Springboard West Innovations Inc. is recognizing Global Entrepreneur Week with the launch of an exciting business development program targeted at entrepreneurs and inventors who are in the early stages of business development. It's the first program of its kind in the province.

Venture Runways is a workshop series that assists entrepreneurs in identifying whether their product has the potential to “make it” in the marketplace. It enables entrepreneurs and inventors to transform an idea into a business.

The nine week workshop series, led by certified facilitators takes entrepreneurs and their new product, through a number of steps to success.

“We're really excited about this program,” said Susan Gorges, CEO, SpringBoard West Innovations Inc.
“Venture Runways offers entrepreneurs an opportunity to work with business experts on making critical decisions that will lead to the development of their business plan.”

The workshop series is an intensive program, which requires commitment on the part of the participant. The workshop sessions use a self-paced coaching approach ensuring participants are able to apply workshop tools to their specific project/business idea.

The program is open to any type of business; and the rolling enrollment approach ensures entrepreneurs can begin the program when it fits with their project. The Venture Runways workshop series runs every Tuesday in Regina and is open to all interested entrepreneurs, space permitting. SpringBoard also has plans to announce aVenture Runways program in Saskatoon shortly.

“We are encouraging all entrepreneurs and inventors who are in the early stages of a business project/idea to consider enrolling in Venture Runways. Once you've finished the program, you will either be well positioned to begin the process of taking your product to market, or you will have discovered that marketing your product isn't feasible. Both learnings are critical to the decisions you'll make moving forward,” said Gorges.

The Saskatoon Regional Economic Authority (SREDA) and SpringBoard West Innovations Inc. announced today that they are partnering on a major Supply Chain Analysis Project for Saskatoon and Region which will result in the creation of a strategic plan and solid foundation to assist in business growth and attraction for our local economy. Currently there is not enough known about the dynamics of supply chains within priority industries for the region.

"In line with our Board driven strategy, the SCA project will enable SREDA to execute stronger hands-on engagement with our private sector partners. After 20 years in Business, we feel SREDA can deliver even better results as we continue to grow our region (and province) and create wealth," said Tim LeClair, CEO of SREDA.

This work will be the initial phase to building a complete picture for forward planning, and it will develop a comprehensive value chain analysis on the priority industries which are economic drivers. These targeted industries include: mining (potash), manufacturing (metal fabrication and food processing), Biotech/Life Sciences, and Construction.

The goal of this project is to formalize an Import Replacement Strategy that will be operational for the 2012 fiscal year and will support the following:

• Business Incubation – accelerating business start up creation

• Business Expansion – local businesses capitalizing on identified supply chain opportunities
• Foreign Direct Investment – attracting new business and/or investment from outside the Saskatoon Region to produce products or services locally

The initial study is just the first step in The Saskatoon Region Supply Chain Analysis Project. The report will provide a thorough understanding of the existing business clusters that exist in the Saskatoon region and their unique supply chains, identifying key players throughout the targeted sectors. The mapped Supply Chains will be reviewed collaboratively by both the private and public sectors to determine the best solution for filling the gaps. Local businesses may choose to expand; new businesses might be created once the opportunity is highlighted; import replacement opportunities may lead established companies to Saskatoon and the region.

Two SpringBoard clients have been named finalists for the 2011 Achievement in Business Excellence (ABEX) awards, as hosted by the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.  Sprossil Industries and Onagon Interactive are both nominated in the TIA New Saskatchewan Product Award.

Sprossil Industries is owned by Eric and Rachel Penner de Waal.  Their innovation is the Smart Stud® building product - a hybrid stud constructed of wood and foam insulation designed to reduce energy loss through thermal bridging.

Onagon Interactive, led by CEO Rod Francis, offers online business planning support.  SimplanPro helps budding entrepreneurs write a business plan to launch a business while Powerplan Pro helps existing businesses plan to increase their productivity.

Winners will be announced at the 2011 ABEX Awards Dinner in Saskatoon on November 19.  Good luck to Rod, Eric and Rachel!

SpringBoard West Innovations has helped two Saskatchewan researchers to find financial support for a research project that focuses on developing new technology for improving hemodialysis for end stage kidney disease patients.  With their project team, Dr. Assem Hedayat, an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the U of S and Dr. Ahmed Shoker, Saskatchewan Transplant Program Director at St. Paul’s Hospital will design, develop and test new technology which they hope to commercialize in the future.  This technology will be used by medical institutions throughout Canada and around the world.

 Dr. Hedayat and Dr. Shoker have received $789,000 of funding from the Canada-Saskatchewan Western Economic Partnership Agreement.

 The new technology will be more efficient than current technology, reducing the frequency of hemodialysis treatments and time per session – a great advantage, particularly for residents in rural and remote communities.  The technology promises to improve quality of care and increase life expectancy in end stage kidney disease patients, while drastically reducing the costs of hemodialysis locally, nationally and globally.

With the help of SpringBoard West Innovations Inc. (SBWI), Saskatchewan's own Talking Dog Studios and Asmoteknologies Ltd. have played an important role in creating a unique health technology, which is being used by a leading international health organization.

The augmented reality and 3-D technologies created by Talking Dog Studios and Asmoteknologies Ltd. are being used in the recently launched 'Create Your Mayo Clinic Health Experience' kiosks located in the Mall of America.

 The unique 'Create Your Mayo Clinic Health Experience' kiosks were unveiled in Bloomington, Minnesota in mid August. In the exhibit, visitors step in front of a camera; their image is projected onto a screen; and three dimensional organs, created through the use of augmented reality technologies, are placed over the image, matching where they are in the body. Information then appears explaining how the joints, brain, and heart work inside the body. The visitor can also manipulate the images.

 “The talent and ingenuity of Saskatchewan innovators are evident with this new video launch,” said Andrew Saxton, MP for North Vancouver and Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and for Western Economic Diversification, who took part in the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification. “Our Government is committed to helping Canadian business leaders commercialize their inventions, increase Canada’s innovation capacity, and improve our quality of life.”

 “This is such an exciting initiative. It really shows the role Saskatchewan can play, and is playing, on the world stage in the development of new and innovative technologies,” said Gorges..

 “We want to thank SpringBoard for all they have done to assist us with market research and planning around launching our AR business.   It was their suggestion that we team with Asmoteknologies and that synergy enabled us to supply this 3-D / augmented reality technology for these kiosks,” said Rob Bryanton, President, Talking Dog Studios.

 SpringBoard West Innovations Inc. was created in 2007 through the support of federal and provincial governments, the University of Regina and community organizations to assist entrepreneurs in transforming their inventions and ideas into commercial reality.

The development of this new augmented reality technology by Talking Dog Studios and Asmoteknologies Ltd illustrates the type of work undertaken by SBWI. The organization assists its clients in not only building a business around their innovation, but also in making connections in the marketplace which enhance their businesses and puts their innovations into the international marketplace.

In effect, SBWI focuses on making sure that innovations born in the province reach around the globe.