GBIC Forum: Dialogue Between University Students And Local Entrepreneurs In Vancouver：Ignite entrepreneurial passion and share ideas

On Jan. 14^th, 2018, a beautiful sunny Sunday in Vancouver, more than 400 students, professors, scholars, entrepreneurs, and members from the local business community gathered at UBC Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability, to attend an exciting event: A Dialogue between university students and local entrepreneurs in Vancouver. This event was co-organized by the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Grizzly Bear Institute of Canada (GBIC). The attendees, mostly originally from China, were attracted to this event because of a shared passion to engage in entrepreneurial adventures. While students from universities such as UBC and SFU wanted to learn from experienced and achieved entrepreneurs about how to get started on this journey, entrepreneurs were also eager to use the event to share lessons learned from their personal entrepreneurship experiences, as well as recruit talents.

Professor Weihong Song, the Special Advisor to the President on China at UBC, the Associate Director of UBC Institute of Mental Health, Mr. Changxue Yu, Education Consul of the Consulate-General of P.R. China in Vancouver, and Professor Guangyu Wang, President of GBIC, Associate Dean of Faculty of Forestry of UBC, made the opening speech at the event.

Professor Song, Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease, acknowledged the importance of such an event connecting students and local entrepreneurs and applauded UBC and GBIC for leading the initiative that will contribute greatly to the growth of both students and local business community.

Mr. Changxue Yu encouraged students to recognize and further strengthen their unique advantages such as language skills and professional knowledge acquired in Canada. He urged students to learn from the experienced entrepreneurs so that they can bring their own entrepreneurial projects to fruition and success.

Dr. Guangyu Wang, also President of GBIC, thanked all the attendees for their commitment and participation. In particular, he acknowledged the enthusiastic response and support from many participating enterprises for volunteering to financially sponsor the event. Professor Wang mentioned that event was originally planned for students of Faculty of Forestry at UBC only, but later was extended to include college students from the metro Vancouver area upon requests from many students not only from beyond Faculty of Forestry, but also those from other local universities such as SFU. Also, the venue for the meeting had to be moved to a larger room due to an unexpectedly high volume of audience registered for the event. Given the extremely positive and encouraging feedback from all parties, Professor Wang declared that GBIC would continue this initiative and organize many more similar events in the future to facilitate students’ job seeking and entrepreneurial efforts.

After the opening speeches, five guest speakers from across different industries shared their own experiences regarding studying or living abroad and running their own start-ups.

Ms. Katherine Fan, a co-founder of CICTAN Biotech, graduated from McGill University, emphasized in her speech that honesty and integrity are the basis and foundation for business success. Also, to succ eed as an entrepreneur, you need to be committed to a life-long process of continuous learning and growth and strongly believe in your ability to turn impossible into possible. Running business in the bio-tech industry and focusing on prevention and treatment of challenging diseases such as cancer and diabetes, Katherine believes that unbounded innovation, unbeatable perseverance, unshakeable determination, and unbreakable unified team spirit are among the key factors that explain CICTAN’s success thus far. Working with a group of passionate, prominent and distinguished healthcare medical professionals and research scientists around the world, Katherine believes in the bright future of CICTAN.

Mr. Michael Yi, CTO of UHUBOR, has a master degree from UBC and a PhD degree from SFU, both in Computing Science. As someone who had failed multiple times trying to start his own business, Michael wanted to share all the lessons he learned from his own failures and mistakes through the talk. He suggested five basic elements for starting a business: right idea, right team, right business model, enough capital, and right timing. He takes pride in the team he works with at UHUBOR because they all share the same passion and believe in their entrepreneurial project. Michael said: “I decided that this will be my last trial”. UHUBOR believes that sharing supports sustainability and offers a one-stop sharing app to “connect” the UBC Community. Using the app, community members can seek goods, services, and rentals like never before. This is a much-needed service for the UBC community; simply imagine how much waste can be reduced by facilitating buy-and-sale of second-hand goods among departing and incoming UBC students.

Mr. Carol Pan, a businessman with over 20-year entrepreneurship experience, claims multiple patents and is the founder and CEO of Freelife Solutions (FS). FS is no traditional type of marketing company. Based on sharing economy and big data, FS is committed to becoming a global advertising platform with the largest population base and highest conversion rate. Recently strategically allied with Nations Fresh Foods grocery store chain, FS aims to provide a cost-effective platform for students to start their career, either as an employee or a business owner. Carlo concluded his speech by advising students that to start their own businesses, they need to develop exceptional execution abilities, have strong willpower, and find the right platform so that they can get the needed support to grow and develop in the process.

Ms. Rain Emily Zhang, different from all the other guest speakers, is the only one doing business in a traditional industry. Ms. Zhang, a winner of multiple Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards, solely founded Willowest in 2006, after immigrating to Vancouver, Canada in 2005 with her family. After doing months of library research on Canada and realizing that tourism is one of the strongest industries in BC, she decided to explore business opportunities in hotel business considering the natural link between tourism and hospitality. Another thing she knew clearly from the very beginning is that she would do business related to China because that was the market she knew best. After doing market analysis and visiting suppliers in China, she was ready to start her entrepreneurial adventure. Today Willowest is a recognized supplier of comprehensive solutions for hospitality furnishing in Canada, and their products include case goods and upholstered seating, as well as soft goods such as hotel linens, towels, bathrobes, and all types of duvets & blankets. Ms. Zhang reflected and commented: “The most challenging part in the early process is to learn to be integrated so that we, together with our suppliers in China, become a link in the global supply chain…. 95% of our procurement personnel are in China…My Chinese suppliers never failed me as long as you give them the clear and specific standards and requirements”. Ms. Zhang concluded her speech by pointing out what the life is like for an entrepreneur (“A lonely journey with numerous uncertainties on your way”) and by presenting new projects of the company as opportunities for investment and partnership.

The last guest speaker is Mr. Terry Liu, CEO of Terry Liu & Associates Ltd., an immigration service company based in Vancouver. Mr. Liu started his business journey by acquiring a local immigration company in 2006. Terry attributed his company’s success largely to the loyal and professional service of the original management team and personnel of the acquired company. Terry provided excellent guild

A panel discussion followed the talks given by the 5 guest speakers. The panel consisted of Ye Huang from Interfor Corporation, Angela Pan from Eyexpo, Leo Liu from Canada Brightway Shipping Ltd, Alice Wang from UHUBOR, Marie Wu from Blue Energizing, Calvin Xu from True North Energy Corporation, Bill Zhuo from Ginkgo Capital, Galen Cheng from Cozystay, and Michael Day from Goopter. The nine panelists briefly introduced their own company and business adventure to the audience. Then the panel interacted with the audience by answering some of the most commonly asked questions GBIC had collected from students about entrepreneurship, ranging from how to find angel funds to how to apply for government funding support.

Most panel members emphasized that students should acquire experience first by working full-time somewhere and learning how other companies run business before they start their own ventures. “Never rush it and timing is very important”.  They should be clear about their vision and mission and don’t lose focus in the process. Also, a beginner should learn how to accurately judge the feasibility of an entrepreneurial project by asking themselves: “Are you providing a better solution to some problems your potential customers are struggling with?” “Before you ask for investment funds, ask yourself how you are going to offer your investors return on investment”. Finally, almost all of the panellists reminded students of the importance of learning from failures in the process so that they have the capability and resilience to recover from the setbacks: “Failures and setbacks are an inevitable part of your journey. You always learn more valuable lessons from failure than from success”. The insightful observations and responses made by the panel received rounds of applauses from the audience.

The dialogue event ended with an engaging Q&A session with the audience. Many audiences stayed and continued discussions with the guest speakers and panellists after the formal ending of the event. Attendees also had a chance to go out to the booths of participating enterprises to inquire about employment or investment opportunities while enjoying light refreshments offered by the event organizers.

Professor Wang, the president of GBIC, commented: “My colleagues and I are very encouraged by the success of this event and by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from both students and entrepreneurs. GBIC is highly committed to promoting students’ education, learning, and career development. We also feel passionate about facilitating the development and growth of local business community. We will organize a series of events like this in the future to continue this initiative, to help connect students with entrepreneurs, to connect talent with capital”.