What is Innovation Rodeo?
Spearheaded by Bow Valley College, the 8th Annual Innovation Rodeo is run during the same week as the Calgary Stampede. This year, it is being held in person at Bow Valley College AND online.
It is five afternoons of keynote speeches, workshops, Innovation Challenges and pitch competitions designed to upskill Alberta’s innovators, change-makers, problem-solvers, aspiring entrepreneurs, startups, scale-ups, advisors, mentors, investors and ecosystem builders while helping them build new connections and learn how to commercialize new ideas faster.
Innovation Rodeo 2023
The theme of the 8th annual Innovation Rodeo is “Climbing the Business Hierarchy of Needs.” It features Mike Michalowicz and awards all the registration fees from the event to participants in a crowd favourite pitch competition for high school students.
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150 Startups Founding Partners
Innovation Rodeo 2021 Winners
The 2021 Innovation Rodeo was successful and featured panelists and sessions with focuses including creating products and services people want, raising non-dilutive funding, raising funds from angel investors or accelerators, raising funds from Venture Capitalists, and making a successful exit.
Each day during Innovation Rodeo some of the most promising first-time Entrepreneurs from Alberta's publicly funded colleges, universities, and polytechnics competed for daily cash prizes of $2,500 in regional rounds of the Most Promising Student Entrepreneur pitch competitions. The top two from each day of the regional pitch competitions moved on the finals on Friday afternoon where they competed for an additional $17,500 and the chance to win one of three $12,000 US scholarships to the top Entrepreneurship Program in Silicon Valley.
The 2021 Innovation Rodeo student pitch competition winners stood out from the pack:
- In first place was Gillian Alm. Gillian's company, BALMskincare is a startup skincare company focused on providing free education to young women on skin health and products so they can have skin they are confident in.
- David Bermudez finished in second place. His company, Fresh Hydroponics is a city sustainable local farming, working with businesses in order to extend shelf life, cut the cost down, guarantee the freshness of greens by producing locally.
- Dana Holland finished in third place. Her company, Bold N Brave is focused on getting teens outside away from screens where they can build skills that will help their confidence, resilience and connections as they move into adulthood.
