TEC Talks

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 celebrates a city's accomplishments at the TEC Connector

TEC Edmonton — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:34:00 GMT

Years from now, when they gather to toast the success of a major, Edmonton-based technology company, will they remember it all started in a chance conversation at TEC Edmonton's TEC Connector event, at Edmonton's Sutton Place Hotel on Feb. 28, 2012?

Who knows? Certainly the ingredients were in place, as 350 individuals from Edmonton's growing technology/ innovation/ start up community gathered to converse or "network" with one another and to catch up with TEC Edmonton's latest news.

Among those in attendance were Dr. Stan Blade, CEO of Alberta Innovates - Bio Solutions; University of Alberta Associate VP of Research and reward recipient Dr. Richard Fedorak; Edmonton Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Ron Gilbertson; Bruce Hirsche, intellectual property and technology expert at Parlee McLaws Law and partners Shane Stevenson and Tom Sides from FMC Fraser Milner Casgrain.

In his remarks, TEC Edmonton CEO Lumb reviewed the impressive milestones TEC Edmonton has met of late.

In the past 12 months, said Lumb, TEC has been of preliminary assistance to 1,000 individuals and companies, has assisted 150 companies on projects, has processed 125 Reports of Invention (primarily from the University of Alberta), has assembled an 850-strong patent portfolio. In the last two years TEC Edmonton has raised $50 million of financing for its client companies

"Together," Lumb said to the crowd, "we are creating an innovative economy that is firing on all cylinders, an economy that is the envy of the world."

TEC Edmonton's Enterprise Award was presented at the TEC Connector event to TEC portfolio client company Metabolomics Technologies Inc. (MTI). See that story in the TEC Talk blog.

MTI President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Richard Fedorak addresses the TEC Connector audience while MTI CEO Reg Joseph (left), MTI Scientific Officer Victor Tso (middle) and TEC Edmonton CEO Chris Lumb look on.

A crowd of Edmonton 350 technology enthusiasts listen at the TEC Connector event in Edmonton's Sutton Place Hotel, as Dr. Fedorak speaks.

Save a spot at the TEC Edmonton Connector Reception, before it's too late!

TEC Edmonton — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:01:00 GMT

Stick a place-holder on your calendar for Tuesday, Feb. 28, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Sutton Place Hotel.

It's TEC Edmonton's late-winter "report to the community" event, the 2012 TEC Connector Reception.

Make sure you reserve a spot (see below). Because "TEC Connect", as it is informally called, is all about networking.

The reception will bring together over 300 entrepreneurs, innovators and business people from across the region. As TEC Edmonton's mission is the creation of the next-wave of high-tech or innovative companies to power the Edmonton and region economy, naturally the companies we assist will be well represented.

As will be...

Companies seeking financing and/or exposure plus professional advice.

Entrepreneurs looking for partners.

Investors looking for investments.Service providers looking for clients.

Non-profit or government agencies (like TEC) wanting to help startup companies.

Inventors interested in commercializing their discoveries.

Professors, researchers and students curious about moving transformative research out of the laboratory and into a business venture.

Reporters and videographers looking for high-tech business stories.

Edmontonians in general, who want to learn more and possibly participate in the region's innovation systems.
The formal program will be short and sweet, from 5 to 5:20 PM.

TEC Edmonton President & CEO Chris Lumb will offer his candid take on how TEC Edmonton is doing compared to its own dreams and goals.

TEC Edmonton's new, integrated, Entrepreneur Education Program will be unveiled.

The 10th anniversary of TEC Edmonton's lauded VenturePrize competition (save another evening date, April 26) will be previewed, and TEC Edmonton's Enterprise Award has a worthy recipient this year, to be unveiled at the event.

Space is limited, admission is free of charge, so REGISTER SOON, before it's too late!

For more information, contact TEC Edmonton Communications Coordinator Erik Einsiedel at erik.einsiedel@tecedmonton.com or 780-248-5886