Entries from the 'Events' category
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.
After Garrett’s brief talk, he opened the floor to questions from the attendees. Perhaps the question that most people wanted to have answered was: “Would he have been able to take StumbleUpon to where it was had he not moved to the Valley?” Garrett figured he would have been able to but “it would have been much harder, and required more travel back and forth from the Valley.” Ultimately he felt as though the connections and mentoring that he was able to get from Silicon Valley were vital to the success that StumbleUpon has had. This is one of the biggest reasons that Pat Lor, Claudia Moore and the STIRR Team have worked so hard to bring STIRR to Canada. They hope that the connections, mentoring and startup experiences that exist in Canada will be able to be shared with the next flock of startups.
After the talk, dinner was served and it gave a chance for everyone to interact. It was great to be able to hear some of the people who had run successful startups talk about what had taken them there. Also for those who would potentially become investors they were able to learn more about both the founder and their idea, and it gave the newer founders a chance to find out what investors were really looking for. Each table had a STIRR organizer facilitating the conversation so that everyone was able to discuss some of the topics that they were interested in.
Overall the event was great. STIRR has done a fantastic job in the Valley and it is great to see it here in Canada. Hopefully the event will continue to grow and the format will be expanded to other cities. It was really awesome to see the conversations that were being had, and the relationships that were being developed. STIRR Canada will be running more Founders’ Table events, as well as larger Tech Mixers. If you think that you should be invited, contact them and let them know why; likely you will find yourself at a future STIRR event.
Start-Up Career Fair Next Week
In partnership with Launch Party Vancouver, Techvibes is hosting a Start-Up Career Fair dedicated to the unique opportunities available at technology Start-Ups in Vancouver. The event will merge the ‘unconference’ format of DemoCamp with a traditional Career Fair. Representatives from Strutta, Carrie & Danielle, Tagga, Live Current, MovieSet, Vibrant Software, 6S Marketing, FCV, Layer 7 and GO Recruitment will have 5 minutes each to pitch you on working for them and highlight some of the cool opportunities at their companies.
If you’re a student, a recent graduate, or just part of the regular-old-workforce and curious about what its like to work for a Start-Up - this FREE event is for you. The Career Fair will take place on Wednesday, May 21st at 3:00pm at Republic at 958 Granville Street.
BONUS: Everyone is invited to stick around for a complimentary beverage and networking at Launch Party starting at 5:30pm. You can register for both events on Facebook - LPV4 here and the Start-Up Career Fair here.
Start-Up Index Leaders Heading to Banff
nextMEDIA - The Future of Digital Content is just around the corner (June 6-8th) and the speaker line-up is shaping up. Four of Canada’s digital media innovators are scheduled to talk about what it takes to launch and grow a successful company during a Sunday session.
Hear from the country’s hottest digital media innovators, and learn what it takes to achieve success. What made our speakers Canada’s hottest innovators? What are the key factors required to make it happen? How did they get the financing and support to get to where they are today? Can you build a global success story from Canada? What are their predications for the technology and digital media industries and where are their more unfulfilled opportunities? What should we all look out for into 2009?
Session speakers include Jeremy Wright of Toronto’s b5media; Leila Boujanane of Toronto’s Idée Inc.; Boris Wertz of Edmonton’s Nexopia.com; and Markus Frind of Vancouver’s own PlentyOfFish.com. Our Start-Up Indexes confirm that nextMEDIA has indeed got the hottest digital media players on the panel - b5media is currently #1 for Toronto, Nexopia is #1 for Alberta, and PlentyOfFish.com was #1 for Vancouver until somebody suggested we check their ID. Idée Inc. has been added to May’s Toronto Start-Up Index which will be published later today.
The session will be moderated by Ellie Rubin of Ellie Corporation. nextMEDIA takes place at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta prior to the Banff World Television Festival.
e-Preneur Book Launch
John Fluevog’s fabulous new digs in Gastown hosted a cozy gathering of friends and selected media (that would be us) this evening for the launch of Richard J. Goossen’s new book, “e-Preneur: From Wall Street to Wiki: Succeeding as a Crowdpreneur in the New Virtual Marketplace“. The book examines the phenomenon of “crowd-powered” companies that use massive online communities to collaborate and power businesses.
While crowd-sourcing is a central part of Web 2.0 businesses like Digg, not many have examined the ability for this model to apply to other businesses in, you know, the real world. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of Richard’s case studies focused on Fluevog itself, which has actually been using crowd-sourcing quite successfully to engage its customers to help design new products. A Fluevog representative was on hand to highlight the success they’ve witnessed with Vog Populi, their online campaign that gives Fluevog customers a say in which products the funky fashion design company should release next (they’re currently seeking input on their Spring 2009 collection).
The event was nicely rounded out with commentary from two more familiar Canadian faces: Mike Sikorsky of Cambrian House, and Marc Baumgartner of NowPublic. While these might be more traditional web-based applications of “crowd-preneurship”, if Richard’s predictions hold true, they’re just the beginning of a new era of companies and their customers working together to build new products.
Mesh 2008 Sells Out
Next week’s Mesh Conference in Toronto is sold-out but don’t worry if you didn’t manage to grab a ticket. Techvibes’ Varun Mathur will be live-blogging the two-day event right here. Techvibes and the Globe and Mail are media sponsors of Mesh.
For those of you in Toronto that still want to participate in-person, meshU has a few seats available. It’s only one day and has some of the best “geek” content you’ll find anywhere. In addition, some of the Mesh after hours events are open to the public.
Videographers turn Blogs into Bucks
Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun took in Reachd’s Video Training seminar yesterday and it sounds like she’s a video convert.
Ian Watt has never had any video training. He just got his first video camera for Christmas. But now he is the star of his own business video, transforming his blog into a live show in which he tours Vancouver dispensing advice, hitting real estate hot buttons, winning over fans and enraging critics.
On Tuesday, Watt was in a class of 20 aspiring Cecil B. DeMilles at a sold out session run by Reachd.com, a Vancouver training company launched by Stephen Jagger and Mike Stephenson, who also founded the real estate Web hosting and design site Ubertor.
Fourteen of the attendees were real estate agents and the rest represented a cross-section, including from the legal, recruiting and marketing professions. For a $200 fee, participants got the afternoon training session, plus a $150 Flip Ultra videocamera that takes up to an hour of video and plugs straight into a computer to download.
This first 20-spot session sold-out quickly but they’ve added a 2nd workshop on May 28th and set aside a free seat (and Flip camera) for a lucky Techvibes reader. Only eight people have entered the contest so far - so if you’re interested, be sure to enter now and we’ll pick a winner and announce it here on the blog on May 22nd.
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.
NVBC gets you Market-Ready
Seminar #6 of New Ventures BC’s eight-part series is tomorrow night with Dave Thomas of Rocket Builders tackling Marketing. The SFU Segal Graduate School of Business on Granville Street will be hosting this interactive seminar on getting your business market-ready.
The seminar gets underway at 7:00pm but attendees are invited to come early to network with fellow competition participants. In addition, Fundfindr.tv will be on-site to cover NVBC and give companies a chance to record their own business elevator pitch. The recorded pitches will be entered into the Fundfindr Pitchies contest and the Pitchies warm-up, an exclusive competition for NVBC participants. By pitching between May 7 and May 20, NVBC competitor companies are not only given a bonus entry into The Pitchies, but are eligible for The Pitchies Warm-up Prize of a luxury Whistler weekend.
Open Technologies Day from Sun
Sun Microsystems Canada is a hosting Open Technologies Day in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver in late May and early June.
Transform development capabilities with cutting-edge technologies proven in high scale network environments. Extend your skills and explore new features. Learn about emerging techniques like Comet, Ajax Push, Glassfish using Grizzly Framework and much more. Take advantage of the innovation behind Sun’s long-term developer technology strategy.
The half-day events kick off with breakfast followed by 90 minute presentations from Sun Microsystems’ Jean-Francois Arcand and Ted Goddard of ICEfaces. Space is limited for each event, so pick your city - Toronto on May27th, Montreal on May 29th, or Vancouver on June 3rd - and register now. Sun will be giving away an iPod Touch to a lucky attendee at each event.
Tech Events in Vancouver - May 12 - 18th
Monday, May 12th
Tuesday, May 13th
Wednesday, May 14th
Thursday, May 15th
