Next GreenTech Exchange Forum

Topic: Engaging Green Innovation: Opportunities and Applications in the Building Industry

When: Thursday, March 29, 2012
Time: 6:00PM to 8:00PM, Registration begins 5:30 PM
Where: Harbour Centre, Simon Fraser University, Room 1400-1410, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Complimentary registration: www.greentechexchange.ca

Don’t miss out on a much anticipated green building expert panel dialogue!

Ms. Helen Goodland, an accomplished architect and known leader in the green building industry will chair an insightful discussion with a panel of analysts, executives, specialists and solution providers. We welcome you to join this engaging exchange with a focus on how greentech, clean energy and energy conservation solutions can be effectively deployed in the building industry. Panelists will include:

Robert Malczyk, Principal, Equilibrium Consulting

Michael Marshall, General Manager, StructureCraft Builders

Geoff McDonell, Associate Partner, Cobalt Engineering

Rob Sianchuk, Partner, Goldstream Consulting

UBC’s SPARK entrepreneurship alumni branch is back for its second event on March 28th titled UBC’s Hot Companies.

This time, the SPARK committee is showcasing business ventures from UBC’s very own alumni and students. This event features a “best pitch” competition where five companies will have five minutes to present their ideas to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs. The panel will have the chance to comment on each pitch. In the end, the winner of the competition will be determined by a vote from the audience.

For competitors, this is a unique opportunity to receive valuable feedback from top industry professionals. The event will also give student companies some healthy exposure.

UBC’s Hot Companies is on Wednesday, March 28th from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm at District 319 on Main Street. There is a $15 cost per person, which includes appetizers. RSVP online by end of day Monday, March 26th.

The Canadian Trade Commissioner at the Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco/Silicon Valley has launched a new program called TechWomenCanada.

TechWomenCanada is a week-long program that supports Canadian women in the technology sector and aims to connect them to their peers in Silicon Valley. The ultimate goal is to expose Canadian women to the high growth and impact culture of the Valley which they can use to enhance their technology businesses and careers.

The program will take place in Silicon Valley from May 21 to May 25, 2012 and applications will be considered on a rolling basis up to April 13, 2012.

Selected through a rigorous process, participants from across Canada will represent the spectrum of talent that is in Canada. Each participant will have the unique chance to explore business and career opportunities in one of the biggest Information Communication Technology (ICT) clusters in the world, Silicon Valley.

Participants will be responsible for their travel and accommodation costs. To be considered for this program, apply online.

2008 Competition Second Prize Winner Pulse Energy was today presented with the GLOBE Award for Technology Innovation and Application at the 12th Biennial GLOBE Conference & Trade Fair on Business and the Environment.

Co-founder and CEO David Helliwell accepted the accolade at the Awards for Environmental Excellence ceremony. Read More…

Almost one year ago, Dale J. Stephens abruptly left university not knowing what he would do, or how he would support himself. Two months later he signed a lucrative book contract with Penguin Press, an achievement that most authors dream of their entire lives. What happened? How did he do it?

Dale would be the first to admit that he’s no more intelligent or motivated than the average person, but that he also doesn’t believe that luck is responsible for his success. Instead, he was smart enough to know when fortuitous opportunities were presented to him, and motivated enough to take advantage of them.

Join VEF Momentum on Friday, March 23rd, 2012 as they welcomes Dale J. Stephens, Founder of UnCollege, and Thiel Fellow to the Vancouver entrepreneurial community. Dale, an entrepreneurial star at the ripe-old age of twenty, will tell attendees why he founded the UnCollege movement, how he won the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, and, of course, lead attendees on his path from college dropout to contracted author in two months.

Register now online to join Dale J. Stephens as he brings a unique perspective on the future of education, talent, and innovation to the VEF Momentum stage. An educational futurist and speaker on issues facing Generation Y, Dale delivers core insights about learning, technology, and success.

2008 BCIC-New Ventures Competition Winner Saltworks Technologies may be heading to the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA recently held a public tender for solutions to fix the water system on the ISS and has awarded a contract to Saltworks to deliver a pilot unit.

Saltworks’ pilot unit will be used for testing the water recovery systems and processes at NASA Ames Research Center with the intent for future use on board the ISS.

Source: IRAP’s Rizwan Kheraj

Every April-June, we offer a 10-week seminar and networking series, open to anybody interested in growing their technology start-up business.

You do not need to be part of the BCIC-New Ventures Competition to attend the seminars. Cost is $20 per seminar or $100 for the 10-week series. Your seminar fees are transferable to the Competition fee, if you decide to enter.

This year’s seminars start on Wednesday, April 4th and they all take place at the SFU Segal Graduate School of Business at Granville and Pender in downtown Vancouver (with the exception of April 12th’s networking event).

April 4th – Seminar 1: Assessing the Opportunity
Speaker: Ralph Turfus (Founder & CEO, Class Software -acquired by Active Network in 2004)

April 12th – BCIC-New Ventures Networking Event – 2012 Kick-off
Location: Fasken Martineau, 2900-550 Burrard Street, Vancouver

April 18th – Seminar 2: Intellectual Property Strategy
Speakers: Roger Kuyers and Susan Ben-Oliel, Fasken Martineau and Mark Scivier, Longley Advantage Consulting

April 25th – Seminar 3: Market Research and Product Marketing
Speakers: Dave Thomas, Rocketbuilders and Claire Booth, Lux Insights

May 2nd – Seminar 4: The Business Case (What Angels Really Want)
Speaker: Mike Volker, SFU Innovation Office, WUTIF, and Green Angel Energy

May 9th – Seminar 5: Corporate Structure
Speakers: Steven Lukas, Fasken Martineau and Sean Hodgins, Tandem Accounting

May 16th – Seminar 6: Media Training and Social Media for Start-ups
Speakers: Elisha McCallum, Edelman and Mhairi Petrovic, Out-Smarts Marketing

May 23rd – Seminar 7: All about Funding for Start-ups
Speakers: Rizwan Kheraj, NRC-IRAP and Tanner Philp, Phillips, Hagar & North

May 30th – Seminar 8: Perfecting your Pitch
Speaker: David Shore, Stirling Mercantile

June 6th – Seminar 9: Start at the end: Exit Strategy
Speakers: Basil Peters, Strategic Exits and Julien Sellgren (co-founder of Metalogix and sold the company in 2009)

If you attended our Seminar Series last year, please note the following changes to this years lineup and consider attending the updated seminars this year:

• The Intellectual Property seminar has been refocused with a bigger emphasis on intellectual property strategy.
• The Media Training seminar has been combined with a 60 minute talk on social media for startups.
• The All about Funding seminar now includes all new content and will cover Venture Capital AND alternative funding option that are specific to startups.
• Basil Peters will be joined by Julien Sellgren (co-founder of Metalogix which won the competition in 2002) for the The Exit Strategy seminar.

Register for any or all of these seminars online now.

For the 12th year, the New Ventures BC Society’s BCIC-New Ventures Competition will award cash prizes to early-stage technology startups viewed to have the most potential for success by the competitions’ panel of judges.  In total, the competition will award $235,000 in cash and prizes to startups.

Over the years, more than 1,200 BC companies have participated in the six-month, five-round competition offering unparalleled networking, learning and mentoring sessions. Past winners include AirG (2001 first prize winner), Augurex Life Sciences (2007 first prize winner), Saltworks Technologies (2008 first prize winner), Pulse Energy (2008 second prize winner) and Hiretheworld.com (2010 first prize winner), to name only a few.

BC tech entrepreneurs are invited to enter their startup into the BCIC-New Ventures Competition by April 17th, 2012. Prizes include:

• $100,000 BCIC First Prize
• $55,000 BCIC Second Prize
• $35,000 BCIC Third Prize
• $20,000 BC Bioenergy Network Prize
• $15,000 Vancity Social Venture Prize
• Plug and Play Prize (value $10,000)

Who should enter? 

The BCIC-New Ventures Competition is one of North America’s largest technology business idea competitions and is open to companies from a wide range of industries including cleantech, digital media, Internet, information technology, life science, social enterprise and agritech.

The competition is open to any BC person, resident or business with a technology-focused idea that has not yet secured significant financing from external investors (i.e. investors other than friends, family and company founders). Application deadline is Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 at midnight.

The BCIC-New Ventures Competition seminars will take place in Vancouver at the SFU Beedie School of Business beginning April 4, 2012.

The Vancouver Economic Commission has partnered with Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) for the Vancouver Statements of Interest Workshop happening next week.

The workshop is aimed at providing prospective applicants with key information and practical guidance to prepare a quality Statement of Interest submissions. This session will allow applicants to assess the potential fit of their technology with SDTC’s SD Tech Fund, and to gain an understanding of the application process and key evaluation criteria. Read More…

Innovative young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 have until April 8th to apply for the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) $100,000 Grand Prize for Innovation and become the winner of the 2012 BDC Young Entrepreneur Award contest.

BDC’s new approach to this annual event will see Canada’s young entrepreneurs send a video submission to share their plans for an innovation project designed to drive their business to new growth.  Applications for this year’s edition of the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award can be submitted online between March 5 and April 8, 2012.

Contest details are available through the dedicated 2012 BDC Young Entrepreneur Award microsite or on BDC’s Facebook page, BDC Entrepreneur. Read More…