In partnership with CABI Leadership Summit Sponsor - Isutary Innovation Group,
CABI is pleased to present the Agenda for the
2015 CABI Leadership Summit in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON.
Here is the Agenda for March 30th and March 31st
with short descriptions of session topics, sponsors and speakers.
Agenda - March 30, 2015
The Accelerator Centre
8:00 am
Registration, Breakfast
8:45 am
Welcome Remarks
9:00 am
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic – How are Accelerators & Business Incubators collaborating?
 Panelist:
Marcus Daniels, Co-founder and CEO of HIGHLINE, Vancouver, BC
HIGHLINE is a seed stage investment platform which helps early stage tech
companies scale their businesses, establish global connections and secure follow-on
capital. Through specialized accelerator programs, they deliver specialized
accelerator programs, timely staged investing (up to $200K) and rapid connectivity
in key global markets starting with Vancouver, Toronto, New York City and San
Francisco.
10:15 am
Coffee Break
10:30 am
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic – New Entrepreneurial Trends (Open Data and Cyber Security) and
How We in the Industry Can Be Prepared
 Panelists:
Ray Sharma, Founder of Extreme Ventures Partners and Extreme
Innovations, Toronto, ON
At Extreme, tech companies are built by bringing together great entrepreneurs,
ideas, technology and funding.
Connected computing devices measure every move we make resulting in fast, big
and growing amounts of valuable data. The full value of Big Data is being discovered
and we intend to be in the forefront of this wave of value creation.
Craig McLellan, CEO Thinkon, Toronto, ON
While building high-availability applications for Fortune 500 clients of Hosting.com,
SunGard and other large US cloud providers, Craig also builds companies. In the last
22 years, he has grown several ventures and teams, all solving real market problems
through smart technology.
11:30 am
Debrief on morning session
12:30 pm
Lunch with keynote speaker
Pat Riley, CEO of the Global Accelerator Network in Boulder CO and
former executive with Techstars.
In 2010, two co-founders of TechStars, known as the number one accelerator in the
world, had the grand idea to connect the top mentorship-driven, seed-stage
accelerators around the world. Alongside the White House’s Startup America
Initiative, the Global Accelerator Network launched to align top accelerators and
create a standardized model for their success. The rest is, as they say, history.
1:45 pm
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic - Role of Universities/Academics in Incubation
 Panelists:
Dr. Paul Salvini, CEO, Accelerator Centre, Waterloo, ON
The Accelerator Centre (AC) is a world-renowned, award-winning network of
facilities dedicated to developing and commercializing technology start-ups in
partnership with the University of Waterloo.
The Accelerator’s in-depth programming, unique accountability model, and longterm view (up to three years) distinguishes them from other accelerators and
incubators within the Canadian commercialization landscape
Ian Hand, Executive Director, VentureLabs & Managing Director, SFU
Innovation, Vancouver BC
VentureLabs® is a world-class business accelerator program delivered by Simon
Fraser University (SFU), the University of Victoria (UVic), the British Columbia
Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the Emily Carr University of Art + Design
(ECUA+D), in partnership with NRC-IRAP, the BC Innovation Council (BCIC),
government and industry partners
2:30 pm
Coffee Break
2:45 pm
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic - Creative Funding Models
 Panelist:
Tim Jackson, EVP Corporate and Community Development and Lead
Executive, MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, Toronto, ON
Tim has an extensive background as an entrepreneur and business leader. A founder
and partner of Tech Capital Partners (an early-stage venture capital firm), he served
as CFO and CEO at Waterloo tech firm, PixStream. He has also served as CFO, CEO or
board member for numerous technology companies and other organizations
3:30 pm
Review of Day 1 Sessions
4:00 pm
Networking Reception and tour of the Accelerator Centre
Agenda - March 31, 2015
Communitech
8:30 am
Breakfast
8:50 am
Opening Remarks Iain Klugman, CEO Communitech
9:00 am
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic – Maker/Hacker spaces are generational but what is the ROI for
accelerators/business incubators
• Panelists:
Sylvain Carle, General Manager, Founderfuel, Montreal, QC
At FounderFuel, they believe start-up success is more about the people than the
idea. Clients develop their business within an ecosystem of experienced
entrepreneurs, top executives, VCs, and Angels that have been assembled
specifically for each client.
James Bastow, Co- Founder and President, Kwartzlab, Kitchener, ON
Invention – Innovation – Cooperation
These are the driving forces behind the creation of hackerspaces, and behind
Kwartzlab. Kwartzlab is a member-run, not-for-profit community of makers that
provides an environment to learn, teach, work-on, build and create next
generation technology; including software, hardware, electronics, art, sewing,
woodworking, metalwork, games, etc.
10:15 am
Coffee Break
10:30 am
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic - Are Canadian Accelerators and Business Incubators making a
positive impact on innovation and producing high growth companies?
 Panelist:
Jeff Chesebrough, CEO, Innovate Niagara, Niagara Falls, ON
Innovate Niagara is a member of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE), a
network of regional and provincial not-for-profit organizations that deliver services
and programs to help entrepreneurs start, grow and succeed.
As a Regional Innovation Centre for Niagara, Innovate Niagara connects innovators
to the people and programs required to bring their innovations to market through a
suite of in-house programs, resource partners and network of incubation facilities.
Iain Klugman, President and CEO, Communitech, Waterloo Region
Communitech — Canada’s hottest technology cluster. Under Iain’s leadership,
Communitech has become one of North America’s leading tech enabling
organizations, supporting the growth of more than 1,000 small, mid-sized and large
technology companies. He is the architect of Communitech’s five-year, $107 million
digital strategy, which delivered more than $900 million in economic impact in
2012. He believes passionately in the power of the entrepreneur-driven economy,
and its ability to deliver big results for Canada.
11:30 am
Debrief on morning session
12:15 pm
Lunch with keynote speaker - DEEP Centre
This is a working lunch Q & A regarding a Business Accelerator and Incubator (BA/BI)
Research Project lead by various federal government departments and CABI. This
project is an in-depth analysis of the state of the business incubators and business
accelerators (BA/BI) industry in Canada.
1:45 pm
Panel discussion followed by open forum
 Topic - Keeping up with global trends and national best practices
 Panelists:
Ben Zlotnick, CEO and Founder, [IN]cubes, Toronto, ON
With 78% of alumni going abroad in 11 countries and 20 international partnerships,
[IN]cubes is a Canadian Expert on how to give your entrepreneurs the opportunity
to discover new markets, investors, and make new connections.
Pat Riley, CEO, Global Accelerator Network
It’s good to be GAN. 6 continents, 59 cities, 50 accelerators—1 standard for
entrepreneurial excellence. At the Global Accelerator Network, we set the bar for
start-up accelerators and founders with our short-term, mentorship-based program
and guidelines
2:30 pm
Debrief/Where do we go from here/Outcomes
3:30 pm
Tour of Communitech
CABI and Leadership Summit Sponsor, Isutary Innovation Group, wish to thank you for
participating in the 2015 Leadership Conference.
Please remember to complete the Summit Survey
Istuary Innovation Group
Istuary Innovation Group (Istuary) is a Canadian pioneer in building international incubation platforms
for technology innovations and start-ups. The company is uniquely structured and positioned to
integrate technology research, venture capital and business consulting into a unified growth platform.
The goal of the company is not only to foster the most innovative start-ups to achieve business
successes globally, but also to establish a bridge between North America and Asia, to connect
entrepreneurs, exchange technology resources, and gather funding between markets wherever
desired.
Istuary enjoys an extraordinary growth since its inception. In current stage, they have over 60 staffs in
headquarter in Vancouver Canada and Seattle in USA, while 130 employees in six different branches in
China e.g. Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen. In the next two years, Istuary
incubation centres will further expand into Toronto Canada, Los Angeles USA, and five more cities in
China. As Istuary grows, it aims to cultivate more and more Canadian entrepreneurs into global leaders
of tomorrow, and turn their ideas into successful and sustainable global businesses.