Posts tagged: networking events

Startup and small business events you don’t want to miss in January 2012

Posted on January 6, 2012

by Stephanie Goodman

For our newsletter, our team compiles a list of all the events we will be attending for the upcoming month, as well as some additional events we believe useful to the start-up and small business industry. If you missed our newsletter, we will be posting a blog with featured events the first week of every month.

The events we focus on are primarily in Toronto, the GTA, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo Niagara/St. Catharines and Hamilton. Take a look through the events we are suggesting for this month.  If you’re hosting an event or have come across one you think we should mention, please feel free to contact us with your suggestions.

Silicon Halton: Reaching the 800 Million

When: January 10 @ 7pm

Where: Emmas Back Porch, 2084 Old Lakeshore Rd, Burlington, ON

This Silicon Halton event will feature Founder of PinPoint Social, Daniel Patricio, who will discuss howa company can reach 800 Million Facebook users via a Facebook application. The following key points will be addressed at the event:

  • What are the challenges and opportunities that come with building on Facebook
  • How to build and integrate applications on Facebook platforms
  • What tools and technologies are at your disposal

Startup Drinks

When: January 12th, 6pm – late

Where: The Winking Judge, 25 Augusta St., Hamilton, ON

Startup Drinks provides an open space for entrepreneurs and small business owners to connect and share ideas. There are no presentations or pitches, just conversation and networking. To meet some of the up-and-coming people in the startup community, this is a great event to attend.

Mobile Accelerator Program (MAP)

When: Starting January 19th, running once every two weeks

Where:  Toronto, ON

Cost: $250/per company

The Mobile Accelerator Program provides opportunities and challenges for startup companies to find their place in the marketplace. MAP is a workshop that contains a six-part series of half-day workshops and networking events offered to help entrepreneurs in the ever changing market place.

The program starts on January 19th and runs once every two weeks.

Program Schedule:

  • Market Trends – January 19, 2012
  • Business Models – February 2, 2012
  • Accessing Markets – February 16, 2012
  • Financing – March 1, 2012
  • Attracting and Retaining Talent – March 15, 2012
  • Sales Strategies – March 29, 2012

DemoCamp Guelph

When: January 25th, @ 6:30pm

Where: eBar

The format of DemoCamp is as follows: Keynote speaker along with 5 software demos (each one 5 minutes), along with 5 minutes of Q & A. After the presentations conclude, there will be a chance for general socializing. Information about keynotes and presenters is TBA.

If you wish to connect to someone on our team, Mark Elliott will be attending

MaRS Discovery District: Financial Planning

When: January 25th, 6-7pm

Where: MaRS Auditorium, 101 College St. Toronto, ON

Are you familiar with the basic tools of financial planning, such as income statements, cash-flow forecasts, expenses statements and balance sheets? This session offered by MaRS will help you build a realistic financial plan for your start-up.

You only need to register once for the Entrepreneurship 101 lecture series. The session are held every Wednesday from 6-7pm.

Lean Startup Machine Toronto

When: January 26th @ 6pm – January 29th @ 7pm

Where: TBA

Cost: General Admission $299, LSM Alumni $99

Lean Startup Machine is a weekend long competition where teams will identify the key risks in their business model through hands-on mentorship and a framework of tools. Over the course of the weekend, start-ups will:

  • Ideate a startup or work on the one you have now
  • Practice Customer Discovery
  • Research your Target Market
  • Practice Customer Development
  • Test your Assumptions in Iterations
  • Understand your Business Model
  • Iterate and Pivot (when necessary)
  • Build something you can Launch
  • Present your Validated Learnings

The event is for anyone startup team that does not have a Product/Marketing Fit or for any aspiring founder that wants to learn Lean Startup methodologies from the ground up.

Communitech, Titan Learning Event: Outside In – Where Sales and Strategy Meet with Adrian Davis

When: February 1st, 2012, 8:00-10:15am

Where: Waterloo Inn – 475 King Street North, Waterloo

Communitech events are focused on being engaging and interactive sessions that provide useful information for companies of many sizes. This session will focus on sales, and more specifically teach you how to:

  • Categorize and organize customer accounts
  • Put a strategy in place to ensure you are making the most of your best accounts
  • Improve your sales’ team performance with advanced strategic selling skills

If you’re looking to connect with someone on our team, Mark Elliot will be attending.

Golden Horseshoe Venture Forum

When: February 8th, 7:15am-10am

Where: Burlington Golf and Country Club, Burlington ON

The GHVF provides a space where ideas and resources connect. Whether you are a business owner, angel investor, or simply interested in business, the GHVF suits all different professional backgrounds. The event starts out with a breakfast buffet, following by 3 featured firm presentations and a presentation by the guest speaker. Featured Firms and Guest Speaker TBA.

If you wish to connect with someone at VA Partners, Stephanie Goodman and Steve Gruber  will be at this event.

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Startup Weekend Toronto: Create a business in 54 hours

Posted on November 22, 2011

by Mark Elliott

I had brunch with one of my coworkers from my 10 year tour with FP 500 Company Lexmark.  He keeps up on the news and was lamenting the recent stumbles of RIM and the purchases of the other Canadian tech companies.  I had told him not to fear as there were a great number of other companies coming through being created by entrepreneurs all through Ontario.   A great example of this is Startup Weekend Toronto.

The work starts several months in advance with Chris Eben and a team organizing the massive event.  The weekend officially starts on Friday with people pitching their ideas.  This year in Toronto there was almost 90 ideas pitched.  These ideas are voted on and approximately 20 ideas are selected.  The 300 people then pick teams and form a company.  The teams seemed to range from a low of 3 people to just under 20 people.

This is hardly just an academic exercise with hypothetical business, but these groups become real companies for all intents and purposes.  Surveys are created and users are contacted to refine the solutions.  Functioning websites created with alphas and then beta versions. Users are signed up through social media, networking, and even cold calls. One of the companies, HeroBox the eventual winner, created a funnel with over $20,000 in revenue through a number of opportunities.  I had the honour of being involved by providing a few hours of mentoring to teams on Saturday during the day.  After almost 2 days of creating, the companies pitched to an impressive panel made mostly of VC firms.  Congrats to all those involved including the top three teams Code with Friends, Unbox, and the winner Herobox.

For other views on it check out Mark Evans from the Globe and Matt Braga from the National Post. To get a good feel for the event, spend 17 minutes and watch a video created by Eighteen Eighty following 2 companies from Startup Weekend in Toronto from 2010.

It was a great weekend and a truly uplifting experience, even just being involved with a few hours of mentoring. For the 2012 edition VA Partners plans to be more involved by making more time available for mentoring and pursuing a sponsorship arrangement.  For other great events startup events don’t forget to check the VA Partners blog for our monthly events.

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Grassroots events support the Startup Community in Ontario

Posted on October 13, 2011

by Mark Elliott

This past weekend I was up in my hometown of Elmvale for Thanksgiving and the annual Fall Fair.  Elmvale is a small town of just under 2,000 people and has a real sense of community.  This got me thinking about the startup tech community through-out Ontario.  I don’t think it has ever been a better time to be a startup in terms of the community and support that is available from a number of sources.  This will be a 2 part blog featuring the Grass Roots support and Government funded support.  Here are the some of the Grassroots options that are available.  I don’t think that one is better than the other, seeing as they provide different things to the community.

Democamp

The Democamp formula is fairly consistent, featuring a guest speaker with startup experience, a number of startups presenting their solution, the crowd asking questions, and lots of networking. In Ontario there are regular Demopcamps in Windsor, Guelph, Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton.  The grandfather of Democamp and Toronto Organizer David Crow spoke recently at the Democamp Hamilton.  His talk was about community and supporting growing companies.  This event was promoted by the Innovation Factory, a new government funded hub based in Hamilton; Innovation Factory had several of the team members out as well.  The event took place at McMaster, showing a level of commitment from the school and bringing out some students. Kevin Browne and Jim Rudnick are organizers and involved with many of the startup events in Hamilton. 

I also wanted to highlight Democamp Guelph and one of it’s organizers Brydon Gilliss.  I really enjoy the event as it reminds me of the earlier Democamp Toronto events.  Democamp Guelph gets between 100 and 200 people and takes place in a bar.  It is a lively affair with many local more established tech companies sponsoring and often looking for employees at the event.

Democamps are great for startups to demo their solution and get feedback.  It is also an excellent opportunity to network and meet other startups.

Startup Drinks

Startup Drinks occur in many communities across Ontario.  Be warned not all the chapters update their events on the site.  The best way to get updates on the events is to follow one of the organizers on Twitter.  Hamilton will be having their 1st event tonight, the Waterloo team is fairly consistent, and the Toronto Group goes the last Wednesday of the Month.  I have been to the Toronto event many times and really enjoy it.  There is a good mix of companies just starting up, established tech companies, service providers, investors, people with an idea for a company, and a few people that are looking to join a startup.  One of the people I met a few months ago was Heather Payne.  She was interested in joining a startup from a more established job and was able to join a company and had her tips on how she did so in the Globe and Mail.

Regional organizations

The VA Partners team have attended and been involved with a couple other Grassroots organizations that are more regionally based.  the Golden Horseshoe Venture Forum has been around for over 10 years and connects startups, professional service organizations, and investors.  They have events 5 times a year.

Another great regional Grassroots organization is Silicon Halton.  They organize monthly events with featured speakers and networking.  They have also branched out to provide some really interesting Peer2Peer groups including one for solo entreprenuers.  If you are in the Halton region and have a startup I would connect with Silicon Halton and its two main organizers  Rick Stomphorst and Chris Herbert.

Even more events

There are many other startup focused events that are available in major Ontario centres including ecommerce camp, Cloudcamp, Lean Coffee Toronto, and many more.

If you are a startup or thinking about creating one I recommend you go to one of the events.  They are a great source of support, information, and connections.  We try to highlight some of the upcoming events on our blog at the beginning of each month you can also check out the Techvibes events and the events at Startup North.

On Tuesday I will feature some of the Government supported initiatives that can help startups.

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Great Tech Start Up Events

Posted on July 5, 2011

by Stephanie Goodman

For our newsletter, our team compiles a list of all the events we will be attending for the upcoming month, as well as some additional events we believe useful to the start-up and small business industry. If you missed our newsletter (hyperlink newsletter page), we will be posting a blog with featured events the first week of every month.

The events we focus on are primarily in Toronto, the GTA, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo. St. Catherines and Hamilton. Take a look through the events we are suggesting for this month.  If you’re hosting an event or have come across one you think we should mention, please feel free to contact us (website) with your suggestions.

Silicon Halton

Where: Emma’s Back Porch, 2084 Old Lakeshore Rd, Burlington, ON

When: July 12th, 7-10pm

During this Silicon Halton event, attendees will have a chance to be introduced or freshen up on their social media knowledge and how it is applicable to business. This meetup will feature Chris Herbert, cofounder of Silicon Halton and founder of Mi6 and Hugh Black, Principal at HMB Communications; both will share their expertise on how they utilized social media to grow their businesses.

To connect with someone at VA Partners, get in touch with Mark Elliott who will be attending the event.

#HamOnt – Innovation Night

Where: Atrium at McMaster Innovation Park

When: July 13th, 7-9pm

Innovation night is held as Hamilton’s top event for innovators and entrepreneurs to share and build up their ideas and master their pitch by presenting to their peers and the innovation community.

Laurier Toronto presents: Young Alumni Speed Networking

Where: Laurier Toronto, 130 King St. Exchange Tower

When: July 21st, 5-7pm

This event is aims at helping and providing Young Laurier Alumni (2001-2010) with their abilities to speed network and make connections, expanding their professional network. The evening will begin with a “Speed Networking 101” presentation by Laurier’s Career Development Centre, following by networking.

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Next new Canadian tech startup hotspot….Hamilton

Posted on June 30, 2011

by Mark Elliott

Venture Accelerator Partners started almost 5 years ago and since then we have been involved in the Hamilton Tech Community.  Our first client was from Hamilton.  When we started our business many of the local activities were organized by Mark Chamberlain and Ty Shattuck from Trivaris and Dr. Laurence Hewick. The events were the Golden Horseshoe Venture Forum and the occasional innovation night.  The community seemed to be overshadowed by Toronto and the fast growing Waterloo Region.

Fast forward 5 years and there is plenty going on.  The Trivaris team is still there in a new building at McMaster Innovation Park and PV Labs, one of their companies, is one of the fastest growing organizations in Canada. Dr. Hewick and VA Partner’s Steve Gruber  are still organizing GHVF events.  There are many other things going on as well.

The Innovation Factory has launched within the past year and is modeled on the successful KW based Communitech.  They are providing mentoring services, lunch and learns targeted at startups, and helping to organize events like the revamped innovation night.  It was at the Open House Innovation Factory event that my eyes were opened to what Hamilton was becoming.  There were hundreds of people in attendance, with many entrepreneurs talking about their solutions.  It was one of the best networking events I have ever been to.

The story does not stop with the Innovation factory but builds from there.  Mohawk and McMaster are becoming more focused with entrepreneurship on the campus and in the community.  There are also a couple of grass roots events being organized by Kevin Browne a PHD student at McMaster.  He is the driving force behind the Democamp Hamilton and Software Hamilton. I have not been able to attend Democamp Hamilton as my first attempt was blocked by a sold-out event, a good indication of the pent up demand.  I was able to attend the Software Hamilton meetup this past week.  There were 40 attendees talking passionately about their ideas, businesses, and Hamilton.  It was a great event and I know there are many more planned for the fall.

The bottom line is that there has never been a time better in Hamilton to get help with your startup and be part of a growing community.  I am sure there will be many solutions and businesses emerging form Hamilton over the next few months and years.

 

 

 

 

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