Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, in conjunction with the Trade Commissioner Service, and its partners KPMG and Miller Thompson would like to cordially invite you to participate in the Technology Growth Initiative (TGI) Eastern Canada Business Boot Camps Spring 2011.

How can companies get involved? There are 2 ways to participate:

• Attend the morning coaching sessions, the networking keynote lunches and observe a select number of company pitches.  Register Above!
• Participate in the morning session and apply to become one of the select number of Canadian companies who will pitch their technology to an expert panel. The Canadian companies with the highest evaluation scores will be invited to participate in the next phase of TGI, where they will be given access to key markets and decision makers in the United States through a technology pipeline, specially tailored and developed by the Trade Commissioner Service. Register Above!
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Stay tuned for speaker updates to the agenda below.  A detailed program will be forwarded to all registered participants.

Boot Camp Agenda

8:00     Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30     Presentations and Coaching sessions - A series of expert speakers will share tips, advice and key market information

9:00  Panel 1 - 50 minutes

Global trending from an investment and commercialization perspective

How you can take advantage of accessing international markets in the US, China, Brazil, India and the generation of young, tech savvy users

What are some key points of entry? Panellist will provide advice on understanding international market access and corridors such as Boston (Life Sciences) and Silicon Valley (IT) for start-ups.

Speakers:

Ron Bolen, HFBE Inc, Valuation and Investment Banking

Andy Tsao, Global Private Equity, Silicon Valley Bank

Robert Gottlieb, Principal, RMG Associates

Martin Casstevens, Director of Directed Energy, Tech Transfer and Economic Outreach, University of Buffalo 

Giovanni Ferrara, Chief Business Officer at Sorbent Therapeutics

Pedram Mokrian, Mayfield Fund, Venture Capital and Private Equity

 10:00  Panel 2 - 50 minutes

Getting ready to walk the talk with major players

Part 1  - What is a Google, Apple, Microsoft or RIM looking for? What is the culture of partnership?

Part 2  -  Advice on how to research your targets for partnerships and finance and what questions you should be asking before entering international markets.

Speakers:

Steven D. Rizzi, Vice President,  Products and Emerging Markets, SAIC 

Uday Mathur, Specialist for Renewable Energy Procurement

Robert Writz,  Sr.Project Leader, Commercialization, NREL

Ken Rutkowski, Partner, Innovation, and Social Media Analyst 

Eric Shiozaki, Associate Director, North America, Apposite Capital

11:00  Panel 3 - 50 minutes....

The successful Pitch - Advice from entrepreneurs who have been there, venture capitalist entrepreneurs who have heard the stories, and research and development  experts who have seen the birth of a company from its laboratory beginnings.

The next stop is the pitching sessions....are you ready?   

Speakers:

Mike Grandinetti, Southboro Capital

Matthew Jenusaitis, OctanE, Orange County

Stefanie M. Bednarczyk, Life Sciences Account Executive Health Solution Business Unit, Energy and Civil Solutions Group

Brian Wong, the founder of kiip, mobile in-game advertising

Joyce Tsang, ProQuest General Partner 

Colin Bryant, Vice-President, Paladin Capital Group 

12:00   Networking Lunch with US Panellists and local industry stakeholders

13:00   Pitch to expert panellists – Select number of companies will have 6 minutes to pitch their company and technology to a panel of experts. The presenters will judged (4 minutes feedback session with the panel) and scored. This pitch session will be open to observers.

15:00   Break

15:15   Pitch to expert panellists - This pitch session will be open to observers. Panellist will have approximately 4 minutes to provide feedback

16:30   Program Wrap-up

This initiative was made possible through funding from the North American Platform Program (NAPP) partnership and  

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