Three finalists have been named for this year's RDÉE P.E.I. Francophone Ignition contest and a chance to win a top prize of $25,000.
The competition will be on March 5 at the Centre Belle-Alliance in Summerside, according to a press release.
Ghislaine Cormier of Kaneshii Vinyl Press in Charlottetown is one of the finalist for her business ideas Diaspora, an online record store, and Diaspora Plus+, a catelogue of promotional products for musicians and musical accessories. The ideas also involve creating a distribution and delivery system for its products.
The second finalist is Sebastian Manago of Double Cidery in Caledonia. The business has launched Nomad Cider, but it needs to purchase equipment in order to continue developing products.
Last is Josee Gallant-Gordon, who along with Bobby Gordon, operate an equine therapy service at their farm in Alma. The Gordons want to further develop equine mental health therapy at the farm's Elm Grove Centre, Equi-Libre, for groups of French and English speaking intermediate and elementary school children.
In order to win the top prize (from Innovation P.E.I.'s Ignition Start-up fund), the three finalists will present their projects to a panel of three judges, who will determine which one has the highest probability of success. Each finalist will have seven minutes to make a presentation and answer questions from the judges about their projects.
The competition will be in French and is open to the public for free. It will be held in the centre's Entre-deux-mers room. Besides the competition, there will also be live music for those in attendance.
All finalists were chosen out of 10 submissions.
