Lang students win first place at NHL Innovation Competition

How do you engage the next generation of fans in sport? This was the question behind the NHL’s new Industry Growth Fund Hockey Innovation Competition for college and university students, a pitch-style contest that invited teams to come up with ideas in three areas of technology, consumer experience, and enhancing existing programs. With 63 proposals across 13 colleges and universities for a total of 252 student participants, the interest was massive. And first place went to a team from the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph.

So, you might say the answer to how to engage the next generation would be to put Lang students on the case.

In their winning pitch, Lang students on team “NHL Champions’ Quest” (Sophie Potter, Julia Lowther, Gray Yates, Caroline MacLeod, and Alexandra Lindsay) came up with a fresh plan for the NHL’s existing Mobile Museum initiative, recommending that the organization create tailored experiences for school classrooms to provide access to the museum in the form of a school field trip. “We really wanted to present an idea that was something that was not only a great idea but feasible and could actually be implemented by the NHL,” Lang teammate Julia Lowther said in an article posted on the NHL website. “We wanted to take the mobile museum and take it to another level because it’s already such an amazing asset that the NHL has.”

While the competition mostly took place over the Zoom videoconferencing platform, the final six teams were invited to present their pitch in-person to a panel of five judges at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario. In total, 20 Lang teams submitted projects to the NHL competition and 11 progressed to the semi-finals. Three teams became finalists: “School Little Leagues” (Alexa Parisio, Georgia Kane, Grace Halcovitch, Ruby Hayes) focused on involving children in grades two to five, and “Mind Over Ice” (Kylie Riches, Meghan Roe, Elan Stecklov, Nicholas Petinarelis), focused on mental health solutions in sports. All finalist teams received mentorship in refining their proposals from different NHL executives.

Professor Katie Lebel, who coached the students through the development process via a new course in Lang’s Bachelor of Commerce Sport and Event Management major called “Understanding Sport Fandom,” says the final in-person event was electric.

“The students were most excited. They had a camera crew there that followed them and interviewed them—it was very professional. The NHL invited a lot of industry executives from across different sports, so there was a lot of opportunity for networking. And then they had the big reveal at the end of the event in the Grand Hall with the Stanley Cup as the backdrop, and Guelph came out on top,” says Lebel, adding that the desire for their fellow Lang students to cheer on their classmates was so great, the NHL provided additional seats to the competition, making for a raucous crowd from the University of Guelph.

Lowther says her team was thrilled with the win. “The NHL Innovation Competition was an invaluable experience, and winning it was truly surreal. Our group worked hard over the past three months to refine our pitch and develop our idea throughout each stage of the competition. Seeing our concept, NHL Champions’ Quest, have the potential to come to life and be implemented into the NHL Mobile Museum is incredibly rewarding. Our goal is to give kids from underrepresented backgrounds—or those who wouldn’t otherwise have access—the chance to experience the Mobile Museum through school field trips, adding an extra day to each tour stop for this initiative.”

Besides bragging rights, the competition also awarded $10,000 in prizes, with first place earning a $2,500 scholarship with a VIP ticket experience to a Toronto Maple Leafs game and VIP access to an NHL behind-the-scenes experience. Equally, the competition earned all students a learning experience that they’ll never forget, says Professor Lebel. “They've got real-life experience, and now they've got a line item on their resume saying that they have worked with the NHL, and in some cases, I think these ideas are going to be actually implemented. So, from a student's perspective, this is as close to mirroring a real-world work experience as you can get, which is a fabulous opportunity.”

The Lang School is home to the Bachelor of Commerce in Sport and Event Management, one of the University of Guelph’s most popular programs offered in two formats – fully in-person with or without a co-op, and fully online. For more information on how you can be part of the action, visit the BComm Sport and Event Management page.