On July 17th, the University of Victoria’s Bachelor of Commerce students specializing in Entrepreneurship will be heading to Vancouver to meet Vancouver entrepreneurs and everyone is invited. They’ll be hosting a Passion and Purpose Discovery Workshop at the Pan Pacific Hotel from 2:00pm to 5:00pm followed by a wine and cheese mixer from 5:00pm – 6:30pm.

The free workshop is meant to be “engagement tool” to help to foster networking among entrepreneurs and encourage discussion around the pursuit of entrepreneurial goals. It’s an opportunity to mingle with other entrepreneurs as well as about 60 enthusiastic students that are drawn to working with or as entrepreneurs. Most of the students will be completing their Bachelor of Commerce degree requirements this August.

If you can make it to the workshop, the wine and cheese reception, or both, please RSVP to Charlene Zietsma by email at czietsma@uvic.ca.

UVIC Grad Mike Tan of 2007 New Ventures BC competition runner-up Teampages is one of the organizers of the event.

The Government of Canada as been actively supporting research and development through the National Research Council (NRC) since 1916. Their Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) has a long list of success stories, the most recently published is Vancouver’s Strangeloop Networks.

With financial assistance from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), Bixby and his fellow founders first built a proof-of-concept prototype of the AS1000. NRC-IRAP then helped them bridge the gap between seed investments and their first round of angel financing, where investors lent them money in return for an equity stake in the company. Later, NRC-IRAP’s funding assistance enabled Strangeloop to build another prototype of their hardware device. Then they took their product to market.

Strangeloop, which now employs about 40 people, raised $11.5 million during its first angel investing round – the largest private angel deal in Canadian history, according to Bixby. They have subsequently raised another round of private financing.

“NRC-IRAP’s involvement allowed us to start the technology to get us to our customers,” Bixby explains. “It allowed us to ask them, ‘Does this solve the problem that you have?’”

Strangeloop CEO Jonathan Bixby sits on the final jury of the New Ventures BC competition and was a co-presenter of this year’s Perfecting Your Pitch seminar.

According to Bixby, the expertise, strategic advice and the networking contacts available through NRC-IRAP were even more valuable than the financial assistance.

As an example of the networking support, look at the upcoming NRC-IRAP Client Presentations for Investors (aka the “IRAP Lions’ Den”) which is scheduled for September 19th – the week before the 2009 NVBC Awards Ceremony. It’s a great way for NRC-IRAP clients to connect with investors whose financing and value-added services will advance their development.

The IRAP Lions’ Den is held quarterly with up to 6 IRAP clients presenting their company to a panel of up to 10 investors. NRC-IRAP invites investors whose investment criteria roughly matches the companies that will be presenting. If you’re an NRC-IRAP company (or soon to be one), you can express your interest in participating by email to NRC-IRAP Business Analyst Perry Quan.