Global Connect Conference 2006 Podcasts and Photos

Welcome to the podcast and photo hompage for the 2006 Conference

WELCOME

This is the site to download and listen to all of the podcasts of proceedings of the 2006 Global Connect Conference held in Toronto, Canada. We will also provide links to a selection of photos from the meeting and may even set up a Flickr site if there is demand.  If you take a photo you want to share please let us know and we will post.

The objectives of the 2006 Global CONNECT Conference include:

• Creating a premiere event designed to support and promote the commercialization of global innovation
• Bringing together leaders of business acceleration and technology commercialization organizations from around the world to review best practices and broker partnerships
• Reinforcing the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to leaders across the private, public and research sectors
• Sharing of knowledge and access to venture capital funding for start-up or emerging companies and other related initiatives
• Expanding the profile of Global CONNECT broadly – and in Canada in particular
• Publicizing the role of MaRS as a key global gateway

About MaRS

MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded by leaders from the business and public sectors, to improve commercial outcomes from Canada’s foundation of science and technology innovation. MaRS connects and fosters collaboration between the communities of science, business and capital through co-location in the MaRS Centre and more broadly through catalytic programs, structured networks and the MaRS web portal. The MaRS Centre, located in Toronto’s Discovery District, officially opened in September 2005.

About Global CONNECT

Global CONNECT (www.globalconnect.ucsd.edu), based at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) links individuals and organizations committed to building international technology-based enterprises. Global CONNECT facilitates partnerships between regions, especially between Southern California and regions around the world, to accelerate applied research collaborations and the growth of technology enterprises.

Countering the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune: Accelerators/Regional Collaboratives

There's a common view that the older Business Accelerators/Regional Collaboratives have had an unvarying strategy from their foundation, and uninterrupted success. In this session, representatives of some of the pioneering organizations in North America explore how they have adapted to changing conditions.

Session moderated by Greg Horowitt, Director and Co-Founder, Global CONNECT.  Panelists: Monica Doss, President and CEO, Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED, North Carolina); Victor Hwang, President, Larta Institute;;  Mary Walshok, Co-founder, CONNECT (San Diego), Debbie Weinstein, Chair OCRI, Ottawa

 

Tapping the Risk Capital Tree

Leaders of angel and venture capital organizations in Canada and the United States present the most recent data on the Valley (of Death, that is), and how it is being traversed by successful start-ups.

Session moderated by Greg Horowitt, Global Connect. Panelists:  Peter Tolmai, Orchard Capital Rick Nathan, President, Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA); Tom Sweeney, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Garage Canada.

Innovation and the Creative Environment

As Richard Florida and others have pointed out, you need more than nerds and money to make a successful region. The speakers give their take on the other critical variables.

Geoff Cape [invited], CEO, Evergreen; Tim Jones, CEO, Artscape; Meric Gertler [invited], Goldring Chair in Canadian Studies, and Co-Director, Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Studies, University of Toronto.

The Future of the University in the Knowledge Economy

David Naylor, President, University of Toronto

Driving Innovation out of the Ivory Tower

The university-industry relationship is changing and will continue to change rapidly. Here's the view from the university.

Abigail Barrow, Founding Director, Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center; Natalie Dakers, President and CEO, Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD); Orjan Isacson,  Innovation Enterprise Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, and former Managing Director, CONNECT Sweden; Tim McTiernan,  Assistant Vice-President, Research, University of Toronto, and Executive Director, Innovations at the University of Toronto.

Welcome and Ilse Treurnicht MaRS

MaRS and Convergence Innovation

The View from Ontario Hubs, Ken Lawless

Ken Lawless

The View from Ontario's Hubs, Mike Crowley

Mike Crowley

The View From Ontario's Hubs, Iain Klugman

Iain Klugman

Leveraging Our Innovation Foundation, Mark Romoff

Mark Romoff

Leveraging our Innovation Foundation, ross McGregor

Ross McGregor

Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Exponential Growth

David Thomson – Best Selling Author

Official Welcome From the Honorable Dalton McGuinty

Premier of Ontario and minister of Research and Innovation

Off the Venture Map: entrepreneurship in strange and perilous times

Dr Paul Kedrosky, executive director, William von Lieberg Center, University of California, san Diego

Global tools for the New Economy - Veronika Litiniski

Director Venture Services, MaRS

Global tools for the New Economy - Dr Mark Bradley

CEO, ATP Innovations, Sydney, Australia

Social media, and networking tools to drive new business marketing and conversations with clients

Global Tools for the New Economy - Dr Mike Krupp

Start-ups, and the organizations which assist them, need access to global resources, increasingly from their inception. Speakers describe tools and vehicles to enable this access.

Dr Mike Krupp, Entrepreneur in Residence, CONNECT, San Diego

Global Connect Conference Toronto 2006 - A Great Success

Opinion piece, by Mark Bradley, ATP Innovations, Sydney, Australia

This year’s annual Global Connect meeting, the 4th in the series, is done and dusted, but what a great meeting it was. 

Held at the MaRS Centre in Toronto, the new iconic centre for innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialisation, the meeting saw a gathering of people from many different parts of the globe get together over 3 days to not only learn more about innovation and early start-up activity in the Ontario region but across many other parts of Canada and North America.

I have been to 3 of these meetings and it has been interesting to see them grow not only in the numbers of attendees but also in the range of topics covered, and issues discussed. The discussion is great, the crowd is friendly and the locations always interesting. Friends are always made.

For me there were some highlights:

• To learn more about Ontario as as powerhouse for innovation especially in the life sciences and technology related sectors. This is something I was not fully aware of although I was aware of its strengths in the biotech sector and of course the successes which have come from thos developers of the Blackberry – Research in motion (RIM).  Canadians are very proud of RIM and I noted they spent alot of time in ‘Blackberry prayer’.
• The Commitment shown by the Ontario Provincial Government to building and supporting a knowledge economy.  The establishment of a dedicated Ministry of Research and Innovation to support this headed by the Premier (the Hon Dalton McGuinty) sends a powerful message of where the province wants to be in the world scene. I though it was great that the Premier made the time to come and address the conference on his vision for Ontario in the knowledge economy

• The revealing discussion around the issues on Venture Capital investment in Canada. These were brought out in a quite frank way during a panel discussion held during the meeting.  You can listen to this discussion through the podcast located here. Surprising to me was that the discussion reminded me of similar issues that were widely debated in Australia 5–7 years ago.

• I was also struck by the similarity between Canadians and Australians in attitudes in dealing with the commercialisation of new technologies. We share many of the same doubts and complexes about succeeding which are not always apparent in our colleagues ‘south of the border.  I muse that this may have something to do with our partially shared heritage.

Finally, I take my hat off to Ross Wallace and his team from MaRS who put together a well organised meeting in great surroundings, and were superb hosts.  The temperature were a bit of a shock for a Sydney boy though! Thanks to everyone and to Greg, Peter and Mary from Global Connect who continue to live the vision and bring such an interesting group of people together fro around the globe each year.

Podcasts of the session are available for download here