Networking Opportunity for Aspiring Kelowna Entrepreneurs

A monthly community based event called “Okanagan Aspiring Entrepreneurs Social” has been bringing together up and coming entrepreneurs with successful local business people.

The unique event is put on by Evan Dizak and the non-profit corporation Community Futures. Dizak works to connect people who are unemployed and looking to start their own business with those who have found success in the community.

The most recent event featured Donnie Ungaro from Culinary Ink and was well attended by likeminded people.

“Donnie Ungaro gave an extraordinarily raw talk on entrepreneurship that seemed to shake everyone to their core- myself included,” said attendee Lisa Bissonnette. “He was very blunt in saying ‘being an entrepreneur is extremely hard and you will fail- what makes an entrepreneur successful is getting back up after you fail.’ It was by far one of the best seminars I have been to because of his honesty and integrity in creating a sustainable future. His socially conscious business model was very impressive especially with all of the battles he had faced along the way.”

With a growing population in Kelowna it’s no surprise that the younger population is looking towards small business and entrepreneurship as a future.

“There are so many different organizations that support youth entrepreneurship such as Community Futures, Accelerate Okanagan, Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, Futurepreneur and the Co+Lab, but many young people have never heard of these organizations or know that these resources are available to them,” said Dizak. “As well, most of these organizations have been competing with each other, while I am trying to get them to collaborate more as we all share a common goal of supporting youth in business.”

Dizak says he created the events to bring people together, make them aware of the resources available and give them the opportunity to interact one on one with change makers in the community. There is no cost to attend and the events are open to any community members.

The November event will take place on the 20th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. with guest speaker Shane Austin. Austin is one for the founders of the Okanagan Co+Lab and will discuss the challenges he faced in creating his organization. The event will take place at the Okanagan Co+Lab at the corner of St. Paul and Doyle Avenue.