GameOn: Finance – Startup Passes available

gameonfinance.png GameOn: Finance is a conference focused on helping gaming companies understand their financing options. The conference takes place in Toronto on January 17th and 18th and is being put on by Interactive Ontario

“Interactive Ontario is pleased to announce the new Start-Up Pass for GameON: Finance, to assist small games companies “on the rise” in gaining access to this unique opportunity to meet face-to-face with the investment community, as well as to network and become more acquainted with the gaming community.”

To make sure that startups can all afford to make it, the organizers are providing discounted tickets to qualified companies. In order to be eligible for the Start-Up Pass, you must have:

  • 5 staff members or less;
  • been in operation for less than 3 years; and
  • made, or plan on making games your core business.

The number of startup passes available is limited and they are being provided on a first-come first-served basis. You can sign up here. The full schedule for the conference is available here.

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Calgary's first BarCamp a hit, startup focused

2112453857_f4859c284a_m.jpgCalgary had its first BarCamp this past week and by all accounts it was a hit. Patrick Lor has the best recap of the day. What struck me was how startup-focused this BarCamp seemed to be. Perhaps that is just how things seem when you only listen to entrepreneurs, but the day involved a “Startup Hacks” session and 2 talks by Guy Kawasaki.

Guy had the crowd vote on which of his talks they wanted him to do:

The crowd gave him a resounding yes, and split their vote between a talk on innovation, and “how to start a web 2.0 business with $12,700”. So, he did both. It was twice the work for him, but he tells me he really enjoyed presenting this Calgary crowd.

It is great that someone like Kawasaki was able to attend the first BarCamp for Calgary, that is such a great way to kick off the movement there. Some love him, some hate him, either way: He has a high profile and I am sure he got the crowd excited.

I would love to see a StartupCamp take place there. I am mildly obsessed with what is going on in Alberta, the whole thing fascinates me and the opportunities for startups in tech and outside of tech are huge. I think I will just hop on a plane next time there is an event and start meeting some of Calgary’s entrepreneurs. Keep it up!

WirelessNorth.ca – Canadian Wireless News and Opinion

I thought I would remind everyone that wirelessnorth.ca is now alive and you will soon start seeing updates and information on Canada’s emerging wireless industry (some terms used lightly!).

The approach with WirelessNorth will be the same that we have used to grow StartupNorth: Slowly but surely. We have tried to bring you high quality fact/news/opinion here as regularly as possible, and you have all responded by commenting, emailing and just talking about what we are up to.

The guys at WirelessNorth will be doing the same. So head over, subscribe to the RSS feed and start digging in. Wireless in Canada is possibly going to change more quickly in the next 18-24 months than any other industry, and wirelessnorth.ca will be the best place to stay on top of it all.