The 26th annual Business Dinner ‘Toast to Success’, organized by the Entrepreneur’s Club (TECDE), is one of the most awaited events of the year. Bringing together Telfer faculty, professionals and sponsors with students at the Museum of Canadian History, this year’s dinner welcomed a total of 242 attendees, making it the best attended event to date.

During the event, a silent auction took place with various items donated by the local community in which the proceeds went to the Cam’s Kids Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing young people that suffer from anxiety, along with the Rwanda Craft Brewery Project, which helps the Rwanda community become better established.

As dinner rolled around, attendees had the pleasure of listening to a very special keynote speaker for this year, Steve Beauchesne, CEO of the very successful craft brewery Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company. During a very competitive time in the beer industry, Beau’s continues to be the top player in the market. Steve shared his story on the philosophy of starting a business but also, the secret to making great beer. To celebrate International Gruit Day coinciding with the Business Dinner, Beau’s provided attendees with 4 different samples of beer.

New for this year, TECDE incorporated the winners from the Elevator Pitch competition back in November, showing the Telfer community the incredible talent that comes out of uOttawa’s Telfer School of Management. A portion of the evening was also dedicated to award two hard working executive members on the TECDE team with the Carpe Diem Award and the Kevin Vollett Entrepreneurial Award.

This year marked a new milestone for both TECDE and Telfer, as a joint collaboration was announced to kick start a fundraising campaign for the Kevin Vollett award, created to honour Kevin, a Telfer student and TECDE executive member who passed away from a tragic accident. With the 25th anniversary of the award coming up in 2018, TECDE and Harry Mortimer, a Telfer alumni and dear friend to Kevin, have come together to raise $9,000 before the 27th annual Business Dinner in order to sustain the financing of the award. Help them reach their goal by donating now. For more information on this fundraising campaign, click here.