Montréal NEWTECH

Fifteen of us met last night for the first Montreal Cofounders Monday meetup. I think it went very well, so we’ll try to do it again in January. The idea was to get a small group of people who were looking for some help with their projects, so we could find potential partners.

We had a good mix of people who (1) had an idea and looking for people to work with, (2) had already started on something and were looking for help now or in the future, (3) wanted to get involved in something.

The reason for keeping this group small was so that everybody would have a change to talk about what they were looking for or working on and keep a large discussion going for as long as possible. Eventually we broke up into smaller conversations, but I think everybody had a chance to hear what everybody else was involved in.

Let me know what you thought about it and if you have any suggestions for next time. I’ll schedule the next one for the week after our regular NewTech meetup (Jan 19, maybe?).

We had a great turn out tonight at our December meetup. It was nice to see everybody again and meet new people. I want to thank our presenters: Nimonik, Praized, and Mount Logan Weather Camera.

I also want to thank Laika and Accelerated Ventures for supporting the Montreal Tech community

For those of you who couldn’t come tonight, I have posted a few photos on our Flickr account and uploaded the demos to YouTube.

I talked to some more people tonight about starting another event for people who are either thinking about starting a project or are looking for a project to work on to get together. I’m going to create an event at Meetup.com and on Facebook to see how many people would be interested and hopefully start transforming some of those ideas into reality. This meetup will be limited to people who are looking for a co-founder or would like to join a project.

Don’t forget to get involved in the Montreal Tech community! There is a lot going on here. I’m going to try to list all the events on the left side of this page. You should also check Montreal Tech Watch and Tech Enterprise for other events. So, in the next couple of week…

• Montreal Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast: Dec 9th
• HolidayCamp: Sometime Dec 11-18

What a great month so far. We had StartupDrinks on Wed, StartupCamp yesterday… We hope you guys are still up for another tech event next week And then for Tech Breakfast on the following week (Dec 9). 

It’s great to see an active tech community here in Montreal, so be sure to get involved in at least one of those events.

This is a reminder and a notice about our location change. Next week’s meetup will take place at Laika (on St. Laurent and Duluth) at the same time (6:30pm)

Please RSVP at one of the event pages below:

• Meetup.com
• Facebook
• Upcoming

If you’d like to demo your startup, email us at demo@mtlnewtech.com There’s still 1 spot available. We’ll send out the list of who is demo’ing on Sunday!

I hope to see you all next Tuesday!

Felipe

I have been talking to a few people who have an idea about a project or would like to work on a startup, but they haven’t been able to find the right co-founder. From those conversations, we decided to create another event specific for people to meet and talk about their ideas/interests and hopefully enable them to move it from idea to reality!

So, this event is for you, if you:

(1) have an idea about a project and would like to find others with similar interests and different skills set
(2) are already working on something but want to find some help
(3) are a business person, a marketing person, or a web developer who would like to get involved in a startup

The idea is to keep this group small and informal. Only for people who are seriously thinking about starting a project and are looking for people.

The format and location of the meetup is still TBD, but I was thinking about starting by everyone introducing themselves and say why they came and what they’re looking for. Feel free to bring any visuals and materials about your idea/project, or personal portfolio (if you don’t have a project but would like to join one) to share with the group.

This is not going to substitute our regular NewTech meetups. I’ll post the event soon (we will attempt the first one for Dec 15) to see what kind of interest we get. If you have any suggestions about the formatting let me know.

We had a couple of last minute cancelations, so here’s the line up for tomorrow’s meetup:

TEKiTO Software - Tools to help you be more productive on the iPhone.

ColdSnap - is assembling a collection of technologies to improve the efficiency and longevity of refrigeration appliances.

Special thanks to Station-C for providing the space and supporting the Montreal Tech community, and Accelerated Ventures for sponsoring this event.

Come check out the demos and network with other tech enthusiasts. Please RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/mltnewtech/

Hi all, please note that our next meetup date has changed to November 11 (second Tuesday) due to US elections and venue availability. It will be held at Station-C again at 6:30pm (time changed too!). We will start the demos at 7pm and follow the same format: 5 minutes demo + 5 minutes Q&A.

I’m going to post and send out an email with the startup that will be demo’ing on Sunday before the event.

Are you a startup in Montreal? We might have one spot left. If you’re interested, please send me an email to demo@mtlnewtech.com as soon as possible.

Can you help out the community? We’re also looking for sponsors. If you want to get some exposure and help the Montreal Tech community, please contact me. Sponsorship starts at $100 and will be very much appreciated.

I look forward to seeing you all next week!

I’d like to thank you all for coming to the first Montreal NewTech meetup tonight at Station-C. For those of you who missed it, I’ll be posting the demos soon.

We had three great demos tonight, and hopefully we’ll continue to showcase other cool Montreal startups every month. Our next meetup will be either on Nov 4th or 11th. I’ll update the group page when we know for sure. For now, there are a few things you could do to contribute to the Montreal tech community:

• Participate! There are several other networking events in Montreal. Start going to some of them and get involved in the community.
• Tell people what you’re working on. If you’d like to demo your product/startup at the next NewTech, please email me at demo@mtlnewtech.com.
• If you’re a blogger, photographer, video blogger, write about the startups who demo as well as other interesting people you meet in these events.

Here’s the line up for next week’s meetup:

Brownbook.net - the business directory that anyone can edit. (Presented by Basil Berntsen)

Tungle - free web-based scheduling service that makes it easy to coordinate meetings with other professionals no matter where they are or what time management software or groupware application they use. (Presented by Jacou Sarrazin)

XtraNormal - It’s an easy & automated movie-making webapp. Without any skills in 3D or movie direction, users can create their own movies from our template library using only text as the input. Everything is generated automatically. (Official launch is tomorrow - Oct 6th)

Special thanks to Station-C for providing the space and supporting the Montreal Tech community and YowTRIP (aka me) for the refreshments.

Station-C - first coworking space in Montreal.

YowTRIP - Social network for travelers.

See you all on Tuesday!

Just a reminder that the first Montreal NewTech meetup is next Tuesday (Oct 7th). If you’re planning to attend, please go to the Meetup.com page and RSVP as the space is limited.

The event will take place at Station-C, the first Montreal coworking space, at 5369 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, suite 430 at 7pm.

Here’s how the event will go:

1) Four startups will demo their product for 5 minutes each, followed by 5 minutes Q&A.
2) At the end of the demos, anybody can make any quick announcement to the group.
3) We hang out at Station-C to network with the presenters and other attendees.

There is a lot going on in the Montreal tech community and in order for this event to be successful and interesting for the community, we need to start sharing ideas and contributing to each others. So, if you have something ready to show to the community, please contact me!

We’re still looking for a couple of startups to demo! E-mail me at demo@mtlnewtech.com 

I look forward to seeing the demos and meeting you all next week!

Yesterday we had our first Montreal NewTech meetup at Brutopia. It wasn’t an official meetup and we had no demos, but it was a great time with some Montreal tech enthusiasts. We had about 10 people talking about technology and projects they’re working on.

On a personal level, it was great for me to meet some people on my second day in Montreal. So, if you couldn’t make it yesterday, there’s still lot of opportunities to get involved in the Montreal Tech community!

There are a lot of different events happening weekly. I’ll post them here under the “More Events in Montreal” section. Some other sources for what’s happening in Montreal are: Montreal Tech Watch and TechVibes.

Here are a few events happening next week (if you know of others, please share them):

• BitNorth Conference - Sept 5-7
• Montreal Video 2.0 - Sept 8
• Montreal Entrepreneur Breakfast - Sept 9

And there’s always something else going on… Every single week, so come join the Montreal Tech community. Share what you’re working on, see what others are doing, get involved!

We’re now looking for people who would like to demo their startup/project in our October NewTech meetup. So, if you’re looking to get feedback, alpha/beta users, partners, investment… That’s a great opportunity for us all to help each others out. Send me an email at: demo@mtlnewtech.com

You show your web app for 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes Q&A.