Youth Entrepreneurship Summit Gears Up for Fourth Year
FREDERICTON – Pond-Deshpande Centre Student Ambassadors and other summit organizers are ready to launch the fourth Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES Atlantic) this Friday and Saturday.
Originally inspired by an entrepreneurial trip to Boston, Student Ambassadors created the summit to share the inspiration and knowledge they’d found with young people in their own community.
Student Ambassador Program coordinator Symone Jennings explains the goal was to pay forward experiences and opportunities to young residents of Atlantic Canada.
“The goal is to bring together these amazing speakers, interactive workshops and basically showcase to the youth of this region that we are not have-nots, we have so much potential here and here are the people who are working in these different spaces … taking the risk and making change and impact happen and showing that with the right tools that they can go out there and make positive change in their communities too,” Jennings said.
With the summit, Jennings said they are constantly trying to be innovative and creative with how it’s organized. She says this year’s theme is people, planet and profit because of the importance of those concepts for anyone interested in starting a business.
This year’s summit will engage and target both university and high school students. Jennings says that after inviting high school students to the summit over the last two years, organizers received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the younger demographic and decided this year to include them more.
Jennings says the summit aims to appeal to people looking for an avenue to connect with others of similar interest, looking for ways to advance their business or looking to connect with their personal passion and purpose.
“This year is very different where we’ve created a conference that appeals to everyone,”’ Jennings said. “When we say youth, we typically define youth as anyone who feels young at heart so it doesn’t have to be only people in university and high school. When we crafted the conference this year, we were keeping in mind the fact that our target audience is so diverse.”
The summit will include events such as interactive workshops, panels on financial literacy, panels for those interested in the fashion industry and a pop-up shop for vendors and entrepreneurs from Atlantic Canada.
“We’re showing that change can happen at any level of someone’s journey at any age. You just have to be passionate about it,” she said.
“The connections are so impactful and there’s just a spark that runs through the entire event when people are meeting and connecting that just creates this magic. If anyone’s looking for a touch of magic, they will find it at YES Atlantic.”