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Startup Drinks Around Canada - Wed, Jan 27, 2010

Hi Everyone!

We’re back on track with Startup Drinks with a whole slew of events happening across Canada.  Startup Drinks Waterloo were the first ones out the gate this year kicking us off on January 5.  You can see the recap here.

Next week there are drinks happening in cities all over the country, check it out:

VANCOUVER

When: 5pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Downstairs, Alibi Room (157 Alexander Street @ Main) (map)

Your hosts: Brian LeRoux (Nitobi), Boris Mann (Bootup Entrepreneurial Society)

EDMONTON

When: 5pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: TBA

Your hosts: Cam Linke, Startup Edmonton

CALGARY

When: 6pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Bottlescrew Bill’s Old English Pub in the back private room (140 - 10 Avenue S.W.) (map),

Your hosts: Kory Arsenault, eSchedule

Sign Up Here!

TORONTO

When: 7:30pm, 27 January, 2010 (*special post-DemoCamp time*!)

Where: Imperial Pub in the Library Room (54 Dundas St. E)  (map)

Your hosts: Brian Watson and Robin Gittens (CEO Fusion), David Crow (Microsoft), Mark Evans (ME Consulting)

Sign Up Here!

OTTAWA

When: 6:00pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Patty Boland’s (101 Clarence St) (map)

Your host: Cory Darby, Kelly Rusk (Startup Ottawa), Steve O’Halloran (Assetlabs)

Sign Up Here!

MONTREAL

When: 5:30pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Brutopia (1219 Rue Crescent) (map)

Your host: Robin Ahn (Flow Ventures)

Sign Up Here!

ST. JOHN

When: 6pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Big Tide Brewing Company (30 Princess St) (map)

Your host: Jeff Roach (Propel Accelerator)

Sign Up Here!

FREDRICTON

When: 6pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Garrison District Ale House (426 Queen Street) (map)

Your host: Jeff Roach (Propel Accelerator)

Sign Up Here!

ST. JOHN

When: 6pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Big Tide Brewing Company (30 Princess St) (map)

Your host: Jeff Roach (Propel Accelerator)

MONCTON

When: 6pm, 27 January, 2010

Where: Vie Tapas & Lounge (196 Robinson St, at the back of Robinson Court) (map)

Your host: Jeff Roach (Propel Accelerator)

Sign Up Here!

HALIFAX

When: Time TBA, 27 January, 2010

Where: TBA

Your host: Jeff White (Kula Partners)

*** updated with 3 cities in New Brunswick! ***

Haiti Tweetup Wrap-Up: $10,000 for Haiti!

(tons more photos here, all photos courtesy of Julian Haber)

A huge thank you to everyone who was involved with Haiti Tweetup! Here’s what we accomplished in one week:

• 120 people attended the event
• 35 businesses donated prizes
• 20 lucky/skilled people won prize lots
• media coverage on CBC, CJAD, the Montreal Mirror and elsewhere online
• $5093 raised in total ($2800 from the auction, $1668 at the door, $625 online)

Since the Canadian government is matching donations, this translates into $10,186 which is going directly to Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders Canada.

Whether you attended the event or lent your support in other ways, we should all be proud of what we were able to achieve. I didn’t doubt for a second that the Montreal community would rise to the occasion.

A special thank-you goes to Robin Ahn who put in a huge effort to get all of the logistics sorted out including finding the venue. She is now our resident Silent Auction superhero. Believe me, organizing one is a superpower.

Thanks to the following people who volunteered or helped find sponsors: Christina Baudin, Lateef Martin, Massimo Farina, Sarah Lolley, Julian Haber, Christine LaFontaine, Peter Bailey,and DJ Andy Williams

And a huge shout-out to individuals and businesses to contributed prizes:

• Cruz Limousine
• Scandinave Les Bains
• DNA 11
• Pure Love
• Liz Claiborne
• Brazen Design
• Epicierie Fleur
• Gina Roitman
• Le Groupe Spectacles Gillett (GEG)
• Julian Haber
• Kevin Ledo
• Good Life Apparel
• Automatic Vaudeville Studios
• Spa Zazen
• Studio Sweatshop
• Solares
• Geoff Lapp Trio
• Sasha Kleinplatz
• DeAnne Smith
• McAuslan Brewery
• CBC Radio
• Marc Andre Cyr
• Mainline Theatre
• Moksha Yoga
• McCaughey Consumer Products
• Lorraine Craig
• Blackeye Design
• Ogilvy Renault
• 3Even
• ASM Performing Arts
• Geordie Productions
• Ristorante Capriccio

We’re working on new fundraising projects that will focus on the long-term rebuilding effort in Haiti so stay tuned. If you want to help out, please drop me a line and stay in touch.

Raymond

Haiti Tweetup - What’s Next?

Thanks to everyone for their enthusiastic support of our Haiti Tweetup fundraising drive! We need your help on the final drive for participants on Tuesday, 19 January at Casa Del Popolo (4873 blvd St-Laurent) between 5:30pm and 8:30pm. 

Get tickets here: 

http://haititweetup.eventbrite.com/

Check out the Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=272804474001&ref=ts

Reasons to come:

1. Haiti needs help on the ground and they need it yesterday.  This is an international issue (that needs no more explanation from me) AND it’s also a local one.  Thousands of Haitian Canadians are worried sick and losing sleep over their friends and relatives; they deserve to know that we’re with them and we support them. 
2. DJ Andy Williams will provide the sound and fury for your rump shaking pleasure. 
3. Prizes! Prizes! Prizes! Raffles and silent auctions will be going on for a list of wicked prizes that won’t stop growing! 
4. Did I mention something about an earthquake ravaged country just-a-few-short-hours-by-plane away? Yes, that one. 

How to help: 

1. Send an email.  Copy and paste all of the above in a new message, send it to your entourage then sit back and take the credit. Plagiarism for a good cause doesn’t count. 
2. Get on the phone - call your friends to come out and meet you for a drink on Tuesday at Casa del Popolo! They’re good people and itching for a way to give - the $10 donation-at-the-door might just be the trick.
3. Get Social on Facebook and Twitter - shout it loud and proud that you’re coming with the #haititweetup hashtag.  Let everybody know that Haiti has your support and ask them to join you. 
4. Work your contacts - Do you have friends in high places? Know people well placed in the media who just need to know about this initiative? Point them to this blog! 
5. Add a Haiti Tweetup Widget to your web page - it’s beautiful and functional. Code here: [<div style=”width: 250px;”><iframe name=”countdown” id=”mgframe” src=”http://www.eventbrite.com/countdown-widget?eid=536979119″ width=”250″ height=”420″ marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ scrolling=”no”  frameborder=”0″ ></iframe><a href=”http://www.eventbrite.com/r/ecount”><img src=”http://www.eventbrite.com/s.gif” alt=”Events” border=”0″/></a></div>]

Why you should attend StartupDrinksCA

This week marks a major milestone in the life of StartupDrinksCA. It’s the first time the event can be called a truly Canadian event rather than something that’s just happening in a few cities. Since organizing StartupDrinks in Montreal over a year ago, we’ve managed to expand it to Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo. Now we’re happy to welcome Halifax (which ran its first StartupDrinks last week), Moncton, St. John, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. I’m sure there will be more Canadian communities joining.

We’ve created a new Web site (www.startupdrinks.ca) to make it easier to organize and promote StartupDrinks in your city. Check it out to see when StartupDrinksCA is happening in your city.

To mark this important milestone, I thought I would highlight the 3 reasons why I think you should attend StartupDrinksCA:

1. Celebrate your community - I’ve recently started reading Who’s Your City? by Richard Florida. He talks about how important creative clusters are to the work of creative people. StartupDrinks is a great way to celebrate how vibrant your local tech entrepreneurship community is. Take a step back and realize that you’re surrounded by passionate, talented people who’ll go out of their way to enable your passion and talent.
2. Build your reputation - Your personal reputation in the community is crucial, not only if you’re a social media professional. It applies to all types of businesses. Regularly attending StartupDrinks is a way for you to develop a reputation with people you aren’t necessarily doing business with today. But when opportunities arise (e.g. someone looking for a co-founder, or their next investment) you’ll appreciate the fact that you have a social bond to back up the fact you’re LinkedIn.
3. Talk about yourself - All startups (and entrepreneurs) are works-in-progress. There’s no better way to develop and hone your pitch (business or personal) than getting out there and doing it. You’ll get great feedback and just the exercise of hearing yourself pitch will give you new insight into what works and what doesn’t. The nice thing about StartupDrinks is that there are no speeches and no panel of judges. Be yourself, share a pint and talk about your projects.

One last reason: there’s a fabulous prize (paid out in kudos) for the person who attends the most Startupdrinks in different cities. We call it: Startup Lush. So far I’m winning but I’d love to have some competition!

Startup Drinks CA is live!

Big news!

Startup Drinks has expanded to include eight beautiful cities - Halifax, St. John, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Montreal.  Startup Drinks Canada also has a new home over at www.startupdrinks.ca and twitter account (@startupdrinksca), to keep you informed on what’s going on locally and nationally.

If you’re eager to help organize for the fun and fellowship, contact your local organizer.  Your support in getting the word out from exactly where you’re sitting right now is always appreciated too.  Use the usual or unusual channels, I’m not picky!  This is a completely community run event for all to enjoy.  Thanks to all of our city volunteers who saw the need and stepped up so fast it nearly made my head spin!

If you’ve never been before, it’s really simple.

1. Go to www.startupdrinks.ca and look up your city’s date, location and time.
2. Sign up to show your support and let your organizer know you’re coming.  Make a date with yourself or a friend and go.
3. Order a drink and introduce yourself to someone you’ve never met before. Repeat as needed.

We don’t have presentations or sponsors and fully encourage people just to have a good time while getting to know their local startup community. This is the last one for 2009 so please accept my sincere thanks to each and every one of you who came and made it a success.  The kudos belongs to you.

Here are the need to know details for Startup Drinks Montreal:

When: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 5:30pm

Where: Brutopia, 1219 Rue Crescent (cnr Ste-Catherine) (map)

Sign up here!

Next Startup Drinks Montreal: January 27, 2010

Startup Drinks, this Wednesday, October 28!

It’s getting a little chillier, which makes it all the better for getting inside and yakking it up at the next Startup Drinks Montreal.  This whole drinks+networking thing has caught on to other cities so if you’re not in Montreal, don’t despair.  Startup Drinks has become your local purveyor of the highest quality tech startup networking.

Here are the details:

Montreal - Sign up here!

Venue: Brutopia, 1215 Crescent St, Sth of Ste-Catherine

When:  Wednesday, October 28, 2009 from 5:30pm

Toronto - Sign up here!

Venue: Fionn MacCool’s,  70 The Esplanade, Btw Church and Victoria

When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 2009 from 6pm

Ottawa - Sign up here!

Venue:  Fox & Feather Pub (cnr McLaren), Upstairs, Fox 2 room

When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 from 6pm

Waterloo:  

Venue: TBA

When: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 from 6pm

This event is for the faithful and the curious - all are welcome!

See you there,

Robin

Reminder: Startup Drinks in YOUR city!

Well, if you happen to be in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto or Waterloo, that is!

Startup Drinks is a monthly gathering of people working in and around startups of every stripe.  In each of these fine Canadian cities, there are people in your community spending their time and energy to keep it alive. The aim is to do what you mostly call networking - it’s fun, easy and involves drinks.  Yeah!

Montreal: SIGN UP HERE!

Venue: Brutopia, 1215 Crescent St

When:  Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 5:30pm

Toronto: SIGN UP HERE!

Venue: Fionn MacCool’s,  70 The Esplanade, Btw Church and Victoria

When: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 6pm

Ottawa: SIGN UP HERE!

Venue: Cornerstone Grill, 92 Clarence Street (in the market)

When: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 5:30pm

Waterloo:  SIGN UP HERE!

Venue: McMullan’s on King, 56 King Street North

When: Wednesday, October 6, 2009 from 5:30pm

Startup Drinks: Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and now Waterloo!

We’re now onto our fourth city joining the Startup Drinks bandwagon thanks to Dan Silivestru. Waterloo is a little out of sync for this one to avoid conflicts with DemoCamp Guelph.

So, here are the details:

Montreal:

Venue: Brutopia, 1215 Crescent St

When:  Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 5:30pm

Toronto:

Venue: Fionn MacCool’s,  70 The Esplanade, Btw Church and Victoria

When: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 6pm

Ottawa:

Venue: TBA

When: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 from 5:30pm

and the newest addition (drum roll please!):

Waterloo:

Venue: McMullan’s on King, 56 King Street North

When: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 from 5:30pm

Look out for sign up information shortly!

August Startup Drinks in Toronto and Montreal! Update: now Ottawa too!

The inaugural Startup Drinks Toronto had over 100 people thanks to David Crow and his organizing efforts.  Montreal had another really nice mid-summer showing as well! We’re back for another round this Wednesday, August 26 in Montreal and Toronto for more startup networking.

For Toronto:

Venue: C’est What,  67 Front Street East, Corner Farquhars Lane

When: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 from 6pm

Sign up: here or on Facebook, if you prefer

For Montreal:

Venue: Brutopia, 1215 Crescent St (South of Ste-Catherine, Metro Guy)

When: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 from 5:30pm

Sign up at TechEntreprise

As always, I look forward to seeing you there!

Robin

UPDATE!

If you’re reading this from the fair city of Ottawa, you can also join in the synchronous fun too thanks to Scott Annan from Mercury Grove!

Here are the details:

- Date: Wednesday, 26 August, 2009
- Location: Metropolitan Brasserie, 700 Sussex, Street level entrance (map)
- Time: 6pm until late

Sign up here!

Startup Drinks, Montreal and Toronto: Wednesday, July 29!

This Wednesday, July 29, Startup Drinks will be held simultaneously in two different locations! We’ve been working behind the scenes with Canadian startup agitator David Crow to get our Toronto brethren into the Startup Drinks act.  Startup Drinks Toronto makes its debut in the wake of DemoCamp and at last count there are over 180 (!) people slated to be there.

Speaking for Montreal, this drinking and networking event has become a touchstone for the tech community because of the regulars who keep the open spirit of the startup culture alive.  With David’s help, I hope we can achieve this modest end in Toronto with the same “no frills” philosophy and conviviality.

I asked David - who has no lack of projects on the go, mind you - why he was getting behind yet another community building effort and he said it’s because “Startup Drinks embodies the culture needed to build strong connections between entrepreneurs. Montreal has such a fantastic startup culture, and sometimes imitation is the finest form of flattery. This is a great social event for entrepreneurs and startups to gather over a pint and share what we’ve been working on.”

If you’re a Montrealer in Toronto for DemoCamp, check it out just as our own Raymond Luk will be doing.  You know the drill!

Without further ado, these are your need-to-know details:

For Toronto:

Venue: Pogue Mahone, 777 Bay St (Cnr College St)

When: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 from 7pm

Sign up: Startup Drinks Toronto Facebook Event

For Montreal:

Venue: Brutopia, 1219 Crescent St (Sth of St-Catherine)

When: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 from 5:30pm

Sign up: Coming soon!

You can come by yourself, with a friend or with a posse.  Everyone is welcome!

See you there,

Robin