Blog

Congratulations again to Omega4 from Ryerson:

Binh Lu
Carey Gibson
Jonathan Chiriboga
Zuzana Fabian

This is a great win for Ryerson, taking the top spot in the Challenge for the 2nd year in a row. A few interesting points; this is only the 3rd year of an MBA program at Ryerson, and this team is made up of part time students. So in addition to their regular school commitments, work and family they found time to Innovate!

When students first submit their proposal we ask them to prepare a short synopsis to be used if they are selected as a peer voting candidate. In this case Omega4’s idea, L.E.O. (Lifelong Electronic Oracle) was chosen by our Innovation Council to go directly to the finals. We have their peer voting synopsis, so here’s their idea in their own words.

“The L.E.O. is your personal virtual online financial advisor that can answer any financial question you might have.

Confused about your financial choices? Have a question about your personal savings, loans, or investments? Need advice about retirement or planning for the future? Is it too much trouble to go into a branch and you can't find what you’re looking for on the Internet?

L.E.O. can help. L.E.O doesn’t just answer questions. L.E.O gives you answers personalized to your situation.

L.E.O. brings together customer relationship management, artificial intelligence and RBC investment know-how to help you with any of your financial needs. L.E.O can speak to you in your own language, show you videos, and give you information or advice tailored to your circumstances on your time. L.E.O. can even help you get connected to an RBC in-branch advisor if that's what you need. To get started, simply ask L.E.O. a question.”

Really, the winner is RBC. Hearing all of the ideas, and the discussions prompted amongst the judges and audience, the organisation wins by having our collective minds expanded.

Without further ado, the 2009 RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge winners are:

Omega4 from Ryerson!

And, they have the distinct honour of making it 2 years in a row for Ryerson.

Congratulations to all the teams and the exceptional students. The whole NGI team hopes that all of the students had a wonderful experience.

Sorry for the delay, it's quite a hectic (but very enjoyable) day.

Our fifth team, UMATUMA Asia from Rotman wrapped things up with an excellent take on adding value to the businesses of Canadian SMEs by offering a business service matching system, modeled on services quite common in Japan.

This led to the deliberation period where out 5 judges could hash out the ranking of the teams and their proposals. This is always the best part of the judging for me, as I can watch some of RBC's best talent work with each other, debate and come to a decision.

And the decision is....

It's time to go to the innovators' gala!

Check back later this evening for the revelation of the winner of this year's Next Great Innovator Challenge.

Team Omega4, our Ryerson team (and part time MBA students) did a great job illustrating L.E.O, a Lifelong Electronic Oracle. The team's professionalism and passion really captivated our Judges.

We're now seeing Team Aspire, from Schulich, showing us how to increase savings levels in Canada with a great bond innovation adapted from other markets around the world. Aspire are representing Canada's undergrad students in a tough field of grad teams. I think they're givng the grads a run for their money!

On our break I was able to drop out to the cool down room and was happy to find several (very) relieved teams cooling out with a friendly game of Rock Band. Great idea from our event team to help the students blow off a little steam after the pressure of the boardroom.

Wow, 9:30 and we have 2 proposals done and are into the 3rd.

The students have been thrilled to be in the RBC boardroom and so are we!

So far....

derativeDesign from Rotman, started us of with a very powerful mini-movie bringing thier proposal, play.money to life.

Team Rice from Waterloo, our most diverse team and peer voting winner, followed on with a great illustration of thier model for Islamic friendly banking anchored in community support of Islamic students in Canada.

On deck Omega4, and back to the boardroom we go!