The New Brunswick Innovation Fund (NBIF) has announced the finalists for the Breakthru NB Business Plan Competition. Breakthru’s purpose was to reward NB entrepreneurs 19 and older who have an innovative product idea for a NB business venture.

mobile2social – Tracadie-Sheila
Combine social media with GPS and Internet enabled cell phones and you’ve got something to sing about. mobile2social is working on a way to introduce GPS technology to the social marketing mix so that friends and marketers can tell where you are and what you’re doing. The project leads are high-tech entrepreneur Mario Basque, marketer Yan-Alexandre Keable and hardware/software developer Éric Dusablon.

Greenlight Geomatics – Miramachi City
Railway companies across North America spend over a billion dollars a year to manually get rid of plant growth that threatens track safety. Using GPS technology, Greenlight is developing an automated technology that will meticulously map and controls herbicide spray without affecting environmentally sensitive areas.
Championing the project is land surveyor Herman Koops, engineering students Anthony Illukwe [software] and John Lord [mechanical], and business students Brad Pierce and Khaled Taha.

Mass Rule – Riverview
General searches on the internet, or “googling” is a no-brainer for most people who want to get general information. But finding out what people think about that information is another story. Mass Rule is developing a revolutionary internet poling solution that delivers searchable statistics about people’s opinions. Shawn Carver, founder of THINK Technology, previously launched one of the first premium text messaging brands and campaigns in Atlantic Canada.

PlayDartsNow.com – Saint John
Game-play is now a mainstay for the virtual world, where people play each other online from all over—something not so easy for traditional games. PlayDartsNow is developing a technology that will turn your dartboard into a virtual playing field. Using a sensory device, you can use your own dartboard to play online with anyone who has the same technology. Heading PlayDartsNow is Justin Kennedy, a private software consultant who has previously advised a number of high profile companies including Microsoft, Sony and Umbra

Trivnet Media Systems – Saint John
There was a time when you could sit in a restaurant, order a meal, and stick a couple quarters in the jukebox station, situated at the table, and play your favorite song. Imagine what you could do today. Trivnet is working on a new generation of table top media devices that adds value for the patron and the owner, including entertainment, information access and billing. Leading the team is marketing specialist Rivers Corbett, and father-son duo John Trivett, a long-time radio broadcaster, and William Trivett, an electrical engineering student.

Carbon Concepts - Fredericton
Today, some provinces and US states give tax breaks for generating your own emission-free energy. But the only way to get the savings is if you can distinguish electricity made from electricity taken from the grid. Most micro-energy solutions don’t know the difference between the two. Carbon Concepts is developing a new measuring device to do this for sale in Ontario—to start. Championing the innovation is Levi Hargrove and Adam Wilson, a PhD and MSc candidate in electrical engineering, respectively.

A total of $245,000 in cash and in kind prizes of support for legal, marketing, website services and accounting services. The prizes will be awarded on November 22. 

It’s great to see this type of event to encourage entrepreneurs in NB. Although I think as a province we could do even more. I’m looking forward to following the companies and hope they help put NB on the map for innovative technology.

radian6 is a Fredericton, NB based start-up that provides advertising and PR professionals a way of monitoring social media. Social media is having a huge influence on how brands are being perceived by consumers. As web users we often participate in social media. Who hasn’t joined facebook yet? Myspace, youtube, blogging, digg, twitter and more all litter the web 2.0 landscape. radian6 has provided a solution to monitor these online conversations

Today radian6 announced that Weber Shandwick, a worldwide leading PR firm will be implementing radian6’s social media monitoring solutions throughout it’s offices worldwide.

When radian6 first launched, there were skeptics about the need for another social media monitoring tool. But I think they’re proving that what they have is targeted, effective and a time saver.  And as Kami at Communication Overtones discovered, it also tracks comments, something that will prove very useful. She was fortunate enough to test out radian6’s software and wrote a review on her experience with it.

David Alston, VP of marketing has been very busy lately. He was recently in vegas for  WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) and I think they’re only going to get busier.  I’m hoping to meet up with radian6 in the near future to interview them as I do have a lot of questions about the software. How they compare to BUZZLOGIC and what kind of information they provide to their clients on interpeting the data. 

Congratulations, radian6,  on your new venture with Weber Shandwick!

It seemed appropriate to start this blog with a new event that is happening next week in Fredericton, NB. ThinkNB will be showcasing many of New Brunswick’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies. I hope to meet up with many of them next week and highlight them on meshEAST at some point.

This is a first for NB. I think it’s a wonderful initiative by those involved such as Gene Fowler of FatKat Animation.

“We rigorously validated the concept of a showcase with the industry, and it is responding enthusiastically,” said Gene Fowler, CEO of Miramichi-based Fatkat Animation and chair of the steering committee. “As an industry, we have not always marketed effectively to New Brunswick government departments and agencies, industry and business. Our event is a first step to change this. If you are a user or buyer of ICT, you can’t afford to miss this unique showcase.

He’s right in that there needs to be more effective marketing to the NB gov’t departments and agencies. However, I would take that a step further and say that we also need to market this information to the consumer more effectively. Whenever I ask anyone outside of the industry, even among those in the web world, numerous people had not heard about the event. A quick search online shows very few mentions. It’s not a reflection on the promotion of the event. But more the mindset that much of this industry here in Atlantic Canada is insular. That’s something I hope to help change with meshEAST. So that every day Atlantic Canadians will know about the great quality of companies that are coming out of this part of Canada with products and innovations that are applicable to all of us.

ThinkNB is a great start though and I am looking forward to connecting with new and old friends.

That Fredericton, NB (fred-e-zone) was the first city in Canada to have free Wifi? That Moncton, NB is the first city in Canada to have free Wifi on public transportation? That the cool Facebook app Expressions came out of NB & NS? That you can manage your sports team with YourTeamOnline from Saint John’s Evolving Solutions?

This is only the beginnings of some of what will be touched on here at meshEAST. I’m hoping that others will want to contribute as well. I’d like to see a growing community of Atlantic Canada digital media enthusiasts.