FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TODAY: Justin Trudeau Speaks with Top Student Leaders and Entrepreneurs at the 6th Annual Impact National Conference

TORONTO, ON (November 20, 2009) – Today, over 500 students from across Canada will convene at Toronto’s Westin Harbour Castle with Justin Trudeau to have a conversation about youth entrepreneurship and the future of Canada’s economy at the 6th annual Impact National Conference. This prestigious event will also bring together Canada’s most recognized entrepreneurs and business leaders from industry, academia and government to celebrate the closing of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

This event is the largest youth entrepreneurship conference in Canada and will feature the finals of a nationwide pitch competition as well as our annual youth entrepreneurship awards at the 2009 Impact Gala. The young leaders will benefit from an inspiring keynote by Member of Parliament Justin Trudeau.  Trudeau is the former chairman of Katimavik, where he worked to help young people make a difference in small communities.

“Impact’s contribution to the propagation of youth entrepreneurship is truly impressive,” says Trudeau. “Their tireless work inspires students to show initiative, take on challenges, and launch ventures that are sure to transform the future of industry in Canada. It is with great honour that I contribute to the 2009 Impact Gala as keynote speaker.”

Trudeau will joined by some of Canada’s most prominent and distinguished entrepreneurs in our speaker line-up including:
•    Justin Trudeau, MP
•    Andy Nulman, President & CMO of Airborne Mobile
•    Norm Brodsky, CEO of CitiStorage, Columnist for Inc. Magazine
•    Sunjay Nath, Vice President of e-Learning Company
•    Jordan Banks, Managing Partner of Thunder Road Capital, CEO of JumpTV
•    Susan Horvath, President of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation
•    Mike McDerment, Co-founder & CEO of Freshbooks

Impact Gala features a silent charity auction that will feature a one week ski getaway package worth $17,500 with proceeds going to Make-a-Wish Foundation.  The Impact Awards will also be presented during the gala, recognizing outstanding youth entrepreneurs in the Social, Woman, Green, Technological, and Arts categories.

This year’s title sponsors of the Impact National Conference are BDC, Industry Canada, and Ontario Centres for Excellence.  The conference is also supported by:  the Government of Ontario, Scotiabank, College Pro Painters, Fasken Martineau, KPMG Enterprise, Pivotry Consulting Group, the University of Waterloo, MaRS Discovery District, Business Solutions International, the Creative Group of 6, GoEyeball, Katimavik, Presidents of Enterprising Organizations, Students Offering Support, and Sun Microsystems.

For more information about the Impact National Conference, visit: http://www.conference.impact.org.

For more information on Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada, visit: http://www.unleashingideas.org/canada.

About Impact Entrepreneurship Group
The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is Canada’s largest non-profit, student-run organization dedicated to encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit amongst youth in Canada and becoming a starting point and catalyst for youth interested in entrepreneurship and leadership. More information is available online at www.impact.org.

About Justin Trudeau
Elected on October 14 2009 as Member of Parliament for Papineau, Justin Trudeau is passionate about engaging young Canadians in politics. Capturing the attention of students from elementary school through to university, he champions liberal values, defending the causes that are dear to his heart, such as the environment and youth empowerment. During the summer of 2006, he chaired the youth taskforce of the Liberal Party Renewal Commission, generating ideas about how to engage more youth politically.  More recently, Mr. Trudeau has been appointed as Official Opposition Critic for Youth and Multiculturalism.

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For more information contact:

Christine Lu
Director of Communications
Impact Entrepreneurship Group
(416) 627 0703
christine.lu@impact.org

Click here for the Impact Media Kit

Last week, Impact was featured in Imprint, the University of Waterloo’s official student newspaper, and in the University of Waterloo alumni newsletter.

Imprint covered the Global Innovation Tournament information session, in which Eva Yung, the chair of Impact Connect, spoke about the competition and presented past examples from previous years.  The GIT creates a different challenge every year, and this year’s challenge is to make saving money fun, while having as much influence as possible.  Click here to read the Imprint article.

The November 2009 issue of the University of Waterloo alumni newsletter features Impact as one of the organizations that were created by Waterloo students.  Click here to read the article.

In addition, The Record and CTV covered the AGFA Health competition that was hosted by Impact Connect at the University of Waterloo.  Check out the article in The Record here, and the CTV story here.

What a great start to Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada 2009! Much thanks to Techvibes who wrote a great article on our involvement in the upcoming week of entrepreneurial mayhem, including our Impact National Conference coming up this Friday, November 20th! Hope you all are just as excited as we are!

Click on the article below to read more!

The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) & Enterprise Toronto invite you to take part in setting a new Guinness World Record™!

As one of the highlights of Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada, you can be a participant in the Largest Business Lesson ever and set a new Guinness World Record ™. The lesson plan will be delivered by a panel of leading Canadian Business experts and hosted by Steve Stunt of CHUM-AM’s “The Entrepreneur Hour”.

Small business topics such as, Start-up, Financing and Mentorship will be covered followed by an “Ask the Experts” Q&A session.

RSVP now to info@cybf.ca quoting “Guinness” in the subject line to guarantee your spot!

Event Date: Thursday November 19, 2009

Location: Toronto City Hall Rotunda, 100 Queen Street West

6:00 – 6:30 pm Registration

6:30 – 7:45 pm Business Networking & Book Signing

7:45 – 8:30 pm Largest Business Lesson Guinness World Record™

The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is proud to present the Global Innovation Tournament, organized in partnership with Stanford University and the Kauffman Foundation. This year’s challenge has been announced: your challenge is Make Saving Money Fun!

Teams can still sign up, and submissions are due this Friday, November 13th, 2009.

Create as much value and have as much impact as possible while making it fun to save money. You will convey your results in a short YouTube video of three minutes or less.

For more information about the challenge, check out the Global Innovation Tournament website.

About the Tournament

The 2009 Global Innovation Tournament (GIT) is a fast-paced international competition that will challenge student teams to solve a common, world problem in about eight days, creating as much value as possible.

In the past, teams solved problems involving common everyday objects. They created value from PostIt Notes, rubber bands, and water bottles. This year, it’s a global issue of how to make saving money fun!

Teams must then convey their results in a short video posted to YouTube. The mystery problem will be revealed on November 4 and submissions will be due Nov 13!

Follow us on Twitter and tweet with the #ImpactGIT hashtag to be part of the conversation!

Join our event on Facebook!