David Crow

Connector of dots. Maker of lines. Rider of slopes.

Canada

Social Media Week + PowerPoint Karaoke

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Eli Singer, the team at Entrinsic, and a supporting cast of  people & advisors have organized the first Social Media Week Toronto.

There is a great schedule of events that span the gamut of social media for companies large and small, not for profit, and local case studies. The schedule is a week with independently organized events. Some of the events I’m watching include:

PowerPoint Karaoke is one of my favorite social formats. It is just brilliant. I first saw it executed in 2006 at ETech. And I wrote about as an alternative format to DemoCamp. I’m stoked to see that my friends Tom & Jay are making the effort to make it happen in Toronto. Remember it’s a social event, it’s meant to be a way to have fun!

North by Northeast Interactive

If it feels like there is a push of activities in Toronto, there are.

You don’t need to attend every event, there is lots going on.

I’m Looking for Design Intern

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I’m looking for a young web designer. This is for paid contract work. The position will be to help design and implement the front-ends for a number of web properties including DavidCrow.ca, DemoCamp.com, FoundersandFunders.org, StartupNorth.ca, StartupIndex.ca, StartupIndex.ca, etc. Basically, the majority of the work is visual design and front-end web implementation. The goal is to to help design and build visual presence and update the front-end implementation of these sites. (Yes, I’ve started to look at HayStack and 99designs.com and other sites).

  • The designer needs to have an online portfolio. The portfolio should include examples of both web and mobile-optimized design.
  • Experience creating, maintaining and deploying WordPress/Drupal/Moveable Type/etc. themes.
  • Experience with web standards compliant HTML, xhtml, css, and Javascript implementation (preferably Prototype or JQuery).
  • Experience with skinning/theming hosted online applications, e.g., EventBrite, GuestListApp, MindTouch, etc.
  • Experience implementing front-end code in MVC frameworks, e.g., Django, Rails, ASP.NET MVC, CakePHP, etc.

My preference would be to find a student or recent graduate. I’d like to help find the next Scott Boms, Ryan Feeley, Matt Brett, Dave Shea, Daniel Burka (yep, they’re all Canadian).

So if you’re a young Canadian designer, that is looking for some contract work, fill out the form below.

Greatest Design Intern in the World

This is paid contract work, however, it's not necessarily well paid. Ideally this is an opportunity for a junior designer, that is, someone that is looking to grow their skills by working on real world projects.
  • URL of sample project

  • Message

HoHoTO and DemoCamp

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HoHoToLogo

It’s time for HoHoTO again.

Join us for #HoHoTO at The Mod Club. Last year, we raised $25,006.67. In the summer (for hoHOTo), we raised $13,317.87. That’s a total of $38,324.54 to date.

You can be proud of what you’ve done so far, Toronto – but why stop there? Each time you inspire us to do good, we want to do great. And we know we can, because you’ve taught us that we are part of an amazingly generous community. Since we first tweeted the idea for HoHoTo in December 2008, you’ve joined us and embraced our pet project as your project. 
Inspired by your support, we’re pushing ourselves further. This December, our goal – your goal – is to match the total amount raised so far in one night.

Target: $40,000. That’s a lot of money.

And a big thanks to the DemoCamp attendees. I made a donation to HoHoTO today with the registration money from DemoCamp Toronto. This means that the donation was made possible by the DemoCamp Toronto 24 attendees. I’ll be giving away the 12 tickets randomly to the attendees at DemoCamp. Thank you to every DemoCamp participant. To show my appreciation, here’s some link love.

Entrepreneur Week – Founders & Funders Social

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Founders and Funders

I’m heading to Waterloo tomorrow afternoon to attend Founders & Funders Waterloo as. Iain Klugman and the Communitech mafia have done a great job on Entrepreneur Week. And I think Entrepreneur Week and the Waterloo scene is a great thing. I’m really excited to be participating in the social aspects. It’s also making me feel really guilty about my efforts in the Toronto community. It has been almost 18 months since the last Founders & Funders in Toronto (stay tuned or watch Founders & Funders or StartupNorth for updates).

velocity

I’ll be heading back to Waterloo in early December to view the Velocity Startup Day. Velocity seriously kicks ass. What a great opportunity for students to spend a term or two deeply immersed in entrepreneurship and technology. Velocity Startup is a great opportunity to:

  • Connect with VeloCity students displaying current business projects
  • Interact with other UW entrepreneurial students representing their projects at our exhibition
  • Inform students about your company/services
  • Talk to students who may be interested in working for your organization

Any startup should be heading for the day to find talent. Funders should be heading to see if there are any opportunities.

Details

What: VeloCity Start-up Day
When:Tuesday, December 1, 2009 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Where:Student Life Centre
200 University Ave West
Waterloo, ON   Canada

Waterloo’s Entrepreneur Week

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I’m jealous of Waterloo Region. There I said it. And I love what’s going on in Toronto.

communitech

Iain Klugman and the team at Communitech are doing a fantastic job building mindshare making Waterloo the regional hub for technical entrepreneurship in Canada. I’m also a little biased. I’m a UWaterloo graduate. I participate in events like Entrepreneur Week, Founders and Funders and Strategic Partnering Day. I think that TechCapital and their staff have a great portfolio and are doing a great job engaging entrepreneurs and the community. Groups like Velocity are leading the charge for innovative entrepreneurship education. Waterloo is a great example of academic, corporate, community and startup engagement. It’s a functioning ecosystem.

Sure it’s not listed on the Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Nor is it in Monocle’s Most livable cities. There’s a suburban feel and the need for a car. And depending on who you listen to the hospital quality has fallen over recent years. But the strong community groups, a world-class technical university that encourages industry participation, a wicked entrepreneurship community and advocacy group. But there is are great events like the Quantum2Cosmos and the Public Lectures from the Perimeter Institute. There is Janet Lynn’s Bistro and Langdon Hall (ok it’s Cambridge). It’s a great place to be an entrepreneur.

Make sure you try to attend Entrepreneur Week 2009 they have a great list of events including:

  • November 16, 2009 10:00am
    Chris Hughes    , Founder of Facebook & Co-ordinator of My.BarackObama.com and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Catalyst
  • November 17, 2009 8:30am-10:30am
    Tim Bray, Founder of Open Text and Antartica Systems
    Ali Asaria, Founder of Well.ca

Should be a great week.

DemoCamp Toronto # 24 featuring Gary Vaynerchuk

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crushit We’re really lucky to have Saul Colt working his ass off in Toronto. He’s done a great thing. He’s invited his friend Gary Vaynerchuk to come to Toronto and talk to startups about his book, Crush It, and entrepreneurship. That’s right, Gary Vaynerchuk in Toronto on December 3, 2009 for the next DemoCamp Toronto (which will be number 24 for anyone keeping track).

Gary is keynoting SxSW. Here’s your chance to see Gary without the trip to Austin. However, I strongly recommend the trip to Austin if for nothing other than the BBQ and the Shiner Bock.

The event is sponsored by Zoocasa, Saul Colt, Rogers Ventures, OCE, Microsoft BizSpark and StartupNorth are working together on this one.

I haven’t had the chance to read the book yet. Adding it to my queue along with Trust Agents, Six Pixels of Separation and a few other books.

DemoCamp Details