PEI to Host 1st Startup Weekend

Startup Weekend will be held for the first time on Prince Edward Next weekend, one of three of the collaborative weekend events to take place in Atlantic Canada in the next two months.

Startup Weekend events have been held in more than 100 countries and several Atlantic Canadian cities but the one on May 1 to 3 will be the first in Charlottetown. The event at PEI Farm Centre is titled the Food and Farm Edition of Startup Weekend.

Startup Weekend, an international organization based in Seattle, encourages entrepreneurship by staging 54-hour competitions around the world. People turn up

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Phased.io Focuses on Succession

Phased.io, a young company developing at the UIT program at Cape Breton University, is looking for companies and organizations that can help it develop an online product to help with succession or bringing in new employees.

The company was founded by Colin MacInnis and Brian Best, two students at the new CBU program that teaches lean entrepreneurship. They were among the handful of entrepreneurs that presented their projects when Premier Stephen McNeil delivered his State of the Province address in February.

At the time, the duo was working on a product that would help university

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RtTech Wins Frost & Sullivan Award

RtTech Software of Moncton has received the Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award for 2015 in recognition of its “unrivaled innovation and leadership”.

RtTech Software, whose state-of-the-art automation helps industrial companies improve manufacturing processes, is the second Atlantic Canadian startup to be recognized by the international market research firm. Last year, Halifax-based Lamda Guard Inc. was awarded the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership for its solution to the problem of laser attacks on aircraft.

RtTech was spun out of ADM Systems Engineering of

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Press Release: Kula’s Platinum Status

Kula Partners, an inbound marketing agency based in Halifax, has issued the following press release:

Kula Partners Becomes Canada's First HubSpot Platinum Partner

Halifax, NS — Kula Partners, an inbound marketing agency based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has become the first Canadian agency to achieve HubSpot Platinum Partner tier status.

As one of only 35 agencies globally to have achieved the distinction, reaching Platinum Partner tier status places Kula Partners in a select group of the over 2000 HubSpot agency partners worldwide. HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is the world’s leading provider of

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The Film Industry’s Impact on Startups

Here’s an angle on the Nova Scotia film industry debate that’s not getting enough attention: Moviemakers are vitally important to several high-growth industries that we need for economic development.

When Finance Minister Diana Whalen brought down her budget, she took several difficult measures to constrain the 2015-16 deficit to $97.6 million. It’s a tremendous achievement, given that a year earlier she had forecast a 2014-15 deficit three times that size, at $279 million.

But the benefits were lost in the tsunami of controversy that arose from the cuts to the Film Investment Tax

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Big Data Vs Privacy Debate at Acadia

There’s going to be an interesting debate at Acadia University tomorrow night on the tension between Big Data and privacy concerns, and the organizers are inviting anyone interested to attend.

“Big Data or Big Problems? The Pros and Cons of Data Analytics Debate” will take place Tuesday from 7 to 8:30 pm at the K.C. Irving Centre Auditorium at Acadia on Tuesday. Anyone interested in attending the event can register for free here.

The topic is an important one for Atlantic Canada given the efforts led by T4G President Geoff Flood to establish a centre of excellence in Big Data in

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LifeRaft Nears $2.5M in VC Funding

LifeRaft, a startup whose platform uncovers potential threats through social media posts, expects to soon close a $2.5-million round of venture capital funding that it hopes will accelerate its already-impressive growth.

LifeRaft of Halifax identifies threatening keywords, such as “kill” and “gun,” on social media sources like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. This then allows the user to drill into any post of concern to better understand the context of an individual’s comments.

LifeRaft attempts to be proactive in preventing threats in this new world of social interaction.

“If someone

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KIRA Awards Finalists Announced

The 2015 KIRA Award’s Selection Committee on Thursday announced the finalists for New Brunswick’s Knowledge Industry Recognition and Achievement Awards, with Eigen Innovation Inc. of Fredericton capturing two nods.

Eigen, whose industrial Internet algorithms help companies automate a range of actions in their manufacturing processes, is a finalist in the Innovative New Product or Service category and in Most Promising Startup.

KIRA Awards are handed out annually to members of the public and private sectors to recognize the contributions the people, companies and organizations have made

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Press Release: BioEnterprise in PEI

BioEnterprise Corp., an ag-tech business accelerator, has issued the following press release:

Bioenterprise Corporation Expands into the Maritimes

Bioenterprise opens a new office in the Maritimes in collaboration with Prince Edward Island ADAPT Council.

Guelph, ON (April 16, 2015) - Bioenterprise Corporation is pleased to announce that it will be opening its newest office in Charlottetown, PEI. Bioenterprise has established a 3-year strategic partnership with the Prince Edward Island ADAPT Council for the commercialization of agricultural technologies and innovations.

"We are

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ShowBattery Lights Up the Ski Hills

A Dartmouth company whose product is gaining traction in the trade show industry is pondering whether to make a similar mark in an unexpected market — skiing.

SGS Solutions Inc. has produced portable batteries for exhibitions and trade shows that allow exhibitors to save thousands of dollars by avoiding electric installations. In the meandering way entrepreneurs stumble on innovation, it is planning a system that will allow skiers to become a human light show during night runs.

Last year, SGS Solutions introduced its ShowBattery at the ExhibitorLive conference in Las Vegas and won the

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