Rick Segal (The Post Money Value) is making his way east to do a series of roundtables for startup entrepreneurs to meet an experienced VC and ask questions.  Raising capital is an important part of a startup, so this would be a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to take advantage of. The seats are limited, so I would recommend signing up asap.

April 14th – Halifax  (8a – 10:30a) Sign up here

April 14th – Moncton ( 5p – 7p) Sign up here

April 15th – St. John’s (5p – 7p) Sign up here

Just picked this up from propelSJ.

Impact of New-Era Technologies on Society & Business presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 4:00 - 6:00 pm.
Saint John Trade & Convention Centre, One Market Square, Saint John NB

Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 4:00 p.m. — 6:00 p.m.
Delta Halifax, 1990 Barrington St., Halifax, NS

The topic of area that interests me is:

ampliflection* a new type of Internet-based marketing; adaptive mashups

It’s free, but registration is required.

For more info, see propelSJ

I just read on Mitch Joel’s blog that they’re looking for volunteers for The Power Within. So if you’re interested please check out Mitch’s blog post.

By the way Mitch. I spoke with Carman Pirie of Colour last week at our first NB Social Media meetup and we’re actively conspiring to organize a meetup with you;)

Earlier this week in the news, CBC reported that Saint John was the happiest place to live in Canada. Both Chris Nadeau and Harold Jarche commented on this as well this week. As both mentioned, everyone is feeling positive about some of the great technology coming out of Atlantic Canada (visit the blog roll). PropelSJ stays on top of business technology and events happening in the SJ area. The regular news updates show that the Saint John area is becoming a business hub. And of course there’s no doubt that Atlantic Canada has some of the most beautiful vistas in the world.

This recent news is fortunate because for the past year Saint John and the Atlantic Provinces have mostly receiving failing grades in Health and Academic matters. In October of this year, Saint John was considered one of the fattest cities in Canada, likely attributed to poverty. People living in Saint John have the highest obesity rate, at 24.4 per cent of the population over 15 years old. The report card style study tracked the quality of life of Canadian communities in relation to poverty gaps, health, housing and the environment.  Saint John was not marked on track for any of these items.

NB also has some of highest caesarian rates in Canada. According to WHO (World Health Organization), 15% is the average c-section rate, yet in NB it is close to 29%. With northern NB having twice as many c-sections. Women’s groups wonder if it is about a lack of health resources or health professionals to deal with long labour. And certainly if looking at Northern NB where many hospitals were shut down, emergency rooms closing earlier, it would seem likely that is the case. This coupled with general long hospital waits compared to the rest of Canada also leads to a lack of resources.

In education, students in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick all performed significantly below average in science and math.

Again, does this come back to poverty/lack of resources due to low funding?

So if that’s the case, how come we’re so happy in Atlantic Canada?

Maybe because money really can’t buy happiness.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that The Power Within  is coming to Halifax Feb. 26, 2008. Mitch Joel digital marketing expert (and recently award winning) and podcaster extraodinaire is extending a special rate of $129.00 for the first 200 who sign up.

The line up looks great led by Athony Robbins, and Mike Lipkin - The Power to Persuade, Loretta LaRoche on stress management (I could use some of that) and more.

I’m on board and looking forward to the event.

p.s. Day 2 of thinkNB is coming this evening.