Kingston political, academic, economic forces team up to guide organizations through COVID-19

The Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, the City of Kingston and the Economic Development Corporation are combining forces to help local organizations navigate and survive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The result: the Kingston Region Business Support Network, launched by Queen’s University. JP Shearer is the Associate Director at the Centre for Business Venturing at the Smith School of Business.

“It’s a digital platform that brings consultants along with facility and businesses together in order to make sure that we’re in front of the problems and the challenges that a lot of our businesses in our community are having,” explained JP Shearer, associate director at the Centre for Business Venturing at the Smith School of Business.

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The program will offer free services including student consultants and community classroom learning sessions, on topics related to the issues facing business owners in the new COVID-19 world.

Shearer says it’s also a real learning tool for the students involved.

“This is about bringing students to the forefront of taking theoretical learning and absolutely applying it in an immersive experience in a very practical way,” Shearer said.

“We often have that integrated into that learning through our school, but this is getting front line, this is working with businesses on real live problems in real time and we are just delighted that we can offer some support to the economy at this end.”

The free service is also available to local not-for-profits and social enterprises. It’s another way for the local community, which has already started to rally around area businesses, to come together.

Ian Murdoch is a Business Development Officer with KEDCO, the Kingston Economic Development Corporation.

“It’s really amazing to see how our businesses are trying to support each other,” said Ian Murdoch, business development officer with the Kingston Economic Development Corporation.

“Every day we’re seeing new clusters of support groups that are popping up either to promote local businesses that are offering either pickup or delivery, or just to be mentors in business.

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The support network’s first webinar takes place on Wednesday, April 22 in the afternoon. For more details,  go to the Smith School of Business website.