With the 2010 New Ventures BC Competition just around the corner, the Okanagan Science and Technology Council is hosting an Assessing the Opportunity seminar on February 17th from 2-4pm at the Coast Capri Hotel in Kelowna.

So you say you’re an entrepreneur? Now that you’ve convinced yourself that your venture will be viable, how do you go about convincing others? And how do you avoid the many hidden mines that could stop you from polishing your gem? Come join this interactive event that will review the basics of putting together an elevator pitch or business opportunity statement and delve deeper into how to better understand: Investor Math; Appropriate capital structures; Industry standard investor materials and terms; Investor expectations for go-to-market strategies; And, how to put together a capital plan. As an added bonus, participants will walk through a step-by-step guide on how to put their best foot forward in the 2010 New Ventures BC competition, and more importantly, advance their corporate development.

The speaker for this FREE event will be Bob de Wit. Bob is an investor, mentor, director and consultant to growth-stage technology companies. He expresses his passion for entrepreneurship as Executive Director of New Ventures BC, Director of GreenAngel Energy Corp, and as an active member of the VANTEC angel network and the WUTIF angel fund.

For more information visit or contact Chantelle Kshyk by phone at 1.250.712.3340 , or by e-mail at events@ostec.ca.

Vancouver’s Canadian Financing Forum is coming up in two weeks on January 28th and the panel sessions are shaping up.

The Keynote Luncheon panel “Smart Grid and Energy efficiency Initiatives” will cover the convergence of Information Technology and Cleantech.  Dean Rockwell of the BC Innovation Council will be moderating Carl Imhoff of the Battelle National Laboratory, Drew Clark of the IBM Venture Capital Group, and John Haylock of Tantalus Systems.

The Closing panel discussion is titled “Opportunities to Exit or Grow as the Market Changes in 2010″ and runs from 4 to 5pm. Todd Tessier of the BC Renaissance Capital Fund will be moderating Tandem Expansion Fund’s David Bookbinder Microsoft’s Jon Gelsey, and Amazon’s Peter Cohen.

The day’s events wrap up with Iain Black, Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development, presenting the awards for Forum Favourite and the Best Early Stage Company Awards for Information Technology and Cleantech.

Congrats to Kelowna’s Vineyard Networks which was named this morning to Network World’s 10 Start-ups to Watch in 2010 list. Vineyard Networks for a Top 10 Finalist in the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition.

Vineyard Networks was named to Network World’s Top 10 IT Management Startups to Watch in December and was the only Network Monitoring and Management solution named to the new 2010 watch list today.

Vineyard Networks was also recognized as a finalist for the Most Promising Emerging Technology Award last January at the 2009 Okanagan Science & Technology Council’s (OSTEC) Silicon Vineyard Innovation Awards. The following is a profile video of the three finalists in the award category.