Chief Curator, E-Town Festival

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Brad Ferguson

If you could invite eight incredible people for dinner, who would they be?

That’s the magical question we always ask as we begin planning our annual E-Town Festival (www.e-town.ca) at the Shaw Conference Centre … held this year on September 11th & 12th.

Futurist? Coach? Artist? Astronaut? Athlete? Entrepreneur? Musician? Poet?

What a mix. What a conversation. What ideas. What motivation. And we work hard to set the dinner table specifically for you … the entrepreneurial thinkers, the people building our city, the people taking risks or wanting to take risks … the people that are helping move our city, every day, away from “good enough” and towards “remarkable.”

E-Town is an event designed specifically for you. And just as Chris Hadfield and The Barenaked Ladies blew away everyone’s expectations, E-Town 2014 has been designed and curated to be a life experience, right here in Edmonton.

Let’s take peak inside this year’s event:

Peter Diamandis, Founder & Chairman of X-Prize, who slapped $10 million on the table for the first private spaceflight, will chat about the biggest technology trends that are reaching their tipping points;

Estelle Metayer, an expert in competitive and strategic intelligence, is my hidden secret of E-Town 2014, as she blew me away in Montreal in May and promises to deliver insights as to how our companies need to be less competitive and more intelligent;

Shane Koyczan, Canada’s greatest slam poet, who shook the Vancouver Olympics and is excited to share his commissioned story of Edmonton with our audience;

Tom Peters, the timeless leadership guru, who will change the way we prioritize culture and innovation in the workplace and who will leave you with a redefined understanding of your potential;

Haley Wickenheiser, our 4x Olympic gold medalist and captain of our women’s national team, will share stories of dedication and sacrifice and will talk about how pride can be an incredible motivator for success;

Bob Nicholson, the new Vice-Chairman of the Oilers Entertainment Group, will share how he transformed Hockey Canada into an international sports marketing powerhouse;

Raine Maida, the two-time JUNO Award Winner, Founder and Lead Singer for Our Lady Peace has created a customized session on creativity for all attendees which will have people leaping out of their seats and keen to hear him play live with his wife Chantel Kreviazuk on stage in a private event for all participants.

This year’s E-Town will simply be magical and memorable … and of huge value to everyone that attends. Last year we were inundated with people who missed out or simply didn’t know what was happening. This year, there is no excuse. Consider this your invitation.

The eighth (8th) seat is reserved for you.

It is unfortunate that Daryl Katz had to miss out this year, as his story is truly spectacular and his vision will forever change our city. We welcome him back next year and thank the Edmonton Oiler organization for everything they have done to assist as an inescapable situation presented itself.

September comes fast, so get your tickets today. It starts 4:30pm on Thursday (Sept 11th) after work and goes all day Friday (Sept 12th). Anywhere else this is $1500-$2000 plus flights and hotels. So the value to you and your organization at $399.00 is tremendous.

The dinner table is set.
We look forward to having you there.
E-Town is one of the Top Events of the year.
And you won’t be able to stop talking about it.
Register at www.e-town.ca

E-Town Edmonton

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Brad Ferguson

What would you ask one of the world’s most interesting people? That’s my task this week as Chris Hadfield, Guy Kawasaki, Hilary Mason, Tiffany Schlain, Bruce Croxon and David Usher all come to share their experiences with the attendees at E-Town (www.e-town.ca).

I started by taking some time to look back at the themes of this blog, and realized that they collectively make up the very themes that will be explored on Thursday (pm) and Friday (all day) this week. Themes like … Becoming Remarkable, Building [IT] Here, Entrepreneurial Thinking, Civic Branding, Festival Creation, Post Secondary Excellence, Powerful Women, Innovation, Commercialization, Competitiveness and the fact that our Capital Region Rocks … are not only what our city needs to be talking about, but they’re also the themes and ideas that need to be baked into the missions of our individual organizations.

How can you teach courage?
What do you feel least prepared for?
What differentiates those that succeed from those that fail?
How can a simple idea become a movement?
What’s coming next and how do we prepare ourselves?

Members of Edmonton’s entrepreneurial community have come together to create E-Town with the goal of stimulating the entrepreneurial discussion of “What’s Next?” and “How do we Capitalize on What’s Next?” We created this conference/festival specifically for those that want to be remarkable, and those willing to lead the charge in their own unique ways. It’s perfect for entrepreneurs, but it is even more perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs and those teams of people within organizations who embrace the mindset of “we gotta change.”

Thursday night we start with one of the great Canadians … Commander Chris Hadfield … and after his keynote he’s asked to stay around and jam with The Barenaked Ladies. How superfantastic is that? Then, Friday is an intense learning and networking experience …. continuously challenging you to think differently and act courageously. It’ll be a great show, with an abundance of energy.

Please don’t miss it. We designed it for you!! Registration will close quickly, so do so now as we are trying to finalize our numbers for the food trucks (Yum!).

See you there.

just Edmonton

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Brad Ferguson

Shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone. Shhhhh. Something is changing and it’s not right for us to talk about it. We’re uncomfortable talking about these things … good things. We’re expected to be talking about the mosquitos in the summer and the dark days of winter. So whatever you do … please don’t share this with too many people.

Headline: Edmonton is emerging as an incredible place for young people to come and build their lives, their businesses and their careers.

Shhhhh. I told you it’ll feel uncomfortable to say … so keep it to yourself.

Last week we were ranked as one of the Top 5 cities for entrepreneurs, with an extraordinary high level of entrepreneurs per capita versus others. Then this week, TecEdmonton was rated as the #1 business incubator in Canada and #17 in the world by Scandinavia’s UBI Global Benchmarking Report. Those honours come on the heels of being listed as the #3 city for Quality of Life among all global cities.

No wonder organizations like Startup Edmonton, TecEdmonton, EO Entrepreneurs Organization (#1 chapter in the world) and ACG Association for Corporate Growth (#1 new chapter launch ever) are among the most successful and fastest growing entities within their categories. All here … in just Edmonton. Shhhhh, damn it!

Where else can people come together in just 4 months to create E-Town as western Canada’s premier entrepreneurship festival? Where else can you sell 60,000 individual light bulbs in a few months to light up a 100 year old bridge? I guess it is because we’ve always done it. People behind upcoming things like the Heritage Days and the Fringe Festival, the ITU World Triathlon Championship, the LPGA and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup … and people like Don Sprague and Margaret Bateman and Don Lowry and Lyle Best have taught us how to make something happen … how to make something Edmonton.

And they couldn’t do it without companies like ATB Financial or TELUS or PCL Construction or Stantec or The Running Room or Fountain Tire or PriceWaterhouseCoopers or Finning or the many others that step up and help make these kind of awesome things happen in our city. And I know there are so many more …

I just wanted to quietly say … thank you.

Just don’t tell anyone that it’s happening or how we do it.

Shhhhh.

Needed: Entrepreneurial Thinking

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Brad Ferguson

I’ve always struggled with the word “entrepreneur.” I tend to raise an eyebrow and wonder what is really meant when someone says, “I want to become an entrepreneur” or when government says “we need to create more entrepreneurs.” It always sounds noble, but I’m just not sure what to expect.

Is an entrepreneur someone who starts and assumes the risks of a new business? Or, is an entrepreneur someone who champions new ideas, processes and solutions that create value … regardless of their vocation? There’s a big difference, and it begs the question of whether entrepreneurship should only be taught in business schools, or should it be liberal art applied to all disciplines … entrepreneurship in medicine, in engineering, in education, in nursing as well as in business?

Which do we need more? Entrepreneurs or Entrepreneurial Thinking?

Exactly three months ago, we assembled a team of eight entrepreneurial Edmontonians from various disciplines and challenged them with the goal of building a festival that celebrates entrepreneurial thinking. There were only three criteria:

It has to celebrate creativity and entrepreneurship applied to all kinds of disciplines, as we know industries and technologies are converging like never before, and we are surrounded by an endless stream of new opportunities to make change;

It has to become a platform for many, many organizations to get involved and use in their own creative ways … and over the next three years, it needs to grow into a 5-day, scalable, multi-location festival that takes place around the city … kinda like SXSW in Austin; and

It has to be launched this September and it has to be absolutely awesome from the very beginning.

You know what I love about entrepreneurial Edmontonians? Without even a question, the group of eight (relative) strangers looked at each other, rolled up their sleeves and collectively said, “Yeah, we can make that happen.”

And exactly three months later, on July 8^th, we launched E-Town 2013 (www.e-town.ca) with Commander Chris Hadfield and The Barenaked Ladies kicking off the opening night, followed by five interactive keynote speakers that will be discussing topics ranging from “Why Culture Trumps Strategy” to “The Future of Data and Privacy” to “Using Filmmaking to Create a Movement.”

Wait a minute you say … Chris Hadfield’s an astronaut, not an entrepreneur?

Wait a minute I say …. Does the world need another coffee shop, or does the world need another Chris Hadfield? This risk-taker single-handedly changed how the world sees the space exploration industry while doubling the demand for science-based education. No entrepreneur there!!

Entrepreneurial thinking, risk-taking, rule-breaking … converging Education, Entrepreneurship and Entertainment in Edmonton makes for a fantastic start to E-Town 2013. This festival is all about the entrepreneurial mind-set … and you, your colleagues, your company, your community, your city, your country … we all need more of it.

Don’t miss it … Sept 12^th/13^th … (www.e-town.ca) … it will be remarkable.

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