Philanthropist and community leader, Wayne Brownlee believes wealth creation doesn’t come from inventing the wheel, it comes from creatively commercializing it. That was the reason behind supporting a new USask initiative. The Brownlee Family Foundation has made a significant donation to support the establishment and operations of the Prairie Business Summit at the Edwards School of Business. Brownlee explains that it will bring international expertise to the USask campus, which will benefit the business community, government officials, faculty and students. The first summit will focus on how to capitalize on artificial intelligence. “In Saskatchewan, we don’t need to invent the wheel. It doesn’t hurt if we do, but sustainable competitive comes from international economic, political, business and technology scanning and learning to commercialize these new ideas, new technologies and new ways of conducting business.”
Dr. Marjorie Delbaere acting dean of Edwards School of Business says experts are coming from across the globe. They decided to focus on the topic of artificial intelligence through help from students in a marketing research class, “They interviewed and surveyed different community and business leaders and government officials to figure out what were some of the top questions and issues that were really important to them and that they would like to have answers on, and AI, perhaps no surprise, rose to the top of that list.” Brownlee added,”By fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing, this event will provide attendees with tools to drive innovation, address complex challenges, and position their organizations for global growth and success.”
No donation amount was given, as per the Brownlee Foundation’s wishes, because there are many unknown costs that go into an ongoing event like this, and it is hoped to be well attended enough to have them every two years. Wayne and Ina Lou Brownlee have been generous community supporters for decades including transformational gifts to the Salvation Army, the Saskatoon Community Foundation and a $10 million donation to the Saskatoon Public Schools Foundation
For tickets to the summit, click here.
