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Watch our wrap-up video below!
Edmonton Startup Week 2022 was a tremendous celebration of our city’s startup community and culture of innovation! With more than 80 events and many in-person, including Startup Crawl and Launch Party, we had over 1,500 attendees participate during the third week of October. The top five most popular events were Farwell Party, Launch Party presented by Parlee McLaws, Kick-Off Open House, Founder & Funders: hear from both sides, Alberta Catalyzer Showcase. Whether you participated in a workshop, panel discussion, or podcast episode, we hope you had a wonderful experience meeting awesome folks, connecting, getting social, and inspiring your inner entrepreneur. Startup Week wouldn’t be possible without the engagement and support of Edmontonions, local leaders, and our innovation community alike!
Photos above were captured by Ampersand Grey
Our 9th annual Startup Week began with a bang on Monday in the Mercer building at the Edmonton Unlimited Startup Week Kick-Off Party where we mingled with old and new friends, celebrated local entrepreneurship, and were inspired by the events and workshops to come throughout the week. We had both Catherine Warren – Chief Executive Officer and Erin Gobolos – Director of Marketing & Communications from Edmonton Unlimited introduce the exciting kick-off to Startup Week, as well as a special welcome from Edmonton’s Mayor, Amarjeet Sohi.
“Startup Week in Edmonton really is the best of all worlds, where it’s both a celebration of all things new and a tradition of more than a decade. It’s a week where our city’s future entrepreneurs meet to explore new ideas and where Edmonton’s multinational and large businesses reconnect with that spark of innovation.”
–Catherine Warren, CEO of Edmonton Unlimited
On Tuesday, we watched our CEO from Edmonton Unlimited – Catherine Warren on a global stage discuss how Edmonton’s startups are innovating from here for the world. This panel discussion was hosted by CBC’s Jessica Ng, alongside panelists Sean Collins, CEO of Varme Energy and Morẹ́nikẹ́ Ẹniọlá Ọláòṣebìkan, CEO of KemNet for a lively discussion on Edmonton’s impact, diversity, challenges, and collaborative spirit. Check out the CBC panellist video here!
To end the day, we hit the streets for our infamous Startup Crawl where we visited and learned more about Edmonton’s various startups. Innovative businesses like Jobber – a field service scheduling software company, Alberta Innovates – an organization that helps the startup community build new technology and drive new ideas, and samdesk – an AI-powered global disruption monitoring tool, to see how each company is progressing their innovative platforms and developing creative problem-solving challenges for our city and beyond.
“It’s just so cool, right? I mean, look at this is awesome and so, so great to have people here has feel the energy here and have people with us. There’s no replacement for that face-to-face communication and the opportunity to be together in community. We need this.”
–Doug Holt, Associate Vice President of Investments for Alberta Innovates
Couldn’t have said it any better, Doug!
Rolling into Wednesday we had a ton of insightful events including the Raising Venture Capital presentation presented by GrowthX where we learned what venture capitalists look for in founders, pitch deck best practices, and equity awareness. Towards the end of the evening, we headed back to Mercer to enjoy the Alberta Catalyzer Showcase where we watched five startups present and pitch their innovative businesses for future funding.
Another fantastic midday event was presented by Health Cities where they hosted three innovative experiences at the TELUS World of Science. The three entrepreneurs Izabella Roth – CEO of Infinity Healthcare, Myrna Bittner – CEO & Founder of RUNWITHIN Synthetics, and Dornoosh Zonoobi – Vice President of AI at Exo Imaging, shared their advice, observations and lessons learned throughout their journeys with the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovation. Supported by DynaLIFE Medical Labs, the afternoon included mass opportunities for networking and connection.
Now it wouldn’t be a regular Startup Week without the annual Launch Party event, and WOW – what an event that was! Over 750 people attended Launch Party at the Edmonton Convention Centre this year where we were blessed with inspiring speeches from local leaders like Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and Elder Irene Morin, pitch stories from some of Edmonton’s most successful startups like Kidney-Chek by sn biomedial, Oonnie Food Technologies Inc., Cash2Crypto, Bladeflex Inc., The Public, Varme Energy, DeepBlueGreen , AIRmarket Inc., Liquid Software Company, Ordr. Throughout the night we were entertained with traditional Indigenous dancing from the Indigenous Artist Market Collective, scrumptious food, elegant drinks (did you have a glass of champagne from the ariel bartender!?), and overall great company.
“You know, Launch Party isn’t just people coming together to share their businesses. This is us coming together to share a vision about who we are as Edmontonians, about who we’ve always been. But more importantly, you know, who we could be in the future. So, this is about possibility. This is about collaboration. This is about us looking at who we are and trying to transform into something beyond our wildest imagination!”
–Hunter Cardinal, Co-Founder of Naheyawin
Photos above were captured by Ampersand Grey
“I must say that Edmonton Unlimited has done a phenomenal job of bringing the community together this week! It really speaks to their commitment, speaks to that vision, how innovators can come together to talk about their ideas and launch their ideas.”
–Amarjeet Sohi, City of Edmonton Mayor
Here’s the lineup for the thirteenth edition of Launch Party, including interviews from Alberta Impact:
- AIRmarket Inc.
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Bladeflex Inc.
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Cash2Crypto
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- DeepBlueGreen
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Kidney-Chek by sn biomedical
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Liquid Software Corporation
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Oonnie Food Technologies Inc.
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Ordr
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- The Public
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
- Varme Energy
- Watch their Alberta Impact Interview
To end Startup Week, Edmonton Unlimited hosted a Farewell Party and said our final goodbyes to our beloved Mercer building as we gear up to change office locations in the new year. It was a bittersweet evening but what made the evening was hearing everyone’s stories, history, and intersections with the Mercer building over the past decade.
“Startup didn’t start as a physical space. It really started as trying to find connections between other founders and builders throughout the city that were just trying to make stuff happen. Just the ability to be around other people that are going through that process is really the spirit of what we wanted to do when we started building a physical space here at the Mercer. I am a big proponent and champion of communities. And I think communities are made up of lots of different parts.”
–Ken Bautista, Co-Founder of The Public and Co-Founder of Startup Edmonton
To all the attendees, event hosts, sponsors, partners, and Launch Party companies – THANK YOU! This year’s Startup Week couldn’t have happened without all of you! We’re super thrilled to bring you this week-long experience and we can’t wait for next year! In fact, our events team might’ve already started a brainstorming document… SEE YOU NEXT YEAR EDMONTON!
Meantime, if you’re looking for help with an idea, to grow your business, or attend a community event, check out https://edmontonunlimited.com today. Additionally, If you’re looking to get connected and grow your ideas, check out our upcoming Business Model 101 workshops.
This week would not have been possible without the support of our incredible sponsors and partners. Thank you to:
