The fourth annual Invest Atlantic conference will focus on talent, strategic investment and startup communities, and include a new feature, PitchCamp, which will give startups from around the region an opportunity to deliver 60-second presentations.

Invest Atlantic began in 2010, before Radian6 had announced its groundbreaking exit and no one had even thought of the Atlantic Canadian startup community. Over the years, the program has evolved as the startup community became more of a presence in the region.

The 2013 conference, to be held at the Halifax World Trade and Convention Centre on Sept. 25, will focus on helping companies to grow by discussing the search for talent and forming partnerships with major corporations.

“We’re hoping to see a vast number of entrepreneurs, in particular young entrepreneurs, who can benefit from a couple of the main ideas at the conference,” said Bob Williamson, the CEO of Jameson Consulting Group and the organizer of the conference. (Disclosure: I helped assemble speakers for Invest Atlantic in previous years but have no involvement now.)

The focus on young companies will be emphasized this year as Invest Atlantic hosts its first PitchCamp, on Sept. 24, the night before the main conference. PitchCamp will follow a format that Williamson has used this past winter in his Pitch101 series, held in Charlottetown, Halifax and Sydney. Each company will receive 60 seconds to describe its business, then receive feedback from a group of judges.

The three winners of the Pitch101 events — United World Changewear of Charlottetown, CompCamp of Halifax and Heimdall Networks of Sydney — will all pitch in the event. So will the winner of the Hackathon to be held at Volta in Halifax early in September. Williamson said two teams will come to the event from Newfoundland and there will be representatives from New Brunswick as well.

The idea for the event came from last year’s keynote speaker, Jeff Amerine, who spoke of the Gone in 60 Seconds program offered in his home state of Arkansas.

The main Invest Atlantic conference will include a video-link keynote address by Brad Feld, the author of the book Startup Communities, who will speak on the topic Talent is Key: Startups to Corporates.

The themes of talent and corporates will infuse the rest of the agenda. In the morning, there will be presentations and discussions led by several multinationals. Williamson is calling the sessions “reverse pitches,” meaning that it is a chance for corporations to tell startups what they’re looking for from the startups they do business with.

Williamson said partnerships between corporates and startups could take one of three forms: the larger companies could become early customers; they could invest in the smaller outfits; or they could end up buying the startup.

Last year, corporations bought $84 billion in tech startups in the U.S., said Williamson, indicating the vast size of the market for corporate acquisitions.

“It’s corporate investment but it’s really about talent,” said Williamson. He added that if these companies “had their own talent in their own operation, they wouldn’t be going out looking for a lot of talent. They’d be doing it themselves.”

He added that one facet corporations are looking for, and one reason they buy startups, is the talent within young companies. So much of the afternoon programs will delve into the matter of attracting, developing and retaining personnel.

Two former Maritimers, Matt McInnis, founder and CEO of Inkling of San Francisco, and David Kirby, vice-president of Arbor Advisors of Palo Alto, Calif., will discuss the landscape for homegrown talent.

That will be followed by a discussion on attracting and investing in talent with two GoInstant execs, Ben Yoskovitz and Gavin Uhma, and Ellen Farrell, associate professor, management, at Saint Mary’s University and head of the Informal Venture Capital Measurement Project.