Press Release: Canada 3.0’s Road to Banff Competition to be Powered by Powernoodle
Submitted by kalexander on Mar 31, 2011 - 02:42 PM |
Canada 3.0 is the preeminent digital media conference in the country and organizers are upping the ante this year with the launch of the Road to Banff business plan competition. When 100 start ups from across Canada make their pitches to a panel of judges at Canada 3.0 in Stratford this May, they will be using Powernoodle to make their decision. The top three pitches will win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Banff Venture Forum, Canada's premier Venture Capital forum, where they will join the hottest hi-tech, life sciences and cleantech companies in Canada, in a quest to secure financing from investors from across North America. The winners will also be receiving a complimentary one year license from Powernoodle.
Stratford, Ontario --March 30 2011-- Powernoodle, the web-based collaboration tool that just made news as the first recipient of FedDev Ontario’s Investing in Business Innovation Initiative (IIBI), will be powering the judging of the Road to Banff competition at the coming Canada 3.0 conference.
Canada 3.0 is all about Canada’s digital media future and Stratford has evolved into a hotbed of innovative, hi-tech development. From the University of Waterloo’s Stratford campus and the Stratford Institute, to an investment in 60 km of fibre optic cable and city wide Wi-Fi, the city has aggressively pursued a hi-tech economy, culminating in global recognition with a spot in the exclusive Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year for 2011, from the ICF.
“The Road to Banff Challenge aligns with Powernoodle’s solution for running competitions in the Evaluations space,” says Powernoodle CEO Deb Krizmanich. “Powernoodle’s collaboration features line up perfectly with the Canada 3.0 evaluation and rating requirements for the competition. The judges needed to be up and running quickly with little training and intuitively process a lot of data effectively. Powernoodle is a product of the Stratford technology ecosystem and while we have a global focus, being a part of Canada 3.0 is like a homecoming for us.”
With up to 100 companies making ten minute pitches to the panel of judges, there will be a great deal of information flying around and trying to track it all in a meaningful way presents many challenges. Each competing company will face a panel consisting of at least three judges (including venture capitalists, angel investors and professional services providers) and will be scored based on how compelling their product or service is, the viability of their business model, proven entrepreneurship and overall presentation. Powernoodle was chosen because it excels at empowering a team (in the same room or attending virtually) to collaboratively review, comment and rate a series of ideas, quickly and efficiently generating real-time results and reports of the very best ideas, solutions or in this case, companies.
According to Steve Currie, VP Business Services, Communitech: “It was critical for us to have real-time results reporting, even with judges evaluating companies in different rooms at different times. Powernoodle lets us move 100 companies to 16 finalists to three winners in real-time, using twenty different rating criteria, in a point and click interface. Best of all, Powernoodle generates an automatic report of the entire process, capturing the judges’ anonymous comments, feedback and scores through the two rounds of competition. Using technology to evaluate technology companies is a perfect fit for the Road to Banff pitch contest.”
Attendees of Canada 3.0 will see Powernoodle in action and will also be able to talk to company executives at the conference. Look for Powernoodle’s booth in the main conference exhibit hall.
About Powernoodle:
Powernoodle is a web-based (SaaS) collaboration and decision making tool that engages people to move ideas from brainstorm to action. Gaming inspired features and anonymous participation give everyone a voice and bring the best ideas forward. Essential for leaders focused on effectiveness of virtual teams, diversity, collaboration, innovation, productivity and engagement. www.powernoodle.com
Contact Kim Alexander - kima@powernoodle.com – 1-855-797-6353
About The Canadian Digital Media Network:
The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) www.cdmn.ca is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in Digital Media by enabling connections and collaboration of people across the country – entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes and government – and bringing more digital solutions to market. The CDMN comprises Canada’s largest concentration of business-driven digital media research, technology development, and digital commercialization expertise; it connects digital media expertise and capability from coast-to-coast, creating a digital convergence corridor. Digital Media covers a broad spectrum of technology and services, and includes any information created and shared virtually.