Entries from the 'Associations' category
VEF looks to gain Momentum with Young Entrepreneurs
The Vancouver Enterprise Forum’s (VEF) mission is to advance technology entrepreneurship through networking forums that educate and motivate. They’ve been doing it for years through monthly networking events that are paired with informational presentations targeted to the technology community. As a not-for-profit society VEF is supported by its sponsors, its members, event attendees and volunteers.
Word on the street is that the VEF is in search of a way to connect and educate with the next generation of young entrepreneurs and I had a chance to meet a couple of the drivers behind the VEF’s newest initiative - VEF Momentum.
Na’im Merchant and Kerry Liu are both by-products of Enterprize - one of the largest entrepreneurial student-led conferences in the world and their mandate is to inject a little youthful enthusiasm into the staid VEF. How are they going to do that? Content that builds community and is relevant to first-time entrepreneurs and events that are open, accessible and conducive to networking and peer-mentorship.
Look out for the launch of their new site next week and their inaugural networking event in September.
Marketing Coordinator - WINBC
The Wireless Innovation Network of BC (WINBC) promotes the fast growth and sustainability of British Columbia as one of the world’s best wireless technology clusters and communities. We are the industry association representing more than 250 BC wireless technology companies generating in excess of $1B in annual revenues. WINBC’s objectives are to accelerate the immediate commercialization capability of member companies and to build long term capacity for growth and innovation in BC’s wireless cluster.
Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the Marketing Coordinator is responsible for the execution of WINBC’s marketing initiatives. This creative & logistical role entails, but is not limited to: coordinating and managing WINBC events and the Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit (including all pre-event promotional, planning and logistical needs); managing member database; liaising with association members; and administrative duties to support the association and the Executive Director.
The successful candidate will be well-organized, a self-starter, independent, flexible, and able to perform under pressure to meet deadlines and work well within a team environment.
The full job description is available here. Please submit your resume and cover letter to jobs@winbc.org by July 21, 2008. We wish to thank all applicants in advance, however, only those under consideration will be contacted.
IIMA presents “The Death of Email”
The International Internet Marketing Associations presenting another seminar for online marketers, and this time the subject at hand is “The Death of email: how social networking is rejuvenating eDirect.” Promising to examine new venues for marketing like Facebook and Myspace, as well as how to integrate social network marketing into your current marketing strategy, the event costs $40 for early bird registrants who are also members of the IIMA, and $60 for early bird non-members (early bird deadline is June 6th.) The event is scheduled for June 17th from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the downtown YWCA. To register, head to the IIMA site.
STIRR Runs First Founders’ Table Event in Calgary
STIRR Canada ran its first Founders’ Table event last night in Calgary and it was great to be able to attend and join in. The goal of the Founders’ Table events is to bring founders of newer tech startups together in an intimate social setting with people who have gone through the startup process before, and are potentially looking to advise and invest. The hope is that newer founders, and pre-startup innovators, will be able to connect with and learn from the more seasoned entrepreneurs and investors.
The event was kept fairly small and was invite-only. This was done so that quality “up and coming” founders would be able to get the most benefit. The seating at the tables was pre-arranged so that people would interact with others that they might not have met before. Most of the attendees came from Calgary, however there were about five or six people from Edmonton who were invited down.
The first part of the evening featured Garrett Camp, the co-founder of one of Calgary’s most successful startups, StumbleUpon. The first few minutes of Garrett’s talk was about how StumbleUpon came about and grew. One of the most interesting things that came out of that talk was that his first angel connection actually contacted him because he was a frequent user and loved the idea.
STIRR Comes to Canada
With the inaugural Founders’ Table dinner on the evening of May 15th, STIRR will have begun its entrance into the Canadian tech scene. Originally co-founded by Sanford Barr in California as a way to connect entrepreneurs, it has become one of the most popular organizations for founders in Silicon Valley. STIRR is now coming to Canada, with Calgary as its base location. Once again, the dedication of Pat Lor and Claudia Moore in building the Calgary (and Canadian) tech community is shown as they will be heading up the STIRR Canada team. One of the most important aspects of STIRR is that it is organized and attended by entrepreneurs that have gone through the process of founding and running a tech company. This gives them direct knowledge of the things that entrepreneurs desperately need (such as funding and guidance), as they attempt to help provide access to those essential elements.
The first STIRR Canada event will be held this Thursday (May 15th), and will be a Founders’ Table. It will bring together a small group of local founders, emerging innovators, and funders around a dinner table for a facilitated conversation, interaction and relationship building. Garrett Camp, founder of one of Calgary’s most successful tech startups, StumbleUpon, is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the event. I had a chance to chat with Sharon McIntyre (part of the STIRR Canada team) on the phone and she said an important difference between this event and other founders and funders type events is that there will also be an “emphasis on bringing very early stage individuals into the event and connecting them with mentors.” While most founders and funders events are primarily trying to connect people who need money with those who have it, this event will also bring innovators to the table who may not be ready for financing. The event is invite-only in an effort to connect the right people together, as Sharon put it: “It’s a bit like planning a wedding party; you need to make sure that the right people are sitting at the same table together in order for things to go well.” STIRR Canada will also be running larger Tech Mixer events in the near future that will encourage more entrepreneurs to join in and interact.
BC Technology Impact Award Finalists
Today the British Columbia Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) announced the finalists for its annual Technology Impact Awards (TIAs). The diversity of this year’s finalists is a good reflection of the industry where the more traditional Information and Communication Technologies sector continues to produce outstanding innovators with the Clean Energy Tech sector continuing to strengthen.
The TIAs are broken into three distinct groups: Technology Awards, Company Awards, and Personal Recognition Awards. This year’s finalists are:
Excellence in Product Innovation
Best Application of Technology
Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology
Most Promising Start-Up
Emerging Company of the Year
Team of the Year
- Payment Processing Inc.’s Team Highlander
- Vision Critical’s Community and Qualitative Team
Leadership in Social Responsibility
Company of the Year
Winners will be announced on June 12th at the Technology Impact Awards Celebration at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver.
New Media BC’s Brown joins Edelman
Former New Media BC head Lynda Brown-Ganzert has joined Edelman Canada as Vice President of Digital Media, Entertainment and Technology. Brown was one of the most active builders of Canada’s digital media industry during her time as President of New Media BC where she grew the association from an annual operating budget of $300,000 to more than $3 million in just over three years.
She’ll be working out of Edelman’s Vancouver office, Karyo Edelman - the largest PR agency in Vancouver, signaling new growth and development in the digital media, entertainment and technology practice area for the agency. Brown’s most significant (and visible) local legacy is this month’s Vancouver International Digital Festival which she was the founding Executive Producer.
AVAC’s new IVAC initiative invests $5.7M in Alberta High-Tech companies
I sat beside Jacques LaPointe last week at a CCAT luncheon in Calgary … Jacques is a Senior Investment Manager at AVAC and we quickly got to talking about the high-tech community in Alberta. I had heard of AVAC before; essentially investing in “agrivalue” in Alberta. In the last year or so, however, they’ve expanded their mandate to provide investment and other assistance to Alberta business in the ICT, life sciences and other industrial technology sectors.
AVAC is a private, not-for-profit agency … which seems like an oxymoron at first blush. However, the way it works is that it receives funding from the Alberta government, and then invests in private organizations, who can be expected to match the funding for as little as dollar-for-dollar (and also repay funds dispersed). As far as I can tell, that’s an interest-free loan, and it’s a great alternate source of funding that should be investigated by high-tech companies in Alberta.
The IVAC initiative has two parts, the $10M Capacity Builder Program and the $20M Early Stage Venture Fund. Funds are dispersed based on companies achieving important milestones and business hurdles.
IVAC has announced $5.675M of investment within the last month or so going to the following companies:
Antibe Therapeutics Inc., Calgary. A development stage pharmaceutical company developing novel drugs for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and analgesics with reduced gastrointestinal side effects. Investment: $300,000
Calgary Scientific Inc., Calgary. An early commercial stage diagnostic imaging company with advanced 3-D imaging software for diagnosis and treatment planning. Investment: $1,000,000
DataGardens Inc, Edmonton. An early stage pioneer in wide area virtual resource sharing for datacenters within the multiple offices or branch locations. Investment: $1,000,000
Intelliview Technologies Inc., Calgary. An emerging video analytics software company focusing on the security industry. Investment: $1,000,000
SciMed Technologies Inc., Edmonton. An early commercial stage analytical company launching easy-to-use kits for analyzing vitamin A & D levels in milk. Investment: $375,000
Userful Corp., Calgary. A green computing company that enables up to ten people to share the resources of a single computer. Investment: $1,000,000
Aksys Networks, Calgary. An innovative office telephone system using VOIP that allows small business to have a virtual (and easily configureable) internet PBX vs. the old school hardware big panel in the back room. Investment: $1,000,000
Contact Jacques LaPointe at jlapointe@avacltd.com.
P.S. On a related marketing note for companies wishing to have a better internet presence … make sure you have a standalone corporate logo / image somewhere on your site so bloggers like us can link to it easily and display it in our posts (see above!)
ASTech nominations open until May 30
The Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) Leadership Foundation identifies and celebrates outstanding achievements in science and technology to inspire future innovation and leadership.
On October 24, 2008, the 19th Annual Awards Gala will be held in Edmonton … and if you want to go as a winner to hold an “ASTechie” or “Azzie” or “ASTecker” or whatever it is they call their statue, you need to be nominated first.
There are 13 award categories … click here to review the award categories and get a .PDF of the nomination form. Make sure you do it before May 30th!
ASTech is a private, non-profit society, supported by 21 patrons from private and public sectors … a wide range of companies coming together to recognize a broad range of Alberta high-tech success stories.
Premier Stelmach on Track to Invigorate Alberta High-Tech
Today is a day of convergence.
I was at a CCAT (Calgary Council for Advanced Technology) luncheon yesterday, where I enjoyed a tasty shitake mushroom tortellini, in addition to a great talk from David Martin, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Smart Technologies (which, by the way, at $400M last year in revenue, is the largest Calgary high-tech company, and within the largest 20 in Canada … more on that in a later blog).
At the request of the Premier Stelmach, for 60 intense days last spring, David led a “Value-Added and Technology Commercialization Task Force” to create economic value through a knowledge based economy vs. digging holes in the ground to suck out oil.
The task force presented a report containing 7 recommendations to Doug Horner, Minister of Education and Technology on May 31st, 2007. These recommendations centered around 3 themes: building an effective capital market, assisting growth of innovative firms and encouraging and rewarding entrepreneurship.
Task Force’s make their recommendations … and then wait for the political machinery to turn, if at all.
Convergence point # 1: As it turns out, Premier Stelmach’s is seemingly serious about their “high priority for technology commercialization and economic diversification.” (i.e. let’s use our current resource prosperity to build a more diverse and prosperous future for all of us).
In this week’s Alberta Speech from the Throne, amongst other things, we saw statements that the Alberta government is going to act on the task force recommendations with a “long term vision and focus for R&D”:
- Create a provincial enterprise fund to attract co-investment from venture capital
- Create new provincial tax credits for Scientific Research and Development
- Establish a “Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy”
- Develop new product commercialization centres
The proof of the pudding will be in next week’s Alberta budget … where I expect / hope to see $$$ evidence of the government’s intent to truly diversify.
Convergence point # 2: This can’t come at a better time. As stated in a recent Wired West blog post regarding an article in the April 28, 2008 edition of Canadian Business:
“Calgary is home to more tech startups per capita than any other place in Canada.”
As Claudia Moore from Material Insight says in the article: “It takes you a little while to figure out what you want to be when you grow up, and Calgary is on the cusp of that.”
I can’t think of a better place to be in high-tech than Calgary right now. Bring it on!
Having my faith somewhat restored in government listening to smart industry people, I picked up my fork to eat a delicious lemony cakey dessert at the CCAT luncheon … and washed it down with a steaming cup o’ joe, of course!
Stay tuned for next week’s budget.
