Geneviève Ouellette of Rollo Bay and Brent Chaisson of Miscouche impressed the judges the most at the finals of the 2023 Francophone Ignition Contest and earned a handsome investment of $25,000 to further develop their bilingual audio-visual production company, “On y va! Média”.
Ouellette and Chaisson now plan to purchase new video and lighting equipment, bags and boxes to move their equipment, a trailer to transport their equipment, production software and promotional material.
The other two projects competing in these March 2 finals organized by RDÉE Prince Edward Island were a high-end fashion producer and retailer, Swenn Workshops Inc. by Kristell Geffroy of Charlottetown, and a potato grating company, Spud Ventures Inc. by Marc Bastarache of Freetown.
The champions also received a free membership to the Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce, free advertising in the Connections magazine that is published by the Greater Charlottetown and Area Chamber of Commerce and a college course of their choice at the Collège de l’Île. In addition, all three finalists received a free one-year membership to the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of PEI and a finalist certificate from RDÉE Prince Edward Island.
The judges for the finals were Alfred Arsenault, chief operating officer of the Provincial Credit Union’s 10 branches, Char Doherty, owner of Mini Acres Farm and former owner of Chez Char restaurant, and Claus Schmidt, co-owner of MaiYa Pearls and general manager of CBDC Central PEI in Summerside.
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Steve Reaman, economic development officer with Innovation PEI, presented champions Geneviève Ouellette and Brent Chaisson of “On y va ! Média” with their $25,000 cheque, which came from his department’s Ignition Startup Fund.