Wednesday October 1st 5:00-7:00 pm
at the Brookstreek Hotel’s Options Bar

Retooling Ottawa

Telecom to Digital Media

We are pleased to invite you to “Retooling Ottawa”, TON’s event stream focused on promoting the cross-disciplinary management team formation and efforts to redirect business and technical skill sets in emerging technology areas. On the first Wednesday of every month, we target an industry and offer two CEO, founders and/or investors offering their cross-disciplinary and retooling experiences in an informal, no-powerpoint and dynamic format with the usual networking opportunities before and after the program.

Come hear our distinguished speakers:

Rob Lane, CEO, Co-Founder of Overlay.TV

With over 16 years experience, Rob Lane has a proven track record in leading and building teams in both start-ups and large companies on several continents. Prior to co-founding Overlay.TV, he held senior management positions at Tropic Networks, Marconi and Fujitsu. Rob’s passion in life is creating and building ideas, teams and companies. He enjoys talking and can be found pitching at many a conference, but given the choice between talking and listening/learning, he’d choose listening/learning any day. Rob holds a Master in Business Administration from Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University (UK), a post-graduate Marketing diploma and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics from DeMontfort University (UK).

Overlay.TV is an interactive media company that provides an online video platform. This platform enables users, content owners, and e-commerce sites to monetize and customize their video assets by overlaying contextual information directly onto video and linking to external websites. In addition to providing the core services free of charge to any user on the Internet, Overlay.TV also provides custom video solutions including custom players, promotional video tools and widgets for content producers, bloggers, advertisers, agencies and publishers.

Robert Mimeault, President, COO of KangarooTV

Robert is highly regarded in the technology industry having served as CEO of several companies including Hullo Inc., Versatel Networks Inc. and Televitesse Systems Inc.

Kangaroo TV is an innovative broadcasting and technology corporation focused on sporting events. Responding to sports fans’ demands for more value at on-site events, Kangaroo TV developed a unique handheld audio-video entertainment device that enables spectators to access exclusive content, putting them in the driver’s seat of their own live-action experience. Kangaroo TV is a proprietary solution with a patented technology in a virgin market. Its their goal to become the world’s recognized leader in providing innovative, interactive and full-service wireless audio-visual solutions for on-site sports events.

Retooling Ottawa is a free event made available by .

Wednesday September 24th 5:30-7:30 pm
at Algonquin College, Woodroofe Campus just south of Baseline,
Building T - Room T119 (campus map below)

The Cutting Edge on Virtualization

“The Highest-Impact Trend Changing Infrastructure”

“Virtualization will be the highest-impact trend changing infrastructure and operations through 2012. Virtualization will transform how IT is managed, what is bought, how it is deployed, how companies plan and how they are charged. As a result, virtualization is creating a new wave of competition among infrastructure vendors that will result in considerable market disruption and consolidation over the next few years.” Gartner, April 2008.

Come hear our disguised speakers discuss and debate the trends and issues of virtualization:

Mike Kemp, CTO of Liquid Computing

Mike is the CTO and co-founder of Liquid Computing. Mike holds a joint honors degree in the disciplines of electrical engineering and computing science from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom, and has over 24 years of practical industry experience building large scale computer systems with Nortel and DARPA. He has a track record of innovation and bringing technology to market and he has published several papers on large scale switching and interconnect technologies. During his career, he has been responsible for the generation of intellectual property and associated patents in a variety of areas including multiprocessor systems, scalable communications and scalable high availability switching. Mike has developed many highly efficient interconnect and communications systems for a variety of products.

Liquid Computing has delivered a new generation of IT infrastructure that is transforming the traditional server and switch configurations commonplace in data centers. LiquidIQ, the world’s first fully converged communications and computing platform, provides flexible pools of computing, networking and switching resources and makes data center IT infrastructure easy to manage..

Jean-Marc Seguin, Chief Architect of Embotics

Jean-Marc brings more than 18 years of design and development experience to his leadership role as Chief Architect at Embotics. Prior to that, he was Director of Engineering at Symbium, with broad-ranging management responsibilities spanning software applications through firmware and hardware development. With numerous patents granted, Seguin also worked at Mitel designing and building leading-edge, enterprise and telecommunications software applications.

A privately held company founded in 2006, Embotics helps enterprises maximize the benefits of server virtualization through policy based Virtual Machine (VM) Lifecycle Management, integration and automation providing traceability and control for both online and offline VM assets.

Miro Adamy, Senior Technical Architect and Founder of Thinknostic

Miro’s experience in software development has spanned the last 20 years, using a multitude of languages/frameworks, business domains, methodologies, and operating systems/platforms. For the last 10 years, he been focused on the architecture, design and development of Java-based enterprise and e-commerce applications..

Thinknostic is one of the fastest growing professional service firms in Canada, developing creative solutions for Government organizations and clients across North America. With over 25 years of development and deployment experience, catalyzed by active thought and true business understanding, The firm provides award winning solutions that enable clients to collaborate and communicate, engage and transact with their audience. From fully integrated portals, world class ecommerce solutions to providing CLF2.0 certified compliant websites and expertise. Responsive and agile approach, combined with collective experience & knowledge, provides clients with solutions that satisfy their needs, enhance their business and exceed their expectations. .

About Cutting Edge

The Cutting Edge is an event series occurring on the fourth Wednesday of every month and focusing on emerging technical thought leadership from local entrepreneurs, investors, and research professionals.

The Cutting Edge is a free event made available by:

Wednesday September 17th 5:00-7:00 pm
at LaBarge Weinstein, 515 Legget Drive, Suite 800, Kanata

Startup-Up Drop In

Focus On: Opensource Business Models and Opportunities

The Ottawa Network and LaBarge Weinstein are proud to host “Start-Up Drop In” a pub night and constructive networking session hosted at the offices of LaBarge Weinstein the third Wednesday of every month, for purposes of encouraging the development of management teams, assisting with the start up networking, and making available service providers, sales, marketing and investor resources to local high-tech entrepreneurs.

Featured contacts:

Mahshad Koohgoli, Protecode Incorporated
Mikela McGettigan, Black Duck Software
Mike Gifford, OpenConcept Consulting Inc.
Russell McOrmond, FLORA.org

Words of Wisdom by:

Professor Tony Bailetti, Carleton University

Featured Startups:

Fred Dixon, Blindside Networks
Tobias Lütke, Jaded Pixel

This is a free event kindly made available by:

Join us and/or help us initiate a

“Founders and Funders” dinner

There is presently an initiative to organize an Ottawa “Founders and Funders” dinner along the lines of similar dinners held in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and other places (see http://foundersandfunders.org).

The date would be sometime in October starting at 5pm at a downtown restaurant. If there is enough interest and the date works out, then the event will become official and you will be invited to apply as soon as the event web site goes up. This is a private networking event and those selected will be contacted. The goal is to make a go/no go decision by September 19.

About the Founders and Funders event:

The event consists of bringing together funders (VC, Angels …) and founders for several hours of networking around a drink and dinner. Each individual in attendance is vetted by the organizers to ensure the highest quality of attendees. The event begins with drinks and proceeds to dinner with one or two brief “speeches”.

No presentations, no demos but lots of elevator pitches.

There is typically a $100 fee per head and we are looking to have two or three sponsors to support the event.

For more information

If you or others are interested in attending or for more information, please email allan.isfan@favequest.com .

Correction - Event Time Changed!!

Wednesday September 10th 6:00-8:00 pm at

246 Queen Street , between Bank and Kent

3 x 10

First Money

The September 10th “The Ottawa Network” event to be held at theCodeFactory is the first of several events dedicated to providing entrepreneurs and start-ups with interactive 3 x 10 sessions on early stage money. The 3 x 10 is where 3 presenters each have 10 minutes to provide an overview of themselves, the type of fund they manage and the sort of companies (individuals) that qualify for their respective financing. Our first event in the series is called “First Money” because the type of financing being offered is suitable for that initial paper to market type of development. Our three speakers; Paul Lem, George Brown and Harley Finkelstein each manage funds targeting companies in the earliest stages of formation.

Our presenters:

Paul Lem - Spartan Bioscience Inc.

Paul Lem, M.D., is the founder of several biotech and high-tech companies. He is currently the CEO and Founder of Spartan Bioscience Inc. www.spartanbio.com

Succession Ventures provides all 4 ingredients needed to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need 4 things: (1) good idea, (2) excellent team-mates, (3) smart strategy and execution, and (4) money to pay the bills. What we’re missing is you–an energetic, driven entrepreneur to drive our portfolio companies forward. Do you have what it takes?

George Brown - Ottawa Community Loan Fund (OCLF) & Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF)

George Brown is a lawyer and social entrepreneur who presently serves as President of the Ottawa Community Loan Fund. (OCLF) Prior to this, George spent nine years as a City and Regional Councillor in Ottawa where he was Chair of the City’s Economic Affairs Committee and the Region’s Environmental Services Committee. As Chair of Economic Affairs, George played a significant role in initiating and developing the Ottawa Entrepreneurship Centre, as well as promoting community economic development throughout the City of Ottawa including the establishment of the OCLF. Mr. Brown has a Masters of Science Degree in Community Economic Development from New Hampshire College’s Graduate School of Business (now Southern New Hampshire University) and an LL.B. degree from the University of Ottawa Law School. He was called to the Bar in Ontario in September, 2003.

Ottawa Community Loan Fund (OCLF) www.oclf.org is a not-for-profit social-finance organization that, for the past 8 years, has been providing micro-loans ($1000-15,000) to small businesses, individuals undergoing employment training and social enterprises. OCLF recognizes that the way society is organized does not allow all people the same opportunities. It seeks to promote self-reliance, by basing its loan criteria, not on an individual’s assets or net-worth, but on the merits of their ideas.

Canadian Youth Business foundation (CYBF) www.cybf.ca is a national charity providing start-up mentoring, financing and business resources for young Canadians (18-34) to create their own successful businesses.

Harley Finkelstein - Innoventure Capital

Harley Finkelstein is a serial entrepreneur who has launched a number of successful tech startups, and he is the founder of one of Canada’s leading apparel companies. Additionally, Harley serves as a mentor to the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), and sits on the financing committee for the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF). In 2007, Harley founded Innoventure Capital, a unique seed financing firm that provides funding and strong mentorship to early-stage startups. Harley recently completed his law degree at the University of Ottawa, and will be beginning his MBA at the school’s management faculty in Fall 2008. In 2005 he graduated with distinction from Concordia University where he received his degree in Economics. Harley may be reached at: Harley@Finkinc.ca

InnoVenture www.InnoVenture.ca is a unique and dynamic financial firm specializing in equity side funding to early stage startups, primarily in the technology and marketing sectors. The Innoventure approach combines finance and mentoring, and provides entrepreneurs with the tools and resources necessary to take their ideas to market, adding value and seizing growth opportunities.

“We Are Your Competitive Advantage”

Announcing

The New Fall Season of Events!

On behalf of the TON programming committee, we are very pleased to announce 2008-09 event calendar. This year, we’ve set high standards for adding value to the management team formation process, as well as providing the network and resources necessary to assist our local entrepreneurs build and maintain momentum behind their ventures. As always, our events are free, weekly and informal. Our hope and expectation is that they will be a rich complement the other events offered in the local tech community throughout the year, and we of course look forward to your continued feedback.

If you wish to participate as a speaker or featured startup in any of these events, please feel free to contact David Stein at daleassociates@canada.com or LaBarge Weinstein’s James Smith at js@lwlaw.com, and either of them would be happy to assist and accommodate. If you have any feedback for us throughout the year, please feel free to contact any of us at the email addresses below and, of course, feel free to use the “Contact Us” tool of the TON website at http://www.theottawanetwork.com/. Finally, we encourage all of you to join our LinkedIn group for TON and you can click here to do so.

Here is a description of this year’s weekly networking event series:

Retooling Ottawa

The first Wednesday of every month we will be presenting a series of events with the working title, “Retooling Ottawa”, which will be focused on promoting the cross-disciplinary management team formation and efforts to redirect business and technical skill sets in emerging technology areas. The format will target an industry and will typically offer two CEO/founders/investors offering their cross-disciplinary and retooling experiences, with the usual networking opportunities. Our first event will be held on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 from 5pm to 7pm, at Options Bar at the Brookstreet Hotel. Our first event will feature Rob Lane, CEO of OverlayTV and Bob Mimeault, CEO of KangarooTV.

3by10

The second Wednesday of every month we will presenting an event series entitled, “3by10”, each of which will feature 3 members of the technology community providing 10 minutes of wisdom for early stage and first time entrepreneurs regarding a particular business or technical subject matter. Our first event will be held at The Code Factory on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 from 5pm to 7pm. Our first event will be focused on “First Money”, with the speakers including Spartan Bioscience’s Paul Lem, OCLF’s George Brown, and Innoventure’s Harley Finkelstein.

Startup, Dropin

The third Wednesday of every month we are offering again our “Startup, Dropin” events held throughout last year, focused on showcasing business and thought leaders, startups, and startup resources, with a view to providing a networking forum for management team formation, team-building, and peer validation for business ideas and directions. The format will be similar to last year, with networking opportunities bookending some words of wisdom from a featured speaker, and introductions to certain key thought leaders and resources in a specific target industry. Our first event will be held on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 from 5pm to 7pm at the offices of LaBarge Weinstein at 515 Legget Drive, Suite 800, and will be focused on Open Source Software development and business planning. Professor Tony Bailetti, Protecode’s Mahshad Koohgoli, and Blindside Networks’ Fred Dixon, among others, will be featured.

Cutting Edge

The fourth Wednesday of every month we are offering an event series with the working title “Cutting Edge”, which will be an event focused on presenting emerging technical thought leadership from local entrepreneurs, investors, and research professionals. Our first event will be held on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 from 5pm to 7pm at Algonquin College’s Woodroffe Campus, with themes and speakers for the initial event announced over the course of the next several weeks.

Fifth Wednesday

On each of Wednesday, October 29, 2008 and Wednesday, May 30, 2009, TON plans to present a networking event entitled “Fifth Wednesday”, with the intent of concentrating and assembling a group of angels, traditional knowledge-based lenders, and institutional private equity and venture debt investors with transaction activity in the region in an informal, program-free setting. Location and details to follow.

Regards and look forward to seeing and working with you throughout the year,

Tim Hember, President
David Stein, Programs Director

Other programming committee members:
James Smith, Walter Knitl, Andrew Moizer, Darren De Jean, Carol Tracey, Ian Graham