion show - NEON.
I was sitting at Common Ground with my co-director and the marketing team that we put together. It amazed me to see the work and effort that they are willing to put into promoting the show, and I’m blessed to be able to work with them.
We are definitely having our ups and downs - lots of things are still wading in the water… but I’m confident that we’ll pull it together. FIVE DAYS.
I feel that this year is when I will probably learn most about human resources management and leadership. The opportunities that I’ve been able to explore thus far have been wondrous to my personal, as well as professional development.
It’s not all ups though. I’m really falling behind in academics and I think it’s an inevitable trade off - however, it’s no excuse to slack. I’ll just have to try harder to get back on track. I think that having something to look forward to will help focus…
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