As her business grows, Gillian McCrae is rewarding more than just merchants and their customers.

She’s also rewarding a lot of workers.

McCrae is the Founder and CEO of GetGifted, a year-and-a-half-old Charlottetown startup that allows local merchants to give customers vouchers for gifts that can only be redeemed in person. The idea is to draw people to the outlets where they’ll spend money. As it grows, it needs more employees.

“Right now, we are at five employees based out of P.E.I.,” said McCrae. “I’m working on three employees in Halifax. In 2014, we’re probably going to be up to

Atlantic Canadian Expertise Recognized in Awards: Leadership & Innovation

Atlantic Canadians were featured in the 2014 Award Winners at the most prestigious event of the high-tech industry.

The 29th Annual Gala of Canada’s largest high-tech association  -  the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance  --  featured a keynote address from CATA National Spokesperson & Chair of Mitel and Wesley Clover, Sir Terence Matthews who reported on the status of Canada's innovation nation, and next steps for boosting our competitive performance.

The Wilfrid Laurier University Public Sector Leadership

Cloud-A Launches “Seeded”: Cloud Support for Startups 

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada – May 23, 2014 -- Cloud-A, Canada’s high performance Cloud, announced it is launching “Seeded” – a program to support the development of internet based, seed stage startups.

Interested startups need to sign up for the program and once verified will receive six months of unlimited access to their Cloud platform, giving startups room to grow without worrying about limits; the ability to schedule one-on-one time with members of the Cloud-A team to chat through technical, or business related challenges and

Three years ago, Roswell James was suffering from shingles, which so weakened his eyes he could only use them for brief periods each day. In that precious time, he went online to research his condition, but found there was no one site that contained all the information he needed. So, when he recovered, he set about creating his own site -- Enablers.ca, the disability site -- a one-stop shop for

Mirametrix, a Montreal company that makes it easier for people to use computers, has won the first BDC Innovation Award, edging out three other competitors including an Atlantic Canadian company.

Launched in 2011, Mirametrix has developed software that allows people to operate computers or devices with their natural acts. It tracks the user’s eye as he or she reads a screen and integrates the eye-tracking with other actions, such as speaking or gesturing.

“We bring to market a novel way to interact with laptops, tablets and other devices, creating a world of new opportunities in

The profound growth of the Internet of Things is creating new business models in which Big Business is becoming more open and collaborative and creating opportunities for startups, the CVCA Conference in Ottawa heard Wednesday.

A panel of the Internet of Things – in which machines communicate with one another and adjust automatically based on the data they send one another – revealed that this segment offers huge potential. Panelists also said the Internet of Things will be so big and so vast that companies will have to change their models, attitudes and processes. And that’s where the

Scene Sharp Technologies Inc., a Fredericton software company that improves the quality of colour digital photography, is ramping up its sales effort through a series of deals with international distributors.

Scene Sharp is the company set up to commercialize the research of Yun Zhang, the Canada Research Chair in advanced geomatics image processing at the University of New Brunswick. Zhang has created software that greatly enhances the precision of digital photography, so it improves the colour of satellite photos, the resolution of high-speed shots and a camera’s sensitivity to light.

A technology start-up “gold rush” is in progress worldwide with no signs of slowing, and Atlantic Canada is showing it has the educated resources and energy to pan for this gold too.

According to the latest Entrevestor Intelligence report, 153 startups started in AC in the last three years and almost 70% of them are in the IT sector.  This phenomenon is hardly surprising given that IT startups require relatively low investment and offer the potential for attractive returns. Those are perfect ingredients in a region not known for high capital investment.

As a vehicle for economic growth,

Venn Innovation, the Moncton-based tech support organization, issued the following press release this week:

Venn Vision and Programs Launched

For immediate release:

Moncton, New Brunswick (May 20, 2014) – Today, Venn Innovation Inc., formerly Tech South East, announced its new name and refined program offering.  As New Brunswick’s innovative ecosystem evolves at a rapid pace, so must the organizations that operate within it.  Within this innovative ecosystem, Venn will help tech companies grow and succeed.

 “We are very proud of our record of success over the past four years,” said

Congrats to all the winners  of the Startup Canada Atlantic Awards, which were presented last night at a reception at Dalhousie University.

It was a rousing affair, deftly hosted by Rivers Corbett, the Fredericton-based  owner of the Relish Gourmet Burgers chain. Victoria Lennox, who founded Startup Canada less than three years ago, was in town to fly the flag for the volunteer-group that