Invites have gone out for the next Calgary Founders’ Table. This invitation-only dinner for tech-driven entrepreneurs will kick off the conversation with a window on the challenges and opportunities facing hardware-oriented tech startups.

HOW TO JOIN: If you’re the founder or funder of a tech startup, and you’re interested in joining STIRR Canada, please click on the Apply tab (above) and complete our Application Form … tell us more about you and your company.

HOW TO SPONSOR: If you’re interested in sponsoring a STIRR Canada event, please click on the Sponsor tab (above) to find out more.

WHAT’S ON FOR FALL?: Invites will go out in September for our big fall Calgary Tech-Mixer event - get ready for some great Hacks, special guests, and networking opportunities!

The theme was Technology Marketing and the discussion was animated as attendees discussed a broad range of topics including: choosing a business partner (look at the culture/values first or the numbers/value first?); internal blogging strategies (education, keywords, etc.); SEO (conversion vs. clicks); varying business views of the role of marketing in Calgary (commodities trading, t-shirts, strategic role); finding customer champions (internal influence, heroes, etc.); vibrant communities (taking the good with the bad); and ideas for growing technology marketing know-how and expertise in Calgary.

Representatives of the following companies were at the table: Divestco, Curve Dental, Intuit, Evoco, Tynt, iStockphoto, RenoWorks, Shopster, Cambrian House, Uncommon Innovation, and Mob4Hire.

Feedback from the evening:

“Great contacts, folks I’d been meaning to connect with for some time, interesting discussion.”

“I really enjoyed the event and thought it was useful to get together with fellow technology marketers and talk about functional and current business issues.”

“Thanks very much for organizing the dinner last night - it was one of the best industry events I have been to.”

Clockwise from upper left: Stephen King (Curve Dental), Christine Dougan (Intuit), Peter Koizumi (Shopster), Shekhar Parmar (STIRR Canada), Doug Vickerson (RenoWorks), Carey Houston (Evoco), Yvonne Beyer (iStockphoto), Claudia Moore (STIRR Canada).

A group of 10 emerging and established tech startup founders and funders were invited to the dinner, hosted by STIRR Canada’s Patrick Lor and Claudia Moore. Among the companies represented were Acceleware, Calgary Scientific, VoodooPC (HP), Userful, and Evoco, as well as the evening’s sponsor Macleod Dixon.

Discussions covered a range of other topics including: best practices in working with international partners and resellers, startup culture, the ins and outs of tax credits and government funding, when to outsource, and more … talk continued on past dessert.

Some of the attendee feedback included:

• “It’s nice to have exposure to raw entrepreneurial spirit/DNA …”
• “I lost track of the time owing to the terrific conversation.”
• “I appreciated the small format discussion - and the ability to ask questions and share experiences.”
• “It was interesting hearing about the common issues all our companies suffer …”

More Founders’ Tables are planned for this summer, with a larger Tech Mixer planned for the fall. Stay tuned for dates, locations and times.

Another Western Canadian tech community event is planned for July. Sign up for BarCamp Edmonton - to be held on July 19th, 10:00 am at the Edmonton World Trade Center, Floor 6. Sponsors for the event are Nexopia and TEC Edmonton.

Interested in learning more about new tech or meeting peers from the Edmonton tech community in a casual and friendly setting? Think about which topic you’d be interested in leading a 20-minute interactive discussion about. MORE INFO HERE .. including beer and food details!! Thanks to Cam Linke for the heads up.

A Founder’s Table dinner is planned for Thursday July 3rd, 5 pm in Calgary [revised date]

Following the success of our kick-off May 2008 STIRR Canada event (which hosted 50 Alberta-based guests) this July 2008 invitation-only dinner will return to the classic STIRR single-table gathering comprised of 10-12 founders of tech-driven companies.

FOR MORE DETAILS, please email: Info{at}stirr{dot}ca

If you’re not already a member of STIRR Canada, please complete the APPLICATION FORM.

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A range of Calgary-based events are planned for the coming year:

• A Founder’s Table will be held each month.
• Pitch Labs are planned for August, October, December, January, and February.
• Popular Tech Mixer main events will be held in September and February.
• STIRR Canada will also hold on-campus events for Calgary students this fall, as well as participating in various BarCamp and DemoCamp activities.

BarCamp Calgary breaks for lunch (left) and Nexopia Founder Timo Ewalds (right) chats with BarCamp attendees.

If you’ll be in the Vancouver area in mid June, there’s a tech entrepreneur community event of interest. Following successful Founders & Funders events in Toronto and Montreal, Vancouver is primed to host the first West Coast Founders & Funders event in Vancouver on June 17th.

Vancouver’s Boris Mann (right) from Bootup Labs has been working with David Crow, Jevon MacDonald and Austin Hill to get this first West Coast event ramped up. After the June F&F dinner, their next Western Canada event will likely be in October. Stay tuned.

In addition to organizing Vancouver DemoCamp and BarCamp events with the local tech community, Boris also collaborates with Maura Rodgers at Strutta on Vancouver LaunchParty socials. Lots happening on the West Coast to link up the tech community!

From the Calgary Inc. Magazine article:

“Testing the headphones put a wide grin on one avid gamer. “You won’t believe what just happened. I heard this sound,” he exclaimed to friends, ignoring an anxious Hildebrandt . Snapping his fingers [the gamer] added, “And I got him in one shot .” [...] “The hair on the back of my neck went up,” says Hildebrandt.” “And I thought, ‘Now I have something. There is something here to this.’”

The article also profiles other Calgary-based innovative companies in a “celebration of the city’s five latest and greatest bright ideas.”

From the Herald article:

“We wanted to have [Garrett] back to Calgary to … help coach the people in the room to what do we have to do to make sure the next Garrett Camp, who might well be at one of the tables, has the opportunity to get mentored, funded and supported here so we can keep some of these great startup stories local, ” said Claudia Moore, a director of STIRR Canada and owner of Calgary-based technology company growth agent Material Insight Inc.“

And many thanks also to Techvibes for their support and coverage as well. Techvibes correspondent, Barcamp supporter, and technology intern, Cam Linke, came down from Edmonton to attend the Founders’ Table event. Thanks Cam!

A young startup founder remarked: “I can’t believe the caliber of people I just got to talk with or the amount I learned before dessert came. This has been the most productive tech event I’ve been to in Calgary.”

Participating companies included: Active Conversion, Broadramp, Calgary Scientific, Cambrian House, Cognera, CoolIT, Coril Holdings, Cornerstone Technologies, Datagardens, DirectVoxx, Dynastream, eSchedule, GamesCafe, iNovia Capital, Intervera, Loa Corporation, Mobovivo, Octane Venture Partners, Ph03nix New Media, Preo Software, Psyko Audio Labs … … Renoworks, Shopster, SpatialQ, StockVantage, StumbleUpon, Techvibes, Tynt, and Xtreme Technologies.

Calgary native, and StumbleUpon co-founder, Garrett Camp, talked about the ups and downs of his friends-and-family funded early startup days and how he ultimately moved to Silicon Valley to be closer to his advisors. He also revealed that his first investor was a StumbleUpon user from the Valley who simply contacted him by email.

A common theme revolved around how important “retaining the right people” is to creating success. Discussions included: giving up a substantial amount of equity to attract a co-founder, asking potential employees how much salary vs. stock they wanted to gauge their propensity for risk; and a founder’s preference to hire equity-only team members (whether you can self-fund the startup or not).

Here are a few conversation snippets from the evening:

“How are we gonna reach the young guns, the ‘Garrett Camps’ in their dorm rooms right now?” Answer back: “Reach them at university. Do free beer and pizza events on campus and get them to connect to the people here tonight.”

“Geography doesn’t matter, it’s wherever the best ideas are.”

“This kind of event is exactly what we need. A way to connect under-the-radar startups with people who can help them. That’s what’s been missing.”

“Tech isn’t only about pure software development. We have to ensure we include tech-driven startup innovation, like some of the companies we see here at our table tonight.”

A selection of images from the event: