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Luncheon to honour innovation

A world of opportunity will be opened up for a lucky entrepreneur-to-be at the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce ambassadors’ luncheon at Red Deer College on May 5.

A world of opportunity will be opened up for a lucky entrepreneur-to-be at the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce ambassadors’ luncheon at Red Deer College on May 5.

The winner of the RED (Regional Economic Development) Challenge will be announced then.

The challenge was launched last year as part of the province’s Youth Technopreneurship Program, which provides funding for post-secondary institutions and non-profit community organizations to host business plan contests for young entrepreneurs. In the RED Challenge, students and recent post-secondary graduates under the age of 35 submitted business plans with a science, technology or knowledge-based focus.

Chosen by the adjudication panel from the top submitted business plans, the winner will receive $20,000 in start-up funding for their proposed business, as well as mentoring from RDC instructors and free office space at the college to kick-start their work.

“The pleasure of this is going to be to see what this person is proposing to do,” said Red Deer Chamber of Commerce executive director Tim Creedon.

“We think that Red Deer should be celebrating the passion and energy that entrepreneurs bring into our business culture and into the broader operations of the city. So from our perspective . . . it’s important to meet somebody who’s going to be working very hard to make a major contribution into our economy.”

The chamber is organizing the luncheon as a member of Red Deer Regional Economic Development, the host organization for the initiative.

“We had never come across this before . . . We think it’s a really exciting and innovative program that gives somebody a massive head-start in trying to launch a business,” said Creedon.

The luncheon runs 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the BCTL Building. Admission $20 for chamber members, $23 for non-members, and will include an address on entrepreneurship by well-known local business people Jack and Joan Donald.

mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com