Welcome to the Midweek Memo which features a bit of news and a bunch of upcoming events. In this issue, we sit down with Plug and Play Alberta's Nina Hill, live at last night's Women in Tech Networking event at Rodney's Oyster House. Plus, we check out four other local meetups and activities you should attend. By the way, if you're new here, our most recent executive Briefing featured 13 (!) recent stories you may have missed. See you on Sunday for the next one.

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"There's a lot of money in Alberta. So, we're here to move it, and we're here to move it in a meaningful way."

Calgary Tech Journal: Who are you and what do you do?

Nina Hill: I'm the corporate partnerships manager for Plug and Play Canada. My role here is dealing with our corporate innovation side. Plug and Play is a venture capital firm at the heart of everything we do. We're one of the most active pre-seed investors from Silicon Valley. We have satellite offices all over the world. And we just opened the Canadian satellite office here in Alberta last year.

We're really here to deploy our capital and promote innovation inside of large corporations acting as a step change for their business units to work and implement startup technology.

CTJ: Why did Plug and Play choose Alberta as its Canadian satellite office?

NH: So we launched the Alberta office in a vertical industry called sustainability.

Sustainability is a broad topic around the world at Plug and Play. But here in Alberta, we're focused on clean resources. And we launched specifically because of the corporate partners in this geography. We’re actually funded by the Alberta government. So the Scaleup and [Growth Accelerator Program] was created to bring global investors and accelerator programs to Canada to keep entrepreneurs here, but give them the boots on the ground to our global network.

CTJ: Where are we right now? Tell me more about this event.

NH: You're at a our Women in Technology Networking event. It's sponsored by Workday, Alberta Female Founders, Funders, and Fortifiers (ABF4), BDC, DC Bank, OKR, Valhalla Private Capital, VCAA, WiCyS Western Canada, and others.

In collaboration with EECOL Electric, what this event really set out to do was to promote women in technology with the non for profit Making Changes, [a not-for-profit association of Alberta helping close the gender gap and promote gender equality within our society.]

They have a Women in Technology group that a lot of our corporate partners sponsor. And for us, it was really about bringing everyone together from that ecosystem, to have good food, great conversation, and to talk about what we can do as a Silicon Valley investor, to invest in diverse founders right here in Canada, and more specifically, right here in Alberta.

So having conversations about how we can do that in an impactful and meaningful way, is what this event is really all about. We're not just the company that will insert what we've done in the US and think it will work in Canada. We like to create things with more of a meaning.

We're also here to promote our corporate partners that work with women in technology, which have mandates to hire diverse employee bases. And that extends really beyond women, whatever you identify as, this is what this event is here to support.

CTJ: What else should we know about the event?

NH: It's a night of networking. We're going to have speeches from our founding partners. Everybody that has sponsored this event is going to have the floor to say a few words about why they participated in this event, what it means to them, and what they're looking for, whether they have open roles, whether they're looking for more women to be trained in technological areas, or whether they're a startup looking for investment dollars. There's a lot of money in Alberta. So, we're here to move it and we're here to move it in a meaningful way.

Now, let's check out what else is on deck in Calgary tech...

Startup TNT Happy Hour | March 9

Every Thursday at 6pm until late at Inner City Brewing - 820 11 Ave SW.

The Fine Art of Getting Sh*t done | March 10

ATB Entrepreneur Centre welcomes back Michael Dargie of Make More Creative. If getting organized, and getting sh*t done is on your priority list, then this is the session for you.

Startup Essentials: Startup 101 | March 13

In Startup 101, Platform Calgary will give you the resources, connections and tools to start bringing your idea to life. Startup 101 is for you if: You have an idea for a business and want tangible steps to get started; you’re curious about what support is available to you, and how to use it; and tou’re overwhelmed by startup lingo (MVP who?)

Founders Coffee | Every Tuesday

Founders Coffee is every Tuesday 7:30am in Calgary & Edmonton. This is for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses.

For more local tech and business events, check out our friends at In the Know YYC.

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