Did you know that the largest student run entrepreneurship conference in the country was managed by uOttawa students? Every year this event brings out speakers like George Roter, the CEO of Engineers without Borders, Victoria Lennox, the CEO of Startup Canada, and olympic champions such as Simon Whitfield. For the event in April 2016, top excecutives from TripAdvisor, Shopify and Varagesale are already confirmed. We met up with Sam Lutter who helps organize Legacy to find out more:
HerCampus: Let’s start off easy, tell us a little about yourself.
Sam Lutter: My name is Sam Lutter, I’m working towards an Honours Bachelor of Commerce with a specialization in Marketing. I love snacking on popcorn and hot chocolate, and I play the piano.
HC: Awesome! So you’re here to talk about an event happening called the Legacy Conference, tell us about it.
SL: Legacy is Canada’s largest student led entrepreneurship event! If that isn’t a great tagline, I don’t know what is. We bring in big name entrepreneurs and start-ups for a weekend to give TED Talk style seminars and workshops around the ins and outs of starting your own business! This year, we’ve blown it up to be a nationwide event, with campus ambassadors repping us from coast to coast!
HC: Wow, that sounds incredible! What’s your role within the conference?
SL: I am the Director of Marketing! I work alongside a wicked team of 9 other students to make Legacy a reality.
HC: What makes the Legacy Conference unique?
SL: We actually really hate the word conference. It makes anything sound uptight, boring, and rather bland. Legacy’s unique because it really doesn’t have a conference vibe at all. It’s more of a massive gathering of awesome people, wanting to share fantastic ideas. After all, it’s run by students, for students; we’re only going to create an event we would want to attend! If we called it the Legacy Gathering though, it would kind of sound like a cult, don’t you think?
HC: How can students get involved?
SL: Give us feedback! We’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the interwebs and we’re constantly looking to improve. Give us a follow (@legacycan -shameless plug) and let us know! Also…attend! I promise you, it’s an event like no other.
HC: Okay quickly before we go, let’s play a round of either or! Sweet or salty?
SL: Sweet
HC: Tea of coffee?
SL: Oh no…any other week coffee- but I’m trying to cut myself off so…tea.
HC: Ocean or pool?
SL: Ocean.
HC: Dogs or cats?
SL: Dogs.
HC: Planes or trains?
SL: Planes!
If you want to find out more about attending Legacy in April be sure to check out their website, and if you can’t wait until then, have a look at their deCODE workshop this November.