Yeah, CanUX is just days away. Thanks to all of the folks Gene , Jess , the rest of the team at nForm and everyone else organizing and participating. The schedule looks exciting, the speakers are fantastic, this is going to be a great conference. Now if I can just find a 4Gb black iPod nano in Toronto before I leave (my 5Gb original iPod finally died, well the battery now just won’t hold a charge).
Jess has started blogging again at bplusd.org . His stuff covers the intersection of design and business. It’s nice to see this topic being covered in more detail.
The ProfitGuide list Canada’s list of emerging growth companies the Hot 50 is now available (full list of companies ). The Built for Speed section lists the zeitgeist of the companies. It is interesting to see that human capital issues are the 3 of the 7 challenges faced by early stage companies (arrgh, I spent too long doing technology for HR, this is what the HR folks would have been impressed to find, LOL), and a “Shortage of qualified workers” was the number 1 reason cited as a barrier to “Hotter Growth”:
| Toughest challenges | On a scale of 1 TO 5 (in which 5 is the most difficult) |
|---|---|
| Finding good people: | 3.7 |
| Tapping export markets: | 2.9 |
| Implementing new technology: | 2.7 |
| Marketing your product: | 2.6 |
| Raising startup capital: | 2.6 |
| Keeping staff’s skill set competitive: | 2.4 |
| Raising growth capital: | 2.3 |
| Keeping good people: | 2.0 |
Other interesting items to note include 60% of companies were located in Ontario (30 of the 50). However, this is probably more indicative of the “self-nomination” process and that it was run by a company headquartered in Ontario publicized in primarily Ontario, and other biases that this process would entail.