Enactus National Exposition

Raymond Jiang (BCom ‘17)

My time in Toronto at the Enactus National Exposition was one filled with anticipation, excitement, and curiosity. This was my first ever Enactus-related conference that I attended, so I was highly anticipating all the hype that was mentioned by past attendees. As one of the presenters to represent UBC as part of the National Competition, I had an additional sense of nerves going into the first day of the conference. Without much sleep, I had to showcase the impact of UBC’s projects, along with 5 colleagues, in a 17 minute presentation. Ultimately, we finished with the achievement of Opening Round Runner-Up. This was on par with what we have achieved in the past, but our whole delegation was not satisfied and this motivated us to create a stronger impact for the upcoming year. There was a lot of excitement in the air as this was a conference for all 55 university chapters across Canada to collect together and celebrate our successes. There were many great keynote speeches, many great workshops and networking opportunities, as well as excellent presentations. I only wished there were more opportunities to interact with students from other chapters as most students were in their respective university clusters. Finally I was really curious to learn from the other Enactus chapters and their accomplishments within their projects. It was truly inspiring to watch the top teams present on their projects and their impact. It empowered myself to dream big, aim high, and envision more in my upcoming role as BizKit Project Director for the upcoming year. This conference truly helped me be more engaged into the Enactus mission and I cannot wait to see how this year will shape out as I strive to create a greater social impact in our community.

Hannah Chiang (BCom ‘19)

Attending the Enactus Canada National Exposition provided many learning opportunities from working with a team to executing a 17-minute presentation in front of 20 judges, to witnessing some very inspirational projects from other universities across Canada, and the opportunity to not only connect with like-minded peers, but also with industry professionals.

Choosing to go to Nationals as a part of the Enactus UBC team was in part a challenge for myself to improve on my public speaking skills. In the past, doing presentations in class or just speaking in front of any audience has always been very daunting for me. This time, with 2 nights of no sleep, but lots and lots of hours of practice and encouragement from the team, I surprised myself by remembering all my words and pronouncing them smoothly without stuttering or tripping over my tongue. Although we did not win any big awards, a personal highlight was the self-achievement of something that I had always struggled with.

Watching many of the other 64 Enactus clubs from universities across Canada was also a rare occasion to witness the innovation and hard work of some very brilliant individuals. The impact that some of the teams were able to make in the past year really amazed me and inspires me to continue working within Enactus UBC to continually expand our impact. And lastly, although I’d been working with this group of people for the past year, getting to travel together and to struggle through experiences like no sleep together helped me build deeper connections with many members of the team. As cheesy as it is, one of the most valuable things I gained from attending this conference (with the help of ExCO) was probably really going past just being colleagues/acquaintances to friends/family.

Jason Liu (BCom '18)

If I had to choose one event this year that drastically changed my view on my life, I would have to choose this Enactus Conference. Apart from the fact that this was my first time travelling alone, it was also my first ever Enactus event outside of UBC. The preparation itself was a unique experience as I was able to learn about the many different initiatives this club is executing in order to benefit the community. However, the real impact began the day before our presentation. As the nerves were beginning to build up within the team we set out for a night of rehearsal, practicing our 17 minute presentation for the opening round of competitions. Unfortunately, we were unable to surpass the achievements of previous years and ended with being runner-up in our league. Though the team was disappointed, after watching the presentations of other universities, it was clear to us that there was room for lots of improvement, both in our presentation and projects overall. The one project that really stood out to me was one that was being done by Ryerson University, as they were solving a food crisis in Northern Canada by building greenhouses to supply towns with year-round produce. This was especially stimulating as they were being represented by the United Nations.

As I was truly inspired to make UBC as great as the other school that presented, I took on the role of being a Competitions Coordinator this year at Enactus, ensuring that we have a more prepared and stronger team for the exposition next year in Vancouver