The second annual AccelerateTO conference on Wednesday was jammed with big, maybe unanswerable questions. For instance, is social media making us more narcissistic? Or, what happens when an entrepreneurial project goes from your parents’ basement to Bay Street? The full day of workshops and talks with notables from Facebook and Google took place at the KPMD Headquarters inside the Bay-Adelaide Centre and the ROM. While I’ve stored some of AccelerateTO’s ideas in that part of my brain that I only access when I’m feeling existential, here’s what I learned for sure, for now. 1) Canada is the new hot-spot in the global start-up community. “As far as I’m concerned, Canada is the best place on Earth for entrepreneurs–there’s so much support here,” said Rick Segal, CEO & co-founder of Mobile Risk Management company Fixmo. He and Mike McDerment of invoice-organization software FreshBooks, along with Ivan Yuen of story-sharing service Wattpad (who we’ve profiled in the past), were queried by Financial Post editor and Entrepreneurial Panel chair Matt Hartley about tidal changes in the start-up community. Segal said the best thing to come out of this RIM mess will be that people will begin to build companies in Canada. We have some good things going for us: we’re open-minded and daring, our schools are great, our economy hasn’t (yet?) tanked, and the competition’s less stiff here than in Silicon Valley. 2) Young people are the community’s biggest stars. Armed with iPads and a brazen outlook, the under-30 crowd proved they’ll be happy proprietors of the tech sector when their time comes. Some stand-out entrepreneurial ventures include Rocketr (a platform for social note-taking), Pivotr (a magazine tailored towards fostering ideas), and Vizualize.me (a service that makes your rsum all shiny and infographical). 3) Tech is king. “I think we can all agree that we’re interested in the profound social impact technology can have on the world,” Elmer Sotto, head of growth at Facebook Canada, remarked in one of the conference’s small workshops. He’s right. Even start-ups that don’t revolve entirely around tech products must realize the importance of implementing new digital tools, like say, iPad apps for extra support and exposure. 4) If you need entrepreneurial mentorship, support, or inspiration, it’s not hard to find. Maurice Chang, co-founder of DayforTwo, expressed that his motivation for attending conferences like AccelerateTO did not revolve around looking for potential funding resources, but more for community affirmation. “I’m here for the energy and the vibe,” said Chang. “For me, it’s about being around like-minded people.” Need more than just inspiration? One of the most compelling speakers for new entrepreneurs was Sarah Prevette of Sprouter, an organization that supports start-ups by connecting them with veterans of the community. 5) While idealism is inevitable at tech events, today’s start-ups are creating for the real world. Watching a seasoned software engineer check his Facebook news feed between workshops (something I’ve seen my non-tech friends do often) I got the feeling that the tech community is moving away from idealistic insularity. Rather, they’re creating products and business structures that are accessible not only to an advanced elite, but also to people who’ve never seen a line of code in their lives. (Photos by Jessica Carroll)
