Toronto, Ontario, November 18, 2008 – The Impact Entrepreneurship Group and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) have joined forces to reach out to youth across Canada and raise awareness about leadership and entrepreneurship. On November 21-22nd, 2008, young leaders, business professionals and prominent entrepreneurs from across Canada will be converging at the 2008 Impact National Conference. As Canada's largest youth entrepreneurship and leadership event, the conference will bring together the top 500 youth leaders and entrepreneurs who will shape Canada's future with the goal of helping them become self-starters and lead the entrepreneurship movement, consistent with this year's theme of "The Movement Starts Here."
"BDC is proud to be the Title partner of the Impact National Conference," said Michel Bergeron, Vice-President, Corporate Relations of BDC. "This contribution is consistent with our mandate to help small businesses develop into tomorrow's business leaders. In challenging economic times we seek to encourage the next generation of entrepreneurs to continue to identify exciting opportunities, explore the benefits of entrepreneurship and contribute to the establishment of an innovation-driven business environment."
Students will be joined by some of Canada's most notable entrepreneurs including:
- Rebecca MacDonald, Founder of Energy Savings Income Fund
- Stuart MacDonald, Founder of Expedia Canada and Tripharbour.ca
- Linda Haynes, Founder of ACE Bakery
- Ann Kaplan, President & CEO of iFinance Canada Inc.
- Bob Young, Founder of Red Hat Linux CEO of Lulu.com
- Bruce Poon Tip, Founder of G.A.P. Adventures
- Leonard Brody, Venture Capitalist and Best-selling Author
"We are pleased to continue our strong partnership with BDC to host this year's conference. Their commitment to supporting youth entrepreneurship is a natural fit with Impact's core values and the conference will emphasize the need and importance for youth to embrace entrepreneurship," said Ray Cao, President of Impact Entrepreneurship Group.
This year's conference will take place at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto and feature workshops, speaker sessions, exhibitions, interactive sessions, and an 800 person gala. Part of a week-long celebration of youth entrepreneurship in Canada, the conference is the flagship event of Entrepreneurship Week Canada, a nation-wide awareness campaign taking place from November 17-23rd, 2008.
BDC is the Title Partner of the Impact National Conference which is also being supported by: Industry Canada, the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), the Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services, and Deloitte and Fasken Martineau.
About the Impact Entrepreneurship Group
The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is Canada's largest non-profit, student-run organization dedicated to encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit amongst youth in Canada and becoming a starting point and catalyst for youth interested in entrepreneurship and leadership.
About Business Development Bank of Canada
BDC is Canada's business development bank. From 100 offices across the country, BDC promotes entrepreneurship by providing highly tailored financing, venture capital and consulting services to entrepreneurs. BDC works with entrepreneurs in all industries, through all economic cycles and focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses in their development projects, local and global. BDC manages a $10.6 billion loan and investment portfolio and serves over 28,000 clients. Small and medium sized businesses make up 99.7% of all employer businesses in Canada.
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For more information contact:
Simon Wong
Vice President, Communications
Impact Entrepreneurship Group
(416) 876-4822
simon.wong@impact.org
Johanne Bissonnette
Media Relations Manager
(514) 283-7929
Contact by email
