Entrepreneurship 101 – free courses by CIBC and MaRS

Interested in learning more about entrepreneurship? Looking to start a new venture? Look no further! Entrepreneurship 101 is a free, non-credit introductory course about entrepreneurship offered by MaRS. Over 29 weeks, Entrepreneurship 101 takes you through all the steps of building a successful business.

In this lecture, get a sense of the scope of the course and how it applies to your start-up. Future lecture topics include financing, business modelling, defining markets, hiring teams, protecting intellectual property and raising capital.

Part of CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101

Register on MaRS webpage

Get government funding for your technology-related business – SR&ED seminar

SRED Unlimited and RBC Steeles && Dufferin branch are hosting a SR&ED seminar on October 13, 2010. The event starts at 6pm. Admission is free.

Come learn about SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development), an incentive program by the Canadian government that refunds companies involved in Research and Development (R&D).

If your company is dealing with technology, or at least has production environment, there is a good probability that you are entitled to some refund of your R&D expenses. Come to our seminar to find out.

Keywords: Government funding, technology, startups, small and medium business, tax refund, software, hardware, telecom, printing, mechanical engineering, food technology, biotech, free, event

Intended For: Companies that spend money on creating or modifying products or processes through experimenting. Any company that deals with technology (software and hardware development, machinery, printing etc., even food technology and biotech) may qualify for SRED.

Register on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Product Camp Toronto: the schedule is now available

Tentative agenda for Product Camp Toronto – Sunday May 30, 2010 has been determined. Each session will consist of 3 or 4 individual talks or presentations.

9:00am Registration, continental breakfast
10:00am Welcome
10:15am – 11:00 am Session 1
11:15am – 12:00pm Session 2
12:00pm – 1:00pm Box lunch & networking, sponsor tables
1:15pm – 2:00 pm Session 3
2:15pm – 3:00pm Session 4
3:15pm – 4:00pm Session 5
4:00pm – 5:00pm Wrap up, feedback, networking, giveaways etc.

You can still vote for sessions here.

Based on the final online voting results, morning sessions will be selected and posted 2 days prior to the event.  Sessions for the afternoon will be picked by attendee voting at the event.

More details

Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit – Tom Rand’s book and talk

Tom Rand of MaRS just published a book: Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit, 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World.

It’s 240 pages (hard-cover) of accessible text and stunning photography. Great to flip through, but with solid, fleshed-out analysis. Out now in Canada (in Chapters on April 15th), in about a month in the US.

There’s also a short video “trailer”, both funny and hard-hitting. Designed to go viral!

This project is advocacy, pure and simple. It’s timely, important – and something Tom is very passionate about. His goal is to educate the public about our options and why it’s important to consider them carefully.

If you’re in the Toronto region on April 15th, Tom will be giving a “book launch” talk at MaRS at 6 pm in the main auditorium. It’s free, but space is limited and registration is required.

It would be wonderful if you could support this effort by:

• buying a copy of the book: (online here http://tinyurl.com/ykxudqp – or at your local bookstore)
• watch the video and pass/post the link to your friends and network:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92MtzfepgX
• come to Tom’s talk at MaRS, register here: http://kickthefossilfuelhabit.eventbrite.com/
  

Tom is also looking for corporate sponsors to distribute the book internally, or to sponsor a print run for schools/libraries. Got any suggestions or contacts?

You’ll find everything you need at www.kickthefossilfuelhabit.org (video, link to buy the book, publisher info, etc.).

ProductCamp Toronto Spring 2010

The time and date for the next ProductCamp Toronto  has been set.

The Date: Sunday May 30, 2010

The Location: Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management in downtown Toronto.

For those using Twitter, keep watching the  #pct3 hashtag.

The Culture Congress 2010

Get ready for The Culture Congress 2010, which will rage through various Toronto locales from March 24 through March 28. Harbourfront Centre, the Theatre Centre’s FREE FALL ’10, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage 2009-10 and Calgary’s Theatre Junction Grand are joining forces to put on a variety of roundtables, lectures and discussions on the Canadian arts community, mentorship and performance. The events are all open to the public, and the best part is, they’re free!

This year’s focus is on how the arts community comes together: artist to artist, artist to presenter and artist to audience. In exploring this issue, some of the events you can look forward to include presentations from Irish delegates who will discuss the arts communities in their country, comparing and contrasting with Canada; discussions about creating artistically challenging and sustainable work and senior artists interviewing their very own mentees. For more information and the schedule, read the Culture Congress blog:

http://culturecongress.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/the-culture-congress-2010/

Free admission to SR&ED seminars and trade show at IT360

Attend the IT360 Trade Show, on April 7th in Toronto, along with the feature presentations and keynote compliments of CATAAlliance. IT360 is the premier event in Canada providing IT professionals with in-depth practical guidance and an array of solution-providing products and services – under one roof.

USE CODE: TS1
Your Complimentary Admission Pass (value $50) includes:

— Keynote Address @ 9:30am – 10:20am

Gary Warner, Director of Research in Computer Forensics at University of Alabama
Topic: Universal Threat Awareness
Desc: The Internet has never been more dangerous than today; eCrime in business and government continues to rise and Warner is the leading expert in Anti-Phishing and web attacks. He will discuss national and regional eCrime trends and individual case studies about resolving specific electronic crime cases. He will present best practices businesses need to know.
For more details, click here.

— Featured Presentation @ 10:50am – 11:20am

Lead by MEUK Corporation
Title: Demystifying SR&ED Tax Credits, part 1
Desc: Three steps to simplifying the SR&ED process to earn tax credits. It is very likely that your business qualifies for SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development) tax credits. The application process does not need to be onerous. This presentation will simplify the process and ease the way to earning the tax credits available to you.
More details, click here.

— Featured Presentation @ 12:50pm – 1:20pm

Lead by MEUK Corporation
Title: Demystifying SR&ED Tax Credits, part 2
Desc: Advanced presentation; Analyzing what is black vs. white vs. grey using real life case studies. This presentation will take you one step further in the process by illustrating how technological and financial issues benefit from the use of professional judgment.
More details, click here (scroll down).

— Trade show floor!

Explore, evaluate and compare solution provider products and services from key companies in security, data centres, unified communications, telephony, cloud computing, open source, and more. Learn strategic approaches to streamline infrastructure, introduce new and innovative strategies while building around current infrastructure.
See exhibitor list.

REGISTER ONLINE TODAY!
http://www.it360.ca/

STUDENTS & YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP – SUMMER COMPANY PROGRAM

Summer Company program run by Enterprise Toronto

The Summer Company program provides hands-on business training and mentoring – together with awards of up to $3,000 – to help enterprising young people, ages 15-29 (as of April 30, 2010) to start up and run their own summer business.

Summer Company is coordinated and delivered at the community level through the government’s Small Business Enterprise Centres by way of business mentoring groups. Business mentoring groups consist of volunteer business advisors from the local community.
Successful Students will receive:
An award of up to $1,500 will be given for start-up costs, and $1,500 award upon the successful completion of the Summer Company program;
a minimum of 12 hours of business training; and an opportunity to regularly meet with a local business mentoring group for support and advice on operating their summer business.

Contest: Win a ticket to HOHOTO!

Technology related? R&D driven? Innovative? Like to Network?

We want to hear about it!

Tweet us (use hashtag: #sredunlimited) in 140 characters or less on what makes your company innovative. The best answer will be awarded a free ticket to #hohoto! Deadline is Monday, December 14th at 5pm!

Official HOHOTO website: http://hohoto.ca/

$10 million Open Screen Project Fund announced by Nokia and Adobe

The $10 million Open Screen Project Fund, announced by Nokia and Adobe, awards grants to help developers create exciting new applications and content over the next two years up to December 2010. The fund also provides marketing and educational support for the Open Screen Project, which aims to establish cross-platform runtimes, remove development and distribution barriers, and innovate through industry collaboration.

More information here