Go Jill Go Challenge: A Smile A Day

“I believe everyone who breathes air on this earth, regardless of their job or their bank account, must give back more than just carbon dioxide.” – Kelly Cutrone

I may be a week behind, but better late than never.  I guess you can say I’ve been slightly busy the past few days. Then again when you’re a full-time BCIT student, when are you not? With classes, projects, work, volunteering, and trying to sustain a social life, it may come as a stress case for some people.  Personally, there are days where life feels like a constant routine.  School, eat, sleep, then repeat. But what’s life without a laugh, or an adventure, or at least a moment of happiness?  Or maybe there was, but it passed right by without you even acknowledging it…

The purpose of the Go Jill Go Challenge is to inspire people to live life to the fullest!  I realized, I want to live each day with a memory of happiness. It may sound cheesy, but it’s true. Who wants to let a day go by saying “I didn’t do anything”. Though I have to admit those days can feel amazing, there has to be a reason why they were so enjoyable! So why not capture that moment and remember just why life is so amazing. My challenge for the month is to take a photo of something that makes me happy each day!

Check out the rest of this blog post on the Go Jill Go Website.

My Go Jill Go Challenge-Vegan for 30 Days

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Venture Partner of the Month: Nicole Zschach

Nicole Zschach, VP Team Development

Nicole Zsach is our VP of Team Development. Her background in HR and Project Management experience (Spring Living Fair 2010-2011) mean that she has an exceptional understanding of what SIFE BCIT needs to do for our members to realize their potential. Her infectious enthusiasm and big smile mean that members naturally gravitate towards her.

Nicole is being recognized for her amazing efforts so far this year. She organized all the swag and t-shirts for orientation and created the method for new member development. Nicole also created the member business cards. No big deal right? Wrong, Nicole didn’t just compile a list of names and positions, she created each business card in photoshop. 97 business cards later she submitted the first order.

Why did you join the exec board this year?

o I was the PM for SLF last year and I really enjoyed being part of SIFE but I wanted to have more say about how SIFE was run so I figured an executive position would be perfect.

What is your favourite way to relax?

o Hot yoga or a night out with my girlfriends over wine and cheese J

What is your favourite type of food?

o I love stir fry and sushi…unless I’m back home in Calgary then it has to be the Alberta beef J

What is your guilty pleasure?

o Putting on a movie and eating all the candy in the world! I love popcorn and fuzzy peaches…pop them in your mouth at the same time and you will experience heaven!

Thanks Nicole! Keep up the great work.

Go Jill Go Dream Month

What have you always wanted to do? This is the question that the Go Jill Go Challenge asks all possible participants. Over the course of 30 days (Feb 1 – Mar 1) you are challenged to do something that you always wanted to do and ask friends and family for pledges to support your challenge. All proceeds from the event will go to support BC Children’s Hospital in memory of BCIT Student and SIFE member Jill Vassallo. You can read more about Jill’s story here.

Last year when the Go Jill Go launched; participants took on a variety of challenges. One person organized a charity run, another a benefit concert. Others learned to cook, did more yoga or cycled. The possibilities are truly endless.

For more information about how you can participate in the Go Jill Go Challenge, visit the website www.gojillgochallenge.com. There will also be a registration booth in the Great Hall on Thursday Jan 26. If you want to donate, visit our donation page.

Stay tuned for updates on what SIFE members are doing to challenge themselves!

“Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow” Workshop is a Wild Success!

All of our amazing guest speakers!

As part of our participation in Global Entrepreneurship Week, SIFE BCIT held a special event on the night of Thursday, November 24 called the “Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow” Workshop. This event was planned by 2011-12 First Year Liaisons Brendon Lanouette and Jonathan Sue, with guidance from SIFE BCIT executives Lindsay Noyes and Stephanie Murao.

Brendon kicked off the event by introducing our wonderfully diverse and talented guest speakers:
-Gurinder Parmar: A local DJ and an online and private custom clothier and suit maker.

-Kevyn Oyhenart: Broker/Owner of his own Dominion Lending Centres office.

-Michael Despotovic & Ketan Jogia: Two of the Co-Founders for This is Vancity, an online media company.

-Matthew Tsang: Vice President of My Loud Speaker, a Vancouver-based advertising agency.

-Joshua Sue & Jonathan Sue: Two of the general partners in NeckBeard Apparel, a small clothing business.

-College Pro Painters: Two members of this long-running student-run painting and cleaning service were represented.
Our event attendees were spread out across five tables in a roughly even proportion. Our guest speakers were then split up into these various tables and tasked with leading 10-minute conversation sessions with an introductory topic assigned to guide the discussion. Examples were “What experiences inspired you to become an entrepreneur?” and “What do you envision for yourself in your business in the future?”.

These topics proved to be excellent conversation starters, but the real magic of the event took place with the spontaneous questions and discussion that took place between the entrepreneurs and the event guests. Often, the participants continued to excitedly engage with the guest speakers far beyond the 10-minute time limit! Still, it was worthwhile for them to end their conversations (for the moment), because our guests were invited to rotate around the series of tables, so they could gain knowledge and experience from all of our speakers of the evening.

Following the guests’ complete rotation around all of the tables, the event ended with closing remarks from Brendon, who thanked all of the excellent guest speakers and everyone who attended for their enthusiasm and commitment. However, the night didn’t end there, as many of the attendees chose to stay behind and continue to talk with the guest speakers and exchange business cards and ideas.

In conclusion, all of the hard work that was put into this event was well worth it. Many attendees expressed that they greatly enjoyed the event and that they hoped SIFE BCIT would hold similar inspirational workshops in the future. With enthusiasm like that, you can bet that more exciting events like this will be happening soon!

Lions Lair, A Growing Success

Last Wednesday, November 9^th, entrepreneurs in SIFE BCIT’s Lions Lair had the opportunity to brush up on their computer and social media skills.  The classroom was filled with energy as everyone was excited to learn how technology can improve the efficiency and profile of their companies.

The workshop began with a presentation from SIFE members Joseph, Max, and Stephanie, the presenting team for the evening.  The presentation team showed how to effectively use Microsoft Office programs, especially PowerPoint since the entrepreneurs will be giving a presentation during the final competition.  Several great questions were asked, such as how to link Excel data with a PowerPoint file and how to format pictures and words.  Soon after, each participant had a chance to practice these tips with their SIFE mentors.  The sound of keyboards and mice clicking filled the room and smiles were seen on faces when everyone became more familiar with the software.

The workshop then moved onto its other topic of the night: social media.  The presenting team started this segment with Socialnomics’ video, “Social Media Revolution 3”, highlighting amazing statistics how social media has changed the world.  The entrepreneurs were then taught how to create and manage a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account for their businesses.

As with past Lions Lair workshops, the evening hosted a guest speaker with expertise in the presented topics.  The evening’s guest speaker was Kemp Edmonds, a past SIFE BCIT executive and BCIT alumnus.  Edmonds now works at Hootsuite, a producer of a globally used social media dashboard and one of British Columbia’s most innovative companies.  At Hootsuite, Edmonds is responsible for Enterprise Training and Client Success.

Edmonds spoke on all aspects of online marketing, including websites, Facebook, Twitter, and emails.  Although social media has taken the spotlight in recent years for its effectiveness, Edmonds stressed the importance of a well-developed website as the number one marketing tool.  Emails, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn should all funnel into the website and provide value to the target market.

Monitoring information online can be overwhelming.  Edmonds suggested two tools: first, a listening kit (i.e., Google Alerts, Social Mention, and TweetBeep) to determine if people are talking about their companies.  Second, Bit.ly, a link shortener that allows real-time statistics of where and how people are visiting a website.  Managing online information with these tips can be powerful for a company’s online presence.

Lastly, Edmonds included the importance of face-to-face meetings.  Online marketing and social media are powerful tools, but coffee meetings and Meetups add another dimension to company promotions.

Edmond’s presentation was well received and his insight was much appreciated.  He ended his portion answering several questions and acknowledged people who asked questions with mini Hootsuite kits!

Before wrapping up the workshop, Meghan, VP of Marketing at SIFE BCIT, gave the last presentation on effectively using Gmail.  Grouping and managing contacts and adding an email signature were some of the tips given by Meghan.

Lions Lair Biggest Year Yet

We’re excited to announce that Lions Lair is working with 12 entrepreneurs this year! This is Lions Lair’s highest client volume to date. Each entrepreneur’s business is unique, offering our Lion’s Lair mentors a variety of obstacles and possibilities. With everything from consultants to comedians, Lions Lair is helping a group of entrepreneurs move their business plans forward! Stay tuned!

Participants getting to know one another

Competition Team 2011/2012

Lindsay Noyes and Allie Meeres, ready to present at Nationals!

Are you passionate about SIFE projects?

Do you want to represent SIFE BCIT to our peers?

Do you thrive under pressure?

Are you detail oriented or outgoing?

Then you are person for the SIFE BCIT Competition team. The Competition Team represents SIFE BCIT at regional and national competitions. The breakdown of the opportunities are:

• Regionals Financial Education: 2 presenters, 1 tech
• Regionals Entrepreneurship Challenge: 2 presenters, 1 tech
• Regionals Go Green Challenge: 2 presenters, 1 tech
• National Presentation Team: 4 presenters, 1 tech
• Power point masters for all presentations
• Competition Administrator.

The responsibilities of the Competition team are presentation strategy, writing scripts, creating power points, writing annual reports and of course- actually presenting!  You may have noticed, that while the actual presentation is the end goal for all roles, it takes a lot of behind the scenes work. Creating the powerpoint and annual reports for each challenge is a very important job.

If you think you have what it takes, or you want to know more about what it takes to be on the Competition team come to the Info session on Nov. 21 at 5:30. Check the Facebook Group for room details or email me to get on the distribution list.

Have questions ahead of time? Contact me at lindsaysnoyes@gmail.com and I would be happy to answer them!

SIFE Leadership Retreat 2011

I spent Halloween weekend at school. Now, being at school on the weekend is not unusual for BCIT students, but I was not here to study. I was here with 179 of my fellow SIFE’rs at the 2011 SIFE Leadership Retreat. This year, it was hosted at BCIT Burnaby. All schools that have SIFE teams in British Columbia attended the event. Schools that sent SIFE teams were:

• Simon Fraser University
• University of British Columbia
• Okanogan College
• Thompson Rivers University
• Royal Roads
• University of Victoria (New Team)
• Kwantlen (New Team)
• Capilano College (New Team).

The retreat started bright and early Saturday morning and ran through until Sunday afternoon. Saturday was filled with sessions related specifically to SIFE, like project development, judging criteria and reporting practices; as well as workshops designed to provide member development. These included:

• Financial Bootcamp presented by SEDI
• Resume and Interview skills presented by BDC
• Project Management presented by College Pro Painters.

New this year, were breakout sessions targeted to SIFE’rs that are new to the organization. This change was very well received; as it allowed new members the opportunity to find out what SIFE is really about.

On Sunday, we spent the morning in small groups that consisted of students from many different schools. We were given the opportunity to discuss issues that are universal to SIFE teams like faculty engagement, financial management and new member retention. This was my favourite part of the retreat. I sat with students from Okanogan College, Royal Roads and Thompson Rivers University. Although all of these schools are located in very different parts of the province, we face very similar challenges.

It can be difficult, as BCIT students to take the time to attend events like the Leadership Retreat. It seems like a commitment we just can’t make compared with projects, group meetings and exams. But the value of attending events like the SIFE Leadership Retreat is not just in the sessions that are offered it is the networking. In five years, the people at retreats like this will be our co-workers, employees and even bosses! As well, learning about what projects other SIFE teams are doing is inspiring.

SIFE Nationals 2011

Metro Toronto Convention Center- May 2011

Imagine, an entire theatre of 1,300 seats full of enthusiastic SIFE students from across the country. What a thrill. Forty-five SIFE teams from Universities and Colleges Canada-wide eagerly await the opportunity to make it up on stage to be recognized – the same stage as Canadian Idol talent. Slideshows of community work, smiling faces and inspirational statistics flash on screen while the music pumps and thousands of students energetically clap, shout and throw their hands in the air. This is the SIFE nationals- the event of the year for SIFE students across Canada.

SIFE BCIT

All year long students at SIFE BCIT have been dedicating their spare time to work on community projects that make a difference. Ranging from small business consultation, to a reservist re-entry program to hunger awareness, SIFE BCIT has been working hard to create measurable community impact.

Nationals made the objective of SIFE clear. Each team’s purpose is to address economic, social and environmental issues faced by their community and find ways to combat them. Teams do this by creating projects that will have an impact on a target audience in the community. The goal is to improve the standard of living and quality of life, create jobs, and generate revenue that can be invested back into our economy.

BCIT- Deemed the competition to beat

Having won SIFE Regional’s in Calgary, SIFE BCIT qualified not only for the overall SIFE challenge, but also for the Financial Education challenge. The preliminary challenges were hosted in rooms that seated about 50 spectators and 10 judges. The judges who were executives from major Canadian companies were seated in the front row with annual reports and extensive criteria forms. Rooms were open to anyone and to our surprise during the SIFE BCIT presentations there was not one empty seat in the house. Word in Toronto was that SIFE BCIT was a team to beat. Students from other schools sat in and took notes because for a school of our size, we had a reputation for making a big impact and creating an all-star presentation.

How the Competition works

On day one at the Nationals SIFE BCIT made presentations for both the financial and overall SIFE challenges. When the results were tallied it was announced that BCIT qualified for the semi-final round for the overall SIFE challenge. This of course meant going back to the drawing board for our four presenters. Based on all of our viewings of other presentations we knew what teams we were up against and also, what kinds of questions the judges would be asking.

There is no doubt our team nailed the presentation during the semi-final round. The speeches moved flawlessly and the question and answer was strategic, personal and to the point. That moment was one of pure BCIT pride. Speaking of pride, BCIT stuck together with it fellow West Coast schools. Nothing but support was offered to SFU and Kwantlen College.

Unfortunately in a competition of this stature it is hard to compete with the Universities that have regular course loads, four year programs, and plenty of start-up capital. Although unselected for the final round, SIFE BCIT gave other schools a run for their money and it was a feat to have made it that far!

The Results

The winner of this year’s SIFE National challenge was Memorial University and runner up position going to Ryerson. Both of these schools had impressive projects that created astounding results in their communities. Memorial will be flying their team to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to represent Canada at the SIFE World Cup. SIFE Windsor won over the hearts of the audience with their unforgettable presentation about the hardships of Windsor throughout the recession and their perseverance to rise above.

The SIFE challenge in Toronto gave students the opportunity to view the kinds of projects that other schools from across the country have been working on. There is nothing more inspirational than watching young people, with so much drive, go up on stage and showcase the positive changes that they are making in their communities. The whole competition provided the right amount of motivation to empower SIFE BCIT to work harder, create more projects, recruit more students and return to Nationals in Calgary next year for a chance to bring a win back to the West Coast.