Creating Our Own Legacy: A Conference to Ignite Entrepreneurial Spirit

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Keila Lainez • 27 January 2025
Article: Creating Our Own Legacy: A Conference to Ignite Entrepreneurial Spirit

By KEILA LAINEZ, MOHAMED REDA JAHOURI

The Legacy Conference is a project under Enactus uOttawa. Starting in 2010, the annual summit provides aspiring entrepreneurs with ideas for developing business ideas and endeavours. As this journalist helps finalise the preparations for 2025’s Legacy Conference, I wanted to look back through its history, explore its successes and analyze its failures to understand how the conference creates an intrinsic link with the entrepreneurial experience.

One Student, One Dream

The Legacy Conference came about when an exchange student was looking for an event to connect with individuals who valued entrepreneurial spirit but couldn’t find anything of the sort in Ottawa. So, he decided to create one of his own where like-minded individuals can gather to discuss and learn from entrepreneurs, and each other.   

The first conference was a small but successful start with 60 attendants and selected local speakers. The event was held on the University of Ottawa campus and, through an eventual collaboration with Enactus, began a desire to encourage an entrepreneurial culture in students. 

By 2011, the number of attendees doubled and the Legacy vision began to grow, setting the framework for what would eventually become one of Canada’s largest entrepreneurial conferences.

When the Dream Outgrows the Venue

In 2015, the height of Legacy’s success was apparent. Outgrowing campus halls, there was a need to find a bigger venue, with the conference being hosted in the Shaw Centre (now the Roger’s Centre) spanning two days and hosting over 700 attendees with workshops, breakout rooms, and networking opportunities.

2019 was another hugely successful year with attendees reaching over 800 guests. Bringing in an entirely new section of the conference, Legacy developed deCode, a hackathon that matched students with companies to tackle real-world challenges. Continuing with this trend, Legacy continued to expand beyond just an annual conference to hosting workshops offering mentorship sessions in partnership with organizations such as RBC, Microsoft, Klipfolio, and Google.

Some of the speakers at the Legacy conference over the years included:

2016: 

 2017: 

2018: 

2019: 

2020: 

2021: Virtual

2022: 

Failure

During the entrepreneurial process, it’s not always standing ovations, million-dollar profits, and continuous wins. Failure is an important part of this process, and Legacy was not immune to it.  

The COVID-19 pandemic was especially difficult, as the conference made the pivot to a virtual conference, managing to bring many key speakers to a virtual stage. However, as the world began to return to normal, rebuilding was not easy. Failed expansion plans, partner losses and decreased interest all hit Legacy hard. 

The Comeback

A common trend for entrepreneurs is that when they are faced with difficult situations, they pick themselves up. Channelled its nature, Legacy slowly made its way up. Hosting the first in-person conference since the pandemic, Legacy featured speakers and panellists intending to focus on leveraging student connections in the student entrepreneur space. Some of these included:

The Future: Building Tomorrow’s Legacy

This year, Legacy is expanding beyond the uOttawa campus and virtual spaces for the first time in five years, with attendance expected to double and speakers from tech, consulting, art, and policy-making industries. 

For more information, check out the Legacy website: https://www.legacycan.ca/