Today’s post is a link to my most recent column in Progress Magazine, and I’m going to add a word or two about the extraordinary month we have planned for Entrevestor.

The Progress story outlines the increasing investment by funds and individuals based outside the region into Atlantic Canadian startups. This really is a sea change, as just two years ago fund managers west of Gaspe Bay rejected Atlantic Canadian companies just because they were Atlantic Canadian.

I wrote the Progress story in June and I have two additions that I have noticed in the past few months as I delved into the situation in Nova Scotia.

There has been only one VC investment from outside the region so far this year in a Nova Scotian startup – York Bridge Enterprises’ $500,000 investment in Scotia Motor Works. What I find interesting about this is the one company raising VC money from outside the region is a startup spun out of a university, in this case Dalhousie. Too soon to call it a trend, but I hope it’s a sign that universities are accelerating their commercialization projects.

Second, while there hasn’t been much VC funding from outside the region so far this year, several companies have been drawing money from angel investors outside Atlantic Canada. It’s notoriously hard to quantify angel investments but I can count about $1.8 million in investment from angels outside the region in the past year.

Today’s post is a bit scattershot, largely because we’ve been so busy preparing for the big events later this month. In addition to special announcements we have planned about Entrevestor, we’re jazzed about Atlantic Innovation Week, which comprises DemoCamp Halifax on Sept. 23, MentorCamp on Sept. 24, Invest Atlantic on Sept. 26 and BioPort Atlantic on Sept. 26-27.

There will be at least 28 Atlantic Canadian innovation companies presenting over those five days, and some established entrepreneurs will be speaking at the various events. We’re hoping to cover all of them. Yep, every last one of them that grants us an interview. We’ve already begun to interview them, and there are really cool companies in the mix. Some will be showing their faces for the first time. Others have been around for a year or two and we’ll be updating their progress.

We’ll be starting our coverage tomorrow. All these stories will have an AIW tag in the headline.

Fasten your seatbelts. Grab your armrests. This is going to be a wild ride.