2011

Hope you’re all enjoying the long weekend! There are so many headlines and events this week that I’ve broken my list into two. First, the news:

The situation in Slave Lake dominated the headlines this week, and rightly so. Check out the Edmonton Journal’s page for a good selection of articles and interactive features. The City issued a partial fire ban on Tuesday, but apparently the air quality here in Edmonton is still fine. Later that day the Alberta government issued a province-wide fire ban. The City has been supporting Slave Lake evacuees all week.
It was a big week for the arena. Late Wednesday evening, Council voted behind closed doors to move ahead with an agreement framework, paving the way for the project to continue. You can see video of the announcement here. Reaction seems mixed. Some are happy that progress is being made, while others feel that the process is not transparent at all. Councillor Sloan and Lorne Gunter have both weighed in against the decision recently. No one really knows what is going to happen to Rexall Place and Northlands, but Daryl Katz thinks they won’t be an issue.
It was also a relatively big week for the City Centre Airport redevelopment project. The winner of the competition was supposed to be announced on Wednesday, but instead the five finalists were reduced to three on Thursday. The winning team is expected to be announced on June 22.
Facing a $31 million deficit, the City is considering one-time spending cuts.
Council narrowly defeated the gravel pit proposal from Kanata Métis Cultural Enterprises on Tuesday. They voted 7-6 against rezoning a 34-hectare parcel of farmland in the river valley.
The southeast corner of 101 Street and Jasper Avenue is getting a major, long-overdue makeover. The new project has been dubbed First & Jasper (archive) and is slated to be finished by early 2013.
The City mailed out more than 300,000 property tax notices this week.
You’ll be paying more for events at Commonwealth Stadium starting next year. Ticket prices are going up 5% to help pay for new seats.
Edmonton’s Federation of Community Leagues launched a new project this week aimed at increasing participation from different cultural groups.
The Edmonton Public School Board voted this week to move its Tuesday evening meetings to afternoons, starting with the 2011-12 school year.
Apparently there are a few community groups unhappy about the LRT expansion. It’s important for them to be heard, but we shouldn’t let it hold things up. Council is discussing the issue on Wednesday.
The City Market returned to 104 Street yesterday! Sharon has a great recap here.
EEDC’s latest quarterly report was released Friday.
It sounds like there won’t be a Canadian pavilion at this year’s Heritage Festival.
Gig City broke the news Monday that local weeklies VUE and SEE are merging.
The provincial government pledged $3 million to the new Jerry Forbes Centre for Community Spirit this week. Brittney covered the news here.
A new series of maps will help Edmontonians and visitors navigate more than 160 kilometers of river valley trails. The maps were developed by the City of Edmonton, Alberta Health Services, and the River Valley Alliance.
A redevelopment plan for the City of Edmonton’s golf courses would cost around $30 million and would result in Rundle and Victoria being shut down for a year.
Have you been attacked by mosquitoes yet? They’re back in full force.
The Edmonton Police Service is reminding residents that you can sign up for newsletters and crime alerts.
For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com.

Overhead shot of the City Market on 104 Street.

Here are some events coming up this week:

Jimmy Eat World is at the Edmonton Event Centre tomorrow night, Death Cab for Cutie is at the Shaw Conference Centre on Tuesday.
The latest edition of TED Talks @ Lunch takes place on Wednesday at Enterprise Square.
Edmonton’s newest farmers’ market – the Southwest Edmonton Farmers’ Market – takes place on Wednesday evening in the Lillian Osborne School parking lot.
There’s another Transit Oriented Development open house this week, Thursday evening at Queen Elizabeth School.
Also Thursday evening is the May edition of artsScene Nights, a casual gathering for Edmonton’s next gen crowd.
M.A.D.E. is hosting Ken Lum at the Art Gallery of Alberta on Thursday evening. He’ll be talking about the Walterdale Bridge replacement, among other things.
Social Media Breakfast Edmonton #6 takes place Friday morning at CBC Centre Stage in City Centre.
NextGen’s Edmonton Community Challenge is back, with the Photo Scavenger Hunt starting at noon on Friday.
Friday evening at the Shaw Conference Centre is the Alberta Party’s Big Idea Night.
Also Friday evening is Merge Magazine’s re-launch party, out at Sherwood Park Toyota.
Saturday is going to be a busy day! There is the City Market and the Old Strathcona Farmers Market of course.
Also Saturday is Royal Bison, one of Edmonton’s favorite art and craft fairs. It runs Sunday too, at the Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre.
The ETS Community Fair is taking place at West Edmonton Mall on Saturday.
Edmonton’s Food and Agriculture Policy Project is officially launching on Saturday morning at Dr. Wilbur McIntyre Park, right next to the market.
Century Hospitality’s Top Chef Finale takes place on Saturday evening at Lux downtown. I’m really looking forward to the sold-out event!
Edmonton’s seventh Zombeers takes place on Sunday evening at Original Joes Varsity.
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

I took this from the Walterdale Bridge, looking at the High Level Bridge.

Recap: DBA Annual Spring Luncheon & DECL AGM

I suppose every day is a ‘downtown day’ for me given that I both live and work here, but today felt especially downtown-focused. Of course the arena news was still fresh this morning and most people I came across throughout the day were talking about it. At lunch I was fortunate enough to be a guest of EEDC at the Downtown Business Association’s annual spring luncheon, where some City Centre Airport news was released. And this evening I joined Sharon at the Downtown Edmonton Community League’s annual general meeting.

The spring luncheon is one of two annual luncheons produced by the DBA. Held at The Westin, there was a packed house for the presentation of the DBA’s 2010 Annual Report. Jim Taylor, Executive Director of the DBA, highlighted some of the activities from the past year, and in what has become an annual tradition, presented the Downtown Beat Officers with a new bicycle.

All five finalists in the City Centre Redevelopment competition were present at the luncheon. Mayor Mandel couldn’t be there in person, so a pre-recorded video was played instead. In the video he referenced the “decision” made yesterday regarding the competition, which got a chuckle from everyone (because, of course, they couldn’t decide). Simon Farbrother took the stage and surprised us with the announcement that the list of five had been trimmed to three:

Perkins + Will, Vancouver, B.C.
Foster & Partners, London, U.K.
KCAP Architects, Rotterdam, Netherlands

The final decision will be made by City Council on June 22.

Guests at the luncheon were also reminded that the Downtown Core Crew starts again next week. You can book the team of summer students for tours and other special events!

You can read about past luncheons here, and watch for the annual report to be posted online here.

Tonight’s DECL AGM was held at the Yellowhead Brewery on 105 Street. It was fairly well attended for a community league AGM! President Chris Buyze presented his annual report highlighting a number of successes:

On-going community events such as Al Fresco, CornFest, and the first annual EFCL Day.
The completion and passing of the new Capital City Downtown Plan in July 2010 (with the zoning portion passing in December 2010). Chris had personally been involved in consultations for more than 5 years!
Participation in various downtown and city-wide issues and initiatives, such as the ONEdmonton Downtown Vibrancy Task Force and the Jasper Avenue Hospitality Committee.
Embracing social media to connect with residents!

Chris also highlighted a couple of challenges that DECL met, including conveying concerns with the proposed downtown arena and the development of a new 2-year strategic plan.

There were also two presentations this evening. We received a brief update on the Alley of Light project, and Alex Abboud talked about Homeward Trust and the work that they are doing in our community. Watch for a new Homeward Trust website next month, and check out Find Furnishing Hope, a social enterprise offering quality, low-cost previously used furniture located at 5120 122 Street.

There was also the official business of the AGM this evening, with a few board members moving on and a few new faces joining the board: Scott McKeen, Sharon Yeo, and Sebastian Hanlon. Questions and discussion covered the arena, the intersection at 105 Street & 104 Avenue, and electronic signs and billboards downtown. We also took a quick trip outside to look at Scott Property where hopefully a park will be built before long!

Edmonton Notes for 5/15/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Had enough of the wind this week? Thankfully it seems to have died down this evening.
It’s construction season! The City says that more than $157 million is being spent on special projects and $128 million is besting spent on arterial roads and intersections for a total of $285 million in construction projects. Work is underway in 96 neighbourhoods across the city.
Due mainly to spending on last winter’s snowfall, the City is facing a $30.7 million deficit.
The Telus World of Science is looking to the City to help fund a $285 million expansion. Mayor Mandel thinks the City should take a close look at the proposal.
They don’t really bother me, but some people really get annoyed with those animated advertising signs that have popped up all over the city recently. The City is looking at the issue.
On Friday, the City issued a statement on fire risk conditions, stating that they were monitoring the weather but were not considering a fire ban. Tonight, the entire Town of Slave Lake was forced to evacuate as fire engulfed the entire area.
Stantec’s net income increased to $23.8 million in the first quarter, up from $16.3 million for the same period in 2010.
The Charrette had a good entry on brownfield development recently, check it out.
Apparently the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce isn’t on board with the City’s Way We Green plan.
Are parking fines going up because of the province’s new license plate search fee?
It has been recommended that the City spend $12 million over three years to replace Commonwealth Stadium’s 60,000 seats.
The 2011 Edmonton Regional Joint Orthophoto initiative will see an airplane equipped with a special GPS camera snap high resolution shots of the capital region.
Each day in Edmonton, 911 dispatchers handle about 1000 calls, 70% of which come from cell phones. The CRTC is setting up trials for SMS messaging for 911, but not here in Edmonton.
The City is running out of space to store furniture, clothes, china, and other historic material, according to the Edmonton Heritage Council.
Four new community-based crime prevention programs in Edmonton received $2.8 million in provincial funding this week. A partnership between the Edmonton Public Library and Boyle Street Community Services will receive $600,000 over three years.
Three groups have been asked to submit proposals to develop the northeast section of Anthony Henday Drive.
That’s one way to launch a new community: free helicopter rides were given for the grand opening of Granville. I guess “Edmonton’s newest community” could also earn the title of “Edmonton’s most unsustainable community”!
A couple of older headlines, in case you missed them. The former Bank of Montreal building and old Odeon theatre, located at the corner of Jasper Avenue and 101 Street, are going to be demolished if the City grants the necessary permits. Over in Chinatown, a new highrise condo project has been proposed.
For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com. Speaking of, congrats to Jeff and Sally on being named Best Local Blog in Edmonton! You can see the entire Best of Edmonton results here.
Vue Weekly also has some awards to share – check out the 2011 Golden Fork Awards here.
Check out this awesome HDR photo of Edmonton by Ian McKenzie.
The River Valley Trails Maps launch event takes place on Tuesday at the Muttart Conservatory.
Transit Oriented Development open houses continue this week with the next installment taking place at the West End Christian Reformed Church on Tuesday evening.
Edmonton Story Slam takes place on Wednesday evening at the Haven Social Club.
The Downtown Edmonton Community League is holding its AGM on Thursday evening at Yellowhead Brewery.
Also Wednesday evening is Cultivate 2011.
Friday night sees another poster show happening at Latitude 53, this one called “Where are we going?”
Hip Hop in the Park is coming up on Saturday.
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

It was a windy but lovely day Saturday for the City Market at City Hall. It returns to 104 Street this weekend!

Event posters!

Homeless Connect Edmonton 6

Edmonton’s sixth Homeless Connect took place today the Shaw Conference Centre. The biannual event brings together service agencies, businesses, and volunteers to provide a range of free services to homeless people or people at risk of becoming homeless. Guests can get a haircut, pick up a pair of work boots, learn how to get identification, eat lunch, and much, much more. Today was the fifth time that Sharon and I have volunteered at the event. Preliminary numbers for today put the number of volunteers at more than 300 and the number of guests served at 1409.

This year I was assigned the task of being a guide (I’ve done registration the last few times). Guides are responsible for taking a guest from registration to their first service. Along the way I tried to point out where all of the major services were located, suggesting that they check out clothing, dental, and haircuts first (as they are always the busiest). I found that being a guide was a great way to see all of the services, but it wasn’t quite as enjoyable for connecting with guests. The conversation you have at the registration table is much better for that.

Every guest receives a kit filled with essential items like socks, toothpaste, and deodorant.

Work boots are always a popular item at Homeless Connect. They go quickly!

The biggest line-ups today seemed to be for haircuts, always a popular service.

I was a little surprised to hear that more than 1400 people went through the doors today. That’s higher than it has been at previous Homeless Connect events, and is especially high for a spring event (the fall event tends to be busier because it is cold outside). Given that the number of homeless people decreased last year (at least according to the count) I would have expected a corresponding drop in attendance at Homeless Connect. Maybe there were more people at risk of being homeless there today.

I’m always struck by the social aspect of Homeless Connect. It’s an important opportunity for old friends to reconnect.

If you’d like to volunteer for the next Homeless Connect, scheduled for October, you can learn more here. Stay tuned to Homeless Connect Edmonton on Twitter for updates. You can see the rest of my photos from today here.

Leading the Way: LRT Dance Party in Edmonton

Ever wonder what a dance party on the LRT would look like? I had the opportunity last weekend to find out! The Saturday evening activity for delegates of the 2011 Youth Summit on Sustainable Transportation was a DJ Dance Party on a chartered ETS LRT train.

While we were touring the D.L. MacDonald LRT Garage in the afternoon, staff were busy getting the train prepared, adding streamers, disco balls, and lights to the interior. DJ Rob Wong also got setup with all of his gear and two giant speakers, one at each end of the train. After a quick dinner, we all boarded the party train! The train circled the garage a few times, apparently to make the most of our time.

We then travelled the length of the LRT line, from Clareview all the way to Century Park, before travelling back as far as Churchill Station to let some people off downtown. In all, we spent about an hour and half on the train.

The music was loud, and slowly but surely most people started dancing! It was easier than you’d think to dance on the moving train, though whenever there was a sudden jolt it was just another reason for everyone dancing to yell and cheer. There were a few people who chose to just sit through the entire experience. It kind of reminded me of a high school dance in that way – slow to get going, with some people sitting off to the side the entire time.

Here’s DJ Rob doing his thing:

Most of the dancing happened as we passed through a station. People on the platform would look at the train with bewilderment, and occasionally someone would give a thumbs up or clap. Faces filled with confusion just made everyone on the train dance and cheer even more! It became pretty obvious who among us were the exhibitionists. Here’s what it looked like for someone on the platform:

Unsurprisingly, the best part of the trip was the underground portion where it was darker. Tinted windows, dimmed lights, and some…uh, lubricant…would have made the dance party more like a dance party and less like a bunch of people moving around on the train! Maybe I’m just getting old.

That said, it was still a lot of fun. I absolutely love the concept of taking the LRT, normally seen as somewhat mundane (trains just get you from A to B), and using it for a completely different purpose. I think everyone enjoyed themselves! Obviously ETS doesn’t normally charter trains for this purpose, but I think they could if they wanted to. It’s certainly a unique experience!

You can see more photos here, and see more videos here.

June is Next Gen Month in Edmonton

Last night at the Muttart Conservatory, Edmonton’s NextGen relaunched its website and brand and, along with partners in the “little-n” next gen community, launched Next Gen Month. I think the situation here in Edmonton is rather unique – local next gen organizations are actively working together to make Edmonton a better place. There’s collaboration, rather than competition. Edmonton’s NextGen committee has done some great work recently to get all of the organizations connected and meeting regularly, and I think is starting to see itself more as a hub. That doesn’t mean that NextGen will stop pursuing its own events and initiatives, but there’s a growing awareness that one organization simply can’t represent the entire next gen community.

The big news from last night is that June is going to be Next Gen Month in Edmonton. The idea came about as organizers in the next gen community realized there’s a lot of stuff happening next month. Mayor Stephen Mandel and Councillor Don Iveson were in attendance last night to make the official proclamation:

Whereas, the City of Edmonton is dedicated to supporting young, passionate, community-minded individuals who are taking the future into their own hands by creating a city that attracts and gives voice to the next generation of Edmontonians;

And whereas, through events, leadership and professional development opportunities, next generation organizations are working together to foster young leaders and help provide critical input as the city continues to grow;

And whereas, the City of Edmonton recognizes the efforts of next gen organizations who are actively working to connect people, places, community and ideas together;

And whereas, all Edmontonians are encouraged to participate in activities hosted by next gen organizations through the month of June;

Therefore, I, Mayor Stephen Mandel, do hereby proclaim June 2011, as “Next Gen Month” in Edmonton, Alberta’s capital city.

As you can see, Edmonton’s NextGen now has a new, colorful logo. It was designed by Darren Tonn, Ryan Kelly, and Dennis Lenarduzzi of the Ad Club of Edmonton. They shared some of the design elements and rationale behind the new logo at last night’s event. It wasn’t immediately apparent to me, but if you focus on the blue lines you should see an “unfinished e”, designed to represent the fact that NextGen is still building in Edmonton. I think it does a much better job of conveying what NextGen is all about. You can see their presentation on the logo here.

The new logo is featured prominently on NextGen’s new website. Credit for the new site goes to Ashley Casovan, Devin Serink, Lisa Hagen, and Greg Crossfield, who all worked really hard to bring their vision to life. The site features a much-improved Committee page, a photo gallery, a news feed with blog posts from partners, an event calendar, and more. I had a hand in that last one – the event calendar and list of upcoming events is powered by ShareEdmonton! There’s obviously room for improvement, but the new site is a solid platform for the committee to build upon.

I’m encouraged by the things our next gen community is working on, and by the fact that we’re all working together. There’s a lot of work still be done, but I think we’re heading in the right direction. It seems that hyperbole abounds whenever one talks about the next gen community, but I really do think that we can make a difference here in Edmonton!

I think it’s fair to say that it was “the usual crowd” in attendance last night. For a launch event, I think that’s okay, but it’s definitely a challenge the next gen community will need to address moving forward. With somewhere around 265,000 Edmontonians in the target demographic (18-40) there’s a lot of people that we haven’t yet connected with. On that note, check out the event calendar, get involved, and tell a friend!

You can see more photos from last night’s event here.

Fringeopolis – The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival’s 30th Anniversary Edition

Fringe Theatre Adventures announced this afternoon the theme for the 30th anniversary edition of the popular summer festival: Fringeopolis.

The theme is a play on the “mini-municipality” that Old Strathcona turns into during the eleven days of the festival. The Fringe is inviting everyone to become a citizen of Fringeopolis for free on its website. You can also upgrade your membership by paying $20 to become a builder of Fringeopolis. Builders get a poster and program in addition to the benefits citizens receive (free transit with ETS, notifications, merchandise discounts, etc). I really love the concept, and I think they’re going to get a lot of traction with this theme. As an urbanite it definitely speaks to me.

From the press release:

“The Fringeopolis theme represents the city within a city that comes alive each August: a metropolis born of the creativity, artistic talent, innovation, and experimentation of our festival was founded on,” says Julian Mayne, Executive Director, Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. “As producers of The Fringe, we believe the evolution of theatre is fundamental to the evolution of community, and Fringeopolis speaks to our past as a creative community, as well as to our future.”

Sam Jenkins and Thomas Scott helped launch the new theme.

Also announced today was a collaboration with the Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC) of Jacmel, Haiti. Throughout the festival at KidsFringe, 10 young artists from the organization will create and perform folk stories and vignettes. EPL’s Writer-in-Residence Marty Chan is helping to develop the vignettes and Tanzanian author Tololwa Mollel is adapting the folk stories.

The Fringe is looking for more than 1200 volunteers for this year’s festival. Approximately 35,000 hours are dedicated to ensure the festival happens each year. You can learn more and fill out an application here. Be sure to check out Volunteer Edmonton’s 2011 Festival Volunteer Fair on Thursday at City Hall too.

The graphics and visual art for Fringeopolis was done by local artist Gabe Wong. I think it looks amazing!

Gabe Wong in front of his poster.

Last year nearly 160 productions by theatre companies played more than 40 stages across Edmonton. The festival also featured 200 outdoor performances and more than 50 busking acts. The Fringe sold 93,000 tickets last year, and more than 400,000 people visited the festival grounds. More than 1000 tickets sold on the first day of sales last year, and Frequent Fringer and Double Fringer passes were completely sold out in 24 hours. Make sure you get your tickets to this year’s event early!

Here’s a video created by Graphos for Fringeopolis:

Fringeopolis runs August 11 – 21, 2011 at venues throughout Old Strathcona and beyond. Stay tuned to the website or Twitter for more information in the weeks ahead! You can also see what others are saying on Twitter using the hashtag #yegfringe.

Leading the Way: 2011 Youth Summit on Sustainable Transportation

This weekend at the Lister Conference Centre on the University of Alberta campus, about 56 youth from across the prairies and territories are gathered to learn about and discuss public transit and sustainable transportation. Leading the Way is the first regional summit to take place in Canada, other chapters of the Canadian Urban Transit Association will follow suit with their own events later this year.

The conference kicked off last night with opening remarks from Charles Stolte, Manager of Edmonton Transit and Chair of the Canadian Urban Transit Association. He welcomed everyone and shared a few anecdotes from his many years of transit experience. We also heard from Kevin Joll, Manager of Red Deer Transit. He talked about the organizations Vision 2040, an initiative to define the role of public transit in Canada for a 30-year time horizon. He shared this video with us:

Next up was our keynote speaker, Edmonton City Councillor Don Iveson. He spoke about “making a difference” and shared some of his experiences with bringing the U-Pass to life. He had four main pieces of advice for delegates:

Make a strong argument.
Be patient.
Have fun.
Walk the talk.

He noted that it takes time for public transit projects to happen, so even if you make a strong argument you need to be patient. Having fun can help you be patient, and there’s no better way to destroy a strong argument than to not walk the talk!

His slides were fantastic, and contained lots of little nuggets:

“You come out ahead when you invest in public transit.”
If everyone around the world lived the way we do in Edmonton, we’d need about 4 planet Earths to sustain ourselves.
A bus with 12 people is a better investment than a Prius with 4 people. LRT, of course, is even better.

He closed with his popular video on transportation that uses Lego!

The rest of the evening was devoted to brainstorming on the six major questions posted to delegates. The questions align with Vision 2040, and by the end of the weekend each group is going to have a pitch ready to make in a Lion’s Lair competition. It should be interesting to see what everyone comes up with!

The conference runs all weekend, and includes tours of the D.L. MacDonald LRT Garage and the new LEED-certified Centennial Garage. There’s also going to be a dance party on a chartered LRT car! You can follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #LTWSummit. I’ll be posting photos of the event here.

Edmonton Notes for 5/1/2011

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Make sure you get out and vote tomorrow! You can follow the local election discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #yegfed.
City Council this week approved the proposed $132 million arch bridge that will replace the aging Walterdale Bridge.
Sharon has a good recap of the City Market’s decision to not proceed with the Mercer Warehouse as a year-round venue.
Both the Edmonton Public and Edmonton Catholic school administrations are facing tight financial situations that will affect staff and students in September.
Local singer Alyssa Reid has a hit song on the charts, but is known for her Bieber parody on YouTube.
More recognition for DONOVAN Creative’s rebranding project for the Edmonton Public Library! They’ve won the IFLA International Marketing Award for 2011.
Spring is here and that means the City is starting to clean our 4700 kilometers of roads. The operation which will remove about 180,000 tonnes of dirt and gravel is expected to take nine weeks. You can see the schedule here. Also – take the 15 to Clean Challenge!
The arena news this week had to do with seat mortgages, an idea being pushed by Stadium Capital. Here’s the Katz Group’s statement on the proposal.
Strathcona County Mayor Linda Osinchuk says that at any given time 40% of the beds at the Youth Emergency Shelter Society here in Edmonton are used by kids from Strathcona County, and she wants to explore building a shelter closer to home.
Thursday, April 28 was the 100th anniversary of the first public demonstration of flight here in Edmonton.
St. Albert ranks 18th on a list of the 25 worst commutes in Canada.
The City released details this week about Water’s Extreme Journey, a new feature coming to the Valley Zoo this summer.
Here’s a good article on Stantec’s recent success.
EEDC released its annual report this week, which you can read here in PDF.
Did you get up early this week to watch the Royal Wedding? There were lots of parties around the city, and an awful lot of tweeting for the middle of the night!
For more headlines from the past week, check out theedmontonian.com.
City and Dale is looking for contributors! You have until May 9 to make your submission.
Nominations are now being accepted for Edmonton’s fourth Poet Laureate.
The City of Edmonton is hosting a number of open houses highlighting the benefits of Transit Oriented Development (TOD). The first takes place on Tuesday evening at Avonmore Elementary School. Once again, this is an example of how NOT to do public involvement. These “open houses” are to provide information, but also for citizens to provide feedback. Will there be another opportunity? Who knows!
The first ever Tweet the Arts Meetup takes place on Thursday evening at The ARTery. Register here!
Also Thursday evening is Connections 2011, an opportunity to connect with City staff on programs and services. The venue change this year to City Hall is a welcome one.
A public meeting will be held on Thursday to discuss a new proposed business area in Central McDougall.
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

The signage went up on the EPCOR Tower this week. Understated!

Signs of spring! Photo by Morpheus_uk.

Recap: TEC VenturePrize 2011

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 (Calgary)

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 (Edmonton)

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:

Congrats to all of the participants and finalists this year, and of course to the winners! You can see more photos from today’s event here.

If you’re interested in participating in next year’s VenturePrize, check the website this fall for registration details. You can also follow @TECVenturePrize on Twitter.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: