It was a great time and our featured startups got plenty of love and attention during and after the event (and the kudos continue to pour in). We can’t wait to get going on the next Launch Party!

Edmonton Journal: Tech startup umbrella group shines spotlight on Edmonton (front page of the Business section!)
Global TV: News Hour Final
Edmonton Sun: The Kids Are Smart
TechVibes: Launch Party Edmonton A Huge Success
Chris LaBossiere: Edmonton’s Rockstar Tech Community
FotoJournal: Launch Party Recap
Mack Male: Recap Launch Party Edmonton
Twitter activity at #startupyeg

Some pics from the party:

That’s me, Mark, Cindy, and Cam, my Startup Edmonton Organizing Committee compadres. Being tourists in the photo booth.

Rob & Lauren from FotoJournal also put this awesome time lapse video of the evening:

A huge thanks to our event partners who generously supported this first event including Microsoft BizSpark, Venture Alberta, Cardinal Venture Partners, Robots and Pencils, Yardstick Software, Mailout Interactive, Digital Alberta and artsScene Edmonton.

Check out more photos of the event here!

I snapped lots of pics and posted them here!

I was on the hunt for Quatchi and friends (the best Olympic mascots ever!) and was so excited to finally track that sasquatch down.

I also got hooked in to be a host ambassador volunteer with the Province of Alberta, which was a lot of fun and another way to meet new people and experience the Games. I worked at Alberta House (which was packed every night thanks to live music, big TVs, and great hosts), Alberta Train (the best and most beautiful way to Whistler), and Alberta Suite at Canada Hockey Place (watching a hockey game from one of the suites was pretty awesome).

Overall, it was such a great trip and Vancouver did a phenomenal job with these Olympics. And Canada was the best! Now to figure out a way to get to Russia for Sochi 2014…

Earlier today, we publicly launched seekyourownproof.com, bearing our new identity and that of our new partners at Discovery Kids (US).

We’re also proud to announce that we’ve closed a $1M round of financing with Foundation Equity II LP, a venture capital firm headquartered in our hometown of Edmonton.

A few years ago, we set out to create a new kind of brand experience for connected young minds. One that would blur the lines between entertainment and education, nonfiction and fiction, and the online world with the real world. To add to the mix, we wanted to share our curiosity and a love of storytelling, mystery, science, history and the unknown. We might also add that our background working in the educational, museum and cultural heritage space was another contributor. And thanks to seed investments from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Film Centre, Seek Your Own Proof was born.

During the development of Seek Your Own Proof, we’ve been lucky to earn industry recognition, including ”Most Promising New Company” at the Canadian New Media Awards; “Best Pitch” at the international Pitch It! competition at the KidScreen Summit in New York, the largest kids’ entertainment industry event in North America; “Best of Show” at the Fusion Digital Media Venture Forum in Vancouver; and, most recently, Grand Prize Winner at the TEC VenturePrize competition in Alberta. All of this provided valuable feedback that helped shape our product and company into what we’ve launched today.

It was shortly after VenturePrize that we first connected with the team at Discovery Kids. Over the next few months, we worked to finalize an exclusive, long term deal that will see Seek Your Own Proof become a featured creative property and brand within the Discovery Kids family. It’s the perfect brand fit that will expose Seek Your Own Proof to the millions of kids and families across North America and worldwide who know and love the Discovery Kids brand. Discovery Kids is also part of Discovery Communications LLC, the world’s number one nonfiction media company. Discovery reaches more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in over 170 countries through 100-plus worldwide networks and brands, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Planet Green, HowStuffWorks.com and TreeHugger.com.

We’ll have more official details and releases to share in the coming weeks. In the meantime, do check out the site and sign up for an agent account today!

Check out our launch trailer on YouTube:

Social Density – The success we’ve had with our startup has been the result of having a solid supporting network of peers and mentors that have provided us with the guidance, experience, and honest feedback that every entrepreneur needs to have around them. But for us, that network has composed primary of people outside of Edmonton – people I’ve met in other cities and through conferences. I’m starting to meet more entrepreneurs in town (which is awesome), but I think what we still need are more local mentors who have the (relevant) experience we can all draw from. Note: we’re working to get more of these kinds of mentors up to Edmonton through events like Startup Weekend and Startup School.

Great Workspaces – While we have a great quality of life in Edmonton, we’ve definitely a ways to go here. We have a lot of sprawl and people all over the place. Incubators are good (and we have a lot of those), but they’re also an expense that most early stage startups (like most of the ones we have in Edmonton) can’t afford yet. Having more common spaces where we can gather and share experiences the better. I love the idea of Bootup Labs in Vancouver, an accelerator that houses 6-8 startup companies every few months where the focus is on growing entrepreneurs and companies who work in close proximity to each other. We need more places like that in high density areas (like downtown).

Events – Anchoring the community through events and interaction is key. We’ve got things like Democamp, Tweetups, and new events we’re working on like Startup Weekend, Founders and Funders, GameCamp, and Launch Parties. In LA and SF, there’s a least 3-4 events a week! The more of startup focused events we have happening in Edmonton, the better. (Note to all event organizers – enter your stuff into sites like ShareEdmonton so we can better coordinate dates)

Proximity to money - This is definitely an important one. I wouldn’t say we have a lack of money and investors in Edmonton. I’ve pitched them along with investors in Vancouver, San Francisco, Seattle and LA (we’re a content/entertainment focused startup after all). It’s a matter of finding the right fit between our generation of entrepreneurs and investors. Cool technology is one thing. But real companies are built around products that people will actually buy and use. Investors invest in good ideas with traction, bolstered with extraordinary people at the helm. You’ve got to be investable if you want an investor. The bottom line: We need more wins, more entrepreneurs, and more visibility for our startups in Edmonton to show that we have a startup community worth investing in (from within and beyond).

Creative diversity - This is exactly why I’m personally invested in growing next gen initiatives like artsScene Edmonton and TEDx Edmonton, and trying to mix the traditionally isolated groups of creatives, entrepreneurs and technology people. It’s about more than just getting people to experience and be inspired by the arts. We’re lucky in Edmonton to already have a thriving arts and culture scene. It’s a matter of harnessing Edmonton’s creative energy into the development of new products, technologies and companies that can compete in the global creative economy. The more that creative entrepreneurs experience financial success, the more resources they’ll have to reinvest in our creative community, and the cycle will continue.

So what will it take to get us Edmonton’s startup ecosystem going? Everyone argues for better government incentives and more educated investors. While those things definitely can influence how things come together, I believe it comes down to us as a grassroots community of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs who have the unstoppable will and passion to create great companies, who are able to produce innovative products that people around the world will actually buy and use, and who have the commitment to support each other towards making Edmonton’s startup ecosystem great.

Who’s with me?

Digital Media People to Watch in Alberta in 2010

Digital Media People to Watch in BC in 2010

Digital Media People to Watch in Ontario in 2010

It’s been an enjoyable couple of weeks operating in holiday mode. Lots of parties, food, gorging myself on boxes of chocolate, devouring sugar and shortbread cookies, assaulting my eyes with video games and movies, enjoying time with family and friends, and a whole lot of chilling out mentally. Definitely needed the break after the exciting year that was 2009. Being part of the team at RED, learning all about the agency world and showing them the world of interactive. Working hard on our new venture Seek Your Own Proof, winning VenturePrize and closing a couple of big deals on the financing and distribution side (which we’ll be able to announce details around our launch next month).

I also took on a few more things in 2009, getting actively involved in starting up new community initiatives like artsScene Edmonton, Startup Edmonton and TEDx Edmonton. My intent? I’ve been lucky to have had many opportunities to travel during my career, meeting many other young entrepreneurs and creatives in urban centers like New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Seattle. In these places, there’s the perfect mix of creativity, technology and entrepreneurship. The challenge has been finding more of this mix and these people in my own backyard. These initiatives are giving me that opportunity. Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know and work with many more passionate, ambitious, creative and smart young people who long for the same vision for this city. So my hope is that the events and initiatives we’re planning for 2010 will help to mobilize our generation towards transforming Edmonton into the creative, world-class urban community we believe it can become. (Side note: Interesting enough, an article in today’s Journal addresses this exact issue).

So as I get fired up for my third act in 2010, I thought it was also time to update my site/blog in preparation. Big things are coming this year, so I’ll hope to share the experiences, the stories, and the journey along the way with you all.

From Avenue Magazine: “When trying to imagine the future of Edmonton, one has to picture the future faces that will shape it. These faces are of urban planners mapping the new city, community workers enhancing our quality of life, entrepreneurs enriching the local economy and artists sending our brand out to the world. In Avenue’s inaugural Top 40 Under 40, we seek to honour the brightest and most talented individuals under the age of 40 who are excelling in their careers, giving back to the community and raising the city’s profile. They are the generation of today making a better future for the people of tomorrow.”

I was recognized for my professional and community accomplishments, which included getting artsScene Edmonton off the ground in 2009. I’m really excited to have artsScene and our mandate of growing Edmonton’s creative community profiled in the issue and hopefully that adds to the momentum we’re building into next year.

Be sure to check out the full list here – it’s a fantastic group of young people who are already playing a role in shaping the future of our city!

Photo: 40 Under 40 winners (cover boy, fellow artsScene Edmonton committee member and Next Gen Chair) Cary Williams, Ken Bautista and (Edmonton blogger extraordinare) Mack Male. Thanks for the photo Mack!

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx, where x=independently organized event. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

I’ve been working with my fellow artsScene chairs in Edmonton (Michael Brechtel) and Calgary (Sarah Blue, Alex Middleton), along with other passionate young professionals like Cam Linke, Stephani Carter and Jasmine Antonick to bring TEDx to Edmonton, Calgary and Banff. A few weeks ago, we received an official license from TED green lighting events for the coming year!

TEDxEdmonton will be an incredible opportunity to be inspired by leading creative professionals, technology experts, entrepreneurs and business and cultural leaders from across the city and around the globe, and learn how they are driving the creative economy. Built around the unique TED Talks format, themes will include creative entrepreneurship, creative sustainability and creative technologies.

More information will be released over the coming months at tedxedmonton.com and tedxyyc.com, so be sure to sign up for our mailing lists and follow us on twitter at @TEDxEdmonton and @TEDxYYC.

Finally got a chance to see the recent Next Up feature interview I did for the July 2009 issue of Alberta Venture magazine (the one that features Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People). Next Up is a regular feature in Alberta Venture that profiles emerging leaders in Alberta’s business community and public life. I was excited and honored when they called a few months back to do the feature. I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to talk about CIE, RED and to reflect on how far we’ve come since the start-up days of Hotrocket. It was also a great chance to talk about growing Alberta’s creative community through initiatives like artsScene and Digital Alberta. Most importantly, it was a chance to share many of the things I’ve experienced in the ten or so years being at this. Hopefully, another entrepreneur or two out there can take that and shave a couple years off their start-up life.

I thought Michael Hingston did a great job considering all things we talked about during our interview (and we talked about a lot!). The photo shoot in the Aboriginal Gallery at the Royal Alberta Museum was fun too, as it’s where I worked in university in the education and public programs department.