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In its first seven months of operations, the BCTIA‘s Centre4Growth initiative has already exceeded its Year 1 projections, including servicing over 100 clients in its CEO’s-in-Residence program. Through the assistance and guidance received at Centre4Growth, client companies have raised a total of $5.5M in new revenue and investment and expanded their workforce by a total of 31 new employees. The Centre4Growth is a new entrepreneur services initiative from the BC Technology Industry Association that provides a number of services to start-up and emerging technology companies in BC.

The mandate of the Centre4Growth program is to boost the capacity of BC’s technology entrepreneurs and their management teams, with the goal to further grow and develop BC’s innovation economy.

“It’s one thing to start a new technology company, but it’s another thing to grow that company from 5 employees to 25 or better yet, 100 employees,” said Pascal Spothelfer, President & CEO, BCTIA. “Through our research and advocacy efforts, we’ve heard a lot from entrepreneurs and investors about the need to grow the management capacity within our tech companies. Centre4Growth is without a doubt addressing these challenges, our client load proves there is a need, and our results in just seven months indicates that Centre4Growth is working.”

The core of the Centre4Growth initiative is a one-on-one coaching program provided by seasoned CEOs-in-Residence. By working directly with these experienced technology executives, tech entrepreneurs receive confidential coaching, as well as referrals into other C4G services designed to assist in the growth of their companies. Read the rest of this entry »

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada today released new Pay-For-Performance Ad Campaign Guidelines, designed to help Publishers, Ad Networks, Advertisers and Agencies maximize success when conducting direct response campaigns across the Web.

Designed to be used in situations where the goal is to elicit a specific and immediate action from a user who views the Online ad, Pay-For-Performance (PFP) ad campaigns have also increased in popularity as recessionary budgets have challenged marketers to deliver more immediate ROI from their Online advertising budgets.

The document, which was developed by both IAB Canada’s Publisher and Agency Councils, includes:

• Proven practices for creating impactful PFP ad creative;
• Factors to consider when adding targeting parameters to PFP campaigns;
• Best practices for set-up, tracking and optimization of PFP campaigns beyond the “click,” to conversion events or sales;
• Advice for minimizing PFP delivery and reporting discrepancies; and,
• A host of additional tips designed to maximize efficiencies within PFP ad campaigns.

“The goal in creating IAB Canada’s new Pay-For-Performance Ad Guidelines was simple,” says Gino Coutu, Vice-President, Business Development, Rogers Digital Media and initiator of the project within IAB Canada’s Publisher Council. “Standardize as many elements as possible within the PFP buying, selling, delivery, tracking and reporting process, so that professionals on both sides of the PFP equation can concentrate instead, on innovating around technology, strategy and creative.”

Scott Atkinson, Director, Digital Solutions with Media Experts, and a key contributor on the initiative from IAB Canada’s Agency Council, agrees: “By following the basic rules of engagement detailed within IAB Canada’s new PFP Ad Guidelines, even experienced PFP marketers should be able to realize enough efficiencies to allow them more time to focus on the benefits that come from testing and optimizing around ad format, ad messaging, ad placement and conversion processes.”

Ottawa-based AssetLabs Inc. and Dublin’s Openplain Ltd. have announced the integration of their web-based ‘SAM’ (Software Asset Management) solutions. This integration enables customers to share data between AssetLab’s AssetCheck and Openplain’s LicenseMetrics services, empowering corporations to optimize, reduce and forecast their software licensing requirements.

LicenseMetrics is a web-based managed service that offers software metering and inventory for PC, MAC, Unix and other network devices. There are no servers or databases to maintain. LicenseMetrics can track usage of desktop, web, virtual and portable applications. LicenseMetrics includes FeatureDetect™, which determines whether the ‘professional or ‘standard’ features of a product are being used, assisting customers in justifying the value of professional editions, or to save money by deploying standard editions.

AssetCheck is a web-based managed service that offers software licensing, budget and productivity risk analysis and true-up cost forecasting based upon software growth trends. AssetCheck also categorizes and normalizes inventory data, identifies vendor ‘end-of-support’, Windows 7 readiness and enables tagging of various license states (open source, trial, volume license, etc.)

“The combination of LicenseMetrics and AssetCheck enables corporations to quickly identify ‘wasted’ software licenses and to justify and also budget for essential increases in software deployments,” says Jon Mulligan, CEO of Openplain. “As a web-based managed service, the deployment and ROI of both AssetCheck and LicenseMetrics are immediate to both the corporation and their SAM advisors.” Read the rest of this entry »

Promaginy, a business assistance company in Winnipeg, is pleased to officially launch its own product. UpDownStart is a free web app that uses Twitter technology to track the latest announcements of games industry companies and their fans.

UpDownStart allows developers, news media, and fans to easily see the latest Tweets from the games industry. UpDownStart goes beyond focusing solely on game companies, expanding to include game communities, providing a holistic industry perspective. Companies and communities not included in the site’s index are invited to submit their Twitter feed to UpDownStart.

UpDownStart allows developers, media critics, and fans to:

• Track the most popular companies and communities, ranked by number of Twitter Followers. Smaller entities can be found through the index, the site’s search form, or via the random profile selection.

• Read games industry Tweets through UpDownStart.com’s Activity Feeds. Feel the industry’s pulse via distinct company and community perspectives.

• Add your own Twitter Feeds. If you are game developer, news media, or a fan, and have a website related to the games industry, you can add your site to UpDownStart. Not only will your profile be included in the index, your future Tweets will be shared via UpDownStart’s Activity Feeds.

• Note, there is currently a message on the site which states: At the moment we are only taking submissions for Video Game Company profiles. This is due to limited amount of resources at this early stage. Follow @updownstart for news when the resources limit is removed.)

Prominent Canadian and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors today announced the launch of a new accelerator program based in Vancouver. GrowLab is a “startup boot camp” for entrepreneurs whose companies can receive up to $25,000 in seed funding, four months of mentorship, free office space and the opportunity to pitch investors at the end of the program for follow-on funding. The program will be based in Vancouver for the first three months: the fourth month will be spent in San Francisco. GrowLab is now accepting applications for its fall program, with five companies to be chosen for the first cohort,  which will be starting in August 2011.

“We created GrowLab to provide financing and mentor support to help build tomorrow’s great companies,” says Leonard Brody, President of Clarity Digital and one of GrowLab’s founders. “Our approach is entrepreneur-centric. We’re founded on the principal that if we find and support talented entrepreneurs, their ideas can grow into truly disruptive companies.”

In an effort to continue building a strong start up ecosystem, the accelerator has signed on many high-profile angel and venture investors. Its three lead investors are the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), iNovia Capital and BlackBerry Partners Fund.

BDC Venture Capital VP for Strategic Initiatives, Senia Rapisarda says, “BDC VC has always had a strong focus on early-stage technology development. Accelerators like GrowLab play a pivotal role in providing entrepreneurs with “smart capital” – both financing and expertise. Accelerators mentor entrepreneurs. They also provide them with the introductions and global connections they need to hasten the time to market. BDC is pleased to partner with GrowLab and establish the first accelerator of its kind in the country – one that will formally link Vancouver and Canada to Silicon Valley.” Read the rest of this entry »

Building on the success of a 480,000 signature petition launched earlier this year, award-winning public engagement organization OpenMedia.ca today released a citizen-powered report that exposes the weaknesses of closed communications models. Titled Casting An Open Net, the report counters popular arguments by major telecom companies that want to impose punitive pricing schemes, in which Canadians pay more for Internet and get less. The findings are clear: there is no technical or economic justification for restricting access to legal online content.

The report is the first of its kind: a comprehensive look at economic, technical, cultural aspects of Internet openness, as well as Canadian views on net neutrality and international comparisons. It shows that the Internet’s open architecture has become central to the success of our economy, our culture and our society, but that it is under threat by large, vertically-integrated telecom companies that seek to control, and even to discourage, use of the Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

Sign up now to pitch your launch at Launch Party 11, being hosted at the Grow Conference 2011 in Vancouver. Launch @ Grow will be held on August 17th and organizers are looking for 15 of the hottest Canadian tech startups – but wait, that’s not all! Four of those 15 startups will pitch live on stage during Day 2 of Grow.

Digifest 2011 wants you to participate in First Person Show – a meet & greet show & tell for the video game and animation communities in Toronto and Ontario. Hosted at Gaming Inc., the new George Brown video game incubator and game development classrooms, the First Person Show will be held as part of Digifest 2011 during the day on both Saturday October 29th and Sunday October 30th. Apply now to participate.

3Vis is holding a presentation night on May 31st at the Caprice Club in Vancouver. Make Your Ideas A Reality will feature sessions by Louis Marcoux, Lee Fraser and Mark Schoennagel. In addition to these informative sessions, there will be networking opportunities and some great prize give-aways.

D-BOX Technologies Inc. has signed its first agreement with Maya Cinemas to equip its Bakersfield and Salinas locations in California with 24 and 30 D-BOX MFX Seats respectively. D-BOX Motion Effects create a completely immersive experience with subtle, refined motion sensations that pitch, roll and heave theatre seats in perfect sync with the onscreen action.

“New partnerships like these coupled with an incredible lineup of new movie content continue to drive our growth forward, allowing us to continue to expand our presence in U.S. markets and abroad,” said President and CEO of D-BOX Technologies, Claude Mc Master.

“At Maya Cinemas we strive to create a highly entertaining experience with the most advanced technologies and exceptional services,” said President of Maya Cinemas, Frank Haffar. “D-BOX is a natural fit for our theatres and provides our customers a new way to experience the movies.”

Justin Kozuch, 2010 Mesh Prize winner and lead researcher for the Pixel to Product research study has released the first yearly report on the state of the Canadian digital media economy.

“The state of the Canadian digital media economy is strong”, said Kozuch. “Digital agencies in Canada are projecting between 10% and 24% growth in revenue when compared to their revenue generation efforts in 2010. When you compare this data against the 68.1% of reporting agencies who indicated they have a labour force size between one and 10 employees, this is incredible growth and is a good indicator of the strength of our economy.”

The Pixel to Product report also found:

• The average salary of a Canadian digital media professional ranges between $40,000 and $59,999,
• 73.4% of digital media agencies are increasing the size of their labour force in 2011; skills in mobile application development, social media marketing and community management are in high demand,
• 35.5% of women indicated they saw a 10% to 24% increase in salary from 2010 to 2011, compared to 26.3% for men,
• Women earned a higher number of salary increases than men in the 1-4%, 11-15%, and 16-20% range.

“This research is an important first step in understanding the size and scope of the Canadian digital media industry. As we continue this research on a year-over-year basis, we’ll be able to better plot the growth of our industry and how technology changes its business behaviors and perceptions. It is our hope that this research sparks a local and national dialogue on how to better understand who we are, what we do and the impact of the digital media industry on the Canadian economy as a whole.”

The final report with these and other findings, as well as the full data tables, can be downloaded free from the Pixel to Product website

Telefilm Canada is pleased to announce that five diverse French-language feature-film projects, of which one is a minority Canadian co-production, can move forward thanks to various production programs under the second round of the Canada Feature Film Fund’s selective component for 2011-2012.

For the second year running, Telefilm Canada has increased the amount of the envelope normally allocated to the selective component thanks to savings tied to greater efficiency.

“We are looking at a very wide-ranging line-up of titles for movie theatres, which will draw audiences,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “From cinéma d’auteur, with Rafael Ouellet‘s Camion, to films having wide audience appeal with Podz‘s L’Affaire Dumont, Telefilm is delighted to present projects that reflect the broad diversity of talent in Canada.”

“This second round of selections for fiscal 2011-2012 underscores our intention to promote talent in all its forms and at all levels,” said Michel Pradier, Director of Project Financing at Telefilm Canada. “Our selections include projects from seasoned creators as well as promising new talent, in a variety of genres. This bodes well for our industry.”

Following (in alphabetical order) are the French-language projects recently selected under the second round of decisions for the Canada Feature Film Fund’s selective component for 2011-2012:

L’Affaire Dumont
Based on a true story. In Boisbriand in 1990, corner-store delivery man Michel Dumont, a father of two young children who is separated from their mother, is accused, tried and sentenced for a sexual assault he claims he didn’t commit. During his trial, Michel falls in love with Solange, a young single mother who believes he is innocent. While in jail, Daniel and Solange get married and Solange decides to take on the monumental task of overturning his conviction. Michel’s case, a contemporary retelling of the David vs. Goliath story that unfolds over a 10-year period, has serious repercussions for the very concept of innocence.
Director: Daniel Grou, a.k.a Podz (7 jours du talion, 10 ½, C.A. Conseil d’administration, Minuit, le soir and Les Bougons : c’est aussi ça la vie)
Producer: Nicole Robert – Go Films
Distributor: Alliance Vivafilms
Writer: Danielle Dansereau

Alice
Alice lives in a home with five other intellectually disabled persons and works part-time in a bank. She has a crush on Martin, whom she met at the recreational centre where both are members of a choir made up exclusively of intellectually disabled singers. While the choir gets ready to take part in a world choral festival in Montréal, Alice and Martin look for an opportunity to consummate their love. Things take a dramatic turn when Martin’s mother, who vigorously opposes her son’s relationship with Alice, pulls him out of the recreational centre.
Writer-director: Louise Archambault (Familia)
Producers: Luc Déry and Kim McCraw – micro_scope
Distributor: Christal Films Distribution

Avant que mon cœur bascule
Sixteen-year-old Sarah, standing alongside a highway, pretends to be in trouble. Duped drivers pull over to help—and are robbed. This is how Sarah meets Marc, a history teacher whom she likes. Under the teen’s gaze, the man dies. Sarah’s life will never be the same again.
Director: Sébastien Rose (Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant ma ménopause, La vie avec mon père and Le Banquet)
Producer: Paul Barbeau – Reprise Films Inc.
Distributor: Metropole Films Distribution
Writers: Sébastien Rose and Stéfanie Lasnier

Camion
Germain is a seasoned trucker. One day, he is involved in a traffic accident that results in the death of a young women, and his world comes to a halt and he starts to fall apart. When he learns that the lumber mill where he works is going to close, Germain loses the one thing in his life that allowed him to forget the terrible accident. Only a few years away from retirement, Germain becomes more and more apathetic, a state that worries his eldest son, Samuel. Samuel goes off to a remote part of the United States to look for his brother Alain, so that they can both return to the house where they grew up and offer their father a bit of hope and support—and make sure he doesn’t do anything that can’t be undone.
Writer-director: Rafael Ouellet (Le cèdre penché, Derrière moi and New Denmark)
Producer: Stephanie Morisette – Coop Vidéo de Montréal
Distributor: K-Films Amérique

Hors les murs
France-Belgium-Canada co-production (minority Canadian)
Paulo, a young pianist whose life is almost settled, meets Ilir, a bass player originally from Albania. It’s love at first sight for the two, but their love story is soon overtaken by life’s unexpected twists and turns. The boys are brutally separated when one of them ends up in jail for a minor gaffe. Will their love survive the separation?
Writer-director: David Lambert
Producer: Daniel Morin – Les Productions Cinématographiques Boréal Films Inc. (Canada), Red Star Cinéma (France), Frakas Productions (Belgium)
Distributor: K-Films Amérique

eReading leader Kobo invites you and its over 3.6 million readers to participate in a new $10 million fund designed to inspire readers of all ages to read more and make a difference in their community. For every 10 million minutes read with Kobo up to one trillion minutes, Kobo will support an initiative suggested by Kobo customers to bring eReading to schools and communities in need.

“At Kobo we believe in the power of reading. Today, the average person spends five times more time watching TV than reading, schools continue to be underfunded and libraries are disappearing. We have an opportunity to change that with Read On,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO, Kobo. “At a time when technology is taking the printed word through an evolution, we are starting a revolution – a reading revolution.”

Kobo has created the One Trillion Minute Challenge to inspire people to make reading a bigger part of their lives, and make a difference in their local community. Every minute read with Kobo counts towards achieving this epic challenge and funding eReading programs in schools and community organizations.

Readers can get started with Read On today by signing up online and then:

• Name your cause: A school, or community organization dedicated to learning
• Start reading with Kobo: Every minute read counts
• Track progress: Using Kobo’s innovative social platform Reading Life
• Tell friends: Use Facebook, Twitter, Reading Life, blogs and podiums at schools and community centers to spread the word, and help make a difference
• Check the one trillion minute counter which will be updated in real-time

For every 10 million minutes read, Kobo will make a contribution of eReading valued between $1,000 and $20,000 to a recipient chosen through the Read On program. Recipients will receive Read On kits including eReaders, eBooks and the materials needed to start digital reading programs in their community. Kobo is contributing the first million dollars and will work to enlist additional partners inspired by this innovative new program.

“With Read On, our goal is to bring reading to more people in more places, inspiring people to read more and make a difference in their schools and communities. Over 500 years ago, it took only one person and a printing press to start a revolution. Imagine what we could accomplish today if we just Read On,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO, Kobo.