CTI Presents: Cool Connector on October 28th

Calgary Technologies Inc. (CTI) is holding their 11th Annual Technology Showcase and Open House Thursday, October 28th from 3:00pm to 6:00 pm.  The annual event, which draws 400+ attendees yearly, will be held at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre located at 3553 31 Street NW in Calgary.

Cool Connector Banner

This year, CTI has rounded up 30 of the coolest tech companies in Calgary who will be exhibiting.  To get a little ‘blood in the water’ the Go Forth Institute is sponsoring a ‘perfect pitch’ contest.  Each exhibitor has 45 seconds to make their pitch.  The winning pitch will get a cheque for $1000.

In support of the larger community, CTI has also organized a Silent Auction.  All proceeds  will be donated to the United Way (so bring lots of $$). RSVP online.

Fresh-faced, forward-thinking community building organization seeks hot, exciting new businesses to showcase...

It's been a while now since Startup Edmonton burst onto the scene, so I'm very excited to help spread the news that Calgary finally has a startup community group to call our own!  

If you know of, or are part of a startup that would like to be featured at their Launch Party on November 23rd keep reading below...

"Fresh-faced, forward-thinking community building organization seeks hot, exciting new businesses to showcase..."

Startup Calgary is all about community building - our primary goal is to help pull the IT based, startup related communities in Calgary closer together.  We know that's a pretty tall order - there's a lot of get togethers, basement startups, and technologies being dreamed up here in our city that no one is aware of.  We want to make sure everyone has the support and exposure they need.

To get started on the right foot, we're having a party - November 23rd is Startup Calgary's Launch Party at the Hotel Arts!  This party's not just about us though - we're looking to showcase 10 fresh, up-and-coming startups.  The rules are simple;  your company must be no more than two years old, have a product that's in the market (or almost ready to market), and be in information, communications, or media technology.  And Calgarian of course!

If you're one of the lucky 10 picked, you'll be covered by our media sponsor Techvibes, get direct mentorship from the judging panel, and lots of great exposure to the entire Calgary startup community (including full bragging rights).  To apply just fill out this form before November 5th.  Tell us why you're the hot new thing - we're looking forward to hearing from all the great new companies in Calgary!

Don't forget to visit our website and sign up for our mailing list.  We're also on Twitter -  @startupcalgary and LinkedIn. We'll also be releasing more Launch Party details soon,  including times, and where to get tickets.  Hope to see you at a DemoCamp, Startup Drinks, or community event soon!

Road to Banff Venture Forum Bootcamp announced

Thinking you might need additional venture financing in the near future?  Not sure about how to meet and connect with the right Angels and VCs?  Wanting to know more about the current venture capital market?

The PricewaterhouseCoopers Banff Venture Forum Boot Camp brought to you by Calgary Technologies just might be the best investment decision you make this fall. 

Join Lew Turnquist of Kirchner Private Capital Group, Kevin Swan of iNovia Capital, Henry Kutarna of Alberta Deal Generator, and special advisors from PricewaterhouseCoopers for this one day workshop featuring the latest on fundraising in Western Canada, including valuations, deal structures, tips and trends.  Hear an Alberta Entrepreneur’s story on raising financing over the last few years.  Meet and network with fellow entrepreneurs in the trenches.

Hosted by Alex Raczenko, Laura Sullivan, and myself, this pre-conference workshop gives you the opportunity to meet and network with fellow entrepreneurs, investors and advisors who can also support you during the conference itself. 

  • Date: Wednesday September 22, 2010
  • Time: 8:30 am to 6:00 pm
  • Location: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta
  • Cost: $300 plus GST

Register online. Boot Camp includes breakfast, lunch and an after camp cocktail reception. Boot Camp participants will receive a 30% discount for the Banff Venture Forum – a $360 value (limit one per company).

The Fabler Contest: Win Wacom and Sony PS3 Prizes!

Fabler LogoIt has been just over a year since we covered the launch of TheFabler.com (Fabler Comics), a community site for Comic book Enthusiasts, so after hearing about their new contest I thought it would be great to check in with Bruno and see what’s new.

It turns out there is a lot! 

To start, they just launched a new contest where they are giving away a Sony PS3 Bundle,  a Wacom Intuos4 XL, and a Wacom Cinque 21UX!  All you have to do is submit an original work comic of at least 24 pages between June 15th and September 15th.  Full details can be found here.

Functionality wise, they have added the ability for users to now create a group in correlation to a variety of types, be it a collaboration, independent studio, anthology, etc.  There are several new features added to the web comic submission area, like allowing comics to be attached to a series and separated into multiple issues, displaying comics with 2 pages up, and allowing creators to specify which side of the spread the first page starts on.  (Their viewer still maintains image security to protect creators.)  The coolest update though is the new comic viewer.  Their old viewer had a few usability issues, but the new one works great and is super easy to use.  (The “ninja curser” is awesome…and I’m a sucker for anything with “ninja” in the name!)

From what I read in the latest post in their blog, the best is yet to come:

The tides are turning and as we approach and prepare for the launch of the new self publishing features on The Fabler. We figured, what better way than to pregame that launch with a contest!

Self publishing is the holy grail for The Fabler and will allow individual customers and retailers to print comics on demand, even in quantities that would make traditional publishers turn and run the other way.  Bruno was hush on the details, but did tell me that he has been building relationships with all the players needed to make self publishing a reality in the very near future.  By adding self publishing, Bruno will add the final piece of the puzzle to what he calls “Creative Feasibility”.  

Creative Feasibility is a term targeted towards the creators, where again our goal as Fabler Comics, is to create an online enabled ecosystem between the 3 primary markets of the comic book industry, The Fans, The Creators, and The Retailers, that encourages the constant creation and development of new ideas through sequential storytelling.  Our approach to Online Social Mechanics, being one process of many in our strategy and competitive advantage, allow creators that use the Free services provided by Fabler Comics, to efficiently identify their potential market and viability to the stories and products that they create.

Calgary Joins The GreenStar Network

vertical logosQ - What do you get when you cross a datacenter with a solar array?  

A - A Node on Canada's GreenStar Network.

The rooftop at Calgary Technologies Inc. is home to a Cybera-managed datacentre within the GreenStar Network(GSN). A datacentre is a facility designed to house computer systems and there are five within this pan-Canadian network. These nodes are powered by the sun, wind or water. The GSN will enable connected nodes to use renewable energy sources and at the same time facilitate the research necessary to determine the viability of future green networks. The Calgary node is about the size of a refrigerator and rests atop the Alastair Ross Technology Centre. It is powered by eight solar panels and is connected to the GSN through fiber optics. This is the second node to be connected within the network, and the rest are expected to follow within the next few weeks. The first node connected earlier this year and is hosted by the Communications Research Centre (CRC) in Montreal. Similar to the Calgary node, the Montreal node also relies on solar power as its energy source.

The GSN Project is a Canadian consortium of industry, universities and government agencies, united by the common goal of reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by users of information and communications technology (ICT) services. In addition, the GSN Project aims to develop resources for building, maintaining and utilizing ICT services that are reliant upon renewable energy sources.

Cybera and CTI are hosting an official launch party on June 29th at 10:00AM at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre.  For more information or to register email to info@cybera.ca. 

Calgary App Developer hits #2 on UK iPad Charts

Calgary’s Robots and Pencils has been quietly been developing some killer iPhone Apps over the last year, and with their debut iPad App built for Rightmove.co.uk they have rocketed to the #2 position on UK’s top free iPad App Chart.  (The #1 position is held by Apple’s iBook App.)

RightMove is the UK’s number one property website and reminds me of  www.mls.ca on steroids.  The iPad App has over 1 Million properties that can be viewed in a large visual gallery, searched based on location using the iPad’s built in GPS, and you can even contact the sellers directly via the App.  A video demo can be found here.

My only question is:  When will Canada have a real estate iPad App that I can use to search for properties?

Michael Sikorsky, Robots and Pencils Co-Founder, is also behind Calgary’s iPhone Dev School which has been covered here on Techvibes in the past.  Stay tuned as another session is in the works for June 2010.

The Fabler delivers Comics 2.0 and the Evolution of an Industry

When I met Bruno Steppuhn to chat about his new Venture, The Fabler, he started out by describing the site as “Youtube meets Threadless” for the Comic book Industry.   Talk about a great elevator pitch…my interest was peaked!  At its heart, The Fabler is an online community for Comic book Enthusiasts.  Artists can upload and share their works directly with customers.  Content can be searched, rated and purchased by people within the community which in turn drives the hottest content to the top of Fabler’s landing page.  Customers can even order a hard-copy of the comic through the site’s print on demand services…allowing hardcore enthusiasts to still enjoy that fresh ink smell and un-creased goodness of a virgin comic book.

 

Bruno isn’t new to the Calgary Entrepreneurial Scene.  He is the founder of Zensoft Studios, a Calgary based interactive software and serious game development studio.  He teamed up with Medium Rare, owned by Mike Tighe and Bryan Maniotakis to develop the current Fabler platform. Bruno has been successfully running his company for over 7 years now, so the first words out of my mouth were “why comics?”.   He explained that ever since he picked up his first comic and put down the 300 page novels that take forever to read he was hooked.  Comics are easy to pick up and get into, don’t require a huge investment of time, and quite simply are more fun to read.  You can’t argue with that!

 

So why The Fabler?  Bruno’s desire to bring together a community of artists and promote indie exposure…that’s why.  The fact that major distributor publishers like DC, Darkhorse, and Marvel dominate the industry through a single source, Diamond Distribution, and act as barriers for indie artists to gain success played a part also I’m sure.  The Fabler offers a new way for artists to get their work online and in front of the masses.  They have the ability to produce their own work and distribute it directly to the customer.  In short, The Fabler has the potential to change the way people will purchase comics in the future.

 

It’s interesting to note that while comics are being read and purchased online today, those sales appear independent from actual print sales.  It’s too early to tell if this is a stark contrast to the newspaper industry or if there simply hasn’t been a good option like The Fabler available.  Bruno is quick to point out that the print on demand services are a key service that is lacking in the indie comic scene…but don’t worry…if you prefer soft copy there is an iPhone App coming soon as well!

 

For those of you who visited the Calgary Comic Expo this past weekend you had sneak peek of what The Fabler platform looks like.  (Bruno just demo’d at Democamp Calgary also.)  Don’t worry if you missed him though, as you’ll find The Fabler at Comic Con’s across North America starting later this year!

CoolIT Systems Closes $6.2 Million Financing

CoolIT Systems, the industry leader in advanced electronics cooling solutions, has completed a CDN $6.2M financing package. The investment was led by iNovia Capital, a leading venture capital fund manager, and included existing angel investors and AVAC Ltd.

CoolIT recently launched its breakthrough Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling (ALC) solution for desktop computers to industry acclaim at the Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas) and CeBIT (Hanover). This financing was timed to support that launch and accelerate the completion of a number of development projects for OEMs based on patented CoolIT technology.

"Electronics performance is now governed by thermal design more than any other factor. Customers are demanding quiet, reliable and efficient equipment that can only be delivered with advanced cooling solutions of the caliber provided by CoolIT", said Shawn Abbott, partner with iNovia Capital. “In addition to technology excellence, CoolIT has a world-class management team with the proven ability to lead high-volume, quality technology design and manufacturing organizations.”

Geoff Lyon, CEO of CoolIT, said, "We selected iNovia because our business needs a strong, long-term capital partner that understands the market as well as the operational challenges due to rapid order growth from both channel and OEM partners. With the PC industry rapidly shifting towards liquid cooling, this financing allows CoolIT to expand the sales channels internationally and additionally facilitates strategic corporate initiatives including a key acquisition we are negotiating."

"The CoolIT team exemplifies the entrepreneurial leadership we look for in companies," said Ross Bricker, CEO of AVAC Ltd. "They are thinking and operating globally, while leveraging the experienced talent and access to international markets unique to Alberta. We are delighted to have iNovia join us in our support of CoolIT."

Startup School Calgary Presents: A (short) evening of pitches

I'm sure most of you in the Calgary Startup Scene have heard about the Startup School ran by MJ Sikorsky.  Well this coming Tuesday (March 24th) MJ is hosting an investment pitch sesh with 3 of his top Alums from 2008.

Jon Lam with Ph03nix New Media Inc, Jack Newton with Themis Solutions Inc, and Lorand Szojka with JITR INC will be taking the stage to show us what they're made of.  Jon was named one of the "Top 5 Digital Media People to watch in Alberta in 2009", Jack won "best pitch" at Startup School 08, and Lorand won "most improved pitch" at Startup School 08 so I'm sure they won't disappoint.

MJ promises two important things:  #1. All pitches are screened. (read:  They don't suck.) and #2. All pitches will be short.

There's nothing worse than listening to a long pitch that sucks...except for maybe listening to 3 of them back to back...

To RSVP and find out the location email killingmichael@gmail.com.  Things get going at 5:30 so don't be late!

***Click here for details on the next Startup School in April.***

Selling to the U.S. Government: 4 Ways to Partner for Success

It’s no secret that the U.S. Government purchases a lot of stuff.  The challenge that many companies face is how to navigate the Government’s sales process and turn a profit without getting caught up in the red tape.  Companies outside of the U.S. face additional challenges as there are a variety of security hurdles that must be overcome in order to secure a deal.  One way to help speed up the process is to partner with someone who has already gone through the process and established channels into the various departments.

With this in mind, Calgary is playing host to 4 major US System Integrators who are interested in partnership opportunities with Alberta based companies.  The 4 companies are:

  • SRA International Inc. - Interested in:  Health IT, Security, Wireless, Industry Process Transformation, Project Management Technologies
  • Serco-North America - Interested in:  Human Capital Management, Enterprise Management, Transportation Management, Homeland Security, Force Protection

These 4 companies are visiting Calgary February 24th and hosting a breakfast seminar followed by one-on-one meeting opportunities for the remainder of the day.  (for full details & agenda check out the event page here on Techvibes)

To RSVP or to request an application for one of the individual meeting opportunities email rmoro@calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com.