After a six day run blogging on Toronto technology and investment conferences, I'm exhausted.

First there was the Canadian Venture Forum. Thanks to the Toronto Venture Group for assembling a high-quality group of candidates. Almost without exception I found the presenting companies to be worthy investment opportunities although, admittedly, some made better venture investments that others.

Next came the BarCampTdot. That essentially ground-up, self-organizing assembly of youthful tech-heads illustrated the benefits of social anarchy. Substance over style needs a venue and BarCamp provides a worthy home. It is important to note that there are people to thank for making this happen. David Crow, Jay Goldman, Tara Hunt, Chris Messina, and Deborah Hartmann deserve buckets of praise for giving this event and others like it the kick-start needed to bring them to life.

Finally, there was MESH. I haven't seen this kind of overall enthusiasm for the Net since the '97 MacWorld conference in San Francisco where I was a conference faculty member. Credit goes to the five organizers who put this together in nine weeks - a feat that will remain unmatched for the foreseeable future. The lineup of participants was exceptional and contained a good mix of Canadian to US speakers. More importantly, unlike any conference in recent memory (not including, of course, BarCamp) the audience played a pivotal role in elevating MESH from a transient "it" event to something with lasting authenticity.

My advice to the Canadian investment community? Take a few minutes to read over the blogs from the last few days. There is tangible momentum here that represents opportunity for the savvy investor. Canada has many investment worthy companies. All we need is the desire and proper investment infrastructure and we too will be an international centre for innovation. That's a good thing. The more companies we (...read more...)