The city of Fredericton set a record Tuesday evening when more than 250 people showed up for the Atlantic Canadian regional ceremony for the Startup Canada Awards.
It was the first time in the event’s three-year history that a regional awards ceremony has been sold out.
The crowd was treated to motivational advice and keen observation from the winners and guest speakers.
In accepting the Woman Entrepreneur Award, Laura O’Blenis, Founder and Chief Strategist at the Fredericton consultancy Stiletto said Atlantic Canadians showed many attributes needed to succeed globally. But we still need “focus and guts”, she said – the focus on an area in which we could lead the world; and the guts to gain exports by flying out to meet and sell to international customers.
“Let’s focus and let’s have the guts to believe we can compete because we can,” she said.
One highlight of the evening came at the end when Startup Canada presented the Emcee Rivers Corbett, the CEO of Relish hamburger chain and founder of Startup Fredericton, with a special Startup Champion award.
Here are a few other poignant quotes from the other winners at the event:
John McLaughlin, Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus of the University of New Brunswick
Adam Chowaniec Lifetime Achievement Award
“It’s very humbling to win this award because it isn’t about the individual. It’s about the community – people who come together and interact on a shared vision.”
Kent Estabrooks, Vice President, New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Entrepreneur Support Award
“We feel very lucky every day to do what we do – helping energetic and ambitious and I should say courageous entrepreneurs.”
Natasha Dhayagude, CEO, Chinova Bioworks, Fredericton
Young Entrepreneur Award
“I have been lucky enough to work on my two passions of science and business and I will endeavor to encourage more young women to enter the field of entrepreneurship.”
Peter Goggin, Co-Founder, Resson, Fredericton
Global Entrepreneurship Award
“When we started, we got a lot of advice but the best was get out of the building and go global.”
Jordan Kyriakidis, Co-Founder and CEO, QRA Corp.
“Innovation is really about leading and looking to innovate you really have to be a maverick. … It’s about doing new things in new ways.”
Mitchell Cobb, Co-founder Upstreet Craft Brewing, Charlottetown
Social Enterprise Award
“When we started Upstreet, we wanted to do two things: we wanted to make great beer, of course, but we also wanted to contribute to our community in a meaningful way.”
Alex MacLean, Founder, East Coast Lifestyle, Halifax
High-Growth Entrepreneurship Award
“Anything is possible with hard work if you dream big in Atlantic Canada.”
The winners who were unable to attend and collect their awards were:
Entrepreneur of the Year: Zita Cobb, Founder & CEO, Shorefast Foundation;; Joe Batt's Arm, NL;
Senior Entrepreneur Award: Hope Milner, Co-Owner, Bohemian Findings, St. Peter's Bay, PEI;
Entrepreneur Promotion Award Bob Williamson, Founder & CEO, Jameson Group, Halifax;
Startup Canada in November will announce the national winners for the following categories: Newcomer Entrepreneur; Indigenous Entrepreneur; Resilient Entrepreneur; Community of the Year; and Policy Prize. Those awards will be presented in Toronto on Nov. 29.
