Calgary is hosting Startup Canada on Tuesday June 4, 2012 as part of Startup Canada’s six-month National Tour to celebrate and inspire entrepreneurship across the country.

 

Startup Canada is an entrepreneur-led, national movement to enhance the nation’s competitiveness and prosperity through entrepreneurship. Its National Tour is traveling coast to coast to engage more than 25,000 Canadians and 250 partner organizations through a series of Town Hall Meetings and Fringe Events, and to develop community-driven solutions to challenges facing entrepreneurs today. Calgary Economic Development is co-hosting the events in Calgary with Startup Canada.

 

“Calgary is a city of entrepreneurs who collectively drive the economy and create opportunities for our city to grow and prosper,” said Bruce Graham, President and CEO of Calgary Economic Development. “Startup Canada celebrates and encourages this entrepreneurial spirit by creating a forum for business leaders to have meaningful discussions and to learn from one another.”

 

Since launching the Tour in March, the Startup Canada team has visited five provinces and 16 cities.  

 

“Each new stop has uncovered unique and inspiring ideas for uniting Canada’s entrepreneurs, support organizations, and local communities to build and support a common entrepreneurial vision for the country,” said Victoria Lennox, Co-Founder of Startup Canada. “Now it’s Calgary’s turn to keep the momentum rolling. We’ve got two exciting events that focus on startup funding challenges and opportunities and we are looking forward to connecting with members of Calgary’s vibrant entrepreneurial community.”  

 

Startup Canada’s Calgary activities include:

 

  • Funding Your Startup! Fringe event is an interactive workshops aimed at helping entrepreneurs learn how to fund their new venture. This session is open to all and will run from 10:00 a.m. – noon. Speakers include:
    • Gary Ziegler, eThor and Entrepreneur
    • Michelle Scarborough, Venture Capitalist
    • Henry Kutarna, AB Deal Generator
    • Harold Fast, Business Development Bank of Canada
    • Alex Popa, Partner Boast Capital
  • The Startup Canada Town Hall is a forum for discussion about funding in the private sector, Global Business & Immigrant StartUp Support, and government support moderated by National Post columnist and Startup Canada Advisor, Rick Spence. This event requires registration and will run from 1 – 3 p.m.

 

A full event listing and registration 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 Promotions, 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. 

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