Conducting convergence innovation

Creative Sparks was launched at MaRS on Wednesday, May 7, as a component of the Esprit Orchestra’s 2008 season and the New Wave Composers Festival. It was conceived by Esprit’s Music Director and Conductor, Alex Pauk, and it was an exemplary model of the themes that MaRS embraces: convergence, innovation, creativity and collaboration.

The project brought professional composers together with Toronto Area high school and middle school students to mentor the burgeoning compositional and performance talents. The idea was to stretch the boundaries between the students’ understanding of what orchestral music is and what it can become. Students were encouraged to consider the traditional sound of an orchestra being enhanced by technology, amplified sounds that would not usually be part of a score and MaRS as the performance platform.

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At Wednesday’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, attendees heard Dr. Peter Hofstra of Greenrock Asset Management talk about the cost/benefit analysis of a higher education. Talking from his own experience in transitioning from a PhD in Engineering Physics to a fund manager, he discussed the transferable skills that a PhD can give you.

But for the true entrepreneur (think Bill Gates or Michael Dell) often leaving a degree program to “just do it” is the better path. Based on the questions from the audience, it was clear that many people are torn about which way to go.

Question of the Week:
What advice do you have for a Masters graduate trying to decide whether or not to do a PhD program?

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Inky with the latest CIX Award

Some very interesting companies could be found among the presenters at the Canadian Innovation Exchange event this week. It was great to see a range of companies hitting the stage. They included brand new players such as Sandy Ward, founder of local search startup Homezilla and the always colourful, angel investor and company builder Mark Dowd of Brainpark. Mark is building a peer to peer collaboration platform to tackle the very big and lucrative problem of managing knowledge within the enterprise. CIX also had a share of more established, venture-backed players such as Butch Langlois who presented the online travel site PlanetEye and Ron McKenzie, CEO of the online collaboration platform Octopz, a MaRS tenant.

Among many solid and “entertaining” presentations at CIX, Ron McKenzie and the Octopz team stood out as the choice of attendees when the votes were tabulated. They took home top honours for the best presenting company at the event. This win follows on the heels of the amazing debut of Octopz’s latest software at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last week where over 10000 attendees packed the Moscone Centre to see the latest stuff.

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Prestigious award funds innovation

On Tuesday evening, the research and innovation community came to the MaRS Centre to celebrate the 2008 Premier’s Innovation Awards — three prestigious awards programs that support and promote ideas and discoveries that build on Ontario’s innovation strengths. The Premier’s Innovation Awards include the Premier’s Catalyst, Discovery and Summit Awards. The Premier’s Summit Award program is administered by MaRS on behalf of the Province.

Premier Dalton McGuinty and Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson joined MaRS Board Chair John Evans and our CEO, Ilse Treurnicht to celebrate some of the best and brightest minds in Ontario’s research and innovation community.

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Ontario Innovation Agenda

Yesterday morning, Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson unveiled Ontario’s new innovation strategy in Ottawa – and in so doing outlined the specific, concrete steps the province is taking to secure a leading position in the global knowledge economy. MaRS is a key part of that plan.

The strategy is built around five key themes:

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Last Wednesday, Entrepreneurship 101 participants heard Mike Polonsky of the Equicom Group talk about how to give a pitch - what to do (and what not to do) when telling the world about your idea.

Here’s a thought: perhaps as scientists and engineers we could apply the same lessons to our technical presentations to our peers! No more boring 6pt font tables of mind numbing data - just a clear articulation of a story. Is anyone out there brave enough to break the mold of “I have to impress them with how difficult my research is otherwise they won’t think highly of me”?

Question of the Week:
Anyone ready to do as Mike suggested: tell a story simply and clearly?

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At last Wednesday’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, Dr. Jeffrey Coull of Chlorion Pharma shared some of his experiences in dealing with venture capital companies. One of his messages was that “no” from a VC often simply means “not now.” Coull recounted having presented numerous times to a collection of over 60 VC’s — with one of the initial “no’s” ultimately becoming an investor in Chlorion.

His message: persistence pays!

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MaRS Tenant launches anti-malarial community

Philanthropy just got easier and a lot more accessible to the public thanks to the social networking power of the Internet and a ground-breaking initiative led by our team at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC). And just in time for World Malaria Day this Friday, April 25th.

At MalariaEngage.org, people can enlist directly in the anti-malaria battle by contributing $10 or more to an initial choice of seven highly varied projects involving selected scientists in developing countries. Over time, new projects will replace those that reach their funding goal. The site features a discussion area where supporters can interact with researchers and each other, obtain news and photos of both funded and proposed projects, a running tally of money raised, and stories from the front lines in the war against the scourge of malaria.

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Tenant invests in cancer research

That fundamental question from patients in his neurosurgery clinic at The Hospital for Sick Children underlines the most sinister aspect of cancer, says neurosurgeon Dr. Peter Dirks, and it drives his work as a scientist investigating cancer stem cells.

Yesterday, Dirks was among the representatives of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), outlining the broad vision for a combined $60 million full-court press on cancer at a news conference with the Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson.

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Social Innovation in Hamilton

MaRS CEO, Ilse Treurnicht, and our director of social entrepreneurship, Allyson Hewitt, are headed to McMaster University today to speak at their Innovation Cafe in partnership with the Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network. It’s a conversational-style forum exploring how social innovation — often in combination with technological innovation — is working in their community and beyond.

The Hamilton groups are among a growing number of organizations worldwide working to increase public awareness of social innovation at the grassroots level — and putting into action the unique strengths of post-secondary institutions to help their host communities think, plan and act differently in the face of significant social change.

Check out this informative feature story in yesterday’s Hamilton Spectator:
“Innovation also helps meet social needs”