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Kelowna CEO a 'catalyst'

Laurel Douglas, CEO of the Kelowna Women’s Enterprise Centre, was recognized by the Vancouver Board of Trade with the inaugural Wendy McDonald Award.

The award was given in the community catalyst category and presented April 8 in Vancouver.  

The awards were created in memory of the former president of BC Bearings Engineers Ltd. A force in Canadian business and a pioneer for women in leadership, McDonald left an impression on the board when she became its first female chair in 1990.

Douglas was chosen as the recipient based on her work through the Women's Enterprise Centre during the past 10 years. She and her team have assisted thousands of women entrepreneurs to start, grow and succeed in their business.  

A non-profit organization funded in part by Western Economic Diversification Canada, Women’s Enterprise Centre is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2015. Since Douglas joined as CEO in 2004, it has provided business loans and leveraged financing of more than $45.7 million to business owners in B.C. and has helped create or maintain more than 2,000 jobs.

“Under the strong leadership of Ms. Douglas, the Women’s Enterprise Centre has successfully become the leading business resource centre for women who are, or are considering, starting, purchasing or growing a small business in B.C.,” said Michelle Rempel, minister of state for Western Economic Diversification.   

Douglas is the only person from outside the Lower Mainland to be recognized with a Wendy McDonald award so far.

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Community Futures Central Okanagan Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Community Futures Development Corporation of Central Okanagan (CFDCCO) is pleased to announce that 2015 is the organization's 25th Anniversary. During the past 25 years, volunteers, staff, contractors, partners and clients of Community Futures have helped to shape Central Okanagan community development. "2015 will be a celebration of this success", states Barbra Johnston, Chairperson for CFDCCO, herself a client of Community Futures back in 1992. "Without early support from Community Futures, I am sure I would not be in business today and employing 80 people at Natures Formulae Health Products Inc." "Volunteering and leading CFDCCO is my way of giving back to the community that helped me to be successful" explains Barbra. "I look forward to hearing more testimonials from some of the thousands of people that CFDCCO has helped to start and grow their businesses".

During 2015, CFDCCO is planning to profile and publicize some of the clients from the past 25 years. If you would like to share your Community Futures stories with us, please contact our General Manager, Larry Widmer at 250-868-2132 ext. 223 or by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A Golf Tournament in September is also being planned for all of those interested in a fun afternoon and party to follow so look forward to hearing more details in the coming months.

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Venture Okanagan Investor's Forum

Venture Okanagan

VO SPRING INVESTORS FORUM - Thursday April 9th, 2015

Venture Okanagan Investor Forum is hosted during the Spring and Fall of each year. Guests learn of exciting new businesses in the Okanagan as hand selected entrepreneurs pitch their business to investors, business leaders, and the VO community. Presentations are followed by a fully catered networking reception where the top presenter is awarded a cash prize, after careful review of a panel of judges. With live music, delicious appetizers, and a chance to personally connect with the entrepreneurs, guests are always eager to return to the Venture Okanagan Investors Forum year after year.

Keep up to date with the latest news from Venture Okanagan via our Facebook page

Tickets for the event are available for purchase here: vospring2015.eventbrite.ca
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Rackforce Sells For $33M

Original article by | Castanet Story: 135605 - Mar 19, 2015 / 7:00 pm

Canada's largest enterprise cloud service provider is about to be sold.

RackForce Networks, which provides services for national and international clients from its Kelowna-based GigaCentre has entered into a share purchase agreement with TeraGo Inc.

Under terms of the sale TeraGo will acquire 100 per cent of issued and outstanding shares of RackForce for aggregate cash considerations of $31 million plus $2 million in common shares of TeraGo.

The acquisition is expected to close on, or about, March 27.

The purchase will increase TeraGo's data centre footprint from 40,000 to 58,000 square feet of raised floor space and available power from 6MW to approximately 13MW.

"The RackForce acquisition provides TeraGo with a growth platform in the attractive cloud services industry and helps further position TeraGo as a leading national end-to-end data solution company," says TeraGo’s president and CEO Stewart Lyons.

"RackForce will complement our business and transforms TeraGo into Canada's premier enterprise class network, data, voice and cloud services provider."

RackForce serves multiple high value enterprise customers across numerous verticals, including federal and provincial governments, and education. RackForce’s top-25 customers generate average monthly revenue of over $17,000.

"We recognize the value, expertise and experience RackForce exhibits as a proven cloud partner for enterprise clients running mission-critical applications," Lyons continued. "We warmly welcome RackForce professionals and we are excited to enter into a new phase of our business at TeraGo."

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CFDCCO Employment Opportunity

Community Futures Central Okanagan has a full time job opening for our Entrepreneur Program Assistant position. Click here for the job description.

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Kelowna Companies Win at Interzone

 
Original Posting March 16, 2015 by: Heidi Mann Accelerate Okanagan

BC-based tech startups are the top winners at Interzone pitch competition.

Two of Accelerate Okanagan’s FastTrack Program clients, Control and WTFast finished first and second this past weekend at at the Interzone SubCulture pitching event in Banff, Alberta. Seven of the most disruptive Canadian technology start-ups pitched to a panel of venture capitalists, CEOs and business leaders.

Rob Bartlett, CEO of WTFast, said, “it was a great conference and we won over Rahul Sood (Creator of Microsoft Ventures, now CEO of Unikrn), which is the one guy that mattered most to me. It’s going to lead to a lot of strategic investment partnerships.”

Kelowna based JBF Sports, an Accelerate Okanagan Alumni of the Venture Acceleration program and the Traction program, also found success at Interzone when their pitch convinced all five panelists to invest. 

Control and WTFast will look to keep the successful pitches coming on March 30th at a private investor forum in Kelowna. If you're an accredited investor and want to check out these, and other cutting edge tech companies, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Co-lab Offers Creative and Tech Oriented Programs

Copywriting Essentials

MARCH 24, 2015

Rock Your Freelance Workshop

MARCH 28, 2015

Learn How To Use Your Camera

MARCH 29, 2015

Adobe Lightroom Workshop

APRIL 1, 2015

Cornerstones of Code

APRIL 7, 2015

Agile Foundations

APRIL 11, 2015

Fundamentals of UX Design

APRIL 18, 2015

Your Story Matters: A Workshop For Brand and Personal Storytelling

22 APRIL 2015

Shane Austin

Co-founder, Community Insurgent and Creative Schemer

Okanagan co+Lab
#205, 1405 St. Paul Street
Kelowna, B.C. V1Y2E4

http://okcolab.com

@okcolab
http://fb.com/okcolab

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