BEDC E-Newsletter
October - November
BEDC & Mohawk College Host First
Career Crawl
  Mohawk Students and Mayor Goldring at the 2016 Burlington Career Crawl
On October 27th BEDC teamed up with Mohawk College to host the Burlington Career Crawl. Sixteen international students participated in a half-day event exploring career opportunities in Burlington. The Crawl visited SB Partners and Etratech, where we were greeted by senior management and provided with interactive tours and Q&A sessions. The group then headed to PinToh Cuisine where we were greeted by Mayor Rick Goldring. Mohawk international student alumni also participated by sharing success stories on how they are growing their careers locally. 

BEDC and Mohawk College would like to thank everyone who helped make the Burlington Career Crawl such a huge success: First Student, Etratech, SB Partners, PinToh Cuisine, the Office of Mayor Rick Goldring, and the Mohawk Alumni who came out.

Would you like to host a future Career Crawl group at your company? Send us an email at bedc@burlington.ca.
"Built In Burlington" Video Series 
Our newest Built In Burlington video is here!

The goal of this series is to showcase and promote the innovative products being built right here in Burlington.  PLAY Advertising is the latest company to share their story. Click to see how they're creating ideas that generate prosperity, and how they are "building" brands in Burlington.
Check out what else is "Built In Burlington"  HERE. 
Funding to Help Grow Your Business
Have you considered expanding your business, hiring new staff, or conducting R&D? If so, you may be eligible for government assistance to grow your operations. There are numerous grants and programs that are available to businesses within Burlington, all of which are designed to help you thrive. You can find a database of some of the government's  programs here.  
  
Several of the most popular programs Burlington businesses have accessed include: 
  • OCE Voucher for Commercialization: The Voucher for Commercialization program is intended as a means of transferring research to an existing Ontario-based company or to use academic intellectual property as a basis to found a new Ontario-based business venture. 
  • Talent Edge: Talent Edge provides Ontario students and recent graduates with real-world industry experience. Through the program, interns and fellows can apply their expertise, leading-edge knowledge and tools to solving industry problems.
Questions? Contact us at bedc@burlington.ca
The DeGroote MBA Case Competition
Horizon Business Solutions from The John Molson School of Business at Concordia University won First Place at the DCC.

BEDC was a proud sponsor of the DeGroote MBA Case Competition (DCC), a  two-day event that took place at the Ron Joyce Centre on
November 11-12. Our own Frank McKeown volunteered as a judge during the event.

The  competition brought almost 100 MBA students from across the country  to solve technology and digital innovation related business problems posed by sponsoring organizations RBC and 3M Canada.  
Local Start-ups Enter the Lair

Lion's Lair finalists take the stage to hear the final results
On September 28th Innovation Factory and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce hosted another successful Lion's Lair competition. Ten of the region's most up-and-coming entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the Lions for a chance to win over $100,000 in cash and in-kind resources. 

Check out this year's winners!
The top prize of the evening went to Nix Sensor Ltd. for their pocket-sized colour measurement tool. 

Th e Nix Pro Colour Sensor is a handheld device that can measure the colour of any surface and provide accurate colour information to smartphones or tablets.  Learn more here
Second Place went to  Nuts for Cheese, an artisanal vegan cheese company

Nuts for Cheese delivers tasty, local, organic and dairy-free products full of flavour Learn more here. 
Laifa Baby took home Third Place for their Zippy Jamz sleepers. 

ZippyJamz' patent-pending design combines two zippers in a single garment - the first, along the front makes dressing easy; the second, along the inseam, makes diaper changing super convenient.  Learn more here.

Upcoming Events 

Le arning @ Haltech: Valuation Models For Tech Startups

November 24, 2016

 

Valuation is a key issue for entrepreneurs, and while this sounds easy enough, getting your business valuation done right takes preparation and thought. Come and join us on Nov. 24th to hear from Haltech's expert Entrepreneurs-In-Residence, Vince Mifsud and Bruno Maruzzo on how to establish a fair value for your company.

DeGroote Executive Education - Performance Management  
November 25, 2016 

I n this one day intensive program participants will explore the secrets to high performance and how organizations can drive increased levels of productivity from staff.

Haltech's Holiday Mixer 

December 7, 2016

 

Celebrate the holiday season at Haltech's Holiday Mixer. Guests will be treated to a short presentation by Measure Marketing on how to enhance their current digital marketing strategy. 

Innovation Factory - Sales Peer2Peer: Sales Planning for the New Year
December 14, 2016 

This interactive session will cover the creation of a sales plan around customers, prospects, offerings, people, forecasting, aligning sales and marketing, and creating a plan with goals. It will be led by  Mark Elliott, the co-founder of Venture Accelerator Partners. VA Partners has been in business for over 10 years and provides sales and marketing services to over 100 growing organizations. 
DeGroote Women's Professional Network (DWPN) - Embracing Risk: Cocktails with Personal Finance Expert Kelley Keehn
January 18, 2017 

Join us for an evening of cocktails and canapés and get an intimate look at the journey of Kelley Keehn, award-winning author, personal finance expert and speaker while connecting with colleagues in the DWPN.