A year in review
A year in review
By: LAZINA MCKENZIE
What a year (and a bit).
Living in the innovation and entrepreneurship space, I’ve heard the word pivot more times than I can count this past year (and a bit).
It’s been an important action, no doubt.
What I’ve had the chance to witness, and support, has been bigger than a pivot. What I’ve had the opportunity to see is real grit, determination, resilience, hope, hopelessness, tears, focus, strategic thinking, and so much more. What I chalk this up to is transition. There have been many within the TIVMS community that have been extremely noteworthy and impactful. This is something that we want to share throughout this annual publication.
As March 2020 unfolded, most of us saw and experienced some, or a lot, of change to our routines, businesses, wellbeing and many other aspects of our lives.
We also leaned on one another.
There’s a few noteworthy transitions over this past year that TIVMS itself went through that have enabled us to continue supporting our community, even when uncertainty has been high:
Within a day of being shut down and moved to remote work, our team was able to seamlessly move into the virtual work space and hit the ground running with supporting the VMS community. We were lucky that we were ready and prepared to continue operating without one moment of interruption.
We’ve had the very good fortune of having Dr. Ray Muzyka at the helm of the TIVMS ship for many years as the founding Chair of this program. Over the covid year, and with support from Ray, we had a significant change on our VMS Board of Advisors which resulted in a new Board of Advisors Chair and Vice Chair as well as a change in the makeup of the Board membership. Because of Ray’s strong leadership, TIVMS has made this transition to support new and different thought leadership on our Board with the goal of stewarding the program to new growth objectives.
It’s no secret that the university is going through significant change. Because we act, think, and behave like entrepreneurs ourselves, we were and are able to continue offering the high quality services that TIVMS has been known for, for eight years now. While organizational changes will certainly have widespread impact, TIVMS is able to work through these transitions while staying clear and focused on our mandate.
We would not have been able to weather the storm while continuing to offer the high quality services that we do without the generous support from many donors and sponsors. Thank you to Ray Muzyka and Leona De Boer, MNP, TD, Dentons, Lloyd Sadd, Dick Wilson, Kristina Milke, Sean Price, Janice McGregor, Cory Janssen, and Accelerate Fund III. You empower us to not only operate the program, but to also imagine a bigger future for mentorship in Alberta so that we can support entrepreneurs asking for help.
