“Concrete jungle where dreams are made, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, let’s hear it for New York…”

You know the song. In the world of fashion and tech, NYC is the centre of the universe. The Wantering team just spent some time in the Big Apple for a whirlwind trip, taking in meetings, networking events, and hosting a party as well. Each of these activities helped us understand the reach of our network and some of the next steps that we want to take as we head into the summer.

While it’s exciting to imagine the people that you would love to work with, it’s fascinating and exhilarating to actually make it happen. With a bit of luck and a lot of hustle, we hosted our Wantering Brunch at a stunning apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. This intimate event allowed us to get to know major players in the fashion and tech industries and have resulted in some solid relationships for the future. Who knew that bonding over yogurt and granola could be so productive?

Although the warm, sunny days and views of the Empire State Building were definite highlights, what really made us feel like we were part of the larger fashion and startup community was establishing new friendships with people. You are always told that networking is key to any business, but when you witness first-hand the power of an introduction, you really do believe that anything is possible.

In a city filled with inspiring people, from the founder and CEO of a young flourishing startup to the team behind some of the world’s most influential fashion brands, we found a way to make connections in the right places. The only down-side? Having to get on the plane and leave the city of dreams. Until next time!

This is a guest post by Kathleen Ong of Wantering. Wantering is a GrowLab alumni from 2012. What do they do? By scouring the social web for what’s trending in fashion and matching it to your personal style, Wantering helps you shop better online. Stay tuned for news on some new features coming to www.wantering.com in a few weeks. To follow Wantering visit Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Polyvore and the Blog. 

The post Wantering Takes on New York City appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

Vancouver Open Coffee Club
Tuesday, May 22nd, 8:00-9:30AM

Open Coffee Club is a casual gathering of people involved in founding, operating or funding startups. The format is similar to Startup Drinks, but in the morning and with coffee.

How individuals are using technology and data to support vulnerable populations
Tuesday, May 21st, 5:30-7:30 PM

This presentation and Q&A will explore this report through a technology lens, examining trends in hackathons, mobile/web application development and use, open and crowdsourced data, online advocacy, and crowdfunding.

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Vancouver Web Performance with James (Mozilla Labs) & Alexandrine (HootSuite) 
Wednesday, May 22nd, 6:30PM

James Burke, senior engineer at Mozilla Labs and maintainer of RequireJS, and  Alexandrine Boissière, senior engineer from HootSuite, will be speaking on performant mobile web apps and explaining how to rev up static assets using Grunt.

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VMs for PHP/Web Dev and Running PHP with MS Windows Services & Task Scheduler
Wednesday, May 22nd, 7:00PM

Brian Tan will talk about running PHP scripts with MS Windows Services and Task Scheduler. And Peter Gordon will talk about using virtual machines to develop a true LAMP stack for your Web development and discuss other benefits to adopting a VM solution.

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Vancouver Polygot Conference
Friday, May 24th-Sunday, May 26th

Vancouver Polyglot Software Conference is back for another year. The “non-denominational” software development un-conference event that encourages software developers from different stacks, background and with different opinions to come together for one day of spontaneous sharing, teaching and learning. Preceded by a day engaging tutorials and followed by a “just for fun of it” hack day.

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Don’t forget to check out our Vancouver Tech Event Calendar to keep up with events happening around Vancouver

The post Upcoming Tech Events in Vancouver: Week of May 20th appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

GrowLab participated in a round of financing led by Lerer Ventures out of New York. Skift is a travel intelligence company that offers news, information, data and services to professionals in the travel industry and professional travellers to help them make smart decisions about travel.

The company recently raised $1.1M of additional seed funding from Lerer Ventures (co-founder of the Huffington Post), Advancit Capital, Ironfire Angel, Mesa+, GrowLab, LX Ventures and angel investors such as Tom Glocer (former CEO of Reuters) and Martin Nisenholtz (former head of Digital at the New York Times).

“We always pride ourselves as hunter of talents and always look to add values to the companies that are part of our network.” says Mike Edwards, Executive Director of GrowLab.

Skift, welcome aboard!

The post Welcoming Skift to the GrowLab network! appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

Join members of the BCTIA Centre4Growth and Communitech to learn more about their startup programs and how to access the resources you need to grow your company.

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Social stuff, networking, awesome food and LinkedIn learning for all!
Monday, May 13 @6PM

BC’s Marketing Mentress Christine Till will be guest speaking this month! Come and get Social, share what you’re doing and learn about where the whole #SocialMedia world is moving towards.

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Build brand loyalty using Gamification, with Ryan Bennett
Tuesday, May 14 @6PM

Ryan Bennett is a serial entrepreneur who will extol the benefits of using gamification to create enthusiastic fans.

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Effective Communication Strategies to Help Build your Business
Wednesday, May 15 @7PM

During this inaugural event you will get an opportunity to learn some very practical and powerful communication skills and strategies to help build your brand and empower your business.

Vancouver Social Games Meetup: VSG Drinks
Wednesday, May 15 @7PM

At the beginning of every month, VSG meets at Revel Room for a night of drink specials and mobile/social games networking. Check out their website to find out which game will be discussed at this month’s meetup.

Vancouver Experienced Entpreneur Meetup: Let’s Talk About Money
Thursday, May 16 @4:30PM

It’s always interesting to learn how other businesses work and compare notes. For this meeting, you’ll dive into the nitty gritty of *money* in businesses.

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Don’t forget to check out our Vancouver Tech Event Calendar to keep up with events happening around Vancouver

The post Upcoming Tech Events in Vancouver: Week of May 13th appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

“After going through hundreds of incredible applications, we’ve finally chosen Canada’s top early stage startups to participate in 48hrs in the Valley-June 2013. Get ready for mentoring, investor meetings, workshops, and networking with the C100 community in Silicon Valley. June 10th through the 12th is going to kick ass!”
– Read more on the C100 website!

Four of GrowLab alumni from three different cohorts (F11, S12 and W12) are going to be there to soak in the experience, making meaningful connections and basically rocking it!

helps you build cloud hosted workplace universities using your own content. Companies use Learndot to achieve business results through learning; they certify customers, educate partners, and get new employees up to speed – faster and at scale. (F11 Cohort)

CineCoup Film Accelerator is a innovative, web-platform as film-studio model to disrupt the way independent films are packaged, marketed and financed, while building and measuring audience. (S12 Cohort)

Skyscraper is an all-in-one ad management platform for bloggers. A magical way of running ads on your site that’s both simple and effective. (S12 Cohort)

is the LinkedIn for emergencies: better connecting and protecting families, organizations and communities by sharing critical information and communications through this emergency network. (W12 Cohort)

The post Four GrowLab Alumni from Three Different Cohorts Congregate at 48 Hours in the Valley! appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

Outsourcing right now has never been easier. Done effectively and efficiently, it can reduce your costs dramatically as well as freeing you from many redundant, time-wasting activities. In this talk, Matthew will provide a detailed step-by-step system for hiring high-quality remote workers at a fraction of North American wages.

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Vancouver Open Coffee Club
Tuesday, May 07, at 8:00 AM

Open Coffee Club is a casual gathering of people involved in founding, operating or funding startups. The format is similar to Startup Drinks, but in the morning and with coffee.

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Lunch Meetup
Tuesday, May 07, at 12:00 PM

This lunch is all about taking just a little bit of time out of our busy schedules to meet up and share. Please note this lunch is only for Web Based Entrepreneurs! Any non Web Based Entrepreneurs will have to sit at the kids table

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Grow YOUR business by 30% in 2013
Tuesday, May 07, 6:15PM

The evening is a solid 3 hours of Business Education, Goal Setting and Accountability – 3 key areas where Entrepreneurs need the most help.

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Lessons Learned: Mobify
Wednesday, May 08, at 6:00 PM

How does a company grow from three friends in UBC & SFU’s Comp Sci department to 50 employees, two floors in Gastown, leading global customers (Threadless, The New Yorker, Starbucks, Conde Nast), a scalable product and a successful business model? Come find out!

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Google Analytics, User Stories and Website Improvement
Friday, May 10, 6:15 PM

Come and learn how to use powerful features in GA such as Custom Reports and intelligent alert to tell user navigation stories on your website and to find areas for improvement. Bring your laptop with you to practice, free WiFi is available in the venue.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________CyborgCamp YVR 2013
Saturday, May 11, at 8:30 AM

CyborgCamp YVR 2013 is a conference about the future of the relationship between humans and technology. We’ll discuss topics such as the future of communication, cyborg technology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, the Internet of Things, social media, design, code, inventions, and Twitter.

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Iron Hacker 2013
Saturday, May 11, at 9:00 AM

You have to tackle a few hacker hurdles to prove your developer cred before you register. But at least you know you will be among real developers.

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Ladies Learning Code: Intro to Python
Saturday, May 11, at 10:00 AM

You’ll be introduced to integers, strings, lists, dictionaries, objects and types, plus conditionals and loops. (Not sure what any of that means? This workshop is perfect for you!)

Don’t forget to check out our Vancouver Tech Event Calendar to keep up with events happening around Vancouver

The post Upcoming Tech Events in Vancouver: Week of May 6th appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

Yesterday, our Executive Director, Mike Edwards (@marallo) switched gear and became a barista for a little while. The reason: coffee and culture. Curious? His post on the topic on mistakesmade.co.

Coffee has a way to facilitate people bounce off ideas of each other. Sharing coffee and conversation helps to facilitate ideas. One idea leads to another, and before you know it ideas are flying around everywhere. Many projects have been birthed from coffee meetings. I call this the coffee culture.

TL;DR: coffee is a huge part of startup culture; culture is important; execute on things that you think are important.

Hence…the coffee with Mike where a handful of Vancouver startup community gathered at our office enjoying a cup (or three) of Java. If you are not one of the lucky few who managed to snatch a seat, don’t fret. Here’s a little recap for ya!

The Beans
Colombia El Dessarollo  from Heart – Portland (available at Revolver).

Brewing method
Pour over and french press.

Snippets of the conversations

• Know the difference between a mistake and a failure
• …and it is absolutely okay to name your boat “Failure”
• Make time for the things that are important, no matter how busy you are…block off the time!
• Mike’s own biggest mistake made to date: not thinking big enough
• Advise he’d give to entrepreneurs: “Be the catalyst”.

Coffee chats are always a great way to connect. Keep an eye out for the next coffee hour — follow @marallo and @growlabs!

The post Recap: Coffee with Mike Edwards appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

Read the full story on The Next Web!

The post Leonard Brody on Human Behaviour: the virtual and physical self appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

So What is MoSo?
MoSo is a multi-day, multi-venue conference and music festival aimed at developers, business audiences and music lovers alike. Topics will range from: mobile applications, programming, technology trends, entrepreneurship, social media, marketing, design and music.

MoSo is a gathering of super awesome peeps for great talks, music, beer and tweets. It’s all about the internet and everything mobile and social. Its one part business and three parts pleasure. It’s a community. It’s a festival. It’s hard to define, but come to meet new people, dream big thoughts and learn about the future – you’re totally going to love it! Combine and Conquer!

MoSoConf
MoSoConf is bringing together the biggest lineup of speakers ever. We can expect to see over 30 international thought leaders in the areas of web, marketing, entrepreneurship, startups, music, mobile, social media and much more!

To learn more about the speakers and MoSoConf CLICK HERE!

MoSoFest
MoSoFest is Saskatoon’s most diverse music festival. Featuring over 60 artist in 7 venues, MoSoFest brings together some of the best new local, national, and international bands to Saskatoon’s picturesque Broadway district. With countless secret shows and BBQ’s with bands from across the country and beyond, MoSoFest is the perfect way to start your summer!

To see the full lineup and more information on MoSoFest CLICK HERE!

Priority passes are now on sale!! This pass will allow you to see as many shows as the schedule and your stamina can handle. So whether you’re a techie, a rocker, or a little bit of both, check out the MoSo website to find more information on the two events and grab your tickets  before they’re gone.

The post MoSo Conference and Music Festival appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.

The CineCoup Film Accelerator (GrowLab Spring 2012 cohort) is a disruptive model for indie filmmakers to develop, market and finance their feature films. CineCoup has secured $1M production financing and distribution deal with Cineplex theatres to produce a Canadian indie film project.

In the last few months, Canadian independent filmmakers have flexed both their artistic and business muscles. Filmmaking teams apply to CineCoup with a two-minute trailer, then advance through a gamified selection funnel that’s designed to package their projects and build fan support on the CineCoup social web platform.

Top 15 – Free Screening

Tomorrow, the pivotal Top 15 announcement will take place at your local Cineplex theatre where new trailers and sizzle reels will screen along with a Top 40 Tribute reel. Come out and support your local indie filmmakers and be the first to know who will advance one step closer to up to $1 million in production financing and a guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres in 2014.

When: Wednesday, May 1 at 6:00 pm PST

Where: Cineplex International Village, Vancouver

What’s next

At the next round, top 10 projects will be optioned for development and packaged for meetings with international buyers and sales agents at the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival!

The final 5 will travel to the Banff World Media Festival to pitch to an industry panel at an official festival event. And one hot project will be selected for up to $1 million in financing and guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres in 2014.

Sounds exciting? You bet! Make sure you go to the screening! More info and details for other cities in Canada here. If you cannot attend a local screening, visit www.cinecoup.com for live results, Wednesday May 1 @ 9:30 PM EST.

The post FREE Screening: CineCoup presents the top 15 films competing for $1M! appeared first on GrowLab : Accelerating Startups in Vancouver.