35 business proposals were submitted this 2009 season, and the 3 finalists this year are :

1. Smart Rotor Systems
2. The SATESS Business Plan
3. VSM Technologies – Wireless Vital Signal Monitoring 

The finalists, who represent the best and brightest and most from both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, will present in front of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, business professionals, judges, and of course, family and friends.   The top prize is worth $10,000, second and third both get $5,000.  For more information on TVC, go to - http://www.techvc.org/.

The Carleton University Foundry Program (and therefor Luc Lalande) and Ontario Centers of Excellence are among the main sponsors at TVC.  The OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre (and consequently Manu Sharma) are strong supporters of the annual competition.

Stay tuned for our thoughts and impression of the event and the pitches on tbridge.ca.  Congratulations to all the semi-finalists.

If you don’t know what an unconference is, Wikipedia describes it as “An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose. The term “unconference” has been applied, or “self-applied”, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations”

It was very interesting to hear about this model being applied to urban issues, and how the participants would come together to aid our elected officials in designing new policies to improve our quality of life. Even more interesting was a remark that Mark made in regards to the inability of some of these officials to take full advantage of the social media tools, and how this was the main cause of some of the initiatives not being as successful as they could have been. Mark said “they were great in person, in face to face conversations, but did not fully understand the diffusion power of web based social media these days”.

That statement is extremely interesting to me because saying that the incomplete use of social media was the reason an initiative was not successful, implies that for it to achieve the desired results, a certain type of social media use HAD to be part of the solution. Feels kind of the same as asking: if Obama did not make use of social media technology as much as he did, would he have won the elections?

It sounded like Mark was suggesting a shift in the essence of social media, from an added element in strategic planning, to something that is essential towards achieving your goals. Social media is no longer sufficient, it is necessary. 

And if that is the case, as this trend becomes more widespread, you cannot but wonder – what is the next thing going to look like? And in a day and age were we suffer from lack of human connection due to advancement of technology, will this make things worse?

Well that’s an interesting question. Because it makes you have to think long and hard about what an entrepreneur is. According to Wikipedia – an entrepreneur is “an ambitious leader who combines land, labour, and capital to create and market goods or services. They are the type of personalities who are willing to take upon themselves a new venture/enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome.”
How do you acquire ambition? Or risk? Or street smarts? Are these things you can learn, or are you born with them? I was debating with Manu Sharma, and he said if you had to spend 10,000 hours doing something to become an expert entrepreneur, it would be spending 10,000 hours amongst smart people. I agree to some extent. But I think it’s more than that. Researchers for example spend hours and hours amongst other smart people (or at least reading other smart people’s work), but they’re not necessarily entrepreneurial. But yes I agree, spending that many hours engaged with other smart people is defiantly a step in the right direction.

Then I’m lead to another question – what is it about where we come from that makes us entrepreneurial? I’m going to make a very general comparison here. My family origins are Tunisian. Tunisians in general (and yes I’m using stereotypes) like stability. Tunisian immigrants tend to want to be employed rather than be the employer. Now compare them to the Lebanese. Both Arabs, both Mediterranean countries, both have Phoenician heritage, both have been colonized at some point. The list of similarities goes on and on. Lebanese immigrants on the other hand are known to be businessmen and entrepreneurs. Why the difference? Well, it could be due to the fact that there was a civil war in Lebanon that caused a huge number of immigrants to be spread out all over the world, while Tunisians have had a relatively stable history. Maybe. I really have no idea. But does that mean (again generalizing) if you come from an environment with some sort of instability in its history, you are more likely to be a risk taker? I definitely don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought.

As for trends that we can identify now so that when the revolution peaks we’ll be atop that wave and ready for that opportunity….well if I knew that, I’d be busy getting my 10,000 hours of expertise in that field. The problem with revolutionary trends is that by the time you notice it, you’ve already missed the boat. Like nanotechnology, DNA, haptics etc. We’ve missed that boat to be the next Bill Gates of those fields. Maybe we should be focusing on picotechnology? Or ways to revolutionarize nuclear energy to make it more efficient? I don’t know. But if you do, please let me know :0)

When we hear the famous “move confidently in the direction of your dreams”, most of us stop to think of what their dreams are, and take solace from imagining a world without boundaries, a world where to achieve something one must just desire it.

But how many times do we reflect on the word “confidently”? How many people know what their dreams are, and are intimidated by them? In my opinion entrepreneurship can be applied to all spheres of life, and it really is that moral fiber that allows to go after your dreams confidently. I have a very visual brain, and when I am trying to understand something I always try to develop a mental picture of it: when I think of entrepreneurship I imagine a very sharp, very sturdy, roman warrior type spear. When launched properly this spear is able to break through the hardest walls; its sturdiness related to self esteem, and its sharpness to self confidence.

I think everyone has a certain amount of entrepreneurship in themselves but the key to unlocking its full potential lies in our willingness to try new things, challenge our assumptions, and stay the course.  All things that stem from being confident in one self, and having good self esteem.