The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well at the University of Northern British Columbia, if the success of its business students at a prestigious competition is anything to go by.
The UNBC WolfPack returned from JDC West, held at the University of Alberta over the weekend, with four trophies. They finished first in charity and athletics and second in participation. But perhaps the most important achievement was a second place finish in entrepreneurship - one of the core events.
The credit for that goes to Sydney Redpath, Forrest Tower and Josh Reimer, who were pitted against teams from 11 other universities across Western Canada in a Dragon's Den-style format.
They were presented with a case, previously unseen, on drones, and given three hours to come up with a business opportunity using the technology. Their answer was to use drones for safety and quality inspections on wind farms.
Some good fortune helped guide them in that direction - Tower had come across something related to the field only the night before.
"He read this statistic where $4 billion a year is being lost within that energy sector due to just dirt buildup on these wind turbines," Redpath said.
"When people have to go up and inspect them and clean them, they're turning the turbines off and they have to strap someone in and take them up there and clean them or go up there and find out there's nothing wrong at all."
Deploying a drone means the turbine could still run while it's being inspected and that was the gist of their pitch to the judges. Following a five minute presentation, they spent the next 15 minutes fielding questions.
There were no Kevin O'Learys in the room, but Redpath said it still felt like he was there.
"You do get those characters who grill you, but it's definitely a really exciting style at the same time," she said.
They were later told judges were looking for ideas that "utilized drone technology versus being about drone technology," and on that score, they made the grade, finishing behind only a team from the Sauder School of Business at University of British Columbia.
JDC originated in Quebec - the acronym stands for Jeux du Commerce - and JDC West is the largest business competition in Western Canada, according to its website.
It was a strong learning experience for Redpath.
"It makes you consider absolutely everything," she said. "You have to consider financials, you have to consider your idea, you have to consider market acceptance, you have to consider your research.
"You're never specifically focussed on one and what really helps is having teammates from different backgrounds. I had focussed on marketing because I'm a marketing major and Forrest and Josh are both amazing with financials, so that really helps."
