February Newsletter

February 3rd, 2014

Exciting Announcement

AceTech Ontario continues to grow, and we are especially proud of the Executive Roundtable groups that now number over 40 members! We are therefore excited to announce that the

Annual Retreat will be expanded this year to include our Executive Roundtable members for part of the agenda. Some details are below and a Special Edition newsletter will follow in March with all the event and registration information.

In This Issue

Exciting Announcement

Executive Members at Annual Retreat

Power Session Feb 28

March Quarterly Dinner

Sponsor Spotlight - SVB

New Members

Articles of Interest

Member Highlights

Executive Members at the Annual Retreat

The Annual Retreat will begin for our Executive Roundtable Members

at 9:30am on Wednesday June 4th, and will go to 10:30am on Thursday June 5th. The $699 cost to attend includes all the programming as well as all meals and accommodation at Taboo resort in Gravenhurst.

Highlights of the Agenda for our Executives include:

"LEARNING IN THIN AIR"

Leadership trainer, an Executive MBA Professor and a semi-professional mountaineer

What is it that separates success from failure? What allows some leaders and teams to achieve greatness where others stumble? Today's business environment is more complex than ever and presents mountain after mountain which must be scaled. While there is always a leader breaking the trail to the top, they cannot do it alone. Great success comes from the synergy of great leadership, teamwork, and personal focus.

WISDOM EXCHANGE

The biggest benefit of AceTech Ontario is the opportunity to learn from other members, and to build your network of peers that you can call on for advice. AceTech Ontario has many members that have expertise in numerous areas, and our Wisdom Exchange is one way we tap into the knowledge base and share it among everyone. Executives will be able to sign up for their choice of workshops for an afternoon of small group discussion on various relevant topics.

CASINO NIGHT SPONSORED BY BEDFORD CONSULTING

The annual tradition continues with our Casino Night on Wednesday evening. Try your had at craps or take on other Members in a game of Black Jack or Poker. This evening is always a highlight of the retreat.

Improving Employee Loyalty and Satisfaction with Benefits

Power Session February 28th

Financial Wellness is the key to a more competitive workforce...attracting and retaining a proactive and motivated workforce demands time,effort and attention. Industry leaders understand the importance of building and maintaining a strong team. By adopting a program that delivers financial wellness, you can make a positive difference in your company's ability to attract and retain top employees.

The financial wellness of your employees is important to the success of your company. Even small companies can afford to do this...and can't afford not to! Please join Frank Manganaro of RBC GroupAdvantage as he leads a Power Session on how Employee Benefits can help you attract and retain top talent and enhance productivity by putting employees on the path to financial wellness. He will cover industry best practices and show how the RBC program is built on a foundation of advice, support and the strength of RBC Royal Bank.

Our CEO, CFO and HR members have received invitations to this event. Register online today to attend.

Quarterly Dinner with our Leadership Award Winners

March 26th (note new date) will be the first

Quarterly Dinner of 2014, and we are excited that two of our Leadership Award Winners will be speaking!

Krista LaRiviere will be speaking on

"Incorporating Search, Social & Mobile Discoverability Trends into Your Digital Marketing Strategy"

The lines between paid, owned and earned media are quickly vanishing. Brands are now publishers and content consumers interact with your web presence from countless devices.

CEOs and marketers need to feel confident that their brand is being discovered in both search and social at the appropriate stages of the buying cycle. They need to understand that an outsourced agency is indeed adding long-term value to the web presence asset in both search and social regardless of device.

Also, Niraj Bhargava will be speaking on"Partnering with the Big Guys: Leveraging the Might while not losing Flight"

Lets face it - no matter how much technical competitive advantage you have, the big guys have the edge. This session will explore why a smaller tech company may, or may not, want to partner with the multinationals. And if you do - what are some tricks to gain the value while avoiding the pitfalls of dealing with large corporates.

Niraj plans to share some of the lessons learned and facilitate dialogue amongst the participants on the topic of technology growth companies partnering with large corporations.

We are excited to be going to The Spoke Club in for this event. And we have an exceptional opportunity for all AceTech Members that register and attend the event -

you will be given a complimentary 6 week pass to the Spoke Club!

Invitations have gone out - be sure to register online to get all the details and attend this event.

Sponsor Spotlight

Win Bear is a Director in Silicon Valley Bank's Boston office. Win leads SVB's business development efforts in Canada, where SVB has tech and life sciences clients ranging from early-stage venture-backed companies up to mature private companies and public companies. Before moving to Boston in November 2010, Win managed SVB's North Carolina office. He is proud to have represented SVB as an AceTech sponsor since 2012, and SVB currently works with several AceTech member companies.

With 28 offices in North America, as well as offices in Israel, the UK (where we officially launched our full-service branch in 2012), India, and China, SVB is the premier global bank for the innovation economy. SVB provides banking and financing solutions to some of the most exciting companies in the world, including Uber, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Our client base includes both venture capital-backed and non-VC-backed companies in the innovation sector. Publicly traded on the NASDAQ (ticker: SIVB), SVB has been a growth story for 30 years and has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the technology and life sciences sectors during macroeconomic peaks and valleys.

In doing so, SVB continues to be ranked in Forbes Magazine's "Best Banks in America" annual list. SVB's fundamental mission is to increase our clients' probability of success. Whether success means an IPO (64% of all VC-backed companies that had an IPO in 2013 were SVB clients), growing organically, pursuing acquisitions, or eventually selling the company, SVB has deep experience and contact networks that our clients can leverage to reach their definition of success.