#startupcity

[mayatrix]

Namma Bengaluru! Our Bangalore #nammabengaluru #bangalore #startupcity #cosmopolitan #siliconvalley #india #travel #citynomad (at MG Road Bengalluru) https://www.instagram.com/p/Brmp0-9nUEH/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kwuh47fqy5sx

[nitishjambous-blog]

Scholarships come in all sizes: How can we take education to those who are missing out?

“To be a scholar is to be a honeybee. You have to keep visiting the flowers time and again to ascertain their food value.” - Manasvi Singh Same

www.buddy4study.com?utm_source=nitish

[liftuplift]

So many #Brrrilliant Female Founders around our table! #liftuplift #WomenPower #womenentrepreneurs #womeninbusiness #chiwomenown #startupcity

[startupedmonton]

Meetup Profile: Exchange.js: Edmonton’s JavaScript Meetup

For our next meetup profile, we connected with Mark Bennett - host of Exchange:js: Edmonton’s JavaScript Meetup. 

Exchange:js is a welcoming environment, especially for first-time developers. Join Mark for the next meetup on Thursday, April 2 at 6:30 PM. The group also maintains excellent notes on past meetups at exchangejs.com.

Q: Why did you start Exchange.js: Edmonton's JavaScript meetup?

A: Credit for starting the JavaScript meetup has to go to Sean Ouimet. At the time it began I was very involved with running the Ruby meetup, but when Sean moved away last year I felt I had a responsibility to step up and join the exec.

Together with Jeff Marvin, Sean Healy, and Abram Hindle we work each month to connect the local JavaScript community together by sharing stories, personalities, and successes in a fun and accessible meetup.

Q: What is JavaScript?

A: JavaScript is the programming language of the web. It's what allows websites from Facebook to Google Maps to create engaging experiences in our web browsers. Increasingly it's also used on web servers and apps on mobile and desktop. If you own a computing device of any sort, then chances are you use JavaScript everyday.

Q: What are the benefits of having an active JavaScript Community?

A: Edmonton is a great place to make things, and if you want to make things for the web then you need to know JavaScript. Right there that should be reason enough to come out.

What I really enjoy about JavaScript is the way it connects developers, designers, and creative people of all backgrounds together through the web. It doesn't matter what programming language or direction you come from, everyone is making things for the web right now and using JavaScript to do it. It makes for an exciting community with lots of new ideas and perspectives, and I like to think that's reflected in our events.

Q: Who would you encourage to come to future events?

A: We'd love to see more women and first time developers come out to the meetup. We've already got a great group, but there's always room for more!

[startupedmonton]

Meetup Profile: Lunchalytics

We host more than 200 community events at the Startup Edmonton campus each year. Many of these events are organized by community leaders that volunteer their time to bring people together around a specific tech or startup topic, from Ruby to robotics. 

Lunchalytics is one of the most active meetups groups. Hosted by Dark Horse Analytics, the group explores the use of data and analysis to improve the performance of an individual, organization or industry.  

We asked Daniel Haight, Co-founder Dark Horse Analytics, a few questions about their involvement in the startup community: 

Q: Why did you start the Lunchalytics meetup? 

A: We were involved in a group called the Canadian Operations Research Society that was looking to connect practitioners and academics on the topic of analytics. Lunchalytics seemed like a reasonable vehicle to do so and it has succeeded beyond our expectations. We typically have about 60 people attending, but have had to resort to waiting lists from time to time.

Photo: Edmonton Startup Week 2014 - Mega Meetup Night. 

Q: What are some of the uses, trends or concerns around analytics explored at past meetups?

A: We've had very interesting talks about photo radar and commuter safety, the causes of the current energy royalty crunch, how AGLC manages access to gambling, and how water quality varies across the province. Our events are typically "themed" - predictive analytics, data visualization, energy sector analytics, education analytics, transportation analytics, etc..

Q: How have you benefited by interacting & connecting with a larger community? 

A: Through the event, we've been exposed to how broad the community is. There are researchers and practitioners doing very interesting things in healthcare, public safety, and a host of other areas. We've been introduced to both opportunities to collaborate and to potential employees with a knack for analytics. And we've been exposed to ideas, tools, and approaches that we're able to apply to our own work.

Q: Who would you encourage to come to future events? 

A: We have four main groups that we're trying to connect. We have researchers and academics who are pushing the boundaries in various areas. We have students and recent grads who are looking for jobs or volunteer opportunities. We have "creators" of analytics (consultants and groups within large organizations), and we have decisions makers "consumers" who use analytics in their work.

Lunchalytics 9 - City Analytics is Wednesday, March 18 at 11:45 AM and features three presentations:

Rhys Chouinard Corporate Analyst, City of St. Albert Topic: Correlation Searches, Growth Models, and Novel Visualizations

Stephane Contre and Kris Andreychuk City of Edmonton and Edmonton Police Topic: Contextual Analysis of Crime in Edmonton Kurt Borth Ph.D. Candidate, University of Alberta, Urban Geography and Planning Topic: Housing Choice and Location Efficiency in YEG: Factor Analysis (Q method) 

For more information on weekly meetups at Startup Edmonton, sign up for our newsletter: startupedmonton.com.

[startupedmonton]

Open Lab

Last week we launched Open Lab, in partnership with the City of Edmonton. Working towards building better, citizen-focused products by bringing city cohorts to Startup Edmonton, immersing them in lean startup culture, customer/product development process, design sprints, and collision days with the startup/tech community.

This project was years in the making, thank you to Mayor Don Iveson and team for the leadership to take it to the next level. 

Read more about the project:

http://blog.mastermaq.ca/2015/03/06/edmonton-wants-to-tap-into-local-creativity-with-labs/ 

http://metronews.ca/news/edmonton/1305104/open-labs-project-to-bring-city-staff-to-startup-edmonton/

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/03/05/city-joins-startup-edmonton

[dreameyogacollection]

Sharonna Karni, an inspiring entrepreneur and co-founder of online community, Dreame, shares her journey in making her - and your - dreams come true.

[startupedmonton]

Creative Inspiration

Stephanie Enders, Project Manager - Bottom Line Productions, helps share the Startup Edmonton story and the stories of our members with the larger community. Stephanie shares some of her thoughts on the intersection between arts and entrepreneurship. 

Some of my favourite moments spent with founders at Startup Edmonton are hearing the origin stories of their products, companies and ideas. I want to hear about the setting, feelings and memories of when these brave folks thought that they could offer something unique to the world, solve a problem or inspire action - but it’s really hard to get to these moments with founders. I get great elevator pitches, polished presentation decks, young folks with impeccable style and delivery, but short on heart & soul.

It breaks my heart a little to say this, but when founders eat, sleep and breathe their startup they can get a bit boring. 

One of the ways to battle this boredom is to commit to consuming great creative content. Ken recently posted about the importance of collaboration between the arts and business communities. I feel the benefits can go deeper, that when you invest in consuming creative work it makes you more open to creativity in your own professional practice. It gives your startup-focused mind an exciting place to release all the stress, possibilities and plans, without any risk. 

Creative inspiration provides moving examples on how to share the origins of your startup in ways that connect to your customers, investors and team in the same way your favourite artists' songs, books, films and paintings connect with you. 

Here are three recent examples of how creative content has inspired my work with Startup Edmonton:

David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks

Mitchell’s novels experiment with non-linear storytelling, characters and places that echo through multiple story lines, and the intersection between the personal, mystical and scientific. He trusts the reader to invest in his characters and embrace the challenging nature of his writing and format.

For me, his work highlights that technology founders should celebrate the complexity of their work. They have the ability to empower supporters by sharing their discovery process - explaining how foundational knowledge combines with inspiration to create solutions.

Serial

The blockbuster podcast Serial, from the team at NPR's This American Life, has captured the imagination of millions of listeners and content creators with dozens of blogs, sub-reddits and podcasts following along to solve this real-world, teen-angst-filled, 90s-pop-culture-soaked murder mystery. 

Sarah Koenig, Host and Executive Producer, and her team use sound to their advantage. Everything on-air is in service to the medium: an original score from Mark Henry Phillips and Nick Thorburn; repetitive audio cues to prepare the listener to focus on new details or a recap from a previous episode; and environmental noises that make the listener feel like they are in the moment with Sarah and her subject, rather than listening to a conversation taped months or weeks before. 

Serial is a perfect example of how the medium, pace and tone you choose have as much impact on your audience as the story you are telling. It challenges me to explore new ways of communicating with our Startup Edmonton members and supporters: to ask what format would best serve the story I want to share, rather than what format am I most comfortable working in.

FKA Twigs 

Any title comes with assumptions. FKA Twigs: R&B artist, video girl, girlfriend-of-famous-actor…. all add up to a pretty specific list of expectations. Her music explores and defies the expectations of these assumptions.

In the startup community there is an abundance of titles with corresponding expectations: founder, technical founder, female founder, hacker, angel investor, mentor… 

Contradiction, personal legend and reinvention are just a few elements of FKA Twigs' recent rise that can inspire the way we talk and share our experiences of startup culture: the contradictions between the technical and non-technical can make your origin story more layered; a single moment of inspiration, or in Startup Edmonton’s case a cocktail napkin with an ambitious future plan doodled at drinks, can be a defining moment that inspires investors; and a startup doesn't have to get everything right in order to share an experience or start a conversation with customers. 

These are just a few example of how artists have inspired me to think in new ways about my work. In today’s culture-of-busy, never-ending-deadlines, and the added pressure for entrepreneurs of building companies from the ground up, it’s important to make time for creative experiences that challenge, inspire and entertain. 

Wondering where to start? Make Something Edmonton presents Sound, Light & Motion at the Winspear Centre on December 8. This Make Something Edmonton experience brings dozens of makers and artists together to celebrate our Edmonton-ness. Tickets are just $8 ($5 for students) and are on-sale now!