It’s a new year, and we have been off to a very fast start!! This edition highlights some of our events this month. If you weren’t able to attend, I hope to see you next month!

Since it’s the start of a new year, I would like to share with you some of our plans for 2017.

When EPICentre was set up 2 years ago, the vision was that the University of Windsor would become a centre for entrepreneurial education and opportunity for students and for the Windsor-Essex region. We refined this vision to complement our role as a learning institution and focused on developing student knowledge, skills and abilities by providing entrepreneurial experiential learning and networking opportunities.

This year we will focus strategically on partnership development and the optimization of EPIC spaces.

Our first strategic focus will be on partnerships:

• We are finalizing no less than 5 new partnerships regionally and internationally, which I hope to announce in our next newsletter
• We intend to connect and collaborate with every single UWIndsor faculty in 2017, and accelerate campus participation in entrepreneurial activities and programming
• EPIC staff will be working closely with the local community as members of the Boards of Directors of the Chamber, Workforce Windsor-Essex, and WEtech and participating in the Regional Alliance
• We will develop a stronger governance model, beginning with 1) our new EPIC (External) Board of Advisors and; 2) better utilizing the EPIC Faculty fellows as an Internal Board of Advisors
• We will embark on several outreach initiatives that will involve the local business community as mentors, investors, and donors

Our second strategic focus will be on the optimization of space:

• EPIC Innovation (2^nd floor JEC) has become a centralized beehive of activity – our intent is to attract all of campus to this beautiful space!!
• We are relocating the EPIC Makerspace from CEI Industrial courtyard, to the new CEI Industrial Hub. This change will allow us to provide industry partner and student/faculty start-ups with more secure, confidential, and equipped facilities
• We have re-evaluated and made significant changes to entrepreneurial spaces on campus, including shutting down the Bio-Tech Courtyard and winding down EPIC Odette

We look forward to an exciting year of action and outcomes!!

-Dr. Francine Schlosser