The legendary Gary Bizzo from The Bizzo Management Group and Vancouverentrepreneur.ca provides you with The BC Weekly Business Report. On what’s going on in our Province. Every week we bring you all up to date with new ventures, investment opportunities, start ups, technology, business activities and who’s doing what when it comes highlighting local BC entrepreneurs. All this great weekly business news will inform or may even inspire you to get involved, contact, network or even expand or start your own business. Enjoy the show!Episode #14 Vancouver Entrepreneur:Download this episode (right click and save)

1) We’ve been talking over the past couple of months about Northern British Columbia’s thriving tech sector. It’s putting some distance on its outdated image as an economy dominated exclusively by mining and forestry. There are almost 500 tech firms and counting, providing more than 5% of employment in the Northeast, North Coast, Nechako and Cariboo regions.

2) SparkGeo in Prince Rupert build better, faster loading web maps that provide better user engagement. If you have a business or organization that depends on a web map, and you want to know if that map is performing for you. Perhaps you are in retail and have a store locator, or you are a realtor with a map of your properties, this is the company that will optimize sales for you. Sparkgeo then built Maptiks to measure the performance of web maps.

3) Yukon College’s Cold Climate Innovation has won the 2016 Entrepreneur Support award with Startup Canada in the region of B.C. and the North. CCI will be presented with the award on Monday, October 24th in Vancouver. The Entrepreneur Support award is given to government organizations, not-for-profits, academic institutions and private for-profit businesses that demonstrate excellence in advancing Canadian entrepreneurship through their leadership, innovation and impact.

4) Cold Climate Innovation and Technology Innovation offer support through funding, business mentoring, prototype development, project management, business planning, marketing and patent advice. CCI project areas include but are not limited to: alternative energy, building construction, climate-related research, environmental remediation, food security and mechanical innovation.

5) Cold Climate Innovation is one of six key programs that operate under the Yukon Research Centre at Yukon College. The others include: Biodiversity Monitoring, Northern Climate ExChange, NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Mine Life Cycle, Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic, and Technology Innovation.

6) Wiivv Wearables Company is at the forefront of custom wearable technology building what they dub “the Invisalign for feet.” Using images of someone’s foot they can design and 3D print a custom orthotic for athletes, marathoners and anyone with aspirations of becoming bionic.

7) Victoria-based software analytics and distribution company Redbrickannounced today that it has been listed at number 5 on the 28th annual PROFIT 500 ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies. With sustained revenue growth of 8,214 per cent, that has earned them a spot next to some of the most respected brands in Canada. Redbrick was established to help developers build better software. The need for this technology led to the exponential growth of their team. Today, Redbrick is a global name with reach in 200 countries and counting.

8) Startup Canada Awards recognizes and celebrates the next generation of disruptors and innovators that have elevated the standards of success for Canadian entrepreneurship.

9) Trulioo, just won the 2016 Startup Canada Award for Innovation. Trulioo is a global ID bank-grade verification company that provides advanced analytics from traditional and cyber data sources to instantly verify identities online. With access to over 3 billion identities worldwide, Trulioo offers the most robust and comprehensive global identity verification solution in the market.

10) Accelerate Okanagan, the accelerator in the Okanagan Valley, today released the results of a report on the technology sector’s economic impact in 2015. The independent study focused on assessing two-year growth of the Okanagan technology sector, further to a similar 2013 report.

11) In 2015, the Okanagan technology industry contributed $1.3 billion to the overall Okanagan economy. The Okanagan Valley is home to 633 technology businesses with a collective workforce of 7,600 employees.

12) Hootsuite, developers of a widely used platform for managing social media, announced this week, that the company has reached cash flow positive as of July 2016. Hootsuite has over 14 million users in more than 175 countries, with companies like AccorHotels, eHarmony, Monster, Sony Music Entertainment and Virgin, trusting Hootsuite for engagement with their customers and employees every day.

13) Also in this week’s news Axine Water Technologies Closes $8 Million Financing. Axine has developed a simple, low-cost, chemical-free solution for treating high concentrations of problematic, toxic organics and other pollutants in industrial wastewater solving a multi-billion dollar problem for large companies in a wide range of industries.

This Week in Events*Remember Vancouver Startup Week starts September 26- 30 and there are a great number of events and lectures around the city.

1) Advertising is broken and what you should do about it, with Graham NorthTue Sep 20 6:00 PMG&F Financial Group2941 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC • Are you struggling with the fact that your advertising is being ignored?• Do you feel like your marketing budget is going to waste?• Are you looking for a way to make a statement with your brand?How to navigate the changing landscape of advertising by aligning your company’s purpose to bold brand actions. Don Draper is dead, and advertising is dying along with him. Your customers don’t watch TV, they don’t read magazines, and more than one-third of them use online ad-blockers.

2) Build and Protect Your Brand with 5 Simple Branding Secrets, by Andrei MincovTuesday, September 27, 20166:00 PM to 9:15 PMG&F Financial Group105-4191 Hastings Street, Burnaby, BCLearn from Andrei Mincov how to create and protect a valuable brand for your business in an environment when you’re fighting for your customers’ attention not only with your direct competition but also with innumerable distractions. When you attend this informative and highly entertaining session, you’ll discover the secret strategy used to create perception of uniqueness even if you don’t offer a unique product or service and get access to valuable resources that you can start using today to take your brand from faceless to legendary.

3) Finding solid ground in a shifting environment for miningWednesday, September 21, 201611:30 AMGreater Vancouver Board of TradeLocation:Fairmont Hotel Vancouver- Pacific Ballroom900 W Georgia St, VancouverJoin Pierre Gratton, President and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, who will discuss current developments that will shape the future of the mining industry in British Columbia and across the country.