BioPort Atlantic, the annual conference for the East Coast life sciences industry, is moving closer to being a truly regional event as it is now being promoted by organizations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

BioNova, the Nova Scotia life sciences association, has announced that companies from the three provinces will be able to enter the BioInnovation Challenge, the $15,000 pitching contest at BioPort. And BioNB and the PEI BioAlliance will promote BioPort on a more regional basis. The parties also hope to secure the participation of Newfoundland and Labrador at

While most of the teens at the Shad Valley tech and entrepreneurship camp in July focused on their science projects, Alex Gillis might have been a bit distracted by the business he’d started two months before.

He is now launching the business, which places a small electronic monitor in retail locations like coffee shops to track the customer traffic and spending, and provide data on customer behaviour. Gillis and his partners call their service Bitness and the little device the Bitness Beacon. And he hopes to have them in scores of locations by the time he’s midway through Grade 12.

“I

FoodTender, the Shediac, N.B.-based online ordering system for restaurants, issued the following press release today:

FoodTender Launches Free Online Ordering Service In Major Technology Advance for Restaurants and Foodservice Suppliers

Web-based Platform Allows Restaurants to Easily Order from Multiple Suppliers

For Immediate Release - August 19, 2014

SHEDIAC, CANADA—FoodTender, the first comprehensive web-based ordering system for restaurants, is now available as a free service to restaurants in the United States and Canada. FoodTender’s founders are a restaurant owner and a chef

Entrepreneurs’ Forum will host a Pitch 101 competition Tuesday, August 19, at 12:30 pm at the Innovacorp offices at 1344 Summer St., Halifax.

Pitch 101 is an initiative launched by Bob Williamson of Invest Atlantic to encourage students and rookie entrepreneurs to hone and deliver concise pitches.

“The pitches are designed to be the first step in helping prepare these entrepreneurs and perhaps those in the audience to develop longer pitches for when they meet real-time investors and potential partners,” said a statement from Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

Each participant is given 60 seconds

Eight years after he attended a climate change conference as a student and realized that his carbon capture theory could help lessen climate change, Robert Niven is launching a ready-mix concrete product he expects to grow his company and cut pollution.

Niven is CEO and founder of Halifax’s CarbonCure Technologies, a clean-tech company that adds waste carbon dioxide to concrete production,

The Engage 2014 Conference, which will encourage innovation and commercialization at post-secondary institutions, will be held in Halifax on Sept. 25 and may lead to other similarly themed events throughout the region.

Although the number of events in the startup space has risen dramatically in recent years, organizer Mark Taylor said there is a need for an event examining how universities and colleges spawn innovation and then turn it into young businesses.

 “Atlantic Canada has a lot of world-class research and a lot of talented entrepreneurs, and the goal of Engage is to bring them

Planet Hatch, the Fredericton startup centre, has released the following press releases:

 Launch36 Information Session

As you may know, applications for the Fall 2014 Cohort are now OPEN!

In collaboration with Volta Labs, we will be adopting both the Start and Build accelerator programs, products of Launch36, for our next batch of startups!

This evening (Thursday) we will be hosting an information session from 5pm-6pm at Planet Hatch on our partnership and programs..Did we mention there'll be PIZZA?

If you have a colleague or friend that is interested, feel free to pass the

Entrevestor and the Entrepreneurs’ Forum are delighted to announce we will host the next in our series of dinners in St. John’s on Sept. 11 and in Halifax on Sept. 25.

The first Entrevestor Dinner was held in Fredericton in May, and we received glowing feedback on the format that features discussions on improving the ecosystem for Atlantic Canadian startups. Now we’ve partnered with Entrepreneurs’ Forum to jointly host the final dinners of the year.

The Entrevestor-Entrepreneurs’ Forum Dinners convene in the late afternoon for two discussions on how we can improve the ecosystem for

Imagine, if you will, a goldfish tank sitting in your kitchen, with a vegetable and herb garden sitting on top of it. The waste from the goldfish fertilizes the plants, a process that in turn cleans the water for the fish. Now imagine your family sitting beside it, eating the produce from this system.

This simple system — known as aquaponics — is the premise behind Oasis Farmery, a

As they wrapped up their first Summ’er Up! Accelerator on Monday, Mary Killfoil and Ed Leach announced the program will expand next year, thanks to a $100,000 donation from the John Dobson foundation.

Kilfoil and Leach, who teach business, innovation and entrepreneurship at Dalhousie University, are best known for their Starting Lean Initiative, which entails several courses and programs