TEC Talks

TEC Edmonton Executive-In-Residence Jason Ding is featured in edmontonstories.ca

TEC Edmonton — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:50:00 GMT

TEC Edmonton Executive-in-Residence Jason Ding is featured in the City of Edmonton's Edmonton stories website, and we're glad he has good things to say about TEC Edmonton!

MTI's metabolomic colon-cancer diagnosis technology is a hot topic at major North American medical conference

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:45:00 GMT

The Edmonton medical research and innovation community has closely followed the ground-breaking work of University of Alberta researchers Dr. Richard Fedorak and Dr. Haili Wang, using the exciting new science of metabolomics to identify adenomatous polyps in the colon through a simple, highly effective and non-invasive urine test.

Using breakthroughs in cellular metabolism, metabolomics medical technology can now identify “fingerprint” profiles in a single spot urine sample that alert doctors to the presence of various cancers and other abnormalities in the body.

Drs. Fedorak and Wang are using metabolomic profiles to detect adenomatous polyps, a precursor to colon cancer, in the colon.

Dr. Fedorak and Dr. Wang’s latest research results will now be shared with colon cancer experts from around the world. The team has been asked to present its findings at one of the most important annual gathering of those experts, the Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Conference, being held in San Diego, California, USA from May 19 to May 22, 2012.

Of great interest to the international colon cancer research community is the fact a second urine spot test, once polyps have been removed through surgery, confirms the fact that all pre-cancerous polyps have indeed been removed.

The patient and his doctor can breathe easy, or, if the metabolomics test still shows signs of pre-cancerous polyps, a follow-up colonoscopy can determine if any polyps went undetected during the initial operation.

Being invited to present research findings at the DDW Conference is an honour unto itself. Many researchers apply, through the presentation of “abstracts” or descriptions of their research, to peer-review panels who then decide which presentations should be heard by the conference at large.

Through the Edmonton Stop Colorectal Cancer through Prevention and Education (SCOPE) program, Drs. Fedorak and Wang’s research team examined 1,200 patients who had all had three tests for colon polyps – a physical colonoscopy, a fecal-based test for polyps and the urine-based metabolomic test.

The urine-based metabolomic test detected polyps 70-80% of the time, contrasting with fecal-based polyp detection tests with a 3-15% accuracy.

Extending the previous study, the researchers then looked at 243 patients who during their colonoscopy had polyps detected and subsequently removed. Before the initial colonoscopy, researchers collected a single spot urine sample from each participant. Of these individuals, 139 provided a second spot urine test for metabolomic tests, 1 to 3 years after their polyp removal, to compare with the first result.

The researchers found that the initial abnormal metabolomic fingerprint profile from the first test did in fact revert back to a normal state once the polyp (or polyps) was removed.

The implications of this advanced research are most promising for world-wide colon cancer screening programs.

Patients would far rather take a urine test than collect their own fecal matter samples for testing, thus improving the odds on colon cancer prevention.

The results of the urine-based spot testing are proving to be far more accurate than fecal matter testing, thus dramatically reducing the need for follow-up colonoscopies searching for pre-cancerous polyps in the colon.

The follow-up urine test can act as an inexpensive confirmation (or not) that all polyps have been removed.

Dr Fedorak and his team are currently conducting a similar clinical trial in China to determine if the test can alsoa be used in the Chinese population.

The current cost of the test is $50-100. That cost should drop as the test is further refined and produced in greater volumes, Dr. Fedorak said. Current, less-accurate fecal tests cost $15-25 per test.

Funding for this study was provided by the Center of Excellence for Gastrointestinal Inflammation and Immunity Research at the University of Alberta.

TEC Edmonton is assisting Drs. Fedorak and Wang in the establishment of Metabolomics Technologies Inc., a University of Alberta spin-out company to commercialize their ground-breaking colon cancer preventive research.

Dr. Fedorak and Wang will present these data at TIME on May 22, 2012 in ROOM, San Diego Convention Center.

It takes a community: Thanks to all the sponsors and volunteers at the 10th Annual TEC VenturePrize Awards from TEC Edmonton

TEC Edmonton — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:41:00 GMT

The 2012 TEC VenturePrize Awards are a wrap. Produced by TEC Edmonton, the 10^th annual awards and dinner are being called the best VenturePrize Awards ever.

VenturePrize is much more than its NanoVenturePrize, Fast Growth and Student competitions for Alberta-based innovative startup companies.

It’s even greater than its $300,000+ in prize money and services.

It’s a celebration of Alberta’s burgeoning innovation/high tech/start up business sector, of its hundreds of risk-taking entrepreneurs, of bringing recognition and awareness to the sector with its huge importance to future economic development.

The TEC VenturePrize Awards could not possibly have been carried off without a huge community effort.

As the saying goes, it takes a community to raise a company.

So here’s a host of thanks to the small army of volunteers and organizations who dedicated time, energy, cash and services to making the TEC VenturePrize Awards 2012 such a success.

Organizations/Companies

Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures: AITF’s Youth Technopreneurship and AITF’s NanoAlberta programs, for prize funding.

The Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald: For the special VenturePrize sections leading up to the awards; for news coverage of the event and several of the contestants.

NovaNAIT, The Business Link, Innovate Calgary, Medicine Hat College and the University of Lethbridge: For providing venues, technical services and staffing for the educational component of VenturePrize. Innovate Calgary also hosted the presentation training boot camp.

Dynacor Media: All the video production.

Edmonton Economic Development Corporation: For its assistance in staging the show this year in Hall D at the Shaw Conference Centre.

Field Law: For providing cash sponsorship, volunteer mentors and seminar leaders.

Alberta Women Entrepreneurs: For volunteer mentor coordination and mentorship.

ProGrid Evaluation Solutions: Software provision.

TMX (Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange): Long-time financial support and volunteer judges.

The entire judging, screening of entries for the three categories, mentoring of contestants and setup of the VenturePrize contestant educational seminar series is done by volunteers.

And here they are:

Fast Growth Judges:

Shawn Abbott (iNovia Capital)
Warren Bergen (AVAC)
Rod Charko (Alberta Enterprise Fund)
Roy Homyshin (TSX Venture Exchange)

Student Business Plan Judges:

Colin Christensen (Signa Venture Development)
Troy Deck (Meyers Norris Penny)
Chris LaBoissiere (Yardstick)
Jim Spiers (Right Field Marketing)

NanoVenturePrize Judges:

Alfred Fischer (Quadrise Canada Corporation)
Don Kjosness (CapitalRoad Foundation)
Mike Weiner (Technology Innovations LLC)

Fast Growth Screeners

Chris Astle (CastlePoint Consulting)
Pierre Cormier (Paulson Cormier and Associates)
Stuart Johnston (AMA)
Peter Kinkaide (MNP)
Lucas Matheson (Capital Power )
Gord Meeberg (Insignus Consulting)
Spencer Ord (Deloitte)
Dennis Pommen (Pommen Group)
Sam Soliman (310-DUMP)
Lisa Spinks (Alberta Innovates – Energy & Environment Solutions)
Ted Yoo (Bennett Jones)

NanoVenturePrize Screeners

David Antoniuk (Guiding Business Transitions)
Stephen Bates (PMC-Sierra Inc.)
Keith Gillard (Panagaea Ventures Ltd.)
Leigh Hill (Managing for Results)
Rainer Iraschko (TR Labs)
Jose Raez (National Research Council)
Mark Redmond (Institute for Reconstruction Sciences in Medicine)
Diana Shaw (Institute for Reconstruction Sciences in Medicine)

Mentors

Fernanda Badano (iSoftStone)
Peter Bradbury (retired)
William Buchkowsky (Deloitte)
Bill Cogan (Mackintosh Consulting)
Pierre Cormier (Paulson Cormier & Associates)
Colin Christensen (Signa Venture Development)
Phil Doublet (Doublet Management and Consulting)
Lisa Deutscher (Checkone2 Enterprises)
Craig Elias (InnerSell)
Brian Goheen (Chiro Foods)
Norm Greenwood (Greenwood 2 Management & Operations)
Ted Heidrick (University of Alberta)
Peter Kinkaide (MNP Corporate Finance )
Van Konrad (MBA Associates)
Glynis Middleton (G. Whiz Business Services)
Jason Munsch (EPCOR)
Marty Park (Evolve Business Group)
Wayne Peters (Online Business Systems)
Dennis Pommen (Pommen Group)
David Saxby (Spark Communications)
Tracey Scarlett (Alberta Women Entrepreneurs)

Mentorship Matching

Sheila Shand (Alberta Women Entrepreneurs)

Seminar Series

Lloyd Steier (School of Business, University of Alberta)
Grant Cool (Alberta Deal Generator)
Phil Payne (AIM Capital Corp.)
Randy Marsden (Clean Keys)
Rick Pabst (Field Law)
Tom O’Reilly (Field Law)
Terri Susan Zurbigg (Field Law)
Ted Kouri (Incite)
Doug Mclean (Incite)
Stephen Kent (PWC)
Cathy Goulet (The Business Link)
Cameron Schuler (VibeDx Diagnostics)
Greg Kawchuk (VibeDx Diagnostics)
Anthony Au (VibeDx Diagnostics)

Media Training Workshop

RiverCity Productions – Marilyn Jones

And a great big thank you to TEC Edmonton’s Kendel Ferrier as VenturePrize overall coordinator, event manager Jennifer Roggeveen of jenn r Events, associate James Murgatroyd of James Murgatroyd Communications and TEC Edmonton’s Alexandra Bayley, Vicki Chekan, Audrey Dolinski and Erik Einsiedel for assisting at the event registration desk.

The Alberta-wideTEC VenturePrize Awards would not exist without TEC Edmonton devoting enormous amounts of staff time, effort and financial assistance as the event’s producer. Thank you to CEO Chris Lumb and all the TEC Edmonton gang for making VenturePrize work.

WELL DONE, ALL!

Ten year mentor/screener volunteers honoured at TEC VenturePrize - Colin Christensen, Brian Goheen, Ted Heidrick, Van Konrad, Gord Meeberg, Dennis Pommen, Sam Soliman, Lloyd Steier & Ted Yoo

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:41:00 GMT

It was a rather remarkable pre-event reception held last Thursday April 26, 2012 at the Shaw Conference Centre, before the doors opened to all 550-plus guests attending the 10th Annual TEC VenturePrize Awards and Dinner Celebration.

The reception was held to honour the great business mentors and organizations that have worked with TEC VenturePrize on a volunteer basis since it began 10 years ago, never missing a year, putting in countless hours of volunteer mentoring of all the entrants, of screening the applicants and being the actual judges.

TEC VenturePrize, you see, is much more than the mere handing out of awards and prizes to rising new innovative Alberta companies. It's also a business education program for all the entrants, providing them with a series of seminars and one-on-one business advice free of charge.

Nine seasoned entrepreneurs have felt so strongly about the need for such a program that they have never missed a year of helping out with no compensation other than a sense of satisfaction.

In alphabetical order ...

Colin Christensen: This seasoned entrepreneur has been a star volunteer with VenturePrize, a mentor since the beginning, now also a screener (a preliminary judge, taking the entrants down to a manageable number for the final judges) and a student competition judge.

Brian Goheen: The president and CEO of the Chiro franchise restaurant chain, boasting 600 employees, has quietly offered his services as a mentor to VenturePrize entrants since the program's inception.

Ted Heidrick: Recently retired as a professor of engineering at the University of Alberta and the university's coordinator of the MBA program in technology commercialization, Ted has always taken on more than his share of applicants asking for his services as a mentor. Several of his mentored contestants have made it to the VenturePrize finals.

Van Konrad: The president of MBA Associates is a popular mentor often asked for specifically by contestants (word gets around - applicants are invited to choose who'd they like to work with from the volunteer mentors leading up to the contest presentations) thanks to his business coaching skills and personality.

Gord Meeberg: The president of Insignus Consulting and a senior project manager for EPCOR has been a VenturePrize mentor for nine years, then last year added being a screener to his VenturePrize roles.

Dennis Pommen: This serial entrepreneur, currently president of the Pommen Group, is consistently a favourite applicant mentor.

Sam Soliman: The Chief Financial Officer of 310-DUMP is now an expert screener, having reviewed at least 40 VenturePrize business plan applications over the last 10 years. He has provided valuable feedback to dozens upon dozens of budding entrepreneurs.

Lloyd Steier: A distinguished professor in the U of A's School of Business (Chair and Academic Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise, Academic Director of the Alberta Business Family Institute and Professor of Strategic Management and Organization), Dr. Lloyd still found the time to set up the original educational component of VenturePrizes Student Competition. The educational template is still in use by VenturePrize today. Lloyd was also the founder and lead facilitator of the VenturePrize seminar series and continues to be an active volunteer helping with the student competition category.

Ted Yoo: A patent agent and lawyer with Bennett-Jones, Ted has been a screener for VenturePrize since the very start, and by now he knows a good business plan when he sees one!

Also acknowledged and given a standing ovation (OK the people were standing in any case!) was VenturePrize executive producer and TEC Edmonton Communications Director Kendel Ferrier. The organizer of the awards since its start, Kendel is the glue that holds the awards together and has in no small part been responsible for VenturePrize's remarkable success over the years.

WELL DONE ALL!!!! VENTUREPRIZE CONTESTANTS OVER THE YEARS SALUTE YOU!!!

Meet your future employees at the Alberta Graduate Conference May 3 to 5, 2012 at the University of Alberta

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:52:00 GMT

Employers, here’s your chance to hire the brightest and the best.

The Second Annual Alberta Graduate Conference takes place at the University of Alberta in several different locations from Thursday May 3 to Saturday May 5.

Students from every discipline will be in attendance, wanting to meet and trade ideas (and possible employment opportunities) with industry leaders.

Key industry events include the welcome reception at the engineering Teaching and Learning Complex on the U of A camps Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.; The Career Mixer featuring From the Forge into the Fire at the U of A’s downtown enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Ave. on Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Closing Reception will be held back at the Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex on the U of A campus from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

“From the Forge into the Fire” is a contest format modeled on The Dragon’s Den TV show, where in front of all attending the Career Mixer, students will pitch their ideas, for cash prizes, to leading experts and investors.

Registration is still open for employers - $50 per individual for one-day attendance, $125 to set up a display table and have a visual presence at the Career Mixer on Friday, and $125 per individual for full conference attendance.

The Alberta Graduate Conference is a tremendous opportunity for companies looking for young and talented individuals who can help them to the next level.

More information and registration at the Alberta Graduate Conference website.

And the 2012 TEC VenturePrize Winners are ... Parvus Therapeutics, Innovative Trauma Care and Orphyx Medical Technologies

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:18:00 GMT

A simple medical clamp, a possible autoimmune disease breakthrough and new technology to assist diabetics were the big winners of the Alberta-wide 2012 TEC VenturePrize business plan competition.

The awards were determined and presented at the biggest event ever produced by TEC Edmonton. Over 550 leaders from the province's thriving innovation, startup and high-tech sectors attended the 10th Annual VenturePrize Awards and Dinner celebration on Thursday, April 26 in Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre.

Winning the very first NanoVenturePrize Category was Parvus Therapeutics Inc. of Calgary. Parvus’ nanomedicines may hold the cure for difficult-to-treat autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Their new Navacim medicines are nanoparticles coated with immune system proteins that can target specific autoimmune conditions. The NanoVenturePrize runner-up was Aquila Diagnostics Inc. of Edmonton.

The new NanoVenturePrize competition is the first of its kind in Western Canada, with a prize of $175,000 in cash, goods and services.

NanoVenturePrize is a partnership between Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures (AITF) and TEC Edmonton, launched to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the VenturePrize Competition. The awards and dinner celebration was attended by more than 500 members of Alberta’s innovation sector at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on April 26, 2012.

The finalists made their presentations and were judged during the dinner, which also featured a keynote address from former Deputy Prime Minister the Honourable A. Anne McLellan about innovation being critical to Alberta’s future well-being.

In the Fast Growth Category, Innovative Trauma Care Inc. of Edmonton won the Grand Prize. As a combat trauma surgeon, Innovative Trauma Care founder and CEO Dr. Dennis Filips was a firsthand witness to bleeding as a leading cause of battlefield deaths. Now a civilian surgeon and entrepreneur, he is committed to inventing point-of-injury solutions. Innovative Trauma Care’s first product, the ITClamp, is a hand-held device that stops bleeding and saves lives by instantly sealing a wound until surgical repair. The runner-up was Pedpad Inc. of Calgary.

The winner in the Fast Growth competition receives more than $80,000 in cash, goods and services, with the runner-up receiving $38,000. To date, this competition has awarded more than $1.5 million to help Alberta entrepreneurs grow their companies.

Orpyx Medical Technologies of Calgary won the Student Category with new medical technology for diabetics who have lost all feeling in their feet. Hidden in the user’s shoe is a device that wirelessly transmits foot pressure data to a pad worn on the user’s back. The user’s brain begins to “rewire” to accept sensory input from the lower back as being that from the feet, detecting foot ulcers and infections that otherwise could go unnoticed. Orpyx was the winner of the Calgary-region Student Technology Innovation Challenge (STIC). The runners-Up were Enercal Data Systems from the University of Calgary and CitizenBridge from the University of Lethbridge.

First prize for the Student category is $20,000 and the two runner-up prizes are $7,500.

The Screeners’ Award of Merit went to Raw-Bitz of Valleyview, Alberta, for its quality solutions to rabbit producers seeking to process and market fresh and frozen rabbit meat. With a dedicated facility specifically designed to handle this custom processing (no other facility of this kind currently exists in Alberta), Raw-Bitz is well positioned to penetrate the $888 million Alberta pet food industry.

The annual TEC VenturePrize Awards is a program administered by TEC Edmonton on behalf of many partners from across the province, with special thanks to Alberta Innovate for its prize funding. VenturePrize and its associated educational programs for entrants provide training, professional support and financial incentives to help people build or enhance viable innovative businesses in Alberta . For more information on the VenturePrize program, visit www.ventureprize.com.

Gonna be a good time tonight: 600 expected at the 10th annual VenturePrize Awards and Dinner

TEC Edmonton — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:21:00 GMT

It's here, it's here, it's finally here.

The 10th annual TEC VenturePrize Awards and Dinner is underway in just a few hours at the Shaw Conference Centre.

We're calling it the "Innovation Party of the Year" because it truly is a celebration of Alberta's technology/innovation/startup business sector and the amount of business that's now happening in the sector ... from a trickle just a few years ago to a torrent today. (In 2006 TEC Edmonton helped out maybe 20 fledgling high-tech companies. In 2011, we were advising over 80.)

The evening starts with a 10-year sponsor and volunteer reception at 4:30 p.m., honouring all the individuals who've helped out over the entire 10 years with mentoring, screening and judging, plus the sponsors who've hung in since VenturePrize originated back in 2002 as a joint awards project between the U of A and what's now the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation.

For the seven finalists in the Fast Growth, Nano and Student Competition categories, the day began earlier. They've been making their complete pitches to the judges . Each gets a last few minutes to make an "elevator pitch" at the awards dinner itself, but this is where all the details are examined.

The reception starts at 5:15 with 45 minutes for that networking thing, then the program starts at 6 p.m., dinner served at 6:30 p.m., the awards process gets underway at 7:30 p.m.

While the judges huddle in another room to make their final decisions, former Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan will deliver the keynote address, "innovation in Alberta, is it alive and well?" Ms. McLellan sat on the Premier's Council for Economic Strategy: Shaping Alberta's Future, and she has a great interest in the role technology can play in shaping that future.

Finally the judges will announce their decisions, with the lucky three category winners walking away with over $300,000 total in prizes ... all designed to speed up the progress of their fledgling businesses.

It's going to be fun and educational, with full reports coming up next week in TEC Talk.

TEC Edmonton client Ceapro expanding into its own oat-extract manufacturing plant

TEC Edmonton — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:26:00 GMT

Ceapro is one of Edmonton's, and all Canada’s, best-kept secrets.

You may never have heard of the company, but it’s a world leader when it comes to products made from oats.

That’s right – oats.

Walk down your supermarket’s personal-care aisle, and you’ll be surrounded by products with “ingredients by Ceapro”, such as specialized major brand-name shampoos, moisturizers and anti-itch lotions.

If you were magically transported to Japan to walk the aisles of a veterinary clinic or an animal hospital, you’d find pet products made from Ceapro’s oat extract products – pet shampoos, ear treatments and skin conditioners.

In China, the use of Ceapro ingredients shifts yet again, to pharmaceutical preparations for specific medical purposes.

“We’re a world leader in specialized oat products,” says Ceapro Chief Scientific Officer David Fielder.

Ceapro’s actual manufacturing space is soon to move out of the nearby Leduc Agri-Processing Business Incubator. Thanks to a commercialization acceleration grant from Alberta Innovates – Bio Solutions, Ceapro will soon have its own dedicated plant.

TEC Edmonton has been assisting Ceapro with business planning, and Ceapro's lab and headquarters are located in the TEC Centre, on the fourth floor of Enterprise Square in the heart of Edmonton's downtown.

Ceapro’s story began in 1997, when Fielder was involved in developing a commercially viable means of extracting avenanthramide and beta-glucan from oat kernels. “Mind you, it takes a ton of raw oats to make a few tablespoons of avenanthramide, which is our flagship skin-care product,” says Fielder.

There have been ups-and-downs along the way, but today Ceapro is a well-established company with 22 employees in the Edmonton area. Revenues from its manufactured products resulted in 2010 sales of $5.6 million.

You need sunglasses to gaze at the bright sun of Ceapro’s future.

The world is interested in natural products that work. Ceapro’s oat technologies, and now other plant-based extracts, fill the bill.

As the baby-boomers age, they are looking to natural oat products for moisturizers and anti-aging formulas. The anti-inflammatory properties of ingested oats may alleviate the stiffness of old age. Oat extracts have been shown to lower cholesterol levels, stabilize blood sugar levels and promote general cardiovascular health.

Ceapro’s strength lies in its field-to-formulation expertise. The company knows how to select the best oats for its products, about the extraction of active ingredients through Ceapro’s patented process technologies, about oat-based consumer health and cosmetic products that can compete on both price-point and quality in the global marketplace.

Its latest research initiative, for instance, concerns a new process to produce a dry, cotton-candy-like oat extract – easier and cheaper to transport than the current liquid extracts, with advantages in certain personal care, medical and food formulations.

There’s also other, new, plant extracts.

Expanding on its plant chemistry experience, Ceapro developed a hair product from sweet blue lupin, a legume introduced to Ceapro by Alberta Agriculture researchers. The active ingredient has been successfully extracted on a commercial scale and is now used in brand-name hair products to extend the life of applied hair dye.

With Canada’s National Research Council, Ceapro has established a lab in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island to screen new plant extracts for potential health benefits. With Agriculture Canada and commercial growers on the island, Ceapro is looking at possible benefits from a new variety of spearmint, licensed exclusively to Ceapro by the University of Guelph.

Fielder is not only confident, he’s certain that Ceapro will have new, breakthrough, specialized plant-extract ingredients to sell to the companies that make the skin and hair-care products, just as new opportunities emerge in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications.

“It’s just a matter of time,” he says.

Startup Edmonton classes for designing mobile aps, iOS development and "programming for non-programmers"

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:51:00 GMT

Startup Edmonton Classes

Looking to hone your skills and knowledge as you get your startup rolling? We're excited that our new lineup of startup courses and workshops are starting on April 25th. Whether it’s connecting with other startups, building a product, or reaching out to customers, our courses and experienced industry mentors help get your startup rolling.

From evening courses to day long workshops, here's a sample of what we’ve got in store:

Designing For Mobile
Instructor: Blaine Bertsch
Millions of smartphones and tablets are fuelling the mobile revolution. This course provides you with an understanding of the essential building blocks and constraints involved in designing great user experiences on mobile devices. You’ll discover the difference between mobile websites, HTML5 web apps, and native apps, and how to approach user interface design and content structure for your mobile product.

Program dates: Wednesday, April 25 (5:30pm-7pm)
Length: 1.5 hours
Program fees: $29 + taxes/fees, Register HERE

Introduction to iOS Development
Instructors: Cam Linke & Sean Healy
Are you a developer looking to get into iOS development? This course will help you take the first step in creating native apps for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The course covers Objective-C language basics and is designed to get experienced object-oriented developers comfortable creating iOS apps. You’ll get an overview of the hardware and software capabilities of iOS devices, as well as a tour of iOS development tools and the SDK.

Date: Saturday, April 28 (9:00AM - 5:00PM)
Length: 7.5 hours
Program cost: $149 + taxes/fees, register HERE

Everybody Can Code: Programming for Non-Programmers
Instructor: Mark Bennett
Ever wanted to learn how to code? Have an idea that you want to build? Need to be able to communicate better with your development team? Want to learn the “literacy of the 21st century”? Everybody Can Code teaches the basics of computer programming to people who have never written a line of code. By the end of the course you will have a solid understanding of what computer programming is, understand the basic concepts, be able to read and write basic basic programs, and even build your first website. This will give you a solid base to build on and learn further topics in programming.

Program dates: Monday, April 30 (Part I) & Monday, May 7 (Part II) (5:30pm-9pm)
Length: 7.5 hours
Program cost: $149 + taxes/fees, register HERE

Additional upcoming courses are listed HERE.

Analytics Recruiters Reception

The Analytics Conference features a Recruiters Reception April 24th for Conference delegates PLUS Students - ABCampus and Entrepreneurs - Startup Edmonton and Calgary

Finalist of the Analytics Hackathon will be presenting at this event. Come and see what they have developed.

Date: Tuesday, April 24th
Time: 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Cost: $25.00

Purchase tickets HERE.

Analytics Conference

Athabasca University, Alberta School of Business and Albert Council of Technologies present Analytics, Big Data, and the Cloud Conference.

Join the top Analytics practitioners in Alberta, business leaders, professionals, researchers, and policy analysts who will gather to:

learn about Analytics tools and advanced techniques – for increasing productivity
get engaged in probing current and anticipated Analytics applications
network with pan-Alberta suppliers and customers, students/entrepreneurs and emerging leaders
identify barriers to success and resolutions for advancing Alberta’s Analytics industry.

Date: April 23-25, 2012
Location: Fantasyland Conference Centre, Edmonton, Alberta
Cost: $495 - Register HERE

Startup Edmonton is a social enterprise working to amplify creative innovation and activate startups in our community.
It's led by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.

Fan us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter info@startupedmonton.com startupedmonton.com

Live-streaming of the Analytics, Big Data and the Cloud conference in Edmonton

TEC Edmonton — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:37:00 GMT

The Analytics, Big Data and the Cloud conference taking place in Edmonton at the Fantasyland Hotel April 23 to 25 will be live-streamed.

Of particular interest on a general level will be the first days' keynote speaker, Michal Levy of Yissum Inc. who will tell the story of how Israel and the Hebrew University become a world-leading hotbed of innovation. Michal will be speaking at 7 p.m. Mountain Time.

For details on the conference, the live broadcast and access to it, please visit BESTofANALYTICS.com or ABCtech.

Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence has a TEC Edmonton connection

TEC Edmonton — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:21:00 GMT

Long an international leader in waste management, the City of Edmonton is taking the first steps to spread its made-in-Edmonton waste technologies around the world.

And TEC Edmonton is proud to be playing a role.

Edmonton Mayor Steve Mandel recently returned from a China sales trip with two Memorandums of Understanding (the first step in doing business overseas) to explore the possibility of helping the mega-city of Beijing design, build and operate waste disposal and recycling operations similar to Edmonton’s vaunted city-run Waste Management Centre.

Born out of a landfill crisis many decades ago, the Waste Management Centre now consists of a waste processing and transfer centre, a giant composter that turns organic waste into clean soil, the GEEP electrical and electronic waste recycling operation, tire recycling and construction & demolition recycling centres.

Opening this year will be Greys Paper and Glass Recycling, making paper products from recycled paper plus used fabrics, specialty bricks from waste glass. When a now-under-construction leading edge biofuels plant opens in 2014, producing ethanol from burning trash, only 10% of Edmonton’s waste will end up in a landfill.

Nearby is the EPCOR Gold Bar Waste Water Treatment Plant, again a world leader in water treatment technologies and the recycling of specially treated waste water for industrial use.

Recently, the city and its partners – Alberta Innovates-Technology Solutions, AMEC, EPCOR, NAIT, and the University of Alberta – created the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence as a facility in which to both further waste management research, and to “commercialize” (i.e. sell) the made-in-Edmonton waste technologies developed at the Waste Management Centre and the Gold Bar Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Which is where TEC Edmonton enters the picture: TEC’s business consultants are assisting the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence in developing its business plan, an IT infrastructure and a strategy to market, as proposed Mayor Mandel to an interested Chinese audience, our waste management solutions around the world.

Read the Edmonton Journal’s story on Chinese interest in our regional waste technology, entitled “Edmonton may help design waste management projects in China, mayor says,” by reporter Gordon Kent and published on April 16, 2012.

World class innovation in Northern Alberta - Hicks on Biz column in the Edmonton Sun, April 14, 2012 - with a nod to TEC Edmonton

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:47:00 GMT

Here's a link to the Hicks on Biz column published in the Edmonton Sun on April 14 entitled "World-Class Innovation", arguing made-in-Northern-Alberta technology is world class, given the remarkable progress of innovation and inventions to exploit the oilsands in a commercial, sustainable way. P.S. the innovation is just beginning.

Couple of mentions of the 10th TEC VenturePrize Dinner and Celebration April 26, 2012, starting at 5 p.m. in the Shaw Conference Centre's Hall D in Edmonton, are in the column.

Be there at the VenturePrize Awards "Innovation Party of the Year" or be square!

Tickets are $80 or a table of 10 for $720 and be easily ordered online at www.ventureprize.com

Original VenturePrize winner Scanimetrics featured in Edmonton Journal business story

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:36:00 GMT

TEC Edmonton alumnus Scanimetrics, winner of the very first VenturePrize award in 2003, has been written up in the Edmonton Journal business section on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. The story is entitled "Small solution to big problem: Edmonton firm's tiny sensors help Syncrude avoid huge repair bills."

Good to see a home-grown company, a spinoff of research from the University of Alberta, start to see serious success after years of hard slogging. Led by Syncrude's favourable reviews of Scanimetrics stress-sensing miniature technology, Scanimetrics' stress measuring solutions are being examinated for all kinds of other global appliations.

VenturePrize 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the prizes, with a gala dinner and awards night planned at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on Thursday, April 26.

Tickets are $80, or $720 for a table of 10 and can be purchased online at www.ventureprize.com

CityTV Edmonton interviews two TEC VenturePrize Award finalists

TEC Edmonton — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:23:00 GMT

Breakfast TV host Ryan Jespersen does a great job interviewing two of our finalists in theTEC VenturePrize competition clip aired on CityTV Edmonton on the morning of Wed. April 4, 2012, Dr. Dennis Filips of Innovative Trauma Care fame and Dr. Jason Acker of Aquila Diagnostics.

As the video shows, Dr. Filips had Ryan squirming a touch as he demonstrated how his wound-closing clamp works, even though it wasn't on skin. Dr. Acker was showing how nano-technology can provide thumbnail sized inexpensive media diagnostic tools that are portable and easy to use.

Aquila is a finalist in the Nano VenturePrize category, with the winner taking home $50,000 cash, the runner-up $25,000. In Innovative Trauma Care's Fast Growth category, $35,000 goes to the winner and $15,000 to the runner-up. The total prize money in the two categories plus the student competition is over $250,000.

VenturePrize is an industry and organization sponsored award evening to encourage startup high-tech entrepreneurship in Alberta. This year's TEC VenturePrize Awards is the tenth year of the event.

The 10th Annual TEC VenturePrize Dinner and Awards Celebration will be held in Hall D of the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on Thursday, April 26, with an expected 600 guests representing Alberta's exponentially growing technology and innovation sector.

The evening's keynote speaker will be the Honourable Anne McLennan, former deputy prime minister of Canada. As a member of former Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's Council for Economic Strategy, she takes great interest in, and is an advocate for, Alberta's innovation and technology sectors.

Tickets for the event, complete with a networking reception beforehand, are a most reasonable $80, or $720 for a table of 10, and are available online at our TEC VenturePrize web page.

TEC VenturePrize finalist Innovative Trauma Care featured in Postmedia newspapers across Canada

TEC Edmonton — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:28:00 GMT

Edmonton Journal business writer Dave Cooper and videographer Larry Wong combined for an excellent story/online video about TEC Edmonton client and TEC VenturePrize Fast Growth category finalist Dr. Dennis Filips and his company, Innovative Trauma Care.

The story, entitled New clamp will save thousands, was featured on the front page of the print edition of the Edmonton Journal on April 3, 2012, was also published in print and online versions of the Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times-Colonist, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Windsor Star, Ottawa Citizen, Windsor Star and the Postmedia central online portal, Canada.com.

It's been a breath-taking time for Dr. Filips and his company. In March, Innovative Trauma Care won the Top Innovation Award at the Life Science and Health Care Ventures Summit in New York City, a conference hosted by a consortium of venture capital funds.

This year's TEC VenturePrize Awards is the tenth year of the event, and as such, the TEC Edmonton program is being done up in grand style. The 10th Annual TEC VenturePrize Dinner and Awards Celebration will be held in Hall D of the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on Thursday, April 26, with an expected 600 guests representing Alberta's exponentially growing technology and innovation sector.

The total prize money going to the winners and runner-ups of the three VenturePrize categories - Fast Growth, Student Business Plan and the new NanoVenturePrize - now totals over $250,000. The stakes are high!

The evening's keynote speaker will be the Honourable Anne McLennan, former deputy prime minister of Canada. As a member of former Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's Council for Economic Strategy, she takes great interest in, and is an advocate for, Alberta's innovation and technology sectors.

Tickets for the event, complete with a networking reception beforehand, are a most reasonable $80, or $720 for a table of 10, and are available online at our TEC VenturePrize web page.

What finance minister Jim Flaherty had to say about science and technology investment in today's budget speech

TEC Edmonton — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:28:00 GMT

(An except from federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget speech, relating to science and technology investment. Items of particular importance to the TEC Edmonton audience are bold-faced.)

"As part of our plan for jobs and growth, our government has made very substantial investments in science and technology. Such investments are necessary to help sustain a modern, competitive economy. They encourage innovation - new ideas, which lead to new products and services, and ultimately to new, highly skilled, well-paying jobs. The key is to leverage private sector investment in research and development.

"In spite of our efforts so far, Canada is not keeping up with other advanced economies on this crucial front.

"In response to the Jenkins Report on innovation, we will provide substantial new funding to make it easier for entrepreneurs to access venture capital.

"We will extend our efforts to promote small business innovation, through government procurement contracts.

" We will provide new investments to support innovation and market development in the forestry sector.

"We will double our investments through the Industrial Research Assistance Program.

"We will provide new support for partnerships between businesses and universities.

"We will make new investments in advanced research infrastructure on our college and university campuses.

"We will streamline and improve the tax incentive program for business innovation, and reinvest the savings in direct support.

"We will also review the government's science and technology organizations, to make them more effective in translating ideas from the lab to the marketplace.

"The result will be to position Canada to succeed in the knowledge economy of the 21st century. We will be able to build more globally competitive companies. Those companies will create more well-paying jobs and a greater quality of life for all Canadians."

Innovative Trauma Care, Pedpad, Aquila Diagnostics + Parvus Therapeutics vie for top prizes in 2012 TEC VenturePrize business awards

TEC Edmonton — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:02:00 GMT

TEC Edmonton Reveals Finalists For
The 10^th Annual VenturePrize Competition

EDMONTON, Alberta, March 28, 2012 – TEC VenturePrize is pleased to announce the finalists for its Fast Growth and NanoVenturePrize competitions. The winners will be decided at the 10^th Annual TEC VenturePrize Dinner & Awards Celebration Thursday, April 26, 2012 at the Shaw Conference Centre.

The stakes are high. Aspiring Alberta entrepreneurs compete to win funding and services that will launch their new companies. The Fast Growth competition winner receives $80,000 in cash, goods and services, with the runner-up receiving $38,000. The new NanoVenturePrize category comes with $175,000 worth of cash, goods and services.

Coordinated by TEC Edmonton, the VenturePrize program provides training, professional support and financial incentives to help innovative Alberta entrepreneurs build or enhance viable businesses. Winners of the VenturePrize Student Business Plan Competition will be announced shortly.

Finalists in the Fast Growth category are Innovative Trauma Care of Edmonton and Calgary’s Pedpad.

As a combat trauma surgeon, Innovative Trauma Care founder and CEO Dr. Dennis Filips was a firsthand witness to bleeding as a leading cause of battlefield deaths. Now a civilian surgeon and entrepreneur, he is committed to inventing point of injury solutions. Innovative Trauma Care’s first product, the ITClamp, is a hand-held device that stops bleeding and saves lives by instantly sealing a wound until surgical repair.

Pedpad solves a pervasive challenge faced by consumers in the footwear industry: finding shoes that fit. The process of trying on different sizes across different brands and returning on-line purchases that don’t fit is frustrating for customers and retailers alike. Pedpad solves this problem with a multi-axis, digital shoe-sizing platform. By stepping on the Pedpad device in-store, consumers can immediately determine their size for a given brand. Through a personalized Pedpad account, consumers can access their measurements online, obtain precise sizing recommendations across brands and shop online with confidence.

The NanoVenturePrize finalists are Aquila Diagnostics of Edmonton and Calgary’s Parvus Therapeutics.

Aquila Diagnostics uses the Domino nanotechnology platform developed at the University of Alberta to provide on-site, easy-to-use genetic testing that can quickly test for infectious diseases and pathogens in livestock. The mobile diagnostic platform is portable, low-cost, fast and easy to use.

Parvus Therapeutics’ breakthrough nanomedicines may hold the cure for difficult-to-treat autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Parvus’ new Navacim medicines are nanoparticles coated with immune system proteins that can target specific autoimmune conditions.

Tickets for the 10^th Annual VenturePrize Dinner & Awards Celebration – April 26, 2012 in Edmonton at the Shaw Conference Centre are available online at: The evening’s keynote speaker will be former Deputy Prime Minster of Canada Anne McLellan on the “Spirit of Innovation.”

For more information about VenturePrize, visit www.ventureprize.com.

Media Contact:
Erik Einsiedel
Communications Coordinator, TEC Edmonton
Phone: 780-248-5886
Email: erik.einsiedel@tecedmonton.com

About TEC Edmonton

TEC Edmonton helps transform high-tech discoveries into viable business opportunities. Through our business services, TEC Edmonton helps navigate the commercialization process by providing assistance with technology evaluation, intellectual property protection, business plan development, marketing research, corporate management and funding preparation – as well as provides a home for startups in the TEC Centre incubation facility. A unique not-for-profit enterprise, TEC Edmonton is a joint venture between Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) and the University of Alberta. For more information visit www.TECedmonton.com

TEC Edmonton former client company Element Industrial glowingly reviewed by The National Post

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:12:00 GMT

It's a feather in TEC Edmonton's cap when a former client company, headed up by a former TEC Edmonton Executive-in-Residence, receives positive national media attention.

The National Post's Rick Spence, writing weekly about entrepreneurship in the National Post's Financial Post section on Monday, March 26, 2012, devotes an entire column entitled "Building a solution for construction delays" to former TEC Edmonton client Element Industrial Solutions and its CEO Shaheel Hooda.

Spence gives a glowing review of Element Industrial Solutions' digital solution, suggesting its integrated construction-project planning system has the potential to be as important to the construction industry as were SAP and Oracle to enterprise planning.

Spence and Shaheel devote an entire paragraph to TEC Edmonton, talking about what we do as an accelerator for startups and early-stage companies, and how Shaheel, as an Executive-In-Residence, estimated he had worked with 300 companies through TEC, all the while "looking for the next great idea to get involved with personally."

Great to see, and thanks for the TEC Edmonton mentions, Shaheel and Rick!

The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation highlights Edmonton's technology sector

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:18:00 GMT

The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) has been highlighting the role of the ever-growing technology sector in the city in a series of news releases, in particular highlighting the role of the Greater Edmonton Regional Technology Alliance which includes the EEDC, TEC Edmonton, novaNAIT, Northern Alberta Business Incubator, Business Link, the National Institute of Nanotechnology, the National Research Council's Industrial Research and Assistance Program and now Startup Edmonton.

"Taking Ideas to Market" focused on TEC Edmonton as a key player in the Alliance.

"novaNAIT Valuable Member of Regional Alliance" explains the role of novaNAIT within the Alliance, as the home of applied research and enterprise development at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

"Edmonton is a hotbed of Research and Innovation" touched on three recent news items on the subject of innovation: U of A medical researchers have discovered a 'very promising' treatment for Huntington Disease; Funding from Alberta Innovates-Bio Solutions to three Alberta firms including Ceapro and Radiant Technologies in Edmonton to develop new bioproducts from Alberta biomass, and the rewarding of the prestigious Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineeringto five senior members of the Alberta Glycomics Centre - one of Alberta's Centres for Research and Commercialization supported by Alberta Innovates Technology futures. Glycomics is the study of the role of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-containing biomolecules in biological systems.

TEC Edmonton board chair and University of Alberta VP Research Lorne Babiuk receives prestigious medical Gairdner Award

TEC Edmonton — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:57:00 GMT

TEC Edmonton proudly adds its voice to the chorus of congratulations to the University of Alberta's VP Research Dr. Lorne Babiuk, named today (March 21, 2012) as the only Canadian recipient of one of the world's most prestigious awards for research in medical science, the Gairdner Award, for his work in vaccine development.

Since the inception of the awards in 1959, 78 Gairdner recipients have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize.

TEC Edmonton is even prouder. So convinced is Dr. Babiuk of the worthiness of TEC Edmonton's mission, to encourage and assist innovative startup companies in the Edmonton region, that he serves as chair of the TEC Edmonton Board of Directors.

"TEC Edmonton is thrilled that our Chair Dr. Lorne Babiuk has received this outstanding recognition," says TEC Edmonton CEO Chris Lumb. "He brings tremendous honour to the innovation community in the region."

Dr. Babiuk's contributions to the development of vaccines are staggering.

Early in his career, he developed a rotavirus vaccine to innoculate children with acute diarrhea - a vaccine which has saved hundreds of thousands of young lives.

At the University of Saskatchewan, he founded and grew the world-renowed Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) which has to date developed seven vaccines.

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Grand Challenges program, Babiuk's team developed a method of delivering whooping cough vaccine via the nose, thus removing the need for injections with its attendent challenges.

From 2001 to 2007, he held the Canada Research Chair in Vaccinology and Biotechnology.

Since arriving at the University of Alberta in 2007, Dr. Babiuk has removed himself from the front-lines of research, but continues to supervise PhD students, has initiated many multi-institute research projects, started the Helmholtz Alberta Initiative coupling top German research centres to the University of Alberta, and is a professor in three faculties, Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences; The School of Public Health; Medicine and Dentistry.

The first U of A researcher to receive the Gairdner Award was Dr. Raymond Lemieux in 1985, for his work in synthesizing sucrose.

For a more detailed report please go to the University of Alberta press release "Research VP wins top prize".