After applying for a business loan with my bank I drove like mad across the city to participate in a focus group for The Edmonton Council of Advanced Technology. Essentially this organization is attempting to act as a mentoring/incubator program for technology startups in Alberta, specifically Edmonton. One of my mentors, Jim over at Ambers Brewing sits on the board and invited myself and Timo to attend.
Some key points that I mentioned to the group as I walked in late were:
- An organization of this type must be Available to anyone who comes seeking help. Many organizations of this type are hard to get ahold of and when you do they bounce your calls around and make it difficult to learn.
- A mentorship program of sorts would be wonderful. I would love to pick up the phone and be able to quickly ask my mentor what I should be keeping in mind as I go negotiate a lease. Many places offer textbooks and stock guides but many don’t provide interesting mentors to grow under.
- The public image for the organization should be friendly. I was rather put off when I first read about ABCTech because it was wafting of snooty biotech and oilsand technology dreams. Had I never known Jim I would have dismissed ABCTech as out of my league.
There was a lot of important people there, and definitely a lot of money. I’m slowly realizing the importance of networking. However I still don’t believe in marketing yourself if you don’t actually have much to offer. These will be some great people to know for next year when I enter the Venture Prize business plan competition. I’d share my idea but that could lead to trouble 
After the focus group and dinner we made our way back to headquarters and proceeded to polish off the pending update. We worked until around 1:30AM when the new site designs were finally put up.