Experience Tectoria is a gathering of the local tech community with international investors in beautiful Victoria, BC. It started in 2012 by VIATEC and has grown every single year. Venture Capitals get exposed to our local talents, all while the city is dressed up for the annual Rifflandia Music Festival. [Check out last year’s event video here]
This year’s event started Wednesday night with the film screening of “She Started It” at Fort Tectoria. The film (sponsored by Discovery Foundation | Purpose Five | iWIST | Stream of Consciousness), follows five young women over two years as they pitch VCs, build teams, bring products to market, fail and start again. The film takes viewers on a global roller coaster ride from San Francisco to Vietnam. [Click here to view pictures]
It’s no secret the tech sector can be a bit of a “bro world”, but when you look at VIATEC’s Accelerator Program, 32% of it’s companies are run by female founders. Dig a little deeper and you find out that women actually have an 18.75% better chance of being accepted into the program!
Experience Tectoria continued yesterday as 130 tech executives (and even the Venture Capitalists), took a day-long workshop on “A Coaching Approach to Leadership” led by the Roy Group. This group consisted of 29 local companies and every person there took a full day out of their busy schedule to learn how to become a better leader – how cool is that?
Following the workshop, 250 people piled into the Victoria Event Centre for the 6th volume of F*ckUp Nights!
Everyone’s favourite night.
Nothing like watching accomplished, confident people share their still-raw, professional disasters with a crowd of 200+ colleagues who have been drinking beer. Better than crying. Cheaper than therapy.
F*ckUp Nights is a global movement where stories of failed businesses and projects are told, questioned and celebrated. It started in 2012 in Mexico City and VIATEC has brought it to Victoria, along with key partners like Ian Chisholm of the Roy Group and Jim Hayhurst of Pretio Interactive (who was also the MC).
3 “f*ckuppers” had 6 minutes each to tell their story. We heard from Andrew McLeod, Chris Turchansky and Mike Wilson. Their stories ranged from a way-too-early startup from a dorm room, a CEO making a very bad call costing over $2M (and then another $3M to start over), and a lot of ego combined with a mid-life crisis, a rooster costume and that “Kanye” moment that ruined it all.
Experience Tectoria continues today with 6 local company’s Origin Stories, a walking office tour of a dozen companies, a bus trip up the Peninsula to check out 5 more companies and then to cap it all off – The Rifflandia Music Festival!
These out of towners won’t know what hit them – and they’ll definitely want to come back for more. #Tectoria #ET2017
Listen below as Dan Gunn discusses Experience Tectoria on the Zone at 91.3fm’s morning show:
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