January Newsletter

January 2nd, 2013

Happy New Year

AceTech Ontario is wishing each and every one of our members and sponsors a very prosperous and successful New Year. And we have a great line up of events and programs to help you develop your Leadership Team and meet your goals in 2014.

We also have just announced our 2014 Leadership Initiative Award Winners and are thrilled that each of them will be sharing their expertise with our members through the year. Please read on to see each of these remarkable CEOs.

In This Issue

Happy New Year

Congratulations to our Leadership Initiative Award Winners

Getting Your Leadership Team to the Next Level

March Quarterly Dinner

Sponsor Spotlight - Gowlings

New Members

Articles of Interest

Member Highlights

Congratulations to our 2014 Leadership Initiative Award Winners

We had many applications from our members and it was difficult to pick just six winners for 2014. But each of these CEOs has a fabulous Workshop to share with our membership and we are looking forward to hearing from all of them.

Krista LaRiviere, CEO of gShift Labs

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

Niraj Bhargava, Founder, Principal and CEO of The New Energy Group (NEG) and its parent company, Peripheral Vision Corporation.

"Partnering with the Big Guys: Leveraging the Might while not losing Flight"

Mark Jaine, CEO of Intelex

"Organic Growth, from $0 to Tens of Millions"

Chris Rasmussen, CEO of Doxim

"Retention and Renewal: Create better experiences to retain clients and grow your business"

Naren Arulrajah, CEO of Ekwa

"Building a large, best-in-class company where every person works from home.....The lessons I learned over the last 10 years."

David Lloyd, CEO of Intelliresponse

"Innovate Like Apple: Why a true research function is transformational for smaller organizations".

Getting Your Leadership Team to the Next Level - January Power Session

"Getting your leadership team to the next level: Determining who has potential to grow, How to mentor them and What to do with those who can't."

Steve Pezim

No CEO can grow a company on their own - they need a team of competent people around them who can rise to the challenges of managing growth. Every CEO knows, however, that not everyone on their team has the potential to acquire the skills required to grow along with the company. How can you tell if someone has the potential to continue to develop and grow, and is therefore worth the time and effort to coach them along? How can you tell when someone has plateaued and you will therefore need a different strategy to help manage both their career expectations as well as filling the gaps so you don't lose momentum?

Guy Beaudin

These are questions with easy answers, but there are principles to help you know which of these two scenarios you are dealing with. Too many CEO's comment that they often wait too long to make talent decisions on their team. This session will offer you some principles to help you make better decisions, as well as the opportunity to get advice from other CEOs at the roundtable to help you better manage your team as you grow the company.

This roundtable will be co-facilitated by Steven Pezim of Bedford Group, and Guy Beaudin, a Senior Partner at RHR International. Invitations have already gone out to our members.

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 will follow later this month, but mark your calendars now to attend this event.

Sponsor Spotlight - Gowlings

David Pamenter is a business law partner in Gowlings' Toronto Office, and has been a sponsor and supporter of AceTech Ontario for several years. David has more than 30 years of experience in technology law, business and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance issues and private corporate finance.

David advises a wide spectrum of domestic and international clients, including development stage clients, on matters of both a day-to-day and a strategic nature. He and his team have acted as legal counsel on a diverse range of transactions from acquisitions to dispositions, including licensing and other technology issues for science-based enterprises as well as for companies in traditional manufacturing and distribution industries.

Gowlings is one of Canada's largest law firms, with over 700 legal professionals across 10 offices worldwide - including Toronto, Hamilton and Waterloo Region.

AceTech is pleased to be associated with a firm that is recognized for excellence in business law, advocacy and intellectual property law. Gowlings has the breadth and depth of experience to provide you the strategic counsel you need to succeed.

Our members have engaged David and his team of lawyers and patent/trade-mark agents with:

� Financing for growth, from startup through to IPO

� Protecting your ideas and inventions

� Commercializing your products

� Managing employment and labour issues

� Advising on advertising, marketing and regulatory matters

The Gowlings website (www.gowlings.com) has several whitepapers, articles and newsletters on various topics to keep you current on relevant subject matters including;