The Accelerator Centre works with community partners to facilitate high-value events to support the development of new business ideas.
Join our expert panel of media professionals and learn what you need to know to get press coverage and media attention for your startup.
Join us as we explore the startup journey of Clearpath Robotics with CEO Matt Rendall to discuss some winning strategies for landing and maintaining those first customers and for getting the early stage funding you need to launch and grow your venture.
Founder Hour gives AC clients the opportunity to learn more about their peers to initiate and heighten collaboration and overall awareness within the AC community. Once a month, two founders will share a little bit about themselves, their companies, and their experiences. All AC clients are invited to join us this month as we hear from Lyn Chen of LayerCI and Evelyn Allen of Evercloak.
Support your team's mental health and help build resiliency. Mental health experts predict an “echo pandemic” of mental illness and mental health as a result of COVID. Industry experts like our partners at Cowan Insurance are starting to see impact through an increase in requests for mental health supports from employees and employers. Join us for a conversation with Karen Williamson, Cowan Benefits Consultant as she shares some free resources available to you as you help your team manage their mental health and build resiliency. This session will be conversational and include ample time for Q&A. Please bring your questions and feel free to share your own experience with the group.
Exclusive monthly meeting for AC clients to learn more about your peers, collaborate with them and gain a thorough understanding of what's happening in the AC ecosystem! Once a month, we will be asking two founders to share a little bit about themselves, their companies, and their experiences. Join us this month as we hear all about two AC client founders’ companies and experiences: Miguel of The Owl Solutions and Ryan from LumenED!
Join Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning for this virtual information session to learn more about Conestoga's broad range of programs and how "Partnering with Conestoga" can support the growth and development of your organization, business processes and talent pipeline. During the session you will have the opportunity to learn about the funding available for Applied Research as well as funds to support student and graduate hiring and recruitment support. The session will highlight Conestoga's interactive learning labs and opportunities to partner with students on capstone projects and field placements.
As regions start to open up again, people will gradually begin to go back to working in their offices. In just a few months, best practices and etiquette have changed. These lifestyle changes not only apply to our personal lives, but to the workplace as well. Returning to work after COVID-19 may be scary, awkward and jarring. To ease the transition, leaders and HR teams will need to make changes to policies, the physical workplace, and their approach to employee relations. Join AC mentor Jackie Lauer and her guest Jill Zappitelli as they take you through some requirements and suggestions. Bring your questions as the latter half will be interactive.
Do you know what flow state is? Have you found yours? Research has shown that those who work from flow state experience higher levels of productivity, creativity and happiness for up to three days longer than those who don't.Jackie Lauer, Culture and Leadership Mentor at the Accelerator Centre, will discuss the research behind flow, ways to find your own flow and the importance of leading others to find their flow.
The Government of Canada’s Student Work Placement Program (SWPP) has temporarily made its funding more flexible. Join the virtual information session on June 11 to talk with SWPP partners and learn more about their COVID-19 updates and flexible funding options for hiring students.
Join us as we hear from Don Thompson and Steve Fyke as they explore how to create a project management system that works for you, your team, deliverables and product.
Join us as we hear from Kristina McDougall, founder and president of Artemis Canada, as she explores some best practices for the virtual hiring process.
Come ready with questions for our a virtual fireside conversation with AC Grad Kurtis McBride, Co-Founder and CEO of Miovision.
In this session, AC Leadership and Culture Mentor Jackie Lauer and Marketing and Communications Mentor Ellyn Winters-Robinson talk about the yin and yang of great brands, and how even the smallest of startups can benefit from early exploration of brand values across market, culture and product boundaries.
Join us virtually as we hear from AC grad Carol Leaman, President and CEO of Axonify, to learn about her journey raising seed money and managing growth alongside investment.Axonify is the world’s first eLearning platform that delivers knowledge in a fun, bite-sized and personalized way. Its unique approach identifies and closes critical knowledge gaps in real time, improving long-term retention and achieving significant financial outcomes for customers.
Join us as we learn from Kevin Hood, Accelerator Centre's sales mentor as he walks us through how to build your sales playbook. Defining and documenting your sales process is crucial. Kevin Hood will share his methodology and be your ultimate guide to building your playbook and a framework for closing those deals!
Join us as we tackle product development in a crisis with the Accelerator Centre's product management mentor, Don Thompson. Learn project management communication strategies, how to communicate with your team in a crisis and planning tactics for managing business execution.
Opportunities, problems and attention to detail regarding traffic, social traffic, paid traffic, and websites in this new world. Bring your questions and assumptions and let's take advantage of this unique time with Rob Farnham, the Accelerator Centre's digital demand mentor. Join us virtually with plenty of time for Q&A.
Join us with the Accelerator Centre's very own sales mentor Kevin Hood as he teaches us the ins and outs of overcoming objections, focusing on BANT, and ultimately closing the sale! Join us via Zoom.
In this Zoom fireside chat, the AC’s communications and PR mentor Ellyn Winters will lead a group discussion around the current communications dynamics and communications and PR best practices. Bring your questions and we’ll learn together.
Join Accelerator Center mentor Jackie Lauer and her guest speaker Robin Bender, founder of Mega Health at Work, for this one hour session focused on mental health and providing tools and strategies to self regulate during times of stress.
This online webinar will take place over 90 min, to cover the foundations of remote work, and some best practice tips for the ways we lead, and participate, in these spaces.
You have been invited to an online meeting, powered by Amazon Chime. This workshop is designed to provide founders, leadership teams, as well as production and engineering teams background on designing conversational experiences in order to be adaptable, personal and relatable while also providing information on the processes, tools, SDKs, products, and services available to build a delightful customer experience with voice.
Accelerator Centre clients are invited to an exciting Lunch & Learn with the incredible Carol Leaman: AC grad and President + CEO of Axonify.
Are you currently stationed at an incubator or accelerator? Is your space starting to feel a little cramped? It may be time for a move... David Hussey, COO of SolveCOO, is here to help guide you through that process.
Join us as we hear all about two AC client founders’ companies and experiences: Hugo of The Owl Solutions and Jamie of Derisk!
As innovation continues to excel at a rapid pace (requiring a highly talented and sought-after workforce), it is likely that talent attraction will remain a significant challenge for startups. However, with a little planning and strong sense of your unique Employer Value Proposition (EVP), you can position your company to secure the right talent – even on a tight budget.
Come learn how an Advisory Board can be your secret weapon to bring essential insights, advice, experience, and connections to your startup while providing you with important confidantes, mentors and coaches. Find out how to attract all-star advisors, how much to compensate them, and common mistakes made by many entrepreneurs.
Join us as we celebrate and showcase the diversity and high potential of startups across southern Ontario during our annual showcase event.
Costing $200,000.00 on average, 60% of small businesses go out of business within 6 months of being hacked.
Workshop Session with Gowling to get all your Startup Legal Questions ANSWERED
The marketing and sales funnel as a growth model is broken, we'll work on understanding the process of developing a flywheel model to grow your startup better and faster.
Mandatory event for all Phase 2,3 and 4 clients.
Government and business tax incentives; sources of financing and preparation of forecasts and cash-flow projections.
Join the Accelerator Centre and Cowan Insurance Group for this 2 Part Workshop Series!
The session will have tips and examples provided by Rick Findlay and discussions and Q&A with the participants throughout the session.
Learn about strategies to move closer to leadership in the sector and inspiring stories of companies who are leading the way.
Accelerator Centre and Communitech clients are invited to attend this presentation and networking opportunity to learn about funding programs and resources to hire postsecondary students.
EY’s ESG and Climate risk lunch and learn will look at the current landscape of risk, the impacts on business and what can be done to turn challenges into opportunities.
Back by popular demand, another lunch and learn with Louise Kaiser, Commercial Relationships Director at Clearpath Robotics
As part of this session, we'll discuss the evolution of TD's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work over the years, as well as some of the successful (and not so successful) initiatives they've taken on in an effort to build a successful CSR strategy and communicate core values to employees, customers and to the general public.
We’ll spend some time reviewing the scientific approach stepping through planning with hypothesis led product management. We will discuss the fundamentals of the Lean Startup movement as it relates to software or hardware product development and how we can dovetail these methods into our next launch to support growth.
This interactive session, presented by our partners at Gowling WLG, will focus on fundamental legal challenges faced by every start-up.
A group of service line specialists from EY Waterloo Region will be joining us to take an in depth look at the business life cycle, investment alternatives and making yourself ‘financing ready’
After this interactive lunch session, you will have a much better understanding of how to approach getting a pilot up and running to support your drive to commercialization and specific tools that you can put to immediate use.
Join us to celebrate the incredible startup journeys of Expeflow and Rapid Novor as they graduate from The Accelerator Program. Light refreshments and a beer and wine bar will be provided.
Join us for a special announcement with FedDev Ontario as we celebrate and showcase the diversity and high potential of startups across Southwestern Ontario during our annual AC JumpStart showcase event
This high-intensity day provides an immersive hands-on design experience for post-secondary school students of any background (or discipline) to tackle complex challenges through design.
This workshop is designed to help startups understand who their customers are, how to communicate to them, and best practices for establishing a strong foundation for sales and marketing. Led by Corey Dolik from HubSpot, he will also cover some practical tools for implementing these strategies.
Join us for a lunch and learn session with entrepreneur and finance leader, Eugene Bomba, for insights into building a funding strategy for your startups.
Please join Carlos Perez, Product Designer at Kiite to learn about designing your own career as a designer!
Join us for a lunch session with our partners from Gowling WLG to discuss the common mistakes founders make early on and learn best practices to avoid those problems.
LeadBlox in the cleantech industry and DaDJ in the music industry have partnered up to host a networking event, with a twist. There will be some fun interactions, and you will be able to learn about Cleantech, before the DJs start playing. Pizza will be provided.
Join us for an interactive training workshop that will leverage the tech ecosystem’s appetite for change and demonstrate the value of combating unconscious bias in the workplace and provide practical advice on implementing best practices.
This event will focus on different approaches and techniques to gather research. The speakers will be Kevin Hood and Jordan Parker.
In this session, learn how to successfully navigate and avoid common pitfalls with an IP strategy designed to secure the full value of your IP rights and lead to a successful commercial launch.
Please join us for an information session the University of Waterloo and Conestoga College to learn about their co-op programs and how you can utilize student resources.
At this event clients will be giving pitches in order to advance to Phase 2. The speakers for this event will be Marium Kirmani and all of the mentors.
At this event Kevin Hood and CEC will provide feedback to clients on their PowerPoint and pitch.
HackerNest Tech Socials (http://hackernest.com/cities/) are a fun, relaxed way to connect with your local tech community. Atmosphere: chill, friendly, unpretentious, agenda-free (no sales pitch, yo), and brimming with UltraSmart(TM) people.
This event will provide you with information and insight on who you need to know and approches on how to make these connections. The speakers for this event will beTrish Barrow and the Finance Panel.
This event will provide you with informaion on different aspects of intelectual property. The speakers for this event will be Alexis Black and Jim Hinton.
This is your opportunity to hang out with the people that make Waterloo great — its entrepreneurs. EntSoc’s Mixer is open to everyone; we’ll have food and drinks, so bring a friend and get ready to network with startup founders, chat with entrepreneurs, and meet others interested in starting their own venture.
This event will focus on marketing for startups, more specifically your company's brand and culture. The speakers for this event will be Ellyn Winters-Robinson and Jackie Lauer.
At this event each company will give a short update in their research thus far and then we will discuss what requirment 3 should look like. The speakers for this event will be Kevin Hood and Jordan Parker.
At this event you will gain insights on design strategy and design lead product development. The speaker for this event will be Steven Fyke and Dayton Pereira.
This event is a product session that will include information on Lean startup methodology, product requirments, development intorduction and much more.
The topic of this event will be an introduction to marketing and sales. The speakers for this event will be Kevin Hood.
Join us for a lunch session with acclaimed researcher and author, Marc Gruber, to learn his top three tips for discovering your most valuable market.
The Business Model Design Camp is a one day event using design-thinking techniques to design better business models to solve complex business challenges. In teams, participants will work alongside mentors and industry professionals to create innovative solutions.
This event will focus on the concept of thinking big. This will involve leadership for new entrepeneurs and designing a fundable company.
This event is an orientation for our Cohort 8 JumpStart reciepents. You will learn more about the AC, how the program works and how to find resources when needed.
Introductions will be given by Paul Salvini and Clinton Ball. The Speakers for this event will be Jordan Parker.
Please join us for pizza, beers, and an informal chat about compliance for hardware companies
Waterloo Wellington LHIN Board Meeting. May 2, 2018 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Join us at the Accelerator Centre for a lunch and learn session and learn the critical factors you need to consider as a startup and how to manage your risks.
Join Venture for Canada and Accelerator Center for a conversation about our Fellowship Program and how you can bring and retain top entrepreneurial talent in Waterloo, and to your Waterloo-based startup.
This event will provide you with information and insight on who you need to know and approches on how to make these connections. The speakers for this event will beTrish Barrow.
Please join the Waterloo Wellington LHIN & DashMD for an announcement about an innovative digital health solution that will help patients take charge of their recovery after leaving hospital.
Join us for an insightful panel discussion moderated by Giselle Commissiong, Advisory Partner and Canadian Life Sciences Advisory Practice leader, around how to capitalize on the digital agenda.
Join us for an interactive day that brings together the worlds of design and business. With a truly diverse range of speakers and attendees, BLND will spark unexpected ideas, exceptional conversations and valuable connections through a series of talks, workshops and even an after party in the charming City of Stratford.
Join us while Mentor Jackie Lauer and guest speaker Jill Zappitelli review the ESA and highlight the changes that are important fo you to implement into your HR policy.
Our friends from Abe Erb will be coming to do a tasting event featuring some of their most popular beers.
Join us on January 17th at Noon at 44 Gaukel (2nd Floor!) for a cool presentation on common mistakes made building hardware devices and how to avoid them.
Building a hardware product can be more complex than it seems. Come learn about what it takes to take your hardware product to mass production, how long that will take and how to avoid the common pitfalls.
Join us for a special screening event of Brene Brown’s Netflix special Call to Courage and a facilitated group discussion with Jackie Lauer, Accelerator Centre HR and Leadership Mentor.
Join us for an insightful look at the world of government and business tax incentives; financial reporting; corporate tax compliance; and financing readiness. The session will provide the crucial details to ensure your business is prepared for the next step in your corporate lifecycle.
