The Daily Bulletin is published by Internal and Leadership Communications, part of University Communications
Contact us at bulletin@uwaterloo.ca
Submission guidelines
Introducing Concept, imagined by Velocity
This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Concept website.
Velocity is launching its campus program Concept, that will exclusively support students and the University of Waterloo community. While imagined and supported by Velocity, Concept will have its own identity and will replace all existing Velocity-branded offerings on campus. Concept will have a dedicated team, new initiatives, and supports that will better prepare the community for an increasingly competitive and entrepreneurial world.
Background
Velocity was conceived over a decade ago as an on-campus experiment—Velocity Residence—which took a bet on students’ capacity to innovate.
Since then, Velocity has grown and evolved into a portfolio of programs that move the needle for entrepreneurship on campus, in the Region of Waterloo, and across Canada. It has evolved from an organization that focused exclusively on supporting students with entrepreneurial curiosities on campus, to one that also helps hundreds of startups in our incubator in downtown Kitchener—to discover, build, and grow.
As with anything that grows, one of the biggest challenges is to maintain the original focus without compromising the quality and impact of work. Last month, we announced that our team structure was changing in order to better support our two areas of focus: UWaterloo students/campus and startups. We’re now ready to announce another change (it’s been a busy summer!). Our initiatives supporting the UWaterloo student/campus focus will now be housed within the Velocity organization under a new brand and its own dedicated team.
What is Concept?
Concept is our pre-incubator program that inspires, guides, and supports University of Waterloo students and faculty with entrepreneurial aspirations. While not every student who engages with Concept will start a company, we will help develop students’ entrepreneurial skills, which are valuable, no matter what happens after graduation. For those students with entrepreneurial ambitions and early-stage ideas, Concept will be a key support in preparing them for entry into a top-ranked incubator, be it Velocity or others around the world.
You might ask: why are we drawing such sharp distinction with our offerings, especially with respect to identities? For that, we’ll need to dig into what’s been happening over the last decade. Both Velocity and the entire entrepreneurship landscape at the University of Waterloo has changed significantly since Velocity was conceived in 2008. With this in mind, we’ve taken a step back to look closer at the entirety of our activities. It has become increasingly evident that we serve two different audiences: students and startups.
While the two segments fit squarely into Velocity’s overall mission to ignite and fuel the entrepreneurial spirit at UWaterloo, in the Waterloo Region, and in Canada, they each require different kinds of supports and interactions. Students require a nurturing and flexible support system; one that can meet them where they are in their entrepreneurial exploration and blends well with the intensity of pursuing their degree. Startups require disciplined focus, accountability and an unparalleled level of grit. Students desire connections to other people that are exploring and testing. Startups desire connections to early adopter customers, investors and talent to build their team. We could go on with the various differences; the point is that what we offer needs to be tailored to two different audiences we serve, which is exactly what Concept enables us to do.
We’ve talked to students, faculty, staff and external partners and learned that the set of activities that Velocity represents are muddled. There was little clarity around Velocity’s activities on campus versus the incubator, located in downtown Kitchener. Perhaps most worrisome, some students saw engaging Velocity as intimidating because they perceived Velocity as the place where startups build products and raise millions of dollars to scale, and while that’s true it is also true that we provide student supports for a much earlier stage of engagement. Conversely, venture capital investors looking to invest millions of dollars weren’t sure if Velocity, the place that also hosts introductory workshops was the right place to look.
Segmenting our programs into Velocity and Concept will create internal and external clarity and allow for the highest quality support to be offered to each audience. This is the foundation on which Velocity’s entire spectrum of entrepreneurship support at the University of Waterloo levels up.
Submissions open for HeForShe writing contest
Presented by the Writing and Communication Centre and W Print.
As part of the commitment to the UN Women’s HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative, the University of Waterloo presents the fourth and final year of the HeForShe Writing Contest, happening during September and October 2019.
"What impacts you in the present? What are you doing in the present to impact the future?"
In this final year of the HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 writing contest, we invite the University of Waterloo community to share their ideas, expressions and visions on the theme of LEGACY as it relates to intersectional gender equity. Imagine how your words and creative expressions might enact allyship, inspire others and propel action.
In this call for your poems, stories and personal essays, we hope you will consider how the idea of legacy brings us here, to this moment in the present, and also how our choices today impact generations to come. Legacy ties us to one another across time. It extends and traces the choices we make today backwards and forwards, across seasons and across centuries. As we look around us now and lean forward into the future of gender equity, how do you see the legacy we carry today and imagine the legacy we can create for the future?
A $500 prize will be awarded for the top submission in each category (poetry, creative non-fiction, and fiction). Selected submissions will also be included in a special University of Waterloo anthology on gender equity that will be published on March 6, 2020 at the International Women’s Day Dinner.
The contest is open to all Waterloo students, faculty, staff, and alumni, and submissions must not have been previously published. Pieces submitted as part of Waterloo course work will be accepted.
Submissions are due October 1, 2019.
Library revitalization grand opening and other notes
The Library is inviting the entire Waterloo community to celebrate the completion of two years of renovations at the Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries. "Join us at Davis Centre Library on Thursday, September 12 at 1:30 p.m. for the Library Revitalization Grand Opening," says a note from the Library. "Explore our new and improved spaces, enjoy refreshments, and celebrate the opening of the new Art in the Library exhibit, Begin*. Remarks begin at 2:00 p.m."
Following the grand opening, drop by Dana Porter Library for a behind-the-scenes tour of the new staff workspaces on the third and fifth floors. Library staff will be on hand to welcome you and answer questions.
Would you like to join a network of students leading sustainability initiatives? The Sustainability Office is recruiting Green Residence Ambassadors (GRA). The GRA program is an opportunity to develop leadership and sustainable living skills, while creating positive change in your residence, on campus and in the community. Applications are due today.
The Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI)’s Fall 2019 Open House will take place on Tuesday, September 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon in the EV3 atrium. This is an opportunity for participants to network with faculty and students interested in complex systems and to learn about upcoming events and initiative. Light refreshments will be provided.