T3 Accelerator Program April Newsletter
Tourism Biz Bites From the 7 Podcasts
Join award winning media producer Tracey Strnad as she interviews tourism industry experts, and the business owners and entrepreneurs behind some of RTO7’s most exciting businesses, who share wisdom and valuable insight into owning and operating a successful tourism business in Bruce, Grey and Simcoe Counties.
The 'Tourism Biz Bites From the 7' podcasts have been brought to you by RTO7 in partnership with Community Futures South Georgian Bay and with generous support from Tourism Simcoe County. The podcasts introduce you to the coaches behind the T3 Accelerator Program and to some of the business owners within the program. The T3 Accelerator Program supports tourism businesses in RTO7 with coaching assistance to further develop their business and to help them succeed.
12 Episodes have been released to the end of April, covering business topics such as Strategic Planning, Marketing, Experience Development to Business Partnerships with many more episodes and helpful expert advice to come.
Subscribe now to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotifiy, PodBean and Google Podcasts.
LISTEN TO ALL THE PODCASTS RIGHT HERE
T3 Accelerator Working with Lakehead University
Calling All Tourism Businesses …
The T3 Accelerator program is partnering with Lakehead University to better understand technology for tourism small businesses. Through the Mitacs Program, T3 Accelerator will be working with two students from Lakehead University over the summer season. The students will be supporting the regions tourism industry by developing a needs assessment, learning about technology needs for businesses in Bruce, Grey and Simcoe Counties. They will be conducting surveys and interviews with tourism businesses across the three counties. The students will be reviewing technologies currently being used as well as those available in the market and making recommendations on technology that supports day to day business operations. This includes booking and reservation systems, CRMs, workforce scheduling, e-commerce platforms and many more!
The T3 Accelerator Program is putting a ‘Call Out’ to tourism businesses within Bruce, Grey and Simcoe who would like to be a part of the assessment and benefit from the findings. All participating businesses will have their name automatically entered into a draw for their participation.
If interested email t3@rto7.ca
Meet the Coaches
The T3 Accelerator Program would not be what it is without our coaches. They are the experts and champions driving the programs success.
We have 13 volunteer coaches who support tourism businesses throughout the region covering the following areas,
Sales & Marketing
Social Media
Product and Experience Development
Strategic Planning
Financial Management
Technology
HR and Workforce Development
Pivoting
We have introduced many of them to the industry, here are three more to meet:
Chris Styan
 Chris was a Marketing Executive for many years with outstanding success in the strategic development and execution of results oriented marketing activity. He has experience and strengths within the retail environment as well. Over 25 years of experience with National brands like M&M Meats and worked within the radio and television industry. He now enjoys mentoring tourism small businesses in the region and calls Georgian Bay his home.
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Wayne has 37 years of experience in the Canadian Retail and Food Service Industries. His experience included building businesses and leading cross functional teams to deliver exceptional results. Over the last 18 years he launched and lead one of the leading national bakery suppliers and served on many advisory boards within the Canadian Foodservice Industry. He now enjoys the Blue Mountains region and volunteers his time with the Georgian Triangle Humane Society and supporting local small tourism businesses within Grey and Simcoe Counties.
David is an inventor, intrapreneur, innovator and entrepreneur with 30+ years of technology commercialization experience in corporate, academic and start up environments. He is a community builder both locally and nationally. He is a mentor, coach and teacher offering guidance drawn from his experiences. He joined McMaster University in 2006 as a professor of the Masters of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, which he co-created, until 2014. David also co-created the Masters of Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation program for non-STEM students. In addition to working with the T3 program, David is the Principal of Innovation Consulting Canada Inc. which provides innovation, ideation and strategic consulting services to private and public sector organizations.
