THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

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Got a cool story about technology and creativity in Victoria? Email stories, tips, pictures, links and anything of interest to Tessa Bousfield at: tectoria@viatec.ca

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Tectorian of the Week

March 14, 2014 by Tectoria

2014 VIATeC Technology Awards – Nominations open Monday, March 17th

“The VIATeC Awards have become known as a unique event focused on entertaining the crowd with humor and irreverence while shining the spotlight on some of our awesome technology companies,” says Dan Gunn, Executive Director of VIATeC, the Victoria Advanced Technology Council. “It’s a great way for local tech firms to get increased profile with local media, policy makers and their peers which always helps when looking to hire new staff, find new customers or raise investment.”

Nominations will open at 9:00am on Monday, March 17th.  Click here to access the nomination form (will not open until March 17th). 

In total, twelve awards are presented at the evening gala

  • Technology Company of the Year
  • Emerging Technology Company of the Year
  • Startup of the Year
  • Product of the Year
  • Innovative Excellence
  • Executive of the Year
  • Employee/Team of the Year
  • Employer of the Year
  • Education Champion
  • Colin Lennox Award for Technology Champion
  • VIATeC Member of the Year
  • * Strategy of the Year

*New award category for 2014

More about the award categories:

Technology Company of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has demonstrated excellence in innovation and a commitment to the technology community while embracing sound business fundamentals.

Emerging Technology Company of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has the greatest potential to demonstrate excellence in innovation and a commitment to the technology community while embracing sound business fundamentals. This category is reserved for operations that have been established for less than 3 years.

Start-up of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company less than 2 years old that demonstrate significant potential to generate revenue, raise investment, or to have significant social benefit.

Product of the Year
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has achieved success in the commercialization of an innovative technology product (eg. market acceptance and sales).

Innovative Excellence
Recognizes a Greater Victoria company that has researched and designed an innovative service, process or product that is expected to revolutionize a sector, method of business or way of life.

Executive of the Year
Recognizes an individual who has had a significant impact on the success of an organization as a direct result of their leadership. For this award, executives are considered to be those that typically hold senior titles, eg. CEO, CFO, COO, President, Vice- President.

Employee /Team of the Year
Recognizes an individual or team in the technology sector who demonstrates outstanding initiative and service delivery, and has had a significant impact on the company for which they work.

Employer of the Year
Recognizes a company that has demonstrated its commitment to their staff and provides a pleasant workplace.

VIATeC Member of the Year
Recognizes a member of VIATeC who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the technology sector through involvement, volunteering and support of VIATeC. The recipient of this award is selected by VIATeC.

Strategy of the Year
Recognizes the best strategy implemented by or for a Greater Victoria organization. Nominated companies are required to provide a letter of support clearly explaining their strategy and milestones.  The judges will consider impact and results from the underlying strategy.

The Colin Lennox Award for Technology Champion
Recognizes an individual who has demonstrated passion and commitment to the Greater Victoria technology sector for at least ten years. Their long-standing support has been instrumental in Greater Victoria ‘s continued success on the world technology stage.

Education Champion 
This award recognizes a teacher who inspires their students using innovative tools and technology. We are looking for teachers that use 21st Century Learning techniques to help prepare student to thrive in a knowledge-based society.

Viatec-Awards-logo 2014

Filed Under: Tectoria, VIATeC Community Tagged With: VIATeC Community

PonoMusic

March 14, 2014 by Tectoria

about_pono_update_01This is not just the next big thing in music. PonoMusic has the potential to completely re-shape the way creators create it and listeners experience it.

It all comes down to sound. As Neil Young (Pono’s founder and visionary) stated in his SXSW 2014 keynote speech, “Pono is a grassroots movement whose mission is to bring back the soul of music, which has been left behind in the evolution of       convenience.”

The quality of audio that we listen to is dependent on the bit rate at which it is recorded at. The MP3 audio files that we are accustom to today have a bit rate of 192kbps or 256kbps. These are highly compressed files, and are smaller in size than higher resolution music files.

PonoMusic files have about 6 times more musical information than a typical mp3. With ultra-high quality resolution recordings (24 bit/192kHz), the difference between a PonoMusic digital file and an mp3 is about 30 times more data from which your player reconstructs the “song”.

What does this mean for you, the listener? It means that you will soon listen to music from a completely new dynamic than you ever have before.

Pono recently launched a kickstarter campaign that raised over $1.5 million dollars in it’s first 48 hours.

Find out more about PonoMusic or donate to their kickstarter campaign here.

[vimeo 88705147 w=500 h=278]

PONO Kickstarter from pono on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Tectoria, VIATeC Community Tagged With: VIATeC Community

Crowdtilt’s Spacious HQ

March 7, 2014 by Tectoria

ct_logo_tagline_RGB

Do you enjoy your time at the office? The people working at Crowdtilt most certainly do.

Crowdtilt, the startup that lets you easily pitch in to fund projects or causes of your choice. Their new digs in San Francisco are complete with full coffee shop, ping pong lounge, roof top patio and beer tap.

Equipped to host 100+ people, the 34 staff that work there have ample room to get the job done right.  Win a game of ring-toss and Co-Founder James Beshara will greet you with a shot of whiskey.

TechCrunch featured the new digs on their latest “TechCrunch Cribs” episode, watch the video here.

Filed Under: Tectoria

Tectorian of the Week

March 7, 2014 by Tectoria

VIATeC has purchased 777 Fort Street in downtown Victoria and will be moving to the new space by the end of the year. The building has 4 floors and a basement with a total of 15,600 s/ft. Many people will remember the building as the former home of J&L Copy or the Cooks Roberts law firm.

VIATeC started exploring the possibility of a building purchase shortly after opening Accelerate Tectoria at the corner of Douglas and Hillside. It quickly became obvious that by moving back into town awareness of VIATeC and the services we provide increased dramatically. We knew we had made the right move but we also knew that it would be better if we could set up right in the heart of the city.

The accelerator program has exceeded our expectations. Over 50 startups have entered the program and 10 have already graduated. The companies participating have created 121 jobs, raised almost $9 million in investment and increased their revenues by almost $2 million. One of the keys to our success has been our ability to keep costs down by signing a terrific sublet agreement for the space. However, that deal will expire in January of 2015.

As we considered our options, we discovered that with current market conditions it would be possible to buy a building and operate it for essentially the same amount as our sublet agreement.

While there are 330 tech companies operating in the downtown core, most of them are invisible to the average passer by. 777 Fort Street gives us a permanent home that will stand as a highly visible example of our thriving tech sector. We will have full control over our space, open it up to the community for its meetings and events related innovation and entrepreneurship and while we are building up equity for the building ownership, our operating costs will be the same as our current sweetheart of a sublet deal.

This move will increase awareness of the tech sector, add financial sustainability to VIATeC, allow the accelerator program to expand and give the tech sector as a whole a new gathering spot for meetings and events. We can’t wait to take you on a tour.

Filed Under: Tectoria, VIATeC Community Tagged With: VIATeC Community

Patreon

February 28, 2014 by Tectoria

Musicians, YouTubers, Web Comics, Writers, Bloggers, Indie Gamers, Video Producers, Authors, Podcasters, Animators, Artists and Photographers… UNITE!

Unlike other fundraising services which raise for a single big event, Patreon is for creators who create a stream of smaller works.

For creators
The benefits of using Patreon are endless. This platform allows you to raise funds to work on what you love. Interact with your top fans on your activity feed where photos, videos, etc. can be posted and commented on. Give back to your fans with rewards, those who want to engage with you will be rewarded for doing so… it really is a win/win.

For the fans
Looking for the inside edge on getting the goods first? Patreon allows fans to receive timely updates from creators as they are creating the things you love. And don’t miss out on the rewards! If your favourite creators are feeling generous, you could receive anything from pre-sell concert tickets, downloads, personal gifts, hangouts, or anything else they can offer as a way to thank you for your patronage.

Still not sure how it works? This video will help you make sense of it all….

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-IDF809fQ]

Filed Under: Tectoria, VIATeC Community Tagged With: VIATeC Community

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