Young entrepreneurs recognized at first annual event.

• Author: FAYE, DONNA
• Position: Young Entrepreneurs of Thunder Bay Awards - Brief Article

Six young entrepreneurs were honoured at the first annual Young Entrepreneurs of Thunder Bay Awards held in the Valhalla Inn ballroom on May 3.

At least 100 supporters attended the dinner and presentations where entrepreneurs between ages 18 and 35 were recognized for excellence in six categories: innovation and technology, service excellence, student entrepreneur, supporter of youth entrepreneur, community involvement and entrepreneur of the year.

For the past six years, Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce has included an award for best young entrepreneur in their own ceremony, but that tradition came to an end this year when the chamber decided to replace that category with an award for best new business.

But the Young Entrepreneurs of Thunder Bay (YETB), couldn't let a year go by without recognizing the city's young businesspersons. Also, by organizing the ceremony the group saw an opportunity to build some credibility in the city, says Melissa Gorrie of YETB.

The chamber of commerce continued to support the young entrepreneurs this year as a major sponsor and is considering reintroducing the award in its own presentations, but Lisa Owens of the chamber says the YETB hosted an excellent event.

By spotlighting these young entrepreneurs, Gorrie says other young people will realize the opportunities and support available to them in the city.

Terry Pentney and Kurtis Kostamo received the Student Entrepreneur Award for their business plan for the Canadian Tae Kwon Do Journal.

Both men are recent graduates of Confederation College's entrepreneurship program. Two years ago Pentney was compiling a logbook for martial artists. After considering a similar logbook for Tae Kwon Do, Kostamo suggested a bold new idea - to start a magazine.

After researching the magazine industry, gauging the interest of the Tae Kwon Do community in Canada and the potential market for such a magazine, the two created a business plan for what will be Canada's first Tae Kwon Do magazine.

To learn more about their target audience, Pentney and Kostamo contacted Tae Kwon Do schools in Canada, distributing surveys to masters and students. Those surveys indicated a potential readership audience of about 50,000, a conservative estimate, says Pentney.

Currently, those readers get their sport's news and information from American and international magazines which are popular in the United States and Canada.

"The masters we sent the surveys to have...