Sailing into the busiest week of the autumn, there might be a few innovators feeling a bit of stage fright today. At least 10 startups and researchers are pitching in public in the next five days in Halifax.

There will be five researchers pitching at the BioInnovation Challenge at BioPort on Wednesday, four at Invest Atlantic on Monday and a few at DemoCamp Halifax on Friday night.

The BioInnovation Challenge is presented by BioNova, Nova Scotia’s life science association, and the five pitchers are finalists in a lengthy process aimed at increasing the commercialization of biotech and medical research. The winner will receive $10,000 in seed funding and advisory services worth more than $20,000.
The finalists, all Nova Scotian, are:

  • Dorothy Easy of Jellett Rapid Testing Ltd., for The Rapid Rabies Screen, a device to quickly identify rabies infected animals;
  • Dr. Kirk Hillier of Acadia University, for development of natural pheromones for the management of insects;
  • Dr. Daniel Boyd, Dr. Bob Abraham and Dr. Sharon Kehoe of Dalhousie University and the QEII Health Sciences Centre for development of OccluRad particles for the treatment of fibroid tumors;
  • Ed Rushton of Thorasys Thoracic Medical Systems Inc. for further development of the TremoFlo™ device to improve the diagnosis of asthma and other respiratory diseases;
  • And Florentin Wilfart of DMF Medical Inc., for ZeroSorb, a toxin removal device to improve the safety of operating room anaesthesia systems.

I’m more familiar with the pitchers at Invest Atlantic on Monday as I worked with the organizers to line up the speakers. We are really proud of two things about this year’s pitching den: we have one company from each of the Atlantic Provinces; and the quality of the companies is astronomical.  I can’t wait for this event.

The four pitchers (who are competing for nothing more than the supreme honour of being able to say they won the pitching den at Invest Atlantic) are: Yan Simard of Zaptap, Fredericton; Milan Vrekic of TitanFile, Halifax; Ed Clarke of Adfinitum, St. John's; and Denis Kay of Neurodyn, Charlottetown.

I can’t say the companies that will be presenting at the DemoCamp Halifax at Dalhousie University, but I can say I’m really interested in hearing about at least one of them.