In a month surprisingly packed with tech conferences, camps and gabfests, Podcamp offers something a little bit different – an “unconference”, as its organizers call it.

Podcamp will take place at the Alderney Landing Library in Dartmouth on Jan. 20 – right in the heart of a 12-day spree in which there are at least seven significant events in the Maritimes tech calendar.

The others are: the Bootcamp for the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition on Jan. 19; the FounderFuel Roadshow on Jan. 22; the Big Data Congress in Saint John and talk by product designer Daniel

Invest Atlantic, the leading conference for the Atlantic Canadian startup community, has announced a series of regional events to help novice entrepreneurs try their hand at pitching and provide more meet-and-greet opportunities.

Pitch101 will kick off with an event in Charlottetown at McDougall Hall at the University of Prince Edward Island on Feb. 1, and hold a second event March 1 at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Invest Atlantic founder Bob Williamson has long considered smaller events around the region. He decided on Pitch101 as a means to hold a networking event and meet the

Two veterans of the tech marketing community in Saint John have merged their businesses to form Bonfire Communications Inc., which will largely target startups.

Allan Gates’ Redgate Communications has merged with Lise Hansen Design, named for its founder, to form Bonfire, which set up shop in the elegant Red Rose Building in Uptown Saint John.  In an interview, Gates said he and Hansen plan to run a frugal marketing, design and communications business, so that it can offer services that startups can afford.

“Part of our model is to be very lean as an agency,” said Gates, the Senior

Quietly and stealthily, Heimdall Networks of Sydney spent last year raising more than $1 million in angel funding and began developing its software that protects corporations and governments against distributed denial-of-service attacks.

CEO Jim Deleskie said the company should have a product ready to beta-test in the first half of this year, and a few large organizations outside the region have given verbal commitments to be early adopters.

The first customers for the product will likely be in the United States, Deleskie said.

The company will provide a cure for a huge pain point as

In 2013, I think the Atlantic Canadian start-up community will be akin to the smart twenty-something kid down the street you always thought would do well and you’re waiting to be proven right. He has graduated from university with flying colours and has had interviews with good employers, some in big cities.

He has all kinds of intriguing qualities, but he still lives with his parents.

You’ll know your instincts were right when he lands his first job and moves into his own apartment. With that introduction, here’s what I’m going to be watching in the start-up world this year. These

As it works on attracting $500,000 in seed funding, Resolution Optics of Halifax will sign a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese government agency this week to research the growing algae problem in Lake Taihu in eastern China.

The deal includes the sale of Resolution’s 4-D submersible and desktop microscopes to the China State Key Laboratories. But its real importance is providing traction in the startup’s pivot from a provider of research tools to a software company testing water quality in specific markets.

The company, founded by Dalhousie University professors Manfred Jericho

FounderFuel, a Montreal-based accelerator for startups, will bring its roadshow to Halifax – an event that represents more than simply a chance for Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs to meet with the accelerator organizers.

The announcement also proves the ability of the region’s tech community to work together to organize an event quickly and to convince people outside the region of the excellence in entrepreneurship on the East Coast.

“What it does indicate is there is a definite gelling of the tech community here,” said Paul LeBlanc, CEO of Karma Gaming.

The highly respected

One of the healthy trends we've seen in Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurship is the internationalization of companies' boards -- as I pointed out in an article in the most recent issue of Progress magazine.

Companies like Halifax Biomedical of Mabou, N.S., and CarbonCure of Halifax are adding international experts to their boards of directors and/or advisers. These international advisers and directors bring an international perspective to the business. But just as important, they bring their own networks, which helps the companies break into new markets and attract capital.

Since this

Charlottetown drug manufacturer BioVectra Inc. has agreed to sell out to Questcor Pharmaceuticals of Anaheim, Calif., for up to $100 million in cash and deferred payments, in a deal that will give the P.E.I. company the capital needed to pursue its growth strategy.

BioVectra CEO Ron Keefe said in a phone interview today the acquirer has agreed to let the 43-year-old company run independently in Charlottetown with the same management team.

Questcor will pay shareholders of BioVectra about $50 million when the deal closes, which is expected this month. It has also agreed to pay a further

Here’s the term that we’ll be hearing a lot in 2013: Series A.

And my bet is that by the time we welcome in 2014, it will be a term that has happy connotations for some companies and nasty connotations for others.

In the startup world, Series A refers to your first round of VC financing. The lines of get blurred, but a textbook startup will be funded first by founder, friends and family, and then by a seed round – usually less than, say, $750,000. Then it attracts a Series A round of financing from VC funds, usually $1 million to $2 million – enough to create momentum for the Series B,