The conference was an excellent event for me. It gave me real insight about where the web is going next and on the seriousness and progress rate of the current developments. In the opening panel (video below) Ron Conway describes the real-time web as having multiple multi-billion dollar opportunities. He goes so far as to compare the current development with the early days at Google, when they still hadn’t figured out a business model and could only imagine what an impact Google would have on how we use the web today. Watch the video below for the full opening panel on ‘The Realtime Opportunity’ …

The day was packed with interesting panels and presentations and after getting an idea of how far people and companies are along in developing new platforms, tools and services, I have to say I am once again astonished. The world might be in a recession but Silicon Valley is bursting from the mass of innovation it’s producing, and its buzzing with people who will eventually turn that innovation into striving businesses.

I keep repeating myself but every time I am in the Valley I notice its biggest advantage in the tech sector: A huge amount of people who want to try new stuff – not just entrepreneurs but also consumers and businesses of all sizes. This results in new ideas getting traction early on. By the time the rest of the world notices a new idea like twitter already has a couple of million users, and the rest of the world watches as they reach critical mass.

TechCrunch put on a nice after party and I met a lot of people from last year and some people I have only met online so far. All in all it was a great trip that opened my eyes with regards to the next big wave of innovation. I look forward to taking the opportunities that come with it .

Oh, at the conference someone noticed that I didn’t wear socks in my business shoes so I had to explain my reasons on camera. Watch the third video under the ‘Channel’ button in the embedded video box below!

Further SmibsTV coverage highlights young entrepreneurs and community leaders who were in attendance at the artsScene event launch. Episode includes interviews with Alana Williams (artsScene organization committee), Kristi Sainchuk (owner of Ginger Apparel), Cam Linke (organizer of BarCamp/DemoCamp), Denise Lefebvre (visual artist), Amedeo Pagliuso (owner 29 Armstrong), and Kris Harvey (The Collective).

Check out Amadeo, 29 Armstrong and other businesses this Saturday June 13th as they host the “Al Fresco Block Party,” which begins at 4:00 pm and is located at 104th street and 102nd avenue. Expect to find a variety of food, beverages, and entertainment as the businesses on 104th street showcase themselves in a block party style event that will be a night to remember.

Also look for Cam Linke as he hosts BarCamp this Saturday June 13th from 10:00am to 5:00pm on the 6th floor of the Edmonton World Trade Centre. If you’re interested in the tech community this is definitely an event you dont want to miss. In the spirit of the Smibs Network, it’s also a great forum to meet creative professionals, share ideas, experiences and potentially collaborate on current and upcoming ventures.

Paul Steier of Smibs talks to Poet Laureate and performing artist Cadence Weapon (Roland Pemberton) at the artsScene launch event. They discuss corporate involvement in the arts, how the arts scene in Western Canada is perceived and how he found success as an internationally recognized recording artist.

Peter Urban talks to the Chair, Ken Bautista and Co-Chair, Michael Brechtel of artsScene, they discuss how artsScene came to Edmonton and why the arts is such an important element of society. artsScene is all about bringing the arts and business together and providing support to local artists. They organize many events throughout the year, with this event at Planet Z, their launch event, they had a huge success with over 100 people in attendance.

One of my favorite marketing blogs, Neuromarketing, recently ran a post about the positive side of daydreaming.

As blogger Roger Dooley notes, when business teams need to brainstorm a new idea, the knee-jerk action is to get people sitting down together to spend a segmented amount of time concentrating on thinking and talking about one topic until something sticks.

Don't think so hard. According to psychologist sources, daydreaming can be productive.

However according to Karina Christoff, psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, this tried and true method is not always the best approach.

It’s not that concentrated thought is a bad idea. But daydreaming, Professor Christoff suggests, isn’t as unproductive as it is said to be. In fact, daydreaming improves your creativity.

Christoff explains: After all that mind-wandering, eventually you start seeing connections that you wouldn’t have seen before, because you would never have logically allowed your mind to make those connections. Now it’s going to make them for you.”

I’m sure that most marketing experts have their own unique take on the creative brainstorming process. Few people can come up with something truly innovative by staying within the lines.

So what’s your approach?

Image source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4567659/Americans-embarrassed-by-poor-spelling-performance-compared-to-Britons.html

Despite what is often portrayed in the media, entrepreneurs are seldom “lone wolves”. This point was made obvious when I attended theTEC Edmonton’s Venture Prize Award Luncheon, it takes a community to support and inspire innovation in an entrepreneur. Business leaders and representatives from Western Economic Diversification Canada, Alberta Research Council, Economic Development Edmonton, the University of Alberta’s School of Business, and many more were on hand to show their support for this program that “assists aspiring entrepreneurs to transform high-growth ideas into solid business plans”. On Thursday April 30, 2009 there were three finalists for TEC Venture Prize’s fast growth award CIE: Seek Your Own Proof, SmileSonica Inc. and Swiftclips Media Networks. The finalists were competing for more than $90,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. The pitches were polished and the presentations pristine, but when the dust settled Ken Bautista and Jason Suriano’s Seek Your Own Proof emerged as this years winner.

CIE: Seek Your Own Proof is an online community where kids ages 8-13 are challenged to investigate the extraordinary, unexplained and unusual side of science and history. As agents of the “Central Institute for Exploration”, kids work together to crack open the truth – completing missions, sifting through information, and moving up within the ranks of the agency. It “blurs the lines between entertainment and education, nonfiction and fiction, and the online world with the real world”

The Student Business Plan Competition Award was given to Gordon Mckinlay and his company KennelSeek.com. KennelSeek provides boarding kennel/cattery management and online reservation services. Gordon walked away with $10,000.

Congratulations gentleman. Everyone here at Smibs wishes you continued success!!!

For more information on DemoCamp, go to their website at www.democampedmonton.com

For more information on DemoCamp, go to their website at www.democampedmonton.com

We at Smibs love DemoCamp and that’s why we captured it on video to share with you! What is DemoCamp you might ask?? It is an ad-hoc gathering of people with a mutual interest in sharing, collaborating and learning from each other in an open environment. There are DemoCamps all over North America where people come to demo their new products be it software, robots or even instruments.

What you will see above is part one of a five part series filmed at DemoCamp Edmonton on March 11th, 2009. This part features coordinator Cam Linke and our first Demo presenter Mack Male (www.shareedmonton.ca).