YORKTON — Suncrest College has launched Suncrest Innovation Exchange (SiX) and introduced its inaugural startup program.
Through its applied research mandate, Suncrest College has participated in numerous regional projects that required solutions extending beyond traditional approaches.
What began as an experiment quickly became a learning opportunity for both the college and the broader community, Suncrest College explains in a news release.
According to the college, the program demonstrated strong interest in entrepreneurship and innovation while highlighting a larger opportunity: the need for dedicated supports that extend beyond the college environment.
While SiX proved successful as an innovation initiative within Suncrest College, it became clear that long-term regional impact would require a complementary model focused on businesses, entrepreneurs and ecosystem development, a news release states.
Community and entrepreneurial partners came together to establish a broader rural innovation ecosystem that operates alongside, but independent from, the college.
The college says SiX will continue to evolve within Suncrest College through entrepreneurial programming for students and staff, including exploration of a blended learning model that combines entrepreneurship, business and operational training.
Startup program outcomes
The inaugural startup program ran from February to April and welcomed eight startups: six from Saskatchewan, one from Quebec and one from Indiana.
Participants met weekly in an online format facilitated by Andrew Leaman. Sessions were structured around themes designed to support the development and growth of technology-focused businesses and included guest speakers selected for their expertise and connections across industry and support agencies.
Program topics included:
- Introduction to the East Central Saskatchewan community
- Customer discovery and sales
- Reconciliation and entrepreneurship
- Problem validation and solution mapping
- Cybersecurity and rural populations
- Building the offer and sales conversations
- Operations and organizational structure
- Resilience and growth
- Reflection and next steps
Each 90-minute session combined discussion, practical activities and targeted assignments to help founders advance specific areas of their business development. One key assignment involved creating and refining an elevator pitch for their startup.
In total, 16 speakers contributed to the program, including four Suncrest College staff members and 12 external experts.
The program was scheduled to conclude with an in-person Pitch Gala at Suncrest College’s Trades and Technology Centre, where founders would present to community supporters and agencies offering entrepreneurial supports. Unfortunately, a late spring snowstorm resulted in the event being cancelled.
To ensure participants still had an opportunity to showcase their work, pre-recorded startup pitches were collected and compiled into a video that will be shared publicly on YouTube.
Demonstrating regional potential
The Startup Program demonstrated that there is strong potential for entrepreneurship and startup development in East Central Saskatchewan.
Two participating startups from outside Saskatchewan are actively exploring establishing offices in the Yorkton region, while another participant is considering relocating to Yorkton to continue building their business locally.
In addition, participating startups are exploring future applied research opportunities with Suncrest College’s Centre for Applied Research and Innovation (CARIS).
Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, according to Suncrest College. All startups indicated they would recommend the program to others interested in launching a technology-based business and all reported that participation strengthened and advanced their business development.
Future offerings of the Startup Program will be delivered in partnership with The Eastern Junction, Yorkton’s newly established Tech and Innovation Hub.
This initiative was supported through funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Innovation Saskatchewan.
