UVic Students Trade Up In Entre-Palooza! Challenge
University of Victoria business students have teamed up with a new UVic Innovation Centre for Students to launch Entre-Palooza!, an entrepreneurship challenge that is sending 300 undergraduate students out into the Greater Victoria community to trade goods and services for items of increasing value. Entre-Palooza! kicks-off Oct. 18 and runs for two-weeks.
“This challenge gets students out of the classroom and into the marketplace to learn how to create transactions, or exchanges of economic value,” says Dr. Brock Smith, business professor and entrepreneurship area champion. “Entrepreneurship can be learned, and the best way to learn to be an effective entrepreneur is through deliberate practice.”
Starting with a coloured paper clip, students will engage in a series of trades for items of increasing value. Then, either individually or in teams of up to three, students will post their tradable items on the UsedVictoria.com website, a free online classified site that allows users to buy, sell, and trade a large variety of items. Nathan Weathington, a UVic MBA entrepreneurship graduate, manages UsedVictoria.com. “We have created a special Entre-Palooza! section on our website where people across Victoria can view items and make arrangements for a trade,” says Weathington. “About 150,000 people will view these pages during the event, so we are expecting lots of trade action.”
Students can keep the items they trade for, or they can donate their final items to the new UVic Innovation Centre for Students. “The centre is being formed to support student innovation and entrepreneurship across campus,” says Smith. “It will be a place where you can drop in to get help refining your ideas and developing business plans. Its mandate is to foster innovative spirit and entrepreneurial expertise. That’s what this Entre-Palooza! Entrepreneurship Challenge is all about—getting more students to think entrepreneurially.”
The items will be auctioned off at a public event on November 5 at the Vancouver Island Technology Park.
“This challenge gets students out of the classroom and into the marketplace to learn how to create transactions, or exchanges of economic value,” says Dr. Brock Smith, business professor and entrepreneurship area champion. “Entrepreneurship can be learned, and the best way to learn to be an effective entrepreneur is through deliberate practice.”
Starting with a coloured paper clip, students will engage in a series of trades for items of increasing value. Then, either individually or in teams of up to three, students will post their tradable items on the UsedVictoria.com website, a free online classified site that allows users to buy, sell, and trade a large variety of items. Nathan Weathington, a UVic MBA entrepreneurship graduate, manages UsedVictoria.com. “We have created a special Entre-Palooza! section on our website where people across Victoria can view items and make arrangements for a trade,” says Weathington. “About 150,000 people will view these pages during the event, so we are expecting lots of trade action.”
Students can keep the items they trade for, or they can donate their final items to the new UVic Innovation Centre for Students. “The centre is being formed to support student innovation and entrepreneurship across campus,” says Smith. “It will be a place where you can drop in to get help refining your ideas and developing business plans. Its mandate is to foster innovative spirit and entrepreneurial expertise. That’s what this Entre-Palooza! Entrepreneurship Challenge is all about—getting more students to think entrepreneurially.”
The items will be auctioned off at a public event on November 5 at the Vancouver Island Technology Park.
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Keywords: uvic, students, trade, entrepalooza, challenge
