Manitoba Hosts Startup Canada Tour
Manitoba Hosts Startup Canada National Tour June 11 – 14
Winnipeg, MB (Monday, June 11, 2012) – Winnipeg and Brandon are hosting Startup Canada events from June 11 – 14 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.
“Manitoba marks our sixth province in this cross-country tour and we are excited to collaborate with local entrepreneurs and enterprise support organizations to find better ways of supporting startups and cultivating a culture both here and across Canada that embraces entrepreneurship” said Victoria Lennox, Startup Canada Co-Founder.
Innovate Manitoba, the Manitoba Provincial Ambassador for the Startup Canada tour, has been a key partner in this provincial stop.
“At Innovate Manitoba, we bring entrepreneurs, researchers, inventors and businesses together with the resources needed for success, so there is a definite synergy between our programs and Startup Canada’s national objectives,” said Jan Lederman, President of Innovate Manitoba. “Over these next few days of meetings, networking events and Town Halls, I think Manitoba’s innovation and entrepreneurship community will contribute excellent input into Startup Canada’s action plan for strengthening Canadian entrepreneurship.”
Startup Canada’s Winnipeg activities include a small business financing panel discussion and evening networking reception on June 11, as well as a Town Hall on June 12 where local entrepreneurs and enterprise support organizations will discuss how to foster a more entrepreneurial local culture, how to support youth entrepreneurship, and how to put local startups on the global stage. The tour then moves to Brandon on June 13 for another Town Hall event before returning to Winnipeg on June 14 for Venture Challenge, where six entrepreneurs will pitch their ventures to a panel of judges, with the awards being presented at a lunch immediately following.
A full event listing and registration links can be found 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 Winnipeg’s Michael Legary (Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Seccuris Inc.) as well as Brett Wilson (Host of RiskyBusinessTV, former Dragon & serial entrepreneur), Heather Reisman (Founder, Indigo Books & Music), and Dani Reiss (Founder, Canada Goose), Startup Canada has also received support nationally from a number of ambassadors and industry sponsors Microsoft, Gowlings and Ernst & Young.
Other sponsors include the Radisson, owned and operated by Canada Inns, 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.
- 30 -
For additional information, contact:
Victoria Lennox
Co-Founder, Startup Canada
victoria@startupcan.ca 613-316-6203
Jan Lederman
President, Innovate Manitoba
janlederman@innovatemanitoba.ca 204-934-2349
About Startup Canada
Startup Canada is Canada’s first-ever, entrepreneur-led, national movement to enhance the nation’s competitiveness and prosperity by supporting and celebrating Canadian entrepreneurship. Startup Canada is harnessing the collective energies of Canadian entrepreneurs and enterprise support communities from Coast to Coast with the goals of providing the entrepreneurship community with a strong voice, promoting a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and creating a unified brand that Canadians can rally around. Startup Canada is launching this effort with the country’s first national entrepreneurship tour and campaign. The tour will run from March to September, engaging 25,000 Canadians and 250 partner organizations across the country. Entrepreneurs will participate in more than 30 Town Halls and 100 Fringe Events and connect through a social media groundswell campaign.
About Innovate Manitoba
www.innovatemanitoba.com
Innovate Manitoba is a non-profit, province-wide organization with programs dedicated to linking researchers, inventors and entrepreneurs to the resources they need to succeed. It is an integrated hub for all innovation-related activities in Manitoba, focused on accelerating innovation and commercialization in the province.
