It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur. It seems like everywhere you turn, someone, some organization, some company is throwing a party in honor of the starters.
This summer’s newest event is the International Startup Festival (www.startupfestival.com), to be held July 13-15 in beautiful Montreal. The two-day conference focuses on the business of startups, and like any great festival will feature talks, pitches, panels, demos, and surprises on multiple stages around the venue. The festival brings industry veterans and renowned pundits together with young entrepreneurs and disruptive thinkers to talk about the issues and ideas that span the startup life cycle: early-stage innovation; growing the business; and exiting with success. I’ll be speaking there, along with Dave McClure, Paul Kedrosky, Jeff Clavier, Howard Lindzon, Andy Nulman and a dozen others. You can track the evolving program at www.startupfestival.com
In addition to talks and round tables, the Startup Festival will showcase new companies from around the world to pitch and demo the latest innovations. There’s even a plan to do elevator pitches in an industrial elevator that seats 30. Startups interested in pitching at the Festival need to apply to the event organizer.
The event is being organized by my friend and startup champion Philippe Telio, creator of the event and president of of Embrase Business Consulting. His goal: to make the event smart, fun, and global. As if hanging out with smart entrepreneurs isn’t enough fun, the Festival is running in parallel with multiple Festivals in and around Montreal: the Just For Laughs Festival, Cirque du Soleil’s Complement Cirque, The International Fireworks Festival, and the Fantasia Film Festival.
