UNI5, a four day entrepreneurship event, will bring together 100 students from five Montreal universities: HEC Montreal, McGill, Concordia, Polytechnique, and ETS.

Initiated by YEP, HEC Montreal’s entrepreneurship association, UNI5 was organized with the associations at Concordia (Upstarters), ETS (RETS), Polytechnique (Poly-E), and McGill (MES). It aims to create a bilingual network of entrepreneurs and students with ties to all of the city’s major universities, both French and English.

“The entrepreneur associations from all four schools worked together to help build this idea and fill this void by giving students the opportunity to meet like-minded students from other universities and to network contacts with experienced entrepreneurs from different backgrounds,” Seyon Sounthararajah, one of the organizers from Concordia told MTLinTECH.

The event will stop at a different university each day of the four day workshop, during which time each team will build their startup. Each team of five will include a member from every participating university, encouraging collaboration between the schools and across the two languages.

“UNI5 has two main objectives for students: Firstly, UNI5 will help give life to students’ entrepreneurial projects, while secondly reinforce the community of young student entrepreneurs. In order to accomplish their projects, renowned Mentors will give their expertise and required knowledge needed for the growth of diverse projects,” said Sounthararajah.

UNI5 will take place March 16th - 19th and is sponsored by Desjardins 360d, AEETS, Startupfest, Fondation HEC Montreal, and BTK Avocats. For $60, students will gain access to all four days of workshops including food, coaching, activities, and any materials needed for completion of the competition. There’s still time to sign up by clicking here.

“We hope to attract all kinds of students from different backgrounds. To build a startup, you need all kinds of skills. Whether you are engineer or designer with technical skills or business with soft skills, everyone is needed.”