BNOTIONS exec excited to have attended GROW Conference 2010

By all accounts, the GROW Conference 2010 in Vancouver this past month was a resounding success.  This year's technology conference brought together some of the brightest minds from Silicon Valley and Canada to share and inspire each other. 

Earlier this week I caught up with Jet Cooper's Satish Kanwar to get his thoughts on this year's GROW.  Yesterday, I exchanged email's with BNOTIONS executive Alkarim Nasser. 

Why did you attend GROW?

When Aidan Nulman (Founder of YouPhonics) asked Satish Kanwar (Partner at Jet Cooper) and I to join him at GrowConf, we started by doing a little bit of research. Glancing at the speaker list it was clear an event of this nature has never taken place in Canada. Debbie Landa and the Dealmaker organization sought to bring some of the most successful thought leaders from Silicon Valley to share their insights with Canadian entrepreneurs. This was something I couldn't miss.

We've always had ambitions to collaborate with the Silicon Valley in one way or another. Recently we've set on a path to extend our capabilities in internal product development, and it was time to start strengthening relationships with the people that were responsible for creating, funding and inspiring what we know of today as "the interwebs".

What lessons did you take away from the GrowConf?

Lessons revolved around misconceptions entrepreneurs have associated with investment, relocation and failure. Despite the clear geographical hurdles we learnt that angels and VCs are open to investing in Canadian companies. It is often better to leave production teams in Canada, but important for founders and business development to spend much of their time in the Valley - if that's where they are looking to make their mark.

The conference also helped connect entrepreneurs with a strong presence of Canadian incubators, angels and VC's. Bootup Labs is an example of a Vancouver-based accelerator and seed fund - creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to take ownership of their ideas and have access to resources to help them grow. Sometimes the help you need is close to home!

Finally, we learned that failure is a part of growth and not in the way we hear about it usually. In the way that you can have a great, awesome, fantastic and super idea, but there could be reasons that the idea failed that were beyond you. An investor will invest in you again even if your idea failed the first time. (It could have been a timing thing, a market thing or maybe the world just isn't ready for it) The key is to always be accountable and upfront.

Outside of the sessions, which person or people impacted you the most and why?

Having had the opportunity to attend the Day 1 of the conference, I thoroughly enjoyed extended conversations with Lane Becker (Co-Founder of Get Satisfaction),  Jason Baily (GM at Super Rewards), Dan Martell (Founder of Flowtown) and Jeremy Toeman (Founding Partner at Stage Two Consulting). These folks (really everyone) came with so much positive energy. They were blunt, realistic and freely offered their recco's on how to grow business. The product of all this great advise can only be measured in our ability to translate it into successes and pass it on to others. We look forward to doing just that.

How will GROW help you and BNOTIONS grow?

As individuals it will help fuel big ideas. Understanding from thought leaders where the industry is going and the steps to take to get involved will resound in every decision we make personally and for the businesses we are with. I suspect a lot of ground breaking work will come out of BNOTIONS as a result of this, so please stay tuned.