Today Startup Edmonton is excited to announce that it will be moving into the Mercer Warehouse on 104 Street later this year. Edmonton’s new collaborative home for technology, entrepreneurism, and creative innovation will be located on the third floor of the historic building with an anticipated move-in date set for the spring.
The Mercer Warehouse project is a natural extension of the 104th Street/Warehouse District revitalization efforts, solidifying the area as the start-up hub of the city. Built in 1911, the Mercer Warehouse enters its next phase of service, from its beginnings as entrepreneur John B. Mercer’s liquor and beer cold storage to housing the next generation of creative endeavors and innovations.
It should be no surprise that I’m incredibly excited about this! The new space will play a significant role in anchoring the north end of 4th Street Promenade, and it provides Startup Edmonton with the space and physical presence we need to grow and achieve our goal of making Edmonton a hotbed for creativity and entrepreneurship. Here’s a concept sketch for the space:
And here’s a concept floor plan:
There’s a lot of renovation work yet to be done, but don’t be fooled by the sketch above. The brick, the beams, all of the historic elements that give the space character – that’s all staying. The space needs to be functional, but that doesn’t mean we have to lose the history! Last week I had the opportunity to check out the building, and took some “before” photos.
The team meets with Kelly & Devin Pope.
The space!
Ken with the floor plan sketch.
The other side of the space.
I don’t know why painting over the brick was so popular. I love the brick!
I can’t believe it has been nearly four years since Edmonton’s first DemoCamp took place! Who could have imagined, on that winter evening in the dungeon-like basement of the University of Alberta’s School of Business building, that sixteen DemoCamps would take place over the subsequent years. But they have, and they are still as popular as ever, regularly drawing 200 people from a wide variety of communities – entrepreneurs, programmers, designers, investors, and lots of others. DemoCamp Edmonton 17 is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 18 – don’t miss it!
I also never imagined that DemoCamp would eventually lead to Startup Edmonton, but I’m glad it has. Ken, Cam, Sam, and Tiffany recognized that DemoCamp was actually part of something bigger, and they decided to do something about it.
We help connect creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to start and scale bold new ideas through events, mentorship, workspace, and accelerators. Our vision is to make Edmonton a hotbed for creativity and entrepreneurship. Our mission is to amplify creative innovation and activate startups. Our goal is to invest in 500 creative entrepreneurs over the next 5 years.
DemoCamp helped showed us that Edmonton is full of smart, talented, creative people with really innovative ideas. But having an idea is not enough – you need to take action. That’s where Startup Edmonton comes in.
The organization has been around for a while now, organizing events like Launch Party and TEDxEdmonton in addition to DemoCamp, but it became much more official on December 5. That’s the date Startup Edmonton turned into a fully-fledged non-profit company. Here is the board of directors:
Though not everyone could attend the first meeting in person, there was great energy in the room as we went through introductions and got down to business. Here is our management team:
Ken and the team spent countless hours last year planning, networking, connecting, pitching, building – basically doing all of the things a startup needs to do. They’ve put a solid foundation in place, and they’re the right team to drive the organization forward. With the help of our founding partners, I really feel like Startup Edmonton is going to make a big splash in 2012.
The investment ecosystem in Edmonton (and Alberta) is pretty good at funding things that already have momentum, but there’s a serious lack of viable products flowing into that funding pipeline. Yet we know from DemoCamp and other events and initiatives that there is no lack of ideas. How can we get people with ideas to turn into entrepreneurs with fundable products? That’s the challenge that Startup Edmonton will tackle. Here’s how:
Inspire – DemoCamp and other events to bring the community together
Create – Hackathons, Startup Weekend, and other events focused on prototyping
Accelerate – Incubator for early stage tech startups to rapidly take their prototypes to the next level
Startup Edmonton is already pretty good at “Inspire” and efforts related to “Create” are ramping up, but it’s “Accelerate” where things will get really interesting this year. The tech accelerator program is called Flightpath, and it will invest in up to 30 early stage software/digital media startups over the next three years. These are small financial investments, but combined with mentorship, learning, and networking opportunities, the goal is to help startups make meaningful progress in a short period of time. To turn more ideas to into fundable products.
You will of course see more DemoCamps, Startup Weekends, Launch Parties, and other events in 2012. But you’ll also see the startup space that was teased a couple of months ago – a physical space downtown “where geeks, entrepreneurs, and creatives collide.” You’ll see more opportunities to share your knowledge and to learn from others. You’ll see the launch of Flightpath and the first class of startups. You’ll see a more concerted effort to build awareness of startups in Edmonton.
And I think you’ll start to see that creative entrepreneurs and Edmonton’s future are beautifully intertwined.
The annual TEC VenturePrize awards luncheon was held at the Westin Edmonton today, and I was fortunate enough to attend as a guest of TEC Edmonton. The Alberta-wide business plan competition is one of the ways that TEC Edmonton helps entrepreneurs access mentorship, networking, and exposure opportunities in our province. Some of the recent success stories from VenturePrize include Yardstick Software and Seek Your Own Proof.
The competition is broken into two categories: fast growth, and student. Finalists in the fast growth category compete for over $150,000 in cash and in-kind services, while finalists in the student competition compete for $10,000 cash.
Ryan Jespersen once again hosted the festivities, and I thought he did a really great job of incorporating tweets into the program. Lots of people in the audience were tweeting about the event and their favorite companies using the #ventureprize hashtag. Part of that online interest might have been due to the fact that the awards luncheon was streamed online for the first time this year.
Ryan kicked things off with a sit-down interview on stage with the three finalists in the student category:
GizmoBooks.com (Gezim Hoxha, University of Lethbridge) Website offering students an easy way to buy and sell textbooks and save money.
Nougat Software Entertainment (Tyrel Schick, University of Lethbridge) (archive) Video game development company designing/creating innovative, full scale games for a wide range of platforms.
AltaCap Energy Solutions (Trina Salvisberg & team, University of Alberta) (archive) Focused on the development, production, and marketing of ultracapacitors that feature cutting edge electrode technology.
I don’t think the interview approach has ever been done before, and I thought it worked well. It was great to feature the students more prominently in the program.
Next we had introductory remarks from TEC Edmonton CEO Chris Lumb and Mayor Stephen Mandel, and then it was time to meet the finalists in the fast growth category. Each finalist had the opportunity to deliver a one minute elevator pitch, followed by a three minute video describing their product and/or business.
CAD Crowd helps firms hire CAD staff globally enabling the effective sourcing of CAD work through their relationships with quality-certified partners and an enterprise project management software tailored specifically to manage and facilitate CAD projects.
lightPower (Edmonton)
lightPower builds flexible plastic solar panels with long-term stability which can be integrated in consumer electronic products or used as stand-alone battery chargers. Flexible plastic solar panels are fabricated through roll-to-roll printing techniques, enabling high throughout, low-cost manufacturing.
VibeDX is a patent-pending medical device for diagnosis of injuries, pathologies and fitness of the back and spine. With a 99+% accuracy in diagnosing disc damage that holds promise to improve long term outcomes and quality of life for millions of back pain sufferers.
Rant: You’ll note that CAD Crowd and GizmoBooks are the only two with links to actual company websites. If the others have websites, I can’t find them. You would think that in 2011 this wouldn’t be an issue, but it is. If I can’t type your name into Google and find you, you’re doing something wrong, I don’t care what industry you’re in. And yes, I recognize that these entrepreneurs are focusing on product development, but seriously, not even a simple landing page?! Come on.
After all the pitches were complete, Ryan quickly described how the judging process works, and the judges made a show of leaving the room for their final deliberations. I was surprised to see them return just a few minutes later – usually it takes longer, so I figured they must really have had a favorite! Judges in the fast growth category included Warren Bergen from Webbco International Inc., Rod Charko from Alberta Enterprise Fund, Roy Homyshin from TSX Venture Exchange, Mike Scarth from Alberta WaterSMART, and Shawn Abbott from iNovia Capital. Judges in the student category included Colin Christensen from Signa Venture Development, Troy Deck from Meyers Norris Penny, Don Riep from Yardstick Software Inc., and Jim Spiers from Right Field Marketing. In addition to the judges there were twelve screeners, whose job it was to select the finalists from the many resume submissions. This year, the Screeners’ Award of Merit went to Inspectacar, for their business focused on delivering “nothing but accurate vehicle inspections”.
Our keynote speaker was up next – Evan Chrapko, an entrepreneur currently focused on Highmark Renewables. Evan shared a few stories from his experiences as an entrepreneur, and hammered home the theme of “persistence pays”. I wrote about Evan’s transition into Highmark back in 2007, and he’s still at it, so he obviously practices what he preaches. Evan left the audience with five pieces of advice:
Know thyself, and know your timespan (how much time you can actually devote).
Know thy business partner (consider legal advice up front, even if it seems costly).
Trust your instincts.
Network with others (he encouraged everyone to leave with ten other business cards).
Persistence pays.
Finally, it was time for the announcement of the winners. Annette Trimbee from Alberta Advanced Education & Technology presented the awards for the student category, with Trina’s team at AltaCap taking the top prize!
Chris Lumb presented the awards for the fast growth competition, with the win going to VibeDX!
It definitely seemed like VibeDX was the favorite. I have to admit that I really love the concept behind their technology – taking an approach used in other industries (such as stress-testing an airplane wing) and applying it to the human body. Their video was also quite impressive, as it had at least five doctors offering either testimonials or rosy predictions for the technology. Here’s a video describing how VibeDX works:
Last night we held a launch event for The Edmonton Champions Project in the wonderful Tucker Amphitheatre at the The Citadel downtown. Over 150 community & business leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives, and other friends attended to find out more about the project. Our goal is to invest in 500 creative entrepreneurs over the next 5 years, with a focus on amplifying creative innovation in Edmonton, to help our amazing young creatives, innovators and entrepreneurs connect, do, and win in the new economy.
The reaction to last night’s presentation was everything we could have hoped for. Inspiring, exciting, necessary, motivational – those were some of the words people used when I asked them what they thought. It was a great opportunity to share some of the things we’ve been working on. Here are a few of the things Ken Bautista talked about.
Creative Entrepreneurs: The Future of Edmonton
Edmonton needs entrepreneurs. Tech entrepreneurs. Creative entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs bring vision, create solutions to problems, and transform new ideas into bold new companies, new approaches in established organizations, new products, and new jobs in every industry, in every sector, profit and non-profit.
This is about building an ecosystem that attracts and empowers creative entrepreneurs. Edmonton has most of the pieces, but to date, our ecosystem has been fragmented. We need a bottom-up approach to cultivating this ecosystem, fueled by entrepreneurs who will create the kind of competitive deal flow that attracts investment and capital.
He showed a great diagram of some of the things this ecosystem needs to thrive:
Our initial strike is focused on four of those things: networks, spaces, accelerators, and seed funds.
Four Initial Strategies
Networks: Connecting young creatives, innovators and entrepreneurs with experienced mentors.
Accelerators: Intensive development programs where ideas are transformed into market-ready products.
Spaces: Creative/entrepreneurial hubs where the collision between great ideas and people can happen.
Seed Funds: Pooled, leveraged funding invested at the earliest seed stage of creative development.
There are some exciting things happening here. We have been very successful at cultivating networks, with Startup Edmonton and artsScene Edmonton, and that will continue. We’re close to securing our space downtown, a creative hub for Edmonton entrepreneurs that will enable the collision between great ideas and people. And later this year, Edmonton’s first startup accelerator will officially launch – we call it Flightpath. Created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, Flightpath will invest in 30 startups in the software and digital media space over three years at a cost of $1 million. An important part of that funding will come from private investors.
We’re really excited to have Chris LaBossiere and Don Riep from Yardstick Software on board as our first vision sponsors and investors. Additionally, Mayor Stephen Mandel announced last night that he too will join us as an initial investor in Flightpath!
City of Champions 2.0
This is about mobilizing our best – a new community of champions who are visionary, relentless, and unstoppable, and who together, will define Edmonton’s place in the new global economy.
More entrepreneurs in Edmonton: Amplifying creative innovation and empowering more Edmontonians to create and build, anchored by a central creative/tech hub located in the downtown core.
Job creation across new industries: Startups generate job creation that will build the new industries of the 21st century and solve some of our toughest global challenges.
Improved deal flow: We collaborate with existing Angel/VC networks to ensure investor readiness for companies coming out of the accelerator. Private equity is then deployed more effectively into stronger startups in order to grow and scale.
Stronger entrepreneurial culture: The wider community is invited to participate in larger events, creating further opportunities for high-impact entrepreneurship education.
Another thing Ken said really resonated with me. One of the first slides he showed said: “Go. Win. And stay connected. Edmonton is homebase.” It’s important to see what’s out there, to get connected with other creative, entrepeneurial people. But let’s connect that back to Edmonton.
We Need Your Help!
Tegan Martin-Drysdale, the new community co-chair of Edmonton Next Gen, spoke for a few minutes in support of the initiative. It was important to have her there because obviously we’re not the only ones pushing this transformation forward. Next Gen, interVivos, JCI, and dozens of other organizations are helping to make our vision a reality. And that’s really important, because we need to work together. There are four key ways you can help us take The Edmonton Champions Project forward:
Champion: Help us share this vision!
Sponsor: We’re volunteers and we need resources to keep moving. Thanks to Yardstick and Capital Power for making the launch event a success.
Invest: We’re seeking investors for our first Flightpath fund. Help us get in front of the right people and consider investing yourself.
Start Something: Everything we’re doing will be for naught if you aren’t out there starting companies and acting on your ideas!
Thank you to everyone who attended the launch event last night. As I wrote back in November when we first introduced The Edmonton Champions Project, I’m very excited about the direction we’re heading and consider myself lucky to be a part of it! Stay tuned to our website for more information.
Startup Weekend Edmonton is back! The weekend of February 11-13 is your opportunity to do something about that idea you’ve been thinking about – and that’s just one of the many good reasons to attend. Startup Weekend is a great opportunity to network with other people in the community, to learn something new, to gain valuable team building experience, and maybe even just to feel that sense of accomplishment we all love. Not to mention the rush of going from concept to working demo in just 54 hours!
Edmonton’s first Startup Weekend took place last June. About 30 local developers, designers, and other creative people got together and formed six teams that built some really interesting projects. You can read my recap of our last event to get a sense of how the weekend went, but here in a nutshell is the process:
Friday Night: Everyone shows up, we have some brief introductions, and if you have an idea you pitch it. It’s messy and fun but we then form teams out of all the ideas, and each team begins to plan and prepare for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday: Teams dive into building their project. Breaking it up into tasks and time management are key. Throughout the day there are lunch and dinner breaks with speakers talking about startup-related topics.
Sunday: It’s crunch time! Teams finish up their projects so that they can demo it in the evening. Around 6pm, all the work stops and the wider community gets to see what each team accomplished over the weekend.
Cam is going to cover all of that in more detail on the Friday evening as well. It’s a short amount of time, which is part of why it is so exciting!
One of the questions that people ask a lot is if Startup Weekend is only for programmers. The answer is no! In fact, teams need individuals with all kinds of skills to be successful. Anyone can have an idea and help flesh that out into a project. Artists and designers can help with the look and feel. Business people can help with the pitch or maybe even work on a business plan. Storytellers can help make the project compelling to customers. Of course someone needs to test the project out. I’m sure you can think of dozens of others skills that could be brought to the table. The most successful companies need more than just programmers!
There are Startup Weekend events happening all over the world. In fact, there are going to be 150 this year alone! If you’re unsure about the event, check out the Startup Weekend blog and read through some of the stories from other places. It’s really amazing what has been created, not to mention all of the relationships and other great things that have been formed as a result. Innovative ideas like Planely, which aims to make it possible to use the “lost” time we spend on airplanes to network and make friends. Also be sure to check out My Edmonton which was created at Edmonton’s first Startup Weekend has since grown and evolved into a really useful app!
Sick of hibernating inside because of all the snow and cold weather? Join us on Wednesday evening for Edmonton’s next DemoCamp – lucky number 13! If you’ve never been to DemoCamp before, it’s time to stop missing out. There is no better opportunity to connect with Edmonton’s technology and startup community. Here are the details:
Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 Time: 6:30pm (and drinks/networking afterward) Location: Telus Centre 150, University of Alberta (map) Cost: Free – sign up See the event on ShareEdmonton or on Facebook.
This weekend Edmonton will host an event called Startup Weekend (on ShareEdmonton), which brings together developers, designers, marketers, inventors, investors, and anyone else interested in startups to see what they can build in just 54 hours. Will the next big thing emerge out of Edmonton? Will the community create something small that positively impacts the lives of Edmontonians? Maybe both!
Startup Weekend has happened in dozens of cities around the world. Their goal is to hold 60 events this year, and 100 in 2011. Here’s some background:
Startup Weekend is a non-profit organization based out of Seattle, WA USA. Startup Weekend is a small team of three along with community leaders around the world. Startup Weekend’s primary mission is to be the most valuable and influential organization in startup communities around the world. Startup Weekend doesn’t have to teach entrepreneurship in a boring classroom setting, we model it in a fun, interactive, and results driven way. As a result, we have become one of the leading catalysts for startup creation, co-founder dating, and entrepreneurship education in startup ecosystems around the world.
The way the event works will be somewhat familiar to anyone who has attended a *camp. It starts with the pitch – ideas for new startup ventures. The favorites are selected, and teams of 4 to 10 people are formed to tackle each one. The rest of the weekend is spent trying to build a prototype, demo, or maybe even a finished product!
The Edmonton event, organized by Startup Edmonton, is taking place at Enterprise Square downtown. The weekend kicks off on Friday evening at 6pm, with introductions and idea pitches. Then the real work begins! Here’s what attendees get out of the event:
Startup Weekend provides an unprecedented level of networking, team building, learning, and life changes for its attendees and their communities. Don’t forget that there will be 6-7 meals and drinks provided. There is a reason that most attendees come back for every event – it’s just plain fun and provides amazing opportunities you can’t get anywhere else. Sometimes a company emerges, sometimes one doesn’t, but every time people leave with more experience, insight, knowledge, friends, and resources than they came with.
Startup Weekend should be a lot of fun! Tickets are $99, which includes meals and beverages for the weekend (there are a few available at half price if you hurry). You can follow @StartupEdmonton on Twitter for updates, as well as the #SWEdmonton hashtag. See you there!
As longtime readers will know, I was one of the finalists in the VenturePrize business plan competition back in 2006 (along with Yardstick Software). It was a great experience, and I learned a lot. I also know how much effort goes into it, so I have great respect for all the competitors who came after me!
I’ve been able to attend the awards luncheon the last few years thanks to Chris & Don from Yardstick, which has allowed me to meet some really interesting individuals and companies. I’ll be attending again this year, thanks to TEC Edmonton. I’m really excited, for a few reasons:
I know a couple of the teams competing this year quite well, and was able to act as an advisor/mentor a little bit. I’m pulling for them!
There’s always an interesting keynote speaker and lots of great people to meet.
Now in its 8th year, this province-wide business plan competition provides budding entrepreneurs with training and guidance as well as an opportunity to win a share of over $150,000 in prizes!
The keynote speaker will be Duncan Stewart, currently Director of Deloitte Canada Research: Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Life Sciences and GreenTech. He has over 20 years experience working in capital markets, helping raise and invest more than $2 billion.
In addition, Ken Bautista will provide an update on the successes of his startup, CIE: Seek Your Own Proof, since winning the grand prize in last year’s TEC VenturePrize Business Plan Competition!
The event takes place at the Westin Hotel on Thursday, April 15 from 11:30am until 2:00pm (on ShareEdmonton). As of last week, tickets were already 60% sold, so if you want to attend you better get yours soon. Hope to see you there!
Tonight I attended Edmonton’s first Launch Party, and I’m happy to report that it was awesome! Including the presenting companies, investors, and media, there were about 250 people in attendance, a fantastic turnout and great show of support for Edmonton’s startup scene. There was food, drinks, a DJ, great conversation, and of course, some of Edmonton’s best and brightest entrepreneurs and developers.
Ten local companies setup tables around the room, available to demo their products and to talk with potential investors and customers. Each company also got to do an elevator pitch in front of the entire crowd (and all of them did a great job). I wrote about the companies here, but once again, here are the ten that participated tonight:
Each company had a slightly different approach to greeting interested individuals, but Yardstick stood out. They had margarita machines at their table, and gave out free drinks all evening long! Overall, I’d say the event had the same kind of vibe as an artsScene party (for a quick look at what the evening was like, check out this video).
I asked as many of the companies as I could about their thoughts on the evening. All of them told me that the opportunity to meet so many people at once was truly valuable. And the opportunity to meet with such different people too – investors, techies, customers, etc. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves while learning about the companies.
Like many of the people I talked to tonight, I was impressed with the diversity of the crowd. I feel like I know a lot of people in the local tech community, and there were a lot of people there tonight that I had never met before! It was like a bunch of different communities came together, which is really important for growing the local startup scene.
Edmonton’s first Launch Party is set to rock your socks off on Wednesday evening (on ShareEdmonton). There won’t be any formal presentations or panels, but the event will be a great opportunity to network with some of Edmonton’s best and brightest entrepreneurs and developers. It’s also a chance to celebrate the creative and interesting things happening here!
Ten local “startups” will be featured, as announced here. Here’s what you need to know about these companies and the people behind them:
Beamdog TWO WORDS: Game Distribution WHAT: A digital distribution service for games (think Steam). KEY PEOPLE: Trent Oster, formerly of BioWare. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This is the startup I know the least about! There are some amazing folks in the game industry here in Edmonton, and Trent is one of them. Video games continue to move further into the mainstream, and onto dozens of mobile devices. There’s lots of opportunity.
Connect13 TWO WORDS: Youth Advertising WHAT: A social media advertising network targeting Canadian youth. KEY PEOPLE: Kevin Swan of Nexopia, Boriz Wertz of W Media Ventures (AbeBooks, Nexopia, Techvibes, others), and others. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: The team’s experience with Nexopia (a social network focused on youth) is what gave birth to Connect13. They are web savvy, they know how to reach young people, and they’re using social media to create an innovative new advertising platform. Large, growing market that is currently being underserved. FOLLOW: Twitter
Edistorm TWO WORDS: Social Brainstorming WHAT: Online brainstorming service that lets you share with others in real-time. KEY PEOPLE: Reg Cheramy, serial entrepreneur (ZigTag, Book That Bet, One Clap, others). PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT: DemoCampEdmonton4, Start Me Up at ICE 2009 WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: We brainstorm all the time, but typically we’re limited to sticky notes and whiteboards. Edistorm brings brainstorming to the web, so that you can brainstorm with people all around the world, in real-time. Lots of opportunity for decentralized teams, events, etc. FOLLOW: Facebook, Twitter
Empire Avenue TWO WORDS: Monetizing Influence WHAT: Measures influence online for monetization via advertising. KEY PEOPLE: Duleepa Wijayawardhana formerly of BioWare and Sun/MySQL, Tom Ohle, experienced marketer, Brad Grier, social media guru and blogger for Future Shop, and others. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: People love rankings, and Empire Ave offers a fun way to see how you compare to others online. It’s also an interesting approach to online advertising, a welcome innovation in a world dominated by AdWords. PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT: Empire Avenue Launch Party FOLLOW: Blog, Facebook, Twitter
FotoJournal TWO WORDS: Photographer Blogs WHAT: Blogging platform built specifically for photographers. KEY PEOPLE: Kyle Fox, designer and web developer, formerly of Lift Interactive, currently at Yardstick Software, Jon Smelquist, designer and web developer. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: The proliferation of digital cameras means there are more photographers than ever, making it harder for the pros to stand out from the crowd. WordPress is great for text, but not so great for photos – that’s the void that FotoJournal fills. FOLLOW: Facebook, Twitter
Mailout Interactive TWO WORDS: Email Services WHAT: Professionally designed email newsletters and management. KEY PEOPLE: Gregg Oldring, founder, Jon Larson, business development, and others. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Already eight years old, Mailout Interactive is well-established in Edmonton and elsewhere. Dozens of organizations use Industry Mailout, including the City of Edmonton, Original Fare, Homeward Trust, and others. They have a proven, powerful email platform, and email isn’t going anywhere. FOLLOW: Facebook, Twitter
PureInbox TWO WORDS: Information Synchronization WHAT: Information synchronization service, wirelessly to any device. KEY PEOPLE: Sam Huang, co-founder of Gennux Microsystems, and others. PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT: DemoCampEdmonton4 WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Email, contacts, calendars, task lists, files – we have more than ever, and we want to access them from any device, no matter where we are. That’s the heady challenge that PureInbox is tackling, with support for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, the iPhone, and more.
Seek Your Own Proof TWO WORDS: Smart Entertainment WHAT: Online community for kids to investigate history and science. KEY PEOPLE: Ken Bautista, one of Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40, Norman Mendoza of Redengine, and others. PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT: DemoCampEdmonton9 WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: They won TEC VenturePrize, accepted financing from Foundation Equity, and recently signed a deal with Discovery Kids. An all-star team off to an incredible start – keep an eye on this one! FOLLOW: Facebook
SnowSeekers TWO WORDS: Winter Content WHAT: Highlights winter destinations in Alberta & British Columbia. KEY PEOPLE: Jim Barr, former journalist, and others. WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Fresh off the Winter Olympics, winter tourism in Western Canada is booming. SnowSeekers takes the traditional destination guide to the next level, with in-depth information, mobile apps, and regularly updated content. FOLLOW: Blog, Facebook
Yardstick Software TWO WORDS: Web Testing WHAT: Web-based training and testing software and services. KEY PEOPLE: Chris LaBossiere, co-founder, Don Riep, co-founder, Greg Kureluk, business development, and others. PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT: DemoCampEdmonton8 WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: Experienced team, active in the community, highly decorated, with a large, loyal customer base, and a culture tuned to change and fast growth. Yardstick surrounds itself with great people, and is well-positioned for additional success. A gem among Edmonton tech companies. FOLLOW: Twitter
It should be a great evening. The festivities get underway at 6:30pm at the Matrix Hotel. If you don’t already have tickets, you can buy them here for just $10 (some will be available at the door for $15). Follow StartupEdmonton for updates. See you there!
Today Startup Edmonton is excited to announce that it will be moving into the Mercer Warehouse on 104 Street later this year. Edmonton’s new collaborative home for technology, entrepreneurism, and creative innovation will be located on the third floor of the historic building with an anticipated move-in date set for the spring.
The annual 
Sick of hibernating inside because of all the snow and cold weather? Join us on Wednesday evening for Edmonton’s next DemoCamp – lucky number 13! If you’ve never been to DemoCamp before, it’s time to stop missing out. There is no better opportunity to connect with Edmonton’s technology and startup community. Here are the details:
Edmonton’s first