‘Elevate XP’ hoping to promote young entrepreneurs in Regina

Elevate XP held its first ever event in Regina on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 at the Conexus Arts Centre. (Damian Smith/CTV News)

The Conexus Arts Centre hosted a plethora of young entrepreneurs over the weekend. “Elevate XP,” as its called, saw 35 high school students pitch business ideas.

The weekend marked the event’s inaugural run, representing a big test for the team.

“Yes, we had the idea already, but then sort of over the past few months, we’ve been able to sort of believe in what this is actually going to be and what you look like for the future,” said co-founder Daniel Opata. “We currently have sponsors that are waiting for next year. But again, that all comes from having one idea and trying your best to make it possible, and people sort of having their own story and narrative to that. We have the investors saying, ‘I wish this was here before.’”

The goal of the organizers is to hold the event twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter.

As a second-year student at the University of Regina, it was a test for Opata to pitch his entrepreneurship skills, putting on a full event for potential sponsors and investors.

The name “Elevate XP” is meant to describe an elevating experience for younger people.

“You’re young, you’re trying to get as much experience as possible and optimize growth and learning, sort of at a young age,” he said. “That means obviously if you have a bad presentation today, it’s probably not going to be the same in the next five years, but ultimately it could be applied to something else that you’ll be doing in the future.”

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The event had 35 students from seven different high schools, raising $8,000 in funds for the students. In attendance were six investors, 17 sponsors, and over 200 tickets sold, according to Opata.

Each team had three-minute pitches and took questions from the judges after.

As a third of “Boost Athlete”, Misbah Syed knew that this would be a great opportunity to show off his not-for-profit.

“I kind of already had a bit of experience with this stuff, but it’s my first time applying it into the real world. Doing case competitions, doing case studies is somewhat different from actually going out there helping people,” he said.

“That’s also why we decided to do a nonprofit, because most businesses, like most participants here, they meet profit companies. People looked at us weird, like ‘Why are you doing something, you know, nonprofit?’ A nonprofit, the energy, the ability to run it is as much as a proper business,”

Boost Athlete is made to gather funds to create opportunities for students in sports.

The inspiration was derived from a close friend, who plays in high level sports, but has had to ask for a GoFundMe for support. Members of Boost Athlete never wanted that to be case.

“He’s a person of great sport interest, matter of fact, he’s like on two of our high school sports teams and then he’s also on Team Sask which is one of the biggest corporations in Regina in terms of sports,” said Hamza Nabeel, who runs the website.

“In Campbell, what’s interesting is most of the football players ask around for help with their sports,” said Charles Pagdilao. “That’s where we got most of our main ideas from because those are those messages that we got from them asking for help.”

They say that funding is needed for all sports, but the most popular ones at Campbell Collegiate are basketball and football.

“It’s like a problem within the entire sports community, especially the student athlete community here in Regina,” said Nabeel. “We went on social media, we saw how many people were talking about how hard it was to come across such stuff. We personally interviewed certain students as well. We basically diagnosed this entire thing, we broke it down and then we created a solution for this.”

The group says they’ve been in touch with the Jax Mac Foundation as well as the Saskatchewan Roughriders for potential help.

“In the sports industry, money is very needed, especially when going to clubs, even traveling, all these expenses for clothing and all,” said Pagdilao. “For my side, when I try to get into clubs, I’d have to talk to my parents first and ask for their permission if they’re going to be able to pay for money. Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no, but most of the time they say no because it’s mostly money wise.”

“When that comes in, you’re kind of just hoping that someone will try to find me,” he said. “But with our business, we’re allowing people to be seen at this point, allowing people to have that ability to have to join a club or to even get the equipment that they need and for coaches, they can get the equipment using our website as well.”

The group “Fast Travel” came in first place, “Task Local”, and “Thermamist” came in third. Task Local also won the people’s choice awards.