Notable accomplishments for which the Dobson Centre devoted significant resources this past year included:
Overview of Activities in 2009-2010
- The second McGill Internal Start-Up Competition, THE DOBSON CUP, successfully doubled in size this year. Over 110 McGill participants submitted 38 business plans in an iterative three round process with highly experienced entrepreneurs as judges. Cross faculty groups included undergrads and graduate students from McGill University faculties of Law, Management (BComm & MBA), Music, Science, Arts and Engineering.
- A new innovative cross-faculty DESIGN & BUILD course was designed with the Faculty of Law, Management and Engineering and was launched whereby students actually build a prototype in consultation and co-development with a large corporation.
- Four Dobson lecturers taught 19 Entrepreneurship courses to over 1,000 Bachelor and Masters’ students. The Bachelor of Commerce Entrepreneurship Concentration continues to be the second largest concentration within the Desautels Faculty of Management.
- New course material was developed including 39 new readings, cases and articles for students.
- Ground-breaking entrepreneurship courses were delivered including leadership seminars by a prime minister, an astronaut, a general, judges, and other original thought leaders. Also, the Dobson Centre was active in the design and teaching of the third iteration of a cross-faculty DIGITALIZATION issues course co-taught with the Faculties of Law, Music, Management and Computer Science. Teaching evaluations have consistently been above the Faculty average.
- Free preliminary advice was offered to over 300 entrepreneurs: including over 75 pre-start-up companies, 85 start-up companies and over 100 existing businesses.
- Over 170 guest-speaker Entrepreneurs lectured to our students in 2009-2010.
- The Dobson Centre, via board membership and the organization of family business events, assisted with the growth and development of the new McGill-HEC International Family Businesses Centre.
- The Dobson Centre serves as an advisor to CASCO, an annual Desautels student fund-raising event that raises $30,000p.a. for the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
