Moncton Hosts Billion Dollar Lunch
“For anybody that’s sitting at home saying ‘I want to do something,’ ‘I want to see some change,’ – this will be a great room to be in.”
That’s how 3+ Director of Business Development Trevor MacAusland sums up the Billion Dollar Lunch – a new networking event and part of Propel ICT’s Demo Day 2015 being held September 22 in Moncton.
As a collaboration between Propel ICT and 3+ – Moncton’s economic development corporation – the event will feature talks by two powerhouses of the startup world: Techstar cofounder Brad Feld, and Startup Canada’s Mentor of the Year, Dr. Sean Wise.
As cofounder of Foundry Group and Techstars, and an investor in Fitbit, Makerbot, Zynga and Betabrand, Brad Feld is a legendary figure in the startup world. He also has a reputation for mentorship and industry insight that has been cemented with the publication of a number of top-selling startup books, including Startup Communities.
Feld will be appearing at the event via Skype.
Startup Canada’s 2014 “Mentor of the Year,” Dr. Sean Wise is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University and a partner at Ryerson Futures. An influential figure in Canada’s entrepreneurial community, Dr. Wise is host of “The Naked Entrepreneur” and has worked as a consultant for Dragons’ Den. Dr. Wise, who will be appearing in person, is also the author of Startup Opportunities: Know when to quit your day job.
MacAusland says that 3+ was delighted that Propel ICT chose to host Demo Day in Moncton this year. Given the network of on-the-ground resources 3+ has in the city and the fact that the two organizations share many key objectives, he says that collaboration just made sense.
“We really want to have a conversation in the community about the role of entrepreneurship and the role of economic development, there’s a lot of talk about foreign direct investment but there’s not as much about entrepreneurship.”
According to MacAusland, the public dialogue around economic development often overlooks what he calls the ‘growth-from-within’ aspect that 3+ and similar economic development agencies view as being core to what they do.
“A lot of our business is dealing with those entrepreneurs coming to us off the street and asking for help with their business plan, or how do they go out and validate their concept or idea and how do they connect with capital.
“So for us we want to have that conversation: we want to educate people about what’s going on in other jurisdictions – which is why it’s important for us to have Brad Feld and Sean Wise come in and talk about what experiences they’ve had in Boulder as well as Kitchener-Waterloo and hear some new ideas.”
He’s also quick to point out that this event won’t just be a lot of ‘blue sky thinking’.
“It’s not just saying that we want to help local entrepreneurs in theory – that same night we’re putting a dozen new startups up on stage to showcase their ideas.”