Feature photo taken outside the MediaPlex of St. Clair College Professor Rebecca Wright; Sebastian Di Pietro, Associate/Owner of a local Shoppers Drug Mart and Deborah Jones, Biz X Magazine Publisher and President. Photo by Larry Forsyth.
Dragon’s Den Classroom at St. Clair College
Public Relations students had the chance to “enter the den” in a “Dragons’ Den” style business exercise at St. Clair College on April 21, 2017.
As part of a course called Entrepreneurship & Business Practices, students were required to come up with a business idea and map out the feasibility of it actually existing. They then had to pitch their business idea’s in “Dragons’ Den”-style presentations before an audience that included several business professionals from Windsor-Essex.
“Dragons’ Den” is a Canadian TV show that features a panel of business investors (known as ‘dragons’) who hear from people who come on the show with business propositions in the hopes that their ideas will be interesting enough for one or more of the ‘dragons’ to back them and lend out investment funding.
Local business professionals Deborah Jones, Biz X Magazine Publisher and President, and Sebastian Di Pietro, Associate/Owner of a local Shoppers Drug Mart, were the guest ‘dragons’ for the business presentations.
St. Clair College Professor Rebecca Wright taught the entrepreneurship-focused course in the Public Relations program this semester.
“I reached out to Deborah and Sebastian because they’re both business-savvy individuals who have expertise in this industry and made great judges for my students’ business pitches, and they provided them excellent constructive feedback in a professional manner,” states Wright, who also writes for Biz X Magazine. “I always try to collaborate and work with community partners to enrich the education I’m providing my students. And that’s really what St. Clair College is all about in every program.”Jones found the whole experience very rewarding and was pleased to participate.
“I truly hope my feedback helped the students learn more about the local business world,” Jones says. “They all worked very hard on their presentations which ranged from green energy, doggy daycare, a hair app and fashion shops and clothing products to a non-alcoholic lounge for tweens, making chocolate treats, PR help, charity organizations, children’s play centres and more. All went the extra mile in their research, logo development and explaining their financial projections. And if I was a real dragon, well I would just have to invest in them all!”
