Edmonton Hosts Startup Canada National Tour
Edmonton Hosts Startup Canada National Tour May 31 – June 1
Edmonton, AB (May 31, 2012) – Startup Canada’s National Tour arrived in Alberta today and is bringing together Edmonton’s startup and innovation communities on May 31 – June 1 to strategize how to support a vibrant and sustainable entrepreneurial culture within the province and across Canada.
Startup Canada, a grassroots, entrepreneur-led movement to celebrate and support entrepreneurship in Canada, is halfway through a six-month National Tour to develop community-led solutions to the key challenges facing entrepreneurs. Its local tour stop falls on the heels of AccelerateAB, Alberta’s largest startup technology event, which wraps up in Edmonton today.
“The timing is great because Alberta’s entrepreneurial community is buzzing right now from AccelerateAB and we want to capture that energy and keep the ideas, collaborations, and momentum rolling,” said Victoria Lennox, Co-Founder of Startup Canada.
The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) is Startup Canada’s Provincial Ambassador organization for Alberta, and has been a key partner in coordinating Edmonton’s events.
“We were pleased to be asked to be involved in this national initiative,” said Candace Brinsmead, VP of Innovation & Technology at EEDC. “We absolutely believe that only through collaboration and community will Canada, Alberta and Edmonton fully realize its potential in entrepreneurial development. Events such as this are the first step in creating stronger voices for the startup sector.”
TEC Edmonton, another local Startup Canada partner, shares common ground with the tour’s objective to unite and empower entrepreneurs with a common voice and vision.
“TEC Edmonton shares the same vision as Startup Canada in that we both value the importance of entrepreneurship in driving Canada’s economic growth,” said Chris Lumb, CEO of TEC Edmonton. “Within our region, TEC Edmonton is the largest innovation service provider, and we’re proud to be included among the many organizations that Startup Canada has united in support of entrepreneurship. We believe this tour will be invaluable in raising awareness of Canada’s rich commercialization opportunities, and will help us explore new solutions to the challenges facing our homegrown entrepreneurs.”
Those solutions will be brainstormed at Startup Canada’s Town Hall on June 1, as well as through spotlight interviews with local entrepreneurs and visits to the offices of local startup support hubs: TEC Edmonton, Startup Edmonton, and the Advanced Technology Centre in the Edmonton Research. A full event listing is featured on the Startup Canada Campaign website http://www.startupcan.ca/tour.
A national audience is following the tour through Startup Canada’s interactive website, live web-streamed broadcasts of the tour, and active social media networks.
In addition to being championed by patrons such as Brett Wilson (Host of RiskyBusinessTV, former Dragon & serial entrepreneur), Heather Reisman (Founder, Indigo Books & Music), Dani Reiss (Founder, Canada Goose), and Michael Legary (Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Seccuris Inc.), Startup Canada has also received support nationally from a number of ambassadors and industry sponsors Microsoft, Gowlings and Ernst & Young.
Other sponsors include Best Western Hotels, Artik, Kick Ass Media, PubliAir, VideoBooth the Association of University Research Parks Canada, the Canadian Association of Business Incubation, the Evidence Network, Francis Moran & Associates, FreshBooks, MSBi Valorisation, NextMTL, the Ottawa Technology Transfer Network, Podio, Best Western, Backbone Magazine, HootSuite, ITWorld Canada, Paper.li, Sprouter, and Techvibes.
