TY - JOUR T1 - Youth Entrepreneurship: Ottawa's Portfolio in Talent Development JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2010 A1 - Sonia Riahi AB - Youth's natural disposition for innovation and change make young people well suited for entrepreneurship, provided the community can give youth the right support to overcome their challenges and improve their odds of success. A city's economic development benefits from youth entrepreneurship in terms of employment creation, product and service innovation, market competition, community revitalization, and income generation. Youth entrepreneurs face greater challenges then adult entrepreneurs, and therefore would benefit from talent development programs to support them with skills, mentoring, networking, and access to resources in order to increase their rate of success. This article looks at the youth entrepreneurship programs available in Ottawa, examines how they rate, and identifies some opportunities for improvement in the delivery of programs. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/394 IS - November 2010 U1 - OCRI TalentBridge Sonia Riahi holds a Master's degree from the University of Ottawa in Engineering Management and a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from Carleton University. She has spent the last 2.5 years working in entrepreneurship with OCRI TalentBridge, a program that gives technically educated students the opportunity to learn entrepreneurial skills by working with local startups. In the past she has worked with both the private and public sectors in research and development, 3D modeling, project management, product marketing, and teaching. Highly involved in youth entrepreneurship, she has sat on the Mayor's Economic Development Steering Committee and has managed and been involved with several youth entrepreneurial initiatives, including the Ottawa Innovation Challenge, the Ottawa Community Challenge, and The Ottawa Experience. ER -