November 3rd marked the first-ever Innovation Pitch Event that was co-hosted with Dr. Neil Maltby, a professor at the Schwartz School of Business, and the Innovation and Enterprise Centre. The event was created to serve as a platform for students with innovative ideas for new products or services to share their ideas and receive constructive feedback from an audience of motivated students, local business owners and industry professionals. Due to networking efforts of the Innovation and Enterprise Centre, the event drew in a diverse crowd of participants from various disciplines and audience members.

This year, with the support from the StFX Extension Innovation and Enterprise Centre and the relationships created with various faculty stakeholders across campus, this event had tremendous success in attracting students in the university to come forward and express their interests in product development.

4th year BBA Entrepreneurship student, Hannah Chisholm, shared her product pitch known as Egg-citables – a plant-based egg substitute product that is aimed at meeting the needs of people with egg allergies or choose not to consume products made with animal by-products. Hannah was able to use the Innovation Pitch Event to critique her product and go-to-market approach while considering suggestions from industry professionals after successfully completing her summer internship with the Wallace Family Internship this past summer.

Furthermore, Michael Keough, a 4th year BSc Human Nutrition student, pitched his Apple & Blueberry Pomace-based snack product idea. Despite still being in the early product-development stage, Michael was able to capture the attention of the professional audience members with his innovative idea of creating a food product that is environmentally conscious and nutritious that compliments the current market trend towards healthier snacks. From this event, Michael was able to use the feedback from the audience members to help him get a better understanding of his offering, what will drive demand and other important considerations. Michael was thrilled to be able to get constructive feedback from proven members of the local business community and looks forward to continue developing his product.

The StFX Extension Innovation and Enterprise Centre looks forward to collaborating with other interest-groups and organizing more opportunities like the Innovation Pitch Event to spark entrepreneurial spirit on campus.