The Entrepreneurial Alumni Speaker Series @Home concludes on March 23 with an enlightening discussion featuring York University alumnus and entrepreneur Jonathon Corbiere, co-founder and CEO of Thought Café, an award-winning animation, design and VFX studio located in Toronto.
YSpace has partnered with York University’s Alumni Engagement to bring you an at-home edition of this series which features top York University alumni entrepreneurs. Each part of the series aims to capture the real stories, challenges, successes and failures that they have encountered in their journeys. The talks are meant to inspire, motivate and educate audiences on the realities of launching a startup in today’s world.
The final event, “Disruption & Pivots: Shape Your Career Despite Uncertainty,” will take place virtually from 12 to 12:45 p.m.
The landscape of our world has changed drastically. From recessions and a pandemic, to industry disruptions and technological advancements; plotting a course to achieve your career goals has become increasingly complex. Learning to target a career destination without committing to an exact pathway may be the most important skill you can have. Come learn about the difficulties and lessons Corbiere learned while structuring his digital startup and his advice on working/founding businesses with friends. Plus learn how he addressed industry disruptions and the rapid speed at which technology is changing, and discover how to maintain a career dream that can pivot at any moment.
Corbiere is an accomplished writer, director and producer who has gone through a number of difficulties and learned many lessons while building his digital startup. He is educated in graphic design, communication, film and visual effects and has over 11 years of managing creatives in a studio environment. After graduating with a bachelor of design from York University in 2006, Corbiere co-founded Thought Café on a simple idea that he could help pave space in the industry for like-minded creatives, who also wished to work on socially relevant projects. Thought Café promotes social justice, self-education and critical awareness by creating animated shorts that break down the issues, visualize important concepts, and deliver messages for anyone who has an important concept to share with the world.
Corbiere is also co-founder and COO of Futuretalk, a mixed reality and tech-focused immersive studio. Corbiere and Futuretalk are currently developing a synchronous immersive learning tool in light of the global need for distance learning. In addition, he is also a Visiting Art Scholar at MIT and has taught master’s students in the Digital Media graduate program at UBC/Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Through serving in the Canadian Forces as well as founding various startups, Corbiere is a natural leader. During his early years of freelance work in the film, television and advertising industry, he realized that communicators have an inherent responsibility to spread important and relevant knowledge with their mediums.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear lessons from Corbiere’s entrepreneurial journey and learn how he addressed industry disruptions on his path to structuring his digital startup.
Register for the event here.