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Is green, renewable energy a sexy enough topic to be the centrepiece of a coffee table book? Tom Rand, who leads cleantech development at Toronto’s MaRS Centre, believes so

a book that will expose a broader section of the population to the issues, technologies and opportunities around renewable energy. Rand has written a soon-to-be-released book called Kick The Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies To Save Their World.

This is an accessible package, cleverly assembled and pleasant to look at, while at the same time making it enjoyable to learn about the technologies that, while seemingly “alternative” or “new” today, are destined to become a dominant and permanent way of energizing future generations and the economies that support them.

On September 8th, MobileMonday Toronto, Toronto's premier networking event for mobile industry professionals, will be hosting its first annual MobileMonday Toronto Marketing Awards. This event was set up to recognize Toronto area marketing professionals for their effort in helping grow the use of mobile as a marketing channel.

Since announcing the partnership with MaRS in February 2009, MobileMonday Toronto has experienced explosive growth with monthly attendance exceeding 250+ attendees and has received general appreciation for the chapter's approach to support all stakeholders within the mobile industry which includes telecom providers, device manufacturers, startups, venture capital and developers in addition to many industry verticals such as search, m-commerce, advertising, and media.

The first annual MobileMonday Toronto Marketing Awards will be held on Tuesday September 8th (due to Labour Day holiday) at MaRS Discovery District, located at 101 College Street (south east corner of College and University). The event starts at 6:30pm. To RSVP for this event, please visit www.mobilemondaytoronto.com.

In November, Skymeter moved into the incubator at the MaRS Centre, where marketing expert Peter Evans has become their mentor and godfather. "Being surrounded by other entrepreneurs is inspiring and enlightening," Hassan says. "MaRS is an amazing place, with excellent speakers and events that are open to the public."

The father of Skymeter Corp. – which developed a BlackBerry-sized device that uses GPS signals; placed in vehicles, it meters the use of roads, parking and pay-as-you-drive insurance

Skymeter's black box will be attached to the windshield of cars so the box has a clear view of the sky. (Grush has figured out how to cope with tall buildings blocking signals.) The box contains a GPS receiver, some memory, a processor and a telecommunications chip. The satellite beams down to the earth, the GPS receiver computes where it is and uploads its history to a data centre to generate the bill. The vehicle measures its own use; the bill is itemized like a cellphone bill. If you prepay, the bill can be calculated on board.

MaRS, a Toronto-based, not-for-profit incubation center, is leading a delegation of five cleantech ventures at this week’s Cleantech Forum XXIII in Boston. The companies – all clients of MaRS advisory services – will showcase their products for the cleantech CEOs, investors, scientists and policy makers attending the east coast forum. “While cleantech is a relatively new sector for MaRS advisory services, it is fast catching up with our other core strengths in information technologies and life sciences,” said Tom Rand, a cleantech entrepreneur, author and investor who leads MaRS’ cleantech practice. “MaRS is establishing itself as a major deal-flow engine in the cleantech sector, with an emphasis on early-stage companies.”

Alternative Fuels

Nimtech

MobileMonday Toronto, Toronto's premier networking event for mobile industry professionals, will be hosting its first annual MobileMonday Toronto Marketing Awards on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009The event recognizes Toronto area marketing professionals for their effort in helping grow the use of mobile as a marketing channel.

Since announcing the partnership with MaRS in February 2009, MobileMonday Toronto has experienced explosive growth with monthly attendance exceeding 250+ attendees and has received general appreciation for the chapter's approach to support all stakeholders within the mobile industry which includes telecom providers, device manufacturers, startups, venture capital and developers in addition to many industry verticals such as search, m-commerce, advertising, and media.

The first annual MobileMonday Toronto Marketing Awards will be held on Tuesday September 8th (due to Labour Day holiday) at MaRS Discovery District, located at 101 College Street (south east corner of College and University). The event starts at 6:30pm.

Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District has combined the creative genius of science and technology with the drive of entrepreneurs and capital to create a marriage that will see more Canadian ideas commercialized in this country and for those efforts it has won the Canadian Urban Institute’s 2009 Creative City Award to be granted to MaRS on June 5 at the Urban Leadership Awards in Toronto.

“MaRS has found a creative way for science and business to collaborate rather than compete and to help Canada become a knowledge-based economy. This award recognizes them as a leader in stimulating the creative capacity of the city and advancing entrepreneurship, not only in science and technology but also in social ventures. 

Located in the Discovery District of Toronto, where billions of dollars of creative capital are created every year, the MaRS Centre first opened in 2005 in two new towers that bookend a heritage building that once housed the Toronto General Hospital. The three buildings, that total 700,000 sq. ft, house labs, companies of all sizes, business advisors and investors. Its professional services include hands-on advisory services, entrepreneurial programming and both structured and electronic networking. A second building phase of the MaRS Centre will add 750,000 sq ft and is planned to open in the next few years. “The underlining reason for creating MaRS is to capture the value of Canadian discoveries and to better commercialize these innovations at home in Canada,” said MaRS CEO Ilse Treurnicht. “Hub cities like Toronto are key drivers in shaping Canada’s innovation economy. MaRS works to strengthen the pull of that hub, acting as an accelerator and building the best ideas into companies that can compete on the world stage but are anchored here,” said Treurnicht.

MaRS Innovation and The University of Toronto (U of T) are pleased to announce that they have entered into an agreement to collaboratively commercialize a novel sustained release formulation of nitric oxide (NO) for applications in wound healing, including diabetic ulcers. 

This wound healing technology is extremely exciting, making it an early commercialization opportunity that MaRS Innovation has identified as being a potential win for some 45 million diabetics globally,” said Dr. Rafi Hofstein, President and CEO of MaRS Innovation. 

disruptive technology that facilitates continued therapeutic release of NO over a two week period has been developed by Dr. Ping Lee, Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and GlaxoSmithKline Chair in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery at U of T.

MaRS aggregates the discovery pipelines of its member institutions, which include three universities, 10 academic teaching hospitals, and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

MaRS is another good example. Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, the MaRS facility is less than a mile from five major teaching hospitals, the Ontario legislature, and the University of Toronto. More than two dozen research institutes and Toronto’s financial district are also nearby.

Consequently, MaRS is a vertical incubator, with a wide variety of companies and stages of development. That mix helps companies better understand the conditions that foster growth. MaRS is home to more than 65 organizations, including The Hospital for Sick Children, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Merck Frosst Canada, the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Celtic House Venture Partners, AIM Therapeutics, and AstraZeneca Canada.

Net Change is a week-long event, June 8-12, 2009, designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change. Presented by the Social Innovation Generation team at MaRS (SiG@MaRS), Net Change Week will tap into the potential that exists when new methods of communicating, organizing and mobilizing are brought to bear on chronic social issues.

Eli Malinski sounds off on Net Change: "Social technology is revolutionizing social change.

Net Change is the banner under which all sorts of partners are hosting events, discussions and workshops that align with the core mission of exploring the intersection of social change and new media.

ore recently, Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy pledged $6-million to the Social Innovation Generation program at MaRS, established to provide social entrepreneurs with knowledge, contacts and capital.

Associations such as the Social Enterprise Council of Canada and the Causeway Social Finance Initiative are engaging civic and financial decision-makers to develop a more fostering environment for social enterprise.

Toronto, where a small firm is using 21st-century software to create maps with similar goals - the containment of disease - by showing infection patterns that can be understood at a glance.

Toronto, where a small firm is using 21st-century software to create maps with similar goals - the containment of disease - by showing infection patterns that can be understood at a glance.

There's nothing wrong with Infonaut using the H1N1 flu outbreak to gain exposure, as long as the company is careful in the tone it takes, said John Lute, president of Toronto communications firm Lute and Co.

Studio Earth. The youth workshop hosted by Social Innovation Generation -- a working group at the University of Waterloo -- is designed for young people interested in environmental issues.

Cullis-Suzuki said she's looking forward to speaking about social innovation. Innovators are badly needed to build a sustainable economy, she said.

The social technology workshop will be on using the internet for social purposes. It will be led by Joseph Dee of the MaRS Centre, a Toronto centre for scientific research, and Sam Ladner, a York University sociologist.

Allyson Hewitt, Director, Social Entrepreneurship, MaRS Discovery District

Allyson Hewitt of Social Innovation Generation at MaRS advised that we consider how the nonprofit sector has survived, to date, because of people’s willingness to volunteer for causes they believe in. We’re good at creating opportunities to volunteer, she said, but have a great amount of work to do in measuring the impact of those efforts.

If you're a prospective mobile entrepreneur keen to take your idea or business to the next level, you just might get your chance at MaRS on Monday, March 2nd.

MobileMonday Toronto, the mobile industry-networking group, will open the floor for prospective mobile entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas to some of Canada's leading VCs. The focus of this session will be raising capital for mobile ventures. It will include participation from Sean Wise of Wise Mentor Capital, Ted Anderson, Managing General Partner from Ventures West, Marc Faucher from JLA Ventures Fund and Matt Golden from RBC Venture Partners Fund.

This building, the old Toronto General Hospital, is now the home of MaRS - a public-private partnership designed to assist research, development, and technology initiatives and related entrepreneurs. The redone space is stunning - an open concept with glass offices looking out into a cavernous main foyer. The exterior, as seen in the photo, is pretty impressive too. Nice to see that they maintained most of the facade despite the fairly extensive internal alterations. 

Toronto hosted a celebration Feb. 18 honouring Canada's first two Kyoto Prize laureates: University Professor Anthony Pawson of molecular genetics and McGill University's Charles Taylor, a philosopher.

Pawson, a world-renowned cell biologist and Mount Sinai Hospital distinguished investigator, received the prize in basic science for his studies of cellular communication. He will receive a 20-karat gold medal and a cash gift of 50 million yen (approximately $460,000 Cdn).

He and Taylor, who won the prize in the arts and philosophy category, delivered a joint lecture during the celebratory event at MaRs (Medical and Related Sciences Discovery District).

Multimedia students are being displayed at the Ontario Premier’s Innovation Awards ceremony on May 15th at MaRS in Toronto.

The Premier’s Innovation Awards was created to recognize and reward Ontario’s top researchers and innovators that are successfully turning global challenges into the next generation of jobs for the province.

There are three categories of Premier’s Innovation Awards:

A 2006 study (see http://tinyurl.com/bv8xk6) concluded that if the university disappeared, 77,000 local jobs and a net value in the region of £21 billion (US$29.5 billion) would go with it.

universities in the United States have similarly become important generators of local and national economic growth.