Academic, business and political leaders came together in Halifax on Thursday to call for reform in post-secondary education, and including a greater emphasis on teaching entrepreneurship.

The speakers at the Atlantic Leaders Summit organized by the Atlantic Association of Universities voiced a near unanimous message that the region’s institutes of high education need reform, or at least improvement. They have the potential to be an economic boon, to spur innovation and to train the work force for the modern economy. But there is an urgent need for improvement in various areas, they said.

One of the overlooked segments of Premier Stephen McNeil’s State of the Province speech last week was his revelation that Nova Scotia will soon proceed with a new public-private venture capital fund.

On Feb. 11, McNeil delivered his address to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, and the focus was on the need for change, reinforcing the theme of the Ivany report.

But he also noted that the province would soon release a request for proposals for a private-sector venture capital partner to manage a fund that would be financed in part by the province. The announcement is a followup to the

The following is the text of an address by Gerry Pond given at the recent Saint Mary’s University convocation, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate:

As you graduate from this fine university and begin the next stage in your journey, you will receive considerable amounts of advice, all well intentioned, and much of it useful. Let me add my voice to the chorus with some thoughts on how

The third annual Big Data Congress, to be held in Halifax this October, will feature as its keynote speaker Google’s Director of Engineering Ray Kurzweil.

The brainchild of T4G CEO Geoff Flood, the first two Congresses were held in Saint John and both attracted more than 600 delegates even though they were held in the depth of winter. The event is designed to promote the use of data analytics to generate economic growth and improve the performance of all organizations.

This year, the event will shift to Halifax and to the autumn, and it will have a special emphasis on how Big Data is

The organizers of East Coast Startup Week in Fredericton have issued the following press release:

A Week of Innovation and Entrepreneurship with Something for Everyone! Press Release:

FREDERICTON, NB – The blossoming East Coast start-up scene will get a major boost with the second iteration of East Coast Startup Week, a series of events being held on March 16 to 22 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Brought to you by organizing partners Planet Hatch, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and the Pond-Deshpande Centre, East Coast Startup Week is a series of events bringing entrepreneurs

SimplyCast, the Dartmouth multi-channel marketing company, has announced the release of its new Agency365 product, its first that allows several people in the same organization to collaborate on a messaging campaign.

CEO and founder Saeed El-Darahali started the company six years ago, with the aim of establishing a platform that allows users to communicate simultaneously through a range of channels, such as email, fax, Twitter, etc. Last year, it introduced its 360 Automation Manager, which allows incredible ease of use in these campaigns.

Now the company has increased the functionality

People give many reasons for assisting others. Frustration isn’t usually among them, although that helps motivate New Brunswick entrepreneur Rivers Corbett.

Corbett, the co-founder of Relish Gourmet Burgers, spends a lot of time mentoring young entrepreneurs and speaking to high school students.

He strives to make youngsters realize that they can become entrepreneurs.

“I’m focused and

We’ve almost reached our target of getting surveys submitted by about half of the Atlantic Canadian startup community.

The response has been fantastic and I want to thank everyone who completed the survey. I especially want to thank those who were patient with my persistent nagging.

We’d still like to get more surveys in, so if you haven’t completed one, please do so today. It only takes three minutes and all the material is completely confidential.  You can find the survey form here.

I’m already starting to see a few patterns emerging. I will be writing about them first in our

Halifax’s topLog announced Wednesday its new product for application developers will soon be available on the Bitnami platform, which should help increase its distribution.

For the last two years, topLog has been developing software that helps notify developers and system administrators if there is a problem on their system and to sort out any troubles quickly.

The company will soon launch a “freemium” version, meaning that users can download a basic product for free and pay for additional functionality.

It is partnering with San Francisco’s Bitnami, which has a platform that offers

The Next36, an entrepreneurship non-profit based in Toronto, wants Atlantic Canadian startup founders to apply to join this year’s cohort of 20 founders for The Next Founders, a program to accelerate startup growth.

The Next36 has been around for five years, but for the first three years it’s been solely focused on growing undergraduates’ startups. The program allows undergraduates to take courses with business experts from across North America, as well as meet The Next36’s network of more than 300 of the top business influencers in Canada.

The participants in The Next Founders have