The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council has highlighted a recent development  that is adding to economic growth in Atlantic Canada – the growth of tech startups.

APEC this week released its economic forecast for the region for 2014, which foresees tepid GDP growth overall next year and a notable improvement in Nova Scotia to 2 percent. One of the bright spots in the detailed look at the region’s economy is the tech sector, which is benefiting from a rising tech economy in the U.S.

President and Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Beale noted the recent successes in the segment, such as

Health Outcomes Worldwide has launched  a new mobile apps for its how2trak software, which allows nurses and other healthcare providers to use data to improve their service for patients while reducing costs.

The Cape Breton healthcare administration company said in a press release last week the app can be used on iPads and Android mobile devices.

Health Outcomes Worldwide has the largest proprietary database of wound care treatment data in North America. When it received $1.5 million in funding last year from Nova Scotia Business Inc., the company said it would use the proceeds to

Halifax-based Equals6 announced last week that 50,000 students have now signed up for its career-focused social networks for students. The company had 30,000 students on its social network when it entered the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Boston in March, and CEO Andy Osborn says the company is expanding by about 10 percent per month.

 

The following is the company’s full press release:

 

Equals6, the career, networking and scholarship site for students, hits 50,000 members milestone  

 

Total student membership increased 100% in last six months. Company sees continued

Employees’ lack of interest in their work is a widespread problem. Only 30 percent of American employees are fully engaged and happy at work, according to Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace report. The apathy of the remaining 70 percent (including the 18 percent who are actively disengaged) may be costing the U.S. economy as much as $550 billion a year in lost productivity.

Respected Moncton businesswoman Paula Morand has spent 18 months working on the issue. ConquerPro is her software-as-a-service solution designed to combat the problem by assessing employees’ workplace

A new event will connect IT and food specialists in Wolfville, N.S., in January in the hopes of fostering new ideas and partnerships.  F5/Food will be held at Wolfville’s Acadia University and will take the form of a 48-hour Idea Lab.

“The idea is to set aside two days to design new solutions in the new media space that focuses on one of our greatest assets here in the Annapolis Valley -- food,” said Melissa Quinn, manager of the Acadia Centre for Rural Innovation, which is organizing the event.

“We have created an incubation lab event where people across new media and agricultural

Having launched its first payroll software product in June, Wagepoint is now gearing up to expand into the U.S. market.

It’s also moving to allow some clients to receive a portion of their paycheque in the online currency known as bitcoins.

Wagepoint is based in Halifax and Toronto. It offers an affordable solution to help businesses perform all the tasks associated with payroll through a single solution. That means small- and medium-sized businesses can use Wagepoint to pay employees, deduct taxes, keep records of their payments and similar functions.

One interesting note about the

B4Checkin, the Halifax-based producer of hotel reservation systems, has announced that the Cheeca Lodge & Spa has implemented its booking engine. The luxurious 214-room oceanfront resort in the Florida Keys went live with the new reservations system this summer.

B4Checkin boasts certified two-way interfaces with many of the hospitality industry’s most widely used property management systems. These interfaces mean that crucial information such as room rates, inventory availability and guest profile data are automatically exchanged in real time between the PMS and the B4Checkin online

Affinio, the Halifax-based social media analytics company backed by Build Ventures, captured third place Tuesday at the Startup Showcase of the prestigious O’Reilly Strata Conference in New York.

The announcement, posted on the conference website, capped off a huge day for Affinio. Earlier in the day, it had launched its first product, Tactics Cloud, which lets small businesses mine social media and other data to find potential customers, partners or employees. It also announced it had received a $1.5 million equity investment from Build Ventures, the regional VC fund based in Halifax.

Colibri Software, a Wolfville, N.S.-based rural development technology company, has announced a partnership with the Devour! Food Film Fest.

The company will soon launch the Devour! app powered by Strollopia, a mobile application that allows users to explore the festival through the app's geo-located content messaging.

“The app will enable users to explore not only the festival but also Wolfville and the surrounding communities,” said President John Read in a press release. “The goal is to make learning and exploring the festival fun and seamless.”

The third annual Devour! Food Film

A pair of St. John’s entrepreneurs has developed a new loyalty program app for smartphones that is gaining traction with retailers in their hometown and as far afield as Calgary.

Matthew Stenback and Adam Puddicombe have formed Brownie Points to offer small and mid-sized retailers — who have to compete with multinationals with sophisticated programs — fun digital loyalty programs with some interesting features.

The two former business students at Memorial University began Brownie Points as a tool for coffee shops (as the name suggests) but other retailers can use the product.