Edmonton Tech in 2008

Now that 2008 has come to a close, I think it’s safe to say that the Edmonton tech scene has had a fantastic year. It feels like the community grew tenfold, but I know that’s probably not true. Instead, I think the community just became more integrated and public. We had far more events than ever before, which resulted in lots of opportunities for everyone to meet one another.

There were many tech groups active in Edmonton this year. We held four DemoCamp events (one, two, three, four), and one BarCamp. It was great to see attendance increase with each one. In November, we held the 3rd annual Code Camp event for developers. We also held three Tweetup events (one, two, three) this year. The Edmonton .NET User Group, Edmonton Microsoft User Group, and Edmonton Flash User Group all held fairly regular meetings throughout the year. The Agile Edmonton User Group was established this year and held a few meetings. A few other meetup groups got started toward the end of the year, and should be quite active in 2009 – Edmonton Web Design Meetup, Edmonton Social Web Meetup. There were a number of other tech events that took place throughout the year as well, such as the ICE Technology Conference, Moonlight in the Meadows, and the NAIT Digital Media Expo.

Here are some of the year’s most interesting Edmonton tech stories from my blog, Techvibes, and elsewhere:

• 12/24: Zigtag launches!
• 12/22: Stephane Contre wins the 2008 novaNAIT Challenge
• 12/17: One Million Pictures of One Million Food Bank Donations
• 12/03: A look at Edmonton’s new Future Shop
• 10/27: Edmonton Organizations on Twitter
• 10/21: Smibs launches Doorbell into public beta
• 10/03: Podcast Spot is shutting down
• 09/10: Semanti Does Demo at DEMO 08
• 09/02: Edmonton’s newest data centre
• 08/27: New nanotechnology centre opens in Edmonton’s Research Park
• 08/18: Propel Magazine launches in Alberta
• 07/16: Wireless Internet at the Edmonton Public Library
• 07/05: The Apple Store opens in West Edmonton Mall
• 07/02: Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People
• 06/18: City-provided Wi-Fi project to continue in Edmonton
• 06/07: Free Edmonton Wireless
• 05/26: Cheers, relief as Edmonton invention lands on Mars
• 05/12: New electronic recycling facility opens in Edmonton
• 04/30: DataGardens wins the 2008 TEC VenturePrize
• 04/25: iNovia Capital comes to Edmonton
• 04/22: IVAC invests $5.7 million in Alberta High-Tech companies
• 04/15: Contributing to Techvibes
• 04/12: TEC Centre officially opens in Edmonton
• 03/11: Intuit Canada Moves Head Office From Edmonton to Mississauga
• 02/04: Nexopia Attracts Major European Investment
• 02/03: Dell Downsizing Leaves Edmonton Behind
• 01/02: Edmonton bloggers break world record, boost computer literacy
• 01/02: ProTraining is one of Alberta Venture’s Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies

And here’s the collection of Edmonton Startup Index posts at Techvibes (prior to September all of Alberta was grouped together – yet another sign Edmonton is getting stronger):

• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008

I’m really impressed with the way Edmonton’s tech scene grew both larger and stronger this year, and I think 2009 can be even better. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen.