The 2009 Northern Voice website went live today and they're looking for speakers. As Canada’s largest Blogging and Social Media conference, this is THE event to present at if you're experienced and passionate about social media and blogging.
While Nothern Voice is celebrating its 5th year, some of you may not be familiar with the conference. In that case, check out last year's speakers schedule to get a feel for what they're looking for. The call for speaker’s deadline is December 19, 2008.
Logo and artwork by basco5.
This announcement is long overdue but at least two of you will be happy.
Brother Canada was kind enough to sponsor our Small Business Week contest and have provided Techvibes with two Brother Colour Multi-Function Centers (valued at $350 each) to give away. In order to enter the contest, all you had to do was comment on one of the following Small Biz profile blog posts:
And the winners are... Jess Sloss and Rory Hansen. I'll be in touch to coordinate delivery and/or pickup.
Thanks to everyone who entered.
Brother International Corporation (Canada) Ltd. markets a range of business machine products known for their originality and creativity. A Japanese... [more]
Via Jevon MacDonald of StartupNorth, Toronto startup Clutterme.com has put themselves on the auction block at eBay.
Clutterme.com a do-it-yourself website builder and domain purchasing site is for sale, on ebay. This isn’t the first startup to put themselves up on Ebay, Toronto based Tucows bought kiko.com in an ebay auction for almost $260,000 a few years ago.
Will Clutterme get bids well past $200,000? Probably not, but I think the service is worth something, and a registrar such as Tucows, GoDaddy or another could really make good use of it. Clutterme is what they say it is: A really, really, easy way to make a website. It is the kind of really simple website builder that your mom would be happy to use. They also have a really slick domain purchasing system set up that lets people get their own domain and website builder all wrapped in to one.
Most established domain name registrars already have a free or cheap website building tool in their product mix but the Canadian domain space has a large number of registrars that don't do retail. Why is that? For a domainer, getting accredited with CIRA as a registrar is the easiet way to guarantee wholesale renewal rates for your own portfolio and get unencumbered access to expiring domain names.
Acquiring an established site like Clutterme.com could turn a domainer with accreditation into an instant competitor in the website builder space. Current bidding is at US $51.00.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is a not for profit Canadian corporation that is responsible for operating the dot-ca Internet... [more]
Clutterme Inc is website creation for dummies. Make a free website in seconds or upgrade your simple website to a .com, .org, or .net domain for... [more]
The date for the next Ideas On Tap has been announced and it's on January 22nd from 5:00 - 8:00pm at the Yaletown Brewing Company.
Ideas on Tap is a light business networking event for hi-tech professionals in Vancouver plus internet advertisers, social media marketers, bloggers, video game developers and other fans of the tech community.
This free event will feature a competition where 5 contestants deliver a 60 second pitch, idea, recruiting message, or elevator pitch from a milk crate. This could be talking about their company, a start-up idea, new technology, hiring, or raising capital.
The audience will vote for their 2 favourite pitches and prizes will be awarded. The event is being held in the Yaletown Brewing Company, Vancouver's favourite brewpub. In sticking with the theme of the venue, voting will be done by tapping beer glasses on tables or bars.
The re-launch event in October drew over 250 people from the Vancouver Tech community and was a huge success. Wondering what you missed? Check out the Flickr stream from the last event and be sure to register for January's event now.
Do you love intuitive and simplistic designs? Do you love playing or watching sports? Do you love short contract projects? And do you love working with fun people? Then we have the project for you…
We are currently looking for a talented designer to give us a much needed overhaul/re-skin of the site template we’re using for our website TeamPages.com. The task at hand, if you wish to take it, is to tweak our current design and turn it into a very polished, sporty, and energetic, parent friendly (looks REALLY easy to use), web 2.0 template for TeamPages that gives us a beautiful site that people will love to use and want to come back to. Pretty much we want our users to “Oooohhh…awww…wow, that’s cool!” and at the same time “I can’t believe how easy this is.”
This project will include:
Project start date: ASAP
Project deadline: December 30, 2008
If you’re up for the challenge, or just want to chat to guy who write this, send over your portfolio and resume to mike.tan@teampages.com.
TeamPages is an online social network and utility for amateur sports that makes it easier for coaches, team managers and players to: manage their... [more]
The Financial Post reported yesterday that Toronto's MaRS project has been put on hold. The $300-million Medical and Related Sciences complex in Toronto's hospital district had been billed as an innovation centre for early-stage companies in the science and technology sector. MaRS developed Phase I of the project on its own however for the second phase it leased the land to a development company that is responsible for building and renting the space.
Hence the problem - many of the potential tenants for the building are dependent on venture capital funding, a market that has all but dried up as wealthy investors refuse to part with cash on risky investments.
MaRS received $70-million in funding from the Ontario government and another $20-million from the federal government but it has been largely funded by the private sector. The company's board of directors reads like a who's who of Toronto's elite, including Royal Bank chief executive Gord Nixon, First Marathon Inc. founder Lawrence Bloomberg and Roy-L Capital chief executive Joseph Rotman.
MaRS connects the communities of science, business and capital and fosters collaboration among them. This happens physically through location of... [more]
Just a quick post to wrap up the loose ends from Monday's 24th Angel Forum in Vancouver. Overall, the day was a huge success and the Angels singled out the following companies in the Investor Choice Awards (award sponsors included):
Congratulations to all the winners! And for those of you who are looking for money for your own venture, the next Angel Forum will be in early 2009. Start polishing those pitches!
Our goal is to inspire the world to learn. But that inspiration must start with you. Be inspired. And let that inspiration flow through everything... [more]
General Bio Energy Inc. has solidified their position as an industry leader in the emerging renewable fuel and energy business in North America... [more]
In the fall of 2001, after spending nearly 10 years designing and providing custom storage solutions for major industry, Kurt Geffe was ready for a... [more]
Next year's Canadian Financing Forum takes place on January 29, 2009 at the Hyatt Hotel in Vancouver and with the first Selection Committee meeting scheduled for December 2nd, now is the time to apply. Presenting companies are split into two streams - Cleantech & Advanced Technology and Information Technology - and will have an opportunity to get to know the Venture Capital Community and promote their company at this premiere event.
The Canadian Financing Forum is one of the most respected resources for North American investors who seek to recognize, gain exposure to, and facilitate partnerships with the best and most promising Technology entrepreneurs and companies that are based in Canada.
Past presenters have raised over $1,080 Million and 47% of the presenting companies attending the Canadian Financing Forum have successfully raised funds over the last 7 years (2001-2008).
Visit the Canadian Financing Forum website for more information.
Some of you may have noticed that we quietly added Denver-Boulder to our network of cities this month and kicked off our coverage with the inaugural Denver-Boulder Startup Index. While the list isn't long (yet), it has some great local startups on it that are making news in Denver and Boulder.
We've also tracked down all the upcoming tech events in the area and added them to our Denver-Boulder Events Calendar. If we've missed any, be sure to add them yourself - it only takes a minute.
Over the next couple weeks we'll be looking for a local Community Manager to help spread the word. If you're interested or know of anybody that might be, please get in touch with us.
In the meantime, here's a little something for the tech startups out there that are looking for money. Boulder's own TechStars is a legend in the seed capital and mentorship space and nobody is as influential at their Co-founder Brad Feld. But how do you pitch a guy like Feld?
Techvibes.com is the leading online community for technology professionals in Vancouver and across Canada. Techvibes.com provides an easy-to-use... [more]
TechStars is really different. It’s a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund located in Boulder, Colorado which is quickly becoming one of... [more]
According to Telus' research, 55 per cent of Canadians track their medical history on paper, one third electronically and one in four by memory.
This survey findings explain why Telus Corp. announced today that it will invest $100 million over three years to develop a new health technology division to build and service networks to share medical records and other information.
The move by Telus's business solutions unit comes in the wake of the telecom company's purchase of Montreal-based electronic commerce firm Emergis Inc. early this year. Emergis is a major provider of software used to manage health care records, drug bills and other information in the pharmacy and broader health care industry. It's also a big player in financial services technology.
With its $763 million purchase of Emergis, Telus is moving aggressively to become a bigger player in health care technology and sees this as a major growth area for the company as provincial governments try to get health care costs under control and look for new ways to handle health services.
Like other phone companies, Telus faces stiffer competition from new wireless rivals in Canada and continued decline of traditional businesses. As part of its new investment in healthcare technology, Telus launched a new brand, Telus Health Solutions, a unit with about 1,500 employees.
Technology is a key enabler for TELUS and our customers, providing advantage and differentiation in the marketplace. By managing the life cycle of... [more]
