REPORT ON THE 2016 ANNUAL ENTREPRENEURIAT QUEBEC CONFERENCE
From October 26-28th 2016, the annual Entrepreneuriat Quebec conference was held at the Lévis Convention and Exhibition Centre. More than 80 staff members involved in the Lancement d’une entreprise, Starting a business and Gérer efficacement mon entreprise programs and Centre de Formation Professionnelle administrations from around the province met for a conference providing training and opportunities to share experiences as well as networking where entrepreneurship was the theme of the event.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 26TH 2016
The conference began with two sessions led respectively by Michel Ross, academic advisor and supervisor for the Lancement d’une entreprise, Gérer d’une entreprise de la construction at École commerciale de la Riveraine and creator of Prévipro, and Jean Bibeau, teaching assistant (soon to be professor!) at Sherbrooke University.
Michel Ross’ seminar focused on the updates to the Prévipro budgeting software. This program is the preferred training software used by teacher-coaches and promoters (students) in the Lancement d’une entreprise and Starting a business programs when doing their financial planning for their businesses.
Jean Bibeau got participants thinking about applying a business plan model developed by A. Osterwalder and Y. Pigneur. Through dynamic group-work, attendees applied the business plan model concepts into plans for a business idea and also a business in the starting phase.
The day continued with the Entrepreneuriat Quebec members’ annual general assembly. Notable moments included: record results for the organisation, promising leads and prospects for development within the entrepreneurship field and a new Board of Directors comprised of: Sylvianne Tanguay, Lorraine Bissonnette, Hélène Pilote, Sonia Ruivo, Luc McClish, François Prévost and Erick Gauthier.
Finally, all the best dressed showed up for the cocktail and gala supper “To be known” (On gagne à être connu) in collaboration with the Quebec SADC/CAE. It was a festive and elegant affair where conference attendees took advantage of the occasion to get their dance on, tell a few jokes and show off their amateur photographer talents.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 27TH 2016
The second day of the conference began with a talk by Michaël Giguère, Daniel Richard, teacher-coach at the Centre de Formation Professionnelle Paul-Émile Dufresne de Laval, Michel Bastien, economic development officer at the Carrefour de formation de la Mauricie, and Emmanuelle Lefebvre, also an economic development officer at the Matawinie SADC. In this session they presented the regional initiatives between Entrepreneuriat Québec and the SADC/CAE in certain regions of Quebec.
Michaël Giguère, Director General of Entrepreneuriat Québec, presented a number of developments within the organisation. The most notable of which are the addition of themes in the Gérer efficacement mon entreprise program, the Ilias pedagogical software, and new additions to the interactive business plan tool among others. The director also took the opportunity to have an open discussion with members of the Entrepreneuriat Quebec network to engage in a conversation about what strengths of the program are the most likely to take the organisation to the next level in the future.
Up next came Bruny Surin. During his talk the former Olympic athlete shared how his experiences and how knowing himself brought him to success in his life. The stimulating and dynamic speech was a great motivator for those present for their own projects. His take-away message? Perseverance is the key to success – that’s it!
Following Bruny, were Sylvianne Tanguay and Gina Gaudreault who presented a business plan model for the Lancement d’une entreprise program. Their presentation introduced tools available to use for introducing the “Business Model” in the training programs Lancement d’une entreprise and Starting a business. Their objective was to show a way to use a stimulating approach to encourage students to advance even more during their programs in entrepreneurship.
After, we heard from Sylvain Savoie, Senior director, training, sales and careers at iA Groupe Financier and Johnny Roy, vice-president, sales, and career networking also of iA Groupe Financier. They introduced us to a new prospect for Quebec’s self-employed workers: the financial consultant entrepreneur. Their presentation was focused on showing an interesting alternative for people who want to start a business in a lesser-known domain that has a promising future. Actually, insurance brokers and financial consultants are ranked 29th on the list of tomorrows occupations as per “Tout pour Réussir 2015-2016”.
The day ended with the President’s Cocktail hour and the presentation of the “Diamond Partne”. This happy hour was in appreciation for the Board of Director’s outgoing president, Michel Ross, who was an administrator from 1999 to 2016, and his announcement of a new $50,000 partnership between iA Groupe Financier and Entrepreneuriat Québec.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 28TH 2016
Lastly, on Friday morning of October 28th, the annual Entrepreneuriat Québec conference wound down with a workshop-seminar on the SwissNova psychometric profile: The Nova Profile. This tool provides information about behaviour, skills, different psychological characteristics and what motivates a person. Thanks to the accuracy of its analysis, it can be considered a sound personal and professional development tool[1], which is essential for entrepreneurs.
With that, the 2016 Entrepreneuriat Québec conference concluded. All participants left with new tools and motivations to continue the vocation of training and inspiring others in becoming Quebec’s next generation of entrepreneurs.
Thank you and see you next year!