We’re less than a week away from the start of Innovation Week in St. John’s, and I’m really excited to be joining and participating in the events in Newfoundland and Labrador. I’m even hosting one.

StartupNL, which is organizing the city’s first innovation week, announced yesterday that I will host a seminar on Tuesday on messaging and communications for startups. I believe the ability to communicate is part of the founder’s skill set that is too often overlooked, and I hope to help people improve their messaging.

The week of events begins Monday with a fireside chat at Common Ground at 30 Harvey Road at noon, featuring Clarity Founder Dan Martell and other entrepreneurs. The crowds will gather again at Common Ground on Monday night at 6 pm for a DemoCamp featuring six local startups.

“The StartupNL Innovation Week events have received a very positive response from both presenters and attendees,” said Jason Janes of StartupNL. “There will be well over 100 people pass through the doors for both events. Our entrepreneurial community really knows how to support each other.”

Janes said there will be no specific topic at the fireside chat, but he is hoping for a lively discussion on entrepreneurship in general with lots of questions from the audience. You can buy tickets for these two events here. 

My session will be held at Common Ground on Tuesday at noon, and as of last night there were still a few spots left. (And many thanks to all those who signed up when the seminar was announced yesterday.)

I’ve held these seminars before and they are designed to help you improve your chances of success by improving your communications. If you cannot communicate to your partners, sponsors, customers and funders, your business could founder.

I’ve often met companies that I suspect are promising, but it’s difficult to tell because they do a God-awful job of explaining what they do. Quite often they confide in me that they have trouble getting funding because people just don’t appreciate the potential of their product. Usually, the problem lies with the founders, not the funders.

This seminar is designed to help you identify problems in your messaging, and take steps to correct these problems.

On May 6, there will be a youth and innovation event, at which about 500 high school students will learn about technology.

The next day, the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries, or NATI, will host its annual Knowledge Summit, which brings together leaders of the local advanced technology sector. The theme of this year’s summit is Igniting Innovation. TEDxStJohns will be held in the evening.

Thursday, May 8 will be Innovation Day at the Genesis Centre at Memorial University, after which a closing event will be held Thursday evening. I’ll be reporting on Innovation Week throughout the week next week, and am really looking forward to learning what’s new on the rock.