A little over a year ago executives from Infusion Development and Microsoft Canada Co had a vision of creating an Innovation Centre that would serve as a Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the Microsoft Platform.
Infusion Development had spun out Infusion Angels to invest in new and exciting Technology ideas from Students at the University of Waterloo (the majority of the Infusion Development Executive were UW Alumni) and Microsoft had a strong desire to help enable the next wave of Technology Entrepreneurs by enabling access to its platform, local technology experts and by offering training to accelerate the time to market for these bright young minds.
So together they started on a journey which saw them take an 800sqm space in the University of Waterloo Technology Accelerator Centre and Launch the Infusion Angels Innovation Centre (Sponsored by Microsoft).
Along the way Microsoft & Infusion Angels enlisted the help of other key Technology partners such as Dell and Intel. This ensured that we had the latest and greatest hardware to go along with some great office space and access to most recent Microsoft Software.
So after much work and preparation by Microsoft, Infusion Angels and our partners, we were proud to open the Innovation Centre on the 31st Jan, 2007.
Microsoft Canada and Infusion Angels Open Innovation Centre in Waterloo, ON
Innovation Centre Launch Press Release
The Infusion Angels and Microsoft Teams at the Opening of the Infusion Angels Innovation Centre (Sponsored by Microsoft)
Since that exciting day over a year ago there has been a lot happening!
Most of the activity is broken into two key areas;
1) EVENTS
Business Track – In these one-to-many sessions, experienced entrepreneurs and technology industry-experts provide attendees with the knowledge and soft skills that are essential to succeeding in the world of business, entrepreneurship and technology. Many of these sessions include “real world” example of what it is like to create an IT start-up business (and succeed!).
Technology Track – Innovation Centre Technology Briefings are also one-to-many sessions, in which a subject-matter expert delivers a high-level briefing about a specific technology or framework.
Examples of some of the recent events at the Innovation Centre;
- The XNA GameCamp – Hosted by Jean-Luc David (Developer Evangelist from Microsoft Canada)
- Women in Entrepreneurship – Hosted by Kayla Spiess (IAIC Manger) & Cigdem Aygun (ISV Architect Advisor – Microsoft Canada)
- Partnering with Microsoft: The Empower Program – Hosted by Jamie Wakeam (ISV Architect Advisor – Microsoft Canada) and Kristin Schmidt (ISV Marketing Manager - Microsoft Canada)
For more information on our events check out our website at;
Innovation Centre Events
2) OFFICE HOURS
Innovation Centre Office hours are an opportunity for students and Entrepreneurs to meet with key Business and Technical staff from Microsoft and Infusion Angels to ask them questions about building a business and to draw on their years of collective IT experience.
For more information on Executive Office please check out our website at;
Innovation Centre Office Hours
Since opening just over a year ago we have had 1285 people attend Innovation Centre events and almost 30 Executive office hour’s meetings.
Please come and visit, we are committed to helping to grow the Canadian Software Economy, creating partnerships between Business, Academia, and Government Organizations & building the Business and Technical Skills of the local IT community. Let’s have some great success together!
Peter van der Zouwe
Local Software Economy Lead, Microsoft Canada Co.