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The Lassonde School introduced itself to the outside world last month with its inaugural Lassonde Symposium – a flagship event blending the social atmosphere of a Renaissance-style salon with the rigour of an Oxford-style debate.
“What better way to announce the arrival of the Lassonde School than to begin with a bang – a truly international gathering of thinkers and debaters to talk about issues that matter to us and matter to the world around us,” said Lassonde’s founding Dean Janusz Kozinski.
Pierre Lassonde addresses symposium participants
The Lassonde Symposium featured a debate on the provocative motion “Entrepreneurs should give university a miss” and was moderated by Katty Kay, lead anchor of BBC World America, who flew in from New York for the event.
A key member of the lively audience was Pierre Lassonde, gold mining entrepreneur and founding donor of York’s new Lassonde School of Engineering.
Arguing “for” the motion were Zahra Al-Harazi, a Calgary-based entrepreneur; Financial Post writer Rick Spence; and serial tech entrepreneur Albert Lai.
Speaking “against” the motion were Claudia Hepburn, co-founder of Toronto’s Next 36 entrepreneurship accelerator; Troy D’Ambrosio from the Pierre Lassonde Entrepreneurship Centre at University of Utah; and Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar, a Toronto-based start up.
Claudia Hepburn, co-founder of Toronto’s Next 36 entrepreneurship accelerator
“This is the start of a new tradition for the Lassonde School and for York University. The Symposium was a rip-roaring debate that got people thinking and got people talking.”
“We were thrilled to have so many different voices from academia – including University of Utah, University of Toronto and École Polytechnique de Montréal where Pierre Lassonde has invested – as well as a very impressive group of people from all walks of life gathered in one room to fearlessly tackle this controversial subject” said Kozinski.
There was plenty of passion on both sides and the debate was deftly moderated by Kay. The “against” team won the majority of votes from the audience, who thought entrepreneurs should still go to university rather than give it a miss to start their own business straight out of high-school school, although there were lots of ideas about how to make the student experience more entrepreneurial to prepare them for life after graduation.
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Moderator Katty Kay from BBC World America
“In a world that’s abundant with online personas and digital discourse, there’s still nothing quite like assembling a group of interesting people in one room and letting the conversation come alive. The symposium was a tremendous start to our new school with such an impressive array of speakers from around the world joining us on our opening night,” said Kozinski. “We can’t wait for the 2014 Lassonde Symposium. Planning is already well underway.”
Some 100 participants vote on the motion