ACTION Conference 2015

ACTION is an initiative spearheaded to develop entrepreneurial capabilities and attitudes within a diverse audience. We will provide a framework to venture creation that will allow individuals, regardless of their discipline, to leverage what they have learned through work and education, generate ideas, and scale their solutions. While ACTION is focused on technology commercialization, it is by no means limited to it. True innovation is not sequestered, and often the ideas with the greatest impact are cross- disciplinary in nature. It is our hope to bring a wide variety of people together, have them make connections, and inspire them to go out and disrupt the status quo.

The ACTION Conference is a intensive, hands-on startup conference aimed at teaching critical venture creation skills through active experiential learning.

Do not let yourself be lectured at! Expand your entrepreneurial knowledge and skills through our unique approach. Our prospective sessions so far include:

• What makes a great idea for a startup?
• Building your first (successful) hardware startup in Canada
• Pitching your idea and business
• Niche marketing for startups
• Customer segmentation
• Effective networking techniques and strategies
• Bootstrapping your startup
• Startups through the eyes of an angel investor
• Negotiating term sheets
• Funding your startup through OCE’s SmartStart program
• Design-thinking and business development
• Building a startup sales team

What the registration fee includes:

• All-star speaker and facilitator line-up from across Canada and Silicon Valley
• Four hands-on, experiential learning sessions on practical startup skills
• Continental breakfast, networking breaks, and lunch
• Networking and mentorship opportunities with industry leaders and fellow attendees
• Shuttle service from McMaster University and surrounding GO Stations (Hamilton, Burlington, Appleby)
• Complimentary on-site parking
• Access to all conference materials (even those of sessions you did not attend)
• Access to the ACTION Alumni network

Lotfi Belkhir – W Booth School – Associate Professor

Carol Chong – Sklar Wilton & Associates – Director

Claude Gauthier – OmniPhy – Co-Founder and CTO

Karen Grant – Angel One Investor Network -Executive Director

Bjoern Herrmann – Compass – Founder and CEO

Tom Lee – Quanser – Chief Education Officer

Chris Lipp – Stanford University Graduate School of Business -Assistant Professor

Charles Mire – Structur3D Printing – Co-Founder and CEO

Emmie Tse Thomas – Knowji – Co-Founder and CEO

Laurie Thompson – Sklar Wilton & Associates – Director

Robert Vallee – Speak & Impress! – Founder and Coach

Gerald Weiner – Landmark Canada – CEO