Waterloo Region, ON (Oct. 28, 2010) – North America’s largest annual festival dedicated to the entrepreneurial spirit – Entrepreneur Week– will be held again November 8-12 in the region known as the best place to start a business in Canada. This year’s event, the 7th annual Entrepreneur Week, is expected to attract thousands of attendees to events and seminars throughout the week.
“Entrepreneur Week in Waterloo Region is all about networking between founding companies and funders, and ensuring that start-ups leave with real tools to jump-start their businesses,” said Iain Klugman, president and CEO of Communitech. “The week celebrates our best community asset which is the innovative entrepreneurs drawn from the more than 200 startups located here and the established companies that generously share their expertise.”
Top-billed speaker is Dave McClure, a venture capitalist and the founding partner at ‘500 Startups’, an Internet startup seed fund and incubator program in Mountain View, CA.
McClure has worked with companies such as PayPal, Mint, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twilio, Simply Hired, O’Reilly Media, Intel, & Microsoft. McClure has keen insights on the startup community to share with the Waterloo Region audience on November 10 as part of the day-long Entrepreneurfest.
Most Entrepreneur Week events are free of charge to enable everyone, from students to CEOs, to participate. This year’s events include:
The Waterloo Region Hall of Fame Gala, Tuesday, Nov. 9th:
- The Gala is a formal dinner presented by the Prosperity Council of Waterloo Region honoring this year’s inductees into the Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Hall of Fame as well as the Intrepid Entrepreneur Award.
Laurier School of Business and Economics Speakers Series featuring Alan Quarry, “Entrepreneurship – The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Clothes On!”, Tuesday Nov. 9th:
- Eagerness. Excitement. Exhilaration. Entrepreneurs experience all of those satisfying sensations as they build their enterprise. There is a special spirit that propels entrepreneurs to the top. And they have fun while doing it!
Entrepreneurfest, Wednesday, Nov. 10th:
- This day-long event features keynote speakers and panel discussions focused on aspects of starting successful businesses including: strategic partnerships with established companies; product marketing, working with angel investors, raising U.S. capital; and lessons learned from epic failures.
StartupCamp Waterloo, Wednesday, Nov. 10th:
- Held at The Communitech Hub, this 10th StartupCampWaterloo event will be free for students and startups. Startups have five minutes for each of pitching, demos, and questions — with networking and feedback in-between.
Leading Edge Youth Entrepreneurship Conference, Wednesday, Nov. 10th:
- Hosted by the Business & Education Partnership of Waterloo Region, Leading Edge is a day-long program for Grade 11 and 12 students from all 21 high schools in Waterloo Region, and is of particular interest to students enrolled in trade-related programming with an interest in entrepreneurship and students interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Strategic Partnership Day, Thursday, Nov. 11th:
- Pre-arranged meetings between Waterloo Region startup companies and 10 of the biggest names in tech give smaller companies the chance to wow potential partners in a one-on-one setting. Last year’s participants included: RIM; Google; Intel; Microsoft; Celestica; Open Text; Sybase; Agfa HealthCare; Rogers, and On Semiconductor.
Founders and Funders Dinner, Thursday, Nov. 11th:
- This event is a by-invitation only occasion designed to bring together the people that start the next big successful company with the people that fund these companies in their earliest stages. It is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to meet funders and each other: to help facilitate opportunities for people to meet, share and build relationships that will grow into the next big thing.
VCs and Founders One-on-One Meetings, Thursday, Nov. 12th:
- Pre-arranged meetings between Waterloo Region startup companies and venture capital firms looking to fund them.
Entrepreneur Week is engineered by Communitech and registration is under way at: www.communitech.ca
About Communitech
Communitech www.communitech.ca is the regional hub for the commercialization of innovation in Waterloo Region, creating economic prosperity by removing barriers to the creation and growth of tech companies.
Media Contact
Shelley Grandy, Sr. PR Advisor, Communitech, shelley@communitech.ca
