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Steven Noble
Editor, Internal Publications
p. 403.440.5692
e-mail: snoble@mtroyal.ca

Fred Cheney
Media Relations Officer
p. 403.440.5195
e-mail: fcheney@mtroyal.ca

 

Mount Royal University students from two of the Bissett School of Business’ Entrepreneurship classes competed in Mount Royal’s very own Innovation Tournament from Nov. 5 – 17, 2009.

The second annual Innovation Tournament coincided with Global Entrepreneurship Week, which was celebrated in Canada and around the world from Nov. 16 – 22.

Inspired by a similar tournament created by Stanford University in 2006, Mount Royal’s Innovation Tournament challenges students to figure out how to create as much value as possible from an ordinary object, then measure that value and produce a creative three-minute video about the object.

Hopes for Ropes won Bissett's annual Innovation Tournament last week. The winning team, from left to right:  Ryan Dennis, Lana McCarroll, Rob Muszkie, Caleigh Kansas.

Each team had to create value for a “mystery” object. This year’s mystery object was twine.

While some teams opted to create economic value for their projects, for example, selling their string or variations thereof for a set amount to serve a specific purpose, other teams used concepts to create social value for their objects.

Hope for Ropes, the entry from this year’s winning team, literally took their concept to the streets to create social value for their object.

Caleigh Kansas, Ryan Dennis, Lana McCarroll and Rob Muszkie created a sculpture out of their string on Stephen Avenue in Downtown Calgary to raise awareness about the plight of Calgary’s homeless.

“In the week leading up to the project, we heard about the Calgary Homeless Foundation so we decided to help,” says Dennis.

“We had a few different ideas before we started, but once we decided to raise awareness and funds for the Calgary Homeless Foundation, we knew this was one killer idea,” says McCarroll.

Hopes for Ropes raised $265 during their time in the field.

As the winners of the Tournament, the team won an additional $300 and donated all of their winnings and earnings directly to the Calgary Homeless Foundation.

The runner up of this year’s tournament also connected people and organizations through their string concept called Line of Encouragement.

Line of Encouragement finished second by connecting students at Mount Royal with the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

By asking members of the Mount Royal community to write inspiring and encouraging messages on little pieces of paper to create the Line of Encouragement, they created a work of art out of their messages and donated the finished product to the Children’s Hospital.

“The Line of Encouragement connected 63 people at Mount Royal with thousands of kids who needed to smile,” their video says.

The Pour Performers who submitted this year’s third place entry had a more light-hearted approach to the Tournament and offered a more economic value for their string.

Dubbing their product the Save-yo-cell, the Pour Performers created value for their object by showing just how much a small investment for their string could save cell phone users lots of money and heartache.

For a look at the finished products the top three teams submitted to the Innovation Tournament this year, please visit the links below: Hopes for Ropes (1st Place), Line of Encouragement (2nd Place), Save yo Cell (3rd Place).

— Steven Noble, Nov. 26, 2009