NAIT’s Mawji Centre hosts Business Innovation Showcase highlighting student-owned companies

By Taylor Winnie Hughes on April 22, 2025

The Mawji Centre at NAIT hosted its annual Business Innovation Showcase on April 9. Over 80 student booths were set up this year to show off the ideas of students and recent grads.

Mawji Centre Business by Taylor012499

Ideas ranged from concept, to prototype to functional product with opportunities to secure funding and get community feedback.

SwarmSafe is a concept of a product that would use frequency to keep wasps away from the wearer. A 3D printed model was showcased to give an idea of how this product might look.

This walker is a prototype showcasing an electronic braking system for walkers. While some walkers have this function already, this product is intended to fill a gap in the market as the automatic braking system isn’t typically seen on non-motorized walkers.

This booth was selling finished a finished product in the form of custom laser etched coasters. The public could walk up to the booth, provide their name, and then leave with a customized coaster minutes later.

This booth showcases a conceptual business intended to link information such as vaccinations to cattle using RFID tags and blockchain. This picture shows the creator receiving feedback and answering questions.

Bianca Hamtig explains her product, InNAIT, to the public.

Bianca Hamtig is the creator and founder of InNAIT, a concept for an online marketplace that is entirely focused on NAIT. “This kind of event really helped me in fueling the innovation within me, because I never thought that an idea can spark into something that is concrete on a step one like this one,” said Hamtig.

The showcase wasn’t just seen as a success to the students. Dale Schaub, the Lead Entrepreneurship Consultant for the Mawji Centre thinks the event was incredibly successful despite some problems that popped up. “We had over 300 people at this thing. It’s really hard to look at it and say anything other than that it was a screaming success, and then it very successfully highlighted some of the really cool student businesses.”

Amongst the public visitors was Ashif Mawji, whose million dollar donation kickstarted the founding of the Mawji Centre. Students had an opportunity to meet Mawji, and one student idea is being taken with him to be showcased on Dragons’ Den for a chance to receive funding.

Four booths are guaranteed to win funding through 4 prizes of $2000. The prize categories are: