VEF Momentum Hosts GrowLab’s Mike Tippett

Join Vancouver Enterprise Forum (VEF) Momentum on Friday June 24th at 6pm at the Republic, as they host Mike Tippett, co-founder of NowPublic, and the Executive Director of GrowLab, Vancouver’s newest accelerator for early-stage startups and entrepreneurs. Mike will share some of his own experiences as an entrepreneur and talk about how incubators such as GrowLab can help accelerate the development of tech startups.

Get your ticket now as this event is sure to sell out.

VEF Year End BBQ Event, June 28

A Casual Chat With Jonathan Ehrlich, Former Head Of Marketing At Facebook and Founder of Google Ventures Backed Copius

This week is a busy one in tech as the VEF, BCTIA and Bootup are all hosting events we think you should check out:

Clean Tech Panel Discussion: How to Capitalize on Current Business Opportunities hosted by the VEF

• Tuesday, February 22nd – 5:30pm
• Vancity Theatre
• If you haven’t bought your ticket yet, your outta luck.  This one is Sold Out!

Social Marketing Kung Fu, Yellow Belt – “Listening Everywhere” with Dave Olson hosted by Bootup

• Wednesday, February 23 – 5:00-7:00pm
• Bootup Entrepreneurial Society – 163 West Hastings, Suite 200 Vancouver
• $30 for non-members

Mac McIntosh – Marketing for Leads and Sales hosted by BCTIA

• Thursday, February 24th – 8:00am -12:30pm
• The Sutton Place Hotel
• Tickets are $155.
• Friends of Bootup can receive 20% off by using the Promo Code: Bootup when registering.

If we missed  your event, feel free to let us know by leaving a comment below.

For more tech events and news, you can also check out our media partner, Techvibes.

An Evening with Chrysalix and VEF Momentum*

• Friday, July 16th
• 5:30pm
• Marmalade Restaurant: 3-1010 Beach Ave., Vancouver
• Regular: $45, Student: $35

Source: VEF.org

If we’ve missed an event, please add it below as a comment.

If you would like to be notified of upcoming Bootup only events, please sign-up. You can choose what type of events you want to be notified about from networking to investment pitch opportunities. We’ll email you several weeks before events to let you know about

WaveFront: MCPC & Japanese Wireless Market Opportunities

• Monday, June 21st
• 8:30am
• Discovery Parks Vancouver, 887 Great Northern Way
• Free. Pre-registration is required, as seating is limited.

VEF & VEFM BBQ: A Celebration of Entrepreneurship

• Tuesday, June 22nd
• 5:30pm
• The Law Courts Inn, 4th Floor – 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver
• Member: $40 | Non-Member: $75
• Special Bootup Discount: $55, Use discount code “BOOTUPVEF”
• Register: www.vef.org

Ignite Vancouver 2.0

• Thursday, June 24th
• 6:00pm
• Ceilis Irish Pub and Restaurant, 670 Smithe St., Vancouver
• $11.24

Michael Jonsson, Maura Rodgers, Rob Lewis

Before writing this post, I checked our Upcoming page and hopped on over to our media partner, Techvibes site to see if there were additional events of interest I should include. On the front page of Techvibes, I stumbled upon a similar post by Rob Lewis that sums up the week ahead nicely.  I added some ticket pricing, selected the events on our list and included it below for your convenience: (Thanks, Rob!)

New Media BC’s Vancouver iPhone Forum 2009

• Tuesday, November 24th – 8:00am
• BCIT Downtown Campus
• $125 for members, $175 for non-members

Innovation Camp Round 2

• Tuesday, November 24th – Saturday, November 28th
• Kontent Creative
• $149

26th Angel Forum

• Tuesday, November 24th – 7:30am – 6:00pm
• SFU Harbour Centre

Vancouver Enterprise Forum: An Evening with Mike McDerment

• Tuesday, November 24th – 5:30pm – 8:00pm
• Vancity Theatre
• $45

How to Build a Wep App Business with Michael McDerment of FreshBooks

• Wednesday, November 25th
• V Lounge at Earl’s in Yaletown
• Sold Out!

What Game Design can teach about Business Success

• Wednesday, November 25th – 6:00pm – 8:00pm
• Vancouver Public Library
• $50 for members of IIMA, $60 for non-members

BC Wireless Health Forum II

• Thursday, November 26th
• The Sutton Place Hotel
• $40 for members of WinBC, $60 for non-members

How I met Mike McDerment
In July 2008, my company Strutta was selected out of over 100 applicants to be one of 11 companies to demo at Twiistup 4. Our team, dressed in white to celebrate the launch of our new white label contest platform, descended on the Viceroy in Santa Monica, CA to make some noise.

On top of attracting some new customers and dominating the Skee Ball table in the Twiistup Arcade late night (oh yes, I did!), I met some really great people including Saul Colt, the Smartest Man in the World, who introduced me to Mike McDerment, the CEO and Founder of Freshbooks.

I really enjoyed meeting Saul, Sunir and Mike and learning more about the itch that caused Mike to start Freshbooks.  Upon returning to Vancouver, I continued to hear rave reviews about his company and read stories of how the Freshbooks team went out of their way to deliver exceptional customer service time and time again. It was abundantly clear that Mike and his team had successfully started and built a customer driven product and organization. Not an easy feat!

Vancouver Enterprise Forum, November 24
So, when I sat down with the VEF Ops committee last May to help put together a wish list of engaging speakers for the year ahead, Mike’s name immediately came to mind. Lucky for us, Mike happily accepted our invitation to come West to share his start-up story and answer your questions at the VEF on Tuesday, November 24.

How to Build a Web App Business, November 25
While Mike is in town, he will also be delivering a very informative workshop on How to Build a Web App Business at Earl’s V Lounge in Yaletown on November 25 at 9am.  Mike will cover everything from building your app and your team to marketing, product management, metrics and financing.

For an entrepreneur, who recently graced the cover of Entrepreneur magazine as the Founder of 1 of 100 Brilliant Companies that has attracted more than 1M users, I trust Mike knows a thing or two about building a successful web app business.  Sign up now while there are still some spots left!  Tickets are $100, includes lunch and refreshments.

Trevor O is one of the founders of Layerboom Systems. This was originally posted on his personal blog at http://trevoro.ca/blog/2009/09/02/how-to-get-started-in-vancouver-tech/

I’ve been meeting quite a few people who are new to Vancouver and are looking to get involved in the local Web and Tech scenes. There’s quite a bit going on, and Google is your friend, but if you want to save some time here are the best places to go, meet people and see what’s going on. There’s also a score for how nerdy or business-y (?) the event is on a scale of 1-10.

Do your research

Nerdy: 5
Business: 4

Find out what you’re interested and search for companies based in Vancouver that do what you love. If you’re enthusiastic people will make time for you. Ask someone out for coffee or a pint and just talk. Don’t try and get a job, just figure out what’s going on. Like any “scene” you’re likely to hear conflicting viewpoints. Keep an open mind. Look for and talk with local bloggers and tech reporters. Look for events happening in your area. If you’re interested in Open source projects, find out if the people who work on them are in the area.

Democamp Vancouver

Nerdy: 7
Business: 5

Like most unconferences, Democamp is a loosely organized evening event where the people that attend make up the conference. In this case you bring an idea, and the idea is your demo. You don’t have to present, and it’s a good way to meet people that are interested in starting something new, or are working a project already. Democamp doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should, so if you’re interested in helping out there, check out the site and get in touch.

Launch Party Vancouver

Nerdy: 4
Business: 8

Every few months local entrepreneurs who are launching their projects meet up to celebrate all their hard work. Walk around and talk with people and get to know the people behind these projects. Most of the time the executives are presenting but ask to chat with some of the developers if that’s more up your alley. This is usually a very social event where you’re bound to meet a lot of interesting people – just don’t be shy.

Bootup Labs

Nerdy: 8
Business: 6

Bootup Labs is a local startup incubator which helps companies go from “zero to fundable”. The offices are located at 375 Water St, in Gastown and house a rotating group of Vancouver based startups which are always looking for talented help. Bootup has an open door policy so if you’re new to the area you can generally just pop in, but I suggest getting in touch with them first to arrange a quick (<30 minute) chat. Everyone is really friendly, and it’s a good way to plug in, or at least get pointed in the right direction.  Bootup helps run a few of the events in town, so pay attention to their upcoming feed for things that are happening

Techvibes

Nerdy: 5
Business: 5

Techvibes is a tech community blog and business directory. It’s a really good way to get to know which businesses are in the area and what they do. They also publish a list of events happening in town that range from an Entrepreneurial to Developer focus.

VEF

Nerdy: 2
Business: 10

If you’re more into the business and entrepreneurial side of things, I suggest checking out Vancouver Enterprise Forum or VEF. VEF hosts events on a monthly basis and it’s a great way to connect with other like-minded individuals.

Developer Meetups

Nerdy: 10
Business: 3

There are plenty of developer meetups happening in town. The umbrella meetup for all of these is the VanDev network. Join that and you’re bound to meet quite a few people. The most popular is the Ruby/Merb/Rails meetup which has events on a monthly basis.

I hope that’s enough to get you started! Let me know if there’s anything else you want added to the list.