The Search for a New President

The Ottawa Network is searching for a new president. We require a hi-tech pillar who is motivated, strategic and tactical. TON is now a growing force with regular attendance of 50-100 at its events and more than 1200 members signed up for both its mailer and LinkedIn groups. The new president will have the latitude to create and execute fresh strategies to keep the momentum building. This volunteer position requires 1-4 hours of effort per week.

TON is a grassroots, community-based, “for the people - by the people” organization. Its mission is to stimulate new opportunities in Ottawa’s hi-tech community by helping individuals to meet, interact, learn and share ideas and by connecting inventors (new entrepreneurs and wannabes) with mentors (veteran entrepreneurs and practitioners).

Please send your suggestions for a new president to admin@theottawanetwork.com

Wednesday December 3rd 5:00pm
at Brookstreet Hotel, 525 Legget Drive, Kanata

Annual General Meeting

TAKE NOTICE that the annual meeting of members of THE OTTAWA NETWORK (the “Corporation”) will be held at Brookstreet Hotel, 525 Legget Drive, Kanata, Ontario on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 5:00 o’clock (Ottawa time) in the afternoon for the purpose of:

• receiving and considering the financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, together with the auditors’ report thereon;
• electing directors;
• appointing auditors and authorizing the board of directors to fix their remuneration; and
• transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting.

Members who will not be attending the meeting are requested to date, sign and return the accompanying proxy via fax number 613-271-1505 or by mail using the label provided for that purpose. Members in good standing are entitled to attend, participate and vote at the meeting.

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

The Venture Review Panel Becomes

The Business Review Panel

Submission date extended to February 15, 2008

A recent assessment of The Ottawa Network’s (TON) constituency of entrepreneurs has indicated there has been a shift in their focus. They are no longer counting on scarce venture funding to get their business off the ground, but are focused on bootstrapping and organically growing their business via internal cash flow and other sources of funding.

In light of the community’s changing needs the Venture Review Panel (VRP), which was previously focused on preparing entrepreneurs for venture funding, has evolved into the Business Review Panel (BRP) to address the broader needs of today’s Ottawa entrepreneur. The group will provide impartial third-party review and feedback of your company’s next key business presentation whether your aim is to secure a first customer or to find funding. It can be invaluable to have a full set of experienced advisors available to provide feedback on how well they perceive that a target audience’s needs have been met. Bootstrapping, securing beta trials, getting that first customer, and getting that first BIG customer are some examples of crucial phases and stages of moving your idea/company forward that would benefit from external review.

The Business Review Panel is a diverse group composed of experienced, entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals. Appearing in front of the BRP is meant to be a natural extension to the knowledge gained in the Ottawa Network’s series of weekly information sessions www.theottawanetwork.com . The BRP schedules quarterly calls for submissions. Those groups selected will present to the panel and receive feedback afterwards. Presenters can expect to receive verbal feedback to help management to focus on operational issues they may encounter, suggestions on product, channel and partnering strategies, ideas on sources of funding and general audience perceptions.

Individuals and/or companies now have an opportunity to submit for selection to appear before the BRP. The first call for submissions has been extended to February 15, 2008. All applicants will receive responses within two weeks thereafter. Selected applicants’ presentations will then be scheduled within two weeks of being notified.

For more information and the submission and presentation format suggestions please visit: www.theottawanetwork.com/?page_id=48 or contact: brp@theottawanetwork.com.

Wednesday October 24th 5:00-6:30 pm
at the Brookstreet Hotel - Leaders Meeting Room, 2nd Floor

Annual General Meeting

An email to TON members, outlining details and materials for the AGM, was sent on October 9th. If you require further information, or a resend of materials, please send an email to admin at theottawanetwork dot com