Launch Party pre-party

We’ve had some complaints that we party too hard at Launch Party.  So much so, that investors and entrepreneurs can’t hear each other talking.  Even when we turn down the music all the way, people can’t hear very well over all the mingling.  So, we have a solution.  If you’re an Angel, VC or Blogger, please let me know and I’ll put you on the list for the sneak peak portion of the event, which simply starts an hour earlier.

 

Don’t miss VIDFEST May 21st-May 24th

Quick post to remind everyone to check out Vidfest and The Vancouver International Game Summit.   Looks like it’s going to be a great event this year.  I’ll be there on Saturday to pitch Strutta at the Pitch ‘n’ Play part of the event.

A note to the organizers: We accidentally scheduled Launch Party on the same night as the Opening Reception.  I apologized to Adam, and explained that the reason we chose May 21st to host Launch Party was because of the VCs that would be in town for the VC Road Trip. Maura, Dimitri and I promised to pay more attention in the future….. Hey maybe we should have a unified calendar… err techvibes does I guess, but VIDFEST is not on there.  Besides, I told Boris Wertz that I wont use it until they break up with their 1999 web design?  That said, their blog is a great resource for the city and should be read daily if you want to know anything about the tech scene in Vancouver.

Launch Party Vancouver 4 – May 21st

As some of you may know, I co-host Launch Party Vancouver with Maura Rodgers and Dimitri Sirota. Well, the truth is, that Maura does most of the work, all while holding down a day job at Strutta and being the best mother I know. We don’t do it to make money; We do it because we love to bring the Vancouver tech community closer together to exchange ideas and build great stuff. I have no doubt that Vancouver can be a hotbed for tech startups, and Launch Party is just one of the ways that will help get us there.

I’ve asked Gordon to get as many VCs from the VC Road Trip to attend the event as he can, and a few have already confirmed.

For startups who are looking for people, or people who are interested in joining a startup, drop by the Career Fair.

Date: May 21st, 2008
Career Fair: 3pm
VC Preview: 4:15pm
Demos: 5:30-9pm
Party on: 9pm-late
Location: The Republic, 958 Granville Street Vancouver, BC

RSVP on Facebook or on the Launch Party blog

for fun: Previous Launch Party pics on Flickr

See you there!

Vancouver startup events: Fusion Forum, NV08, Launch Party, DemoCampVancouver

We’re already down one month of the 2008 year and it seems like the pace of activities are speeding up.

In upcoming order, here are the events in Vancouver relevant to startups that I know about:

• Fusion Forum (February 20 – 21): a financing event put on by New Media BC. What is Fustion?
  

  Fusion is designed to showcase the hottest digital media firms, provide valuable insights into key issues in the industry, provide a premium networking opportunity and a chance to learn from world-class investment professionals involved in the sector.

  Sorry I didn’t mention it earlier, but this past Thursday was actually an Entrepreneur Bootcamp. I believe there is still room if you want to pitch your company to investors. Bootup Labs was invited, but Danny is actually presenting Strutta and we’ve got too many other items still on the “to do” list between now and then to do it justice. Thanks for the offer, Adam!

• Northern Voice 2008: of course there’s a conflict of interest! I’ve helped organize this personal blogging / social media conference for the past 3 years (this is the 4th annual), and it’s always a mind expanding experience. We have people attending from across the country and around the world, with lots of travel from our US neighbours in particular. Anyone wanting to plugin to what is happening online from a personal / social perspective should attend, or at the very least plan some dinners or meetups with the many folks that are arriving from out of town. Almost sold out, so buy a ticket now if you intend to come.
• Launch Party (late March / early April): the last one at the Lamplighter headlined by Sun and their Startup Essentials launch in Canada was filled to the brim: networking and new product launches plus an intro to who’s doing what in Vancouver are the reason to attend every time. Sounds like late March or early April according to Maura.
• DemoCampVancouver06 – Gaming Edition (late March / early April): we just wrapped the DCV05, where I announced that we’d be doing something a little different for DCV06 — a themed version that will focus on gaming. There are lots of big gaming companies that have spun off some smaller studios, some of which only got re-absorbed (Baby EAs, in Rob Lewis’ parlance on TechVibes) — are there more gaming startups, or gaming related ideas out there? I’m going to reach out to the local gaming tribe and see about getting some of them out. Including, hopefully, a guest speaker from Project Darkstar.

P.S. OK, OK, I *didn’t* forget about CaseCamp Vancouver 3 on February 20th, I just would expect any startup worth its salt to know these lessons already.