Innovation Week is taking place in New Brunswick over the next week with a range of events across the province.

The annual celebration began last night with the Open Data Awards in Saint John, which leads into the Canadian Open Data Summit in the port city today.  

This weekend, there will be a Startup Weekend New Brunswick at the Venn Centre in Moncton. Over 54 hours, teams will come together, develop a business idea and pitch it before a panel of judges.

Also in Moncton, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation will reveal its new investment strategy, which emphasizes scale-ups as opposed to startups. The discussion at the Venn Centre will feature such entrepreneurs as Yves Boudreau from Qimple, David Baxter from Fiddlehead Technology and Daniella Degrace from Gemba Software Solutions.

The Innovation Week events also feature three themed mini-conferences in Fredericton: Innovation and Youth Day on Tuesday; Innovation and Research Day on Wednesday; and Innovation and Business Day on Thursday.

The highlight of the week will be the KIRA Awards Gala, which will recognize people who have made great contributions to the knowledge industry. The Gala will take place 5:30 next Thursday at the Fredericton Convention Centre.

You can find a complete schedule of the events here.