See the world differently. Tell your story.

Register for our next event on November 23

Keynote speaker on Nov 23 at 12:30 pm:

Sheetal Mehta Walsh advises tech companies looking to access smart venture capital and corporate partners in order to expand globally, her positions include Chief Strategy Officer, Government of Alberta; Advisory Partner, Atara Partners; Board Member, Innovate Edmonton; President & Founder, Shanti Life; Founder, Soho Ventures; she was Board Adviser for Virtual Visions, Waterhound Futures, Luxsonic Technologies, GOAL Global; CEO, Innovative Social Ventures, and Director of Venture Capital Relations, Microsoft. MSc, London School of Economics; BA, UAlberta.

Business plan pitchers on Nov 23 from 1-3pm:

Agriculture & Environment

Luisa Orsini, Alan Tring Fellow, is scaling applications of a waste management system based on a renewable biological agent, with demonstrators currently running and showing scalability.

Kevin Hull, CEO, Emergent Waste Solutions Inc. is deploying its modular Advanced Thermolysis System for indoor agriculture and conversion of waste carbon into feedstock. 

Mark Olson, President, Flokk Systems Inc. is developing a system for beef herd management and traceability reporting.

Biotech & Health

Catalina Vasquez, COO, Nanostics, which is able to diagnose disease from a simple blood test by combining a highly sensitive extracellular vesicle detection platform and advanced machine learning algorithms.

Hagay Levy, CEO, Iluria is developing clinically validated software using machine and deep learning to monitor changes in physiological markers, and aims to support caregivers and families for ADHD management & treatment decisions.

Abdullah Sarhan, Cofounder & CEO of RetinaLogik aims to prevent blindness by pioneering accessible, affordable, and powerful vision screening technology.

Aru Narendran, Professor, University of Calgary, focuses on the development of a “trial-in-a-cell” approach for future personalized cancer treatment in children.

CLEANTECH & Materials

Peter Kombouras, CEO, Alkemy Environmental, a clean technology company that recycles industrial waste into structural grade lightweight concrete aggregate.

Sreeshailam Aare, CEO, HAARES ChemTech Inc. provides custom synthesis of complex molecules including drug molecules.

Digital & AI

Shelvie Fernan, CEO of Fly and Fetch Inc. connects people from all over the world by providing a more efficient and affordable shipping service.

Amanda Mesluk, Founder, is developing Digital Carbon Solution.

Edmonton Mayoral Candidates on Economic Growth

Hear the platforms of Edmonton's leading mayoral candidates. We asked them to discuss how we can strengthen and diversify the economy. Each candidate was given 20 minutes to address the audience and respond to questions.

Kim Krushell, built two tech companies from the ground up, is President of Lending Assist and E.P. Rees Inc., former Director and Vice Chair of University of Alberta Properties Trust Inc. and served as Edmonton City Councillor, Vice Chair of Women and Money and chair of the Blatchford Business Advisory Group.

Cheryll Watson, Co-Chair of Global Senior Policy Maker Forum at Startup Genome, previously founder and Vice President at Innovate Edmonton, Co-Founder of the Alberta Innovation Corridor, Director at Intuit, Fundraising Chair at Zebra Child Protection Centre and Board Member at Edmonton Arts Council.

Michael Oshry, Founder of FIRMA Foreign Exchange, CEO of Blue Pen Capital; served as Edmonton City Councillor, created Remedy Cafe; board member of University of Alberta Hospital Foundation, The Business Link, business mentor via the Venture Mentoring Service.

Amarjeet Sohi, former Edmonton City Councillor, championing projects including Valley Line LRT, P3 procurement process for public-private partnerships, recreation centers, libraries, Rogers Place Arena; previously Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities and Federal Minister of Natural Resources.

Entire Edmonton Mayoral Candidate Forum (92 min)

Federal Leaders Forum on Sustainable Growth

With an election looming in Canada and important policy differences between the parties, we invited all the major parties to present their positions and respond to questions at our Federal Leaders Forum on Sustainable Economic Growth on September 17.

Video of Adam Brown & Heather McPherson talks:

Adam Brown, Liberal MP Candidate for Edmonton West, discusses how he aims to help diversify Alberta's economy and raise the tide for all innovators across the country. He is CEO for Nanolog Audio Inc and was Principal of Striker Metal, a Juno Award Winner and Top 40 Under 40.

Heather McPherson, NDP candidate for Edmonton Strathcona, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona discusses her platform and the issues facing Edmontonians and Canadians. She was previously Executive Director, Alberta Council for Global Cooperation, Program Officer, Canada World Youth; Volunteer Team Leader, Médecins Sans Frontières.

Video of Melanie Hoffman's presentation:

Melanie Hoffman, Green Party Candidate, Edmonton Riverbend presents the need for a circular economy. She is Program Manager, Capital Region EcoSchools; Founder, Drawdown Alberta; Owner, HoffFull Solutions - Climate Solutions Education Consulting. Previously Faculty Member/RA, King's University.

Business Plan Pitch by Ty McKinney:

You are encouraged to apply and obtain free expert advice from members of our panel of 190+ business mentors and investors. Over 240 teams have pitched at our meetings and have given us positive feedback on their experiences. Our alumni have raised >$140M in the past 3 years. New and returning presenters and advisors are welcome to register.

Our aims are to play a positive role by:

1. building trust and mutual understanding to ensure sustainable and rewarding multi-party relationships,

2. identifying major challenges that require innovative thinking,

3. mapping out precompetitive spaces for open-source collaboration,

4. developing fair and reasonable intellectual property strategies for progression and scalable funding,

5. structuring and optimizing core activities and facilities for supporting innovation, and 

6. increasing data quality, reproducibility and decisiveness while eliminating unnecessary duplication and costs.

We welcome collaborators and partners who are interested in working together to support the innovation ecosystem.

For clarity, DiscoveryLab does not recommend advisors or investors or provide funding, but can make introductions. Each person and company has the responsibility of obtaining legal advice and performing due diligence before signing contracts or taking investments.

Background on DiscoveryLab

DiscoveryLab is an open forum for academics, start-ups and SMEs to explore opportunities to commercialize new technologies and develop their plans to launch new products and services.

Michael Overduin found DiscoveryLab in 2017 based on his experience in running Science Capital as a nonprofit company in the UK since 2010. He leads NANUC and a structural biology lab at the University of Alberta. His research group studies proteins involved in Alzheimer's, cancer and prion diseases, and develops polymer-based nanoparticles and lead molecules for drug discovery.

We organize events each quarter where anyone can pitch their business plan at no cost in private to a panel of legal, business, marketing, financial and investment experts who give independent feedback. Teams are welcome to return to present as many times as they wish as they make progress and develop new needs.

Our panel of 200 advisors offers $3 billion to invest, and there is the potential to attract significant support as well as practical advice and strategic guidance.

Anyone is welcome to pitch their idea and plan to scale their discovery to make a difference to society. Our events book up, so register soon and submit your executive summary to us confirm your slot.

Origins

DiscoveryLab was initiated in order to share expertise and facilities and was launched by Michael Overduin and coworkers with a grant from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund awarded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Alberta Innovates, Department of Economic Development and Trade, and the Province of Alberta, as announced at NANUC by the Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan in 2016.