January 31, 2011

Upcoming Events

Filed under: events — Tags: , , , — Justin @ 4:40 pm

I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to make it to eCommerceCamp in Toronto tonight, but don’t count on seeing me there.

On Thursday at eBar, there’s the Guelph P2P Coworking spaces which I expect some of us will attend. (Thanks Greg for keeping us informed)

And most importantly DemoCamp 16. I registered for DemoCamp the minute it was announced, and I’ll drag as many of us out as I can on Wednesday, February 9th, again at eBar.

Next week also sees Social Media Week in Toronto. As an old curmudgeon myself, I’ll be skipping this Social Media fad, but it’s out there.

Cheap tickets are sold out for Ignite Waterloo, but a few of us will be there too (even if they didn’t let me speak :) Similarly, registration for Communitech Connect in Kitchener seems to be closed, and I don’t remember if we managed to register in time.

January 19, 2011

2nd Annual Guelph Technology Economy Conference.

Filed under: events — Tags: , , , , — Trudy @ 8:28 pm

Yesterday Dave and I attended the 2nd annual Guelph technology Economy Conference, held at Guelph’s own Center for Excellence in Manufacturing.

It was an exciting day filled with talks from many innovative individuals from the surrounding area.  At the “Innovation Guelph” session we were treated with talks from Frank Roberts from – Innovation Guelph, Steve Currie from Communitech, and Amie Sergas from MaRS.  At the Mobile Applications session Mike Loosemore from RIM, Kelly Brooks from the SpeakFeel Corporation, and Regg Stryk from eLEAD inc all gave talks about the exciting future of Mobile Applications, and debunked some myths surrounding Web app development.

Smartphone application developers Reg Struyk, co-founder of eLead Inc., and Kelly Brooks, founder and president of SpeakFeel Corporation — co-presenters of a workshop on mobile applications — said there are a number of myths surrounding application development. They are not the get-rich-quick products many believe them to be, nor are application ideas necessarily as original as some like to think.

For more information check out the article in the Guelph Mercury.

After the session we had a chance to meet some great people from around Guelph, including people form Grow Guelph, BioEnterprise, and SynnStudios.

December 15, 2010

Guelph Innovation Centre launched

Filed under: news — Tags: , — Trudy @ 7:54 am

Like everyone else, we’re excited about the new Guelph Innovation Centre:

Glen Murray, Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation, announced an initial expenditure of $886,000 to set up the Guelph Innovation Centre, the latest of 14 such centres that are part of the Ontario Network of Excellence.

Local researchers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs with commercially viable innovations now have access to a host of resources geared to hastening new businesses and/or the commercialization of new products. The development is part of the province’s ongoing push to build the knowledge-based economy, foster innovation and create new jobs.

Congratulations to Lloyd and everyone else who got this off the ground.

December 3, 2010

GTO panel

Filed under: events — Tags: , , , — Justin @ 7:01 pm

Last night I was on a panel with Kelly from SpeakFeel and Chris of w00t which was MC’ed by Arni of Northern Village. There was surprisingly good rapport between the panelists on the topics of:

  • Why work from Guelph
  • What can we do better in Guelph
  • Keeping employees even if larger companies offer them more money
  • Why we are better than Toronto, and everyone (except me) is better than those jokers in Waterloo

One of the most exciting things I learnt was that there is a “Guelph-based collective dedicated to re-invigorating the DIY movement in our city.” Shahira will be saying more about Diyode more at the GreenGoat blog from the angle of “repair/re-purpose rather than refuse” but we’re excited about the project so close to our doors.

As always shout-outs go to Doug from Recovery Force, Simon of zebra spot, Tedd of CWorthy Commucations, and Greg Skirving of Telus.

November 2, 2010

Connecting Innovation to Guelph’s 10 year Economic Development Plan

Filed under: events — Tags: , — Trudy @ 3:47 pm

This was the first topic of the new breakfast networking series, entitled ‘Guelph Pulse on Innovation’, somewhat replacing the GPI breakfast series.

Speakers including,  Peter Cartwright, General Manager of Economic Development and Tourism, from the City of Guelph , Paul Dick, former Chair of GPI, and, Lloyd Longfield President & CAO of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. The talks were not so much geared to ignite fires but more of a “where we are now” and “how we got here” scenario.

It began apparent, once again, that there are many different and fragmented interest groups that one can join. The decision on which group to align oneself with may however be easier now, at least for GiantGoat – we like action and we like people who ignite us so where we find them we will go!

The breakfast was a bit cold ya!

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