php Québec organized Codefest 3.0, a 3 day event where programmers are invited to work on their open source project, share their work.

This time, it was sponsored by Microsoft Canada (their office in Toronto), and was held at a Helm Café, on Bernard Street.

There’s something striking seeing 20 or so php programmers each in front of a laptop, all in corner of a trendy bar.

The event was “organized” in a very free-form way, similar to FreeHackers, but maybe with even less focus on having “results”. A few of the ingredients:

• it’s cool to have free food and beer (!)
• great idea to gather everyone in the same space, lots of energy. I met a few students, from a computer engineering school I didn’t know about (!!), and it seems there are lots to be done with them in the future. Also new ideas discussed about future direction of TechEntreprise 
• a conference/presentation was held to present tests suites for php, etc.
• I noticed lots of openess: there was a guy who will be doing Google’s Summer of Code, on Asterisk. A couple of people were also doing standard Java work, and also ruby (that’s me and Gregory)

Pics from the demo, test suites in php



MTW Pictures

Thanks to everyone who went to StartupDrinks, we had a good turnout (about 70-80), and as usual great conversations, with people staying up to 10pm and then afterwards to the (usual) late night restaurant dinner nearby.

I was planning to discuss about Blitzweekend and also the ongoing talks about having a digital and physical tech space, but it turns out a cocktail is not at all the way to get this started. It’s all about one-to-one conversations, meeting lots of people from the community around a drink, in an informal way, and maybe planning to see a few of them afterwards in a more appropriate setting.

Here are pictures I took, at around 9.30pm, with slightly less people than around 6 or 7pm

(see them here)

If you want to see who came to the event, see the event page

There are 6 “big” upcoming tech events in Montreal this upcoming week, one of the busiest weeks in recent times. Either you’re in marketing, in development, in social media, or into startups, there’s an event for you this week to meetup.

A group of programmers and developers from the SAT are doing Code Forum monday 4th. It’s an open event for all Montréalers, with the event format modeled after unconference principles.

Felipe Coimbra, the instigator behind TwtApps, is doing a NewTech meetup this upcoming Tuesday.

NewTech meetups are opportunities for startups and new projects to showcase a new piece of software or a product.

There’s a potential problem with the venue, and Felipe is looking for a space to replace Laika. If someone has a potential solution, do contact him.

Wednesday evening, Yulblog gathers Montreal bloggers in its first wednesdays meetup in may

StartupCampMontreal edition 4 is Thursday at the SAT. So far, StartupCamps are the events which gathers the most tech people in Montreal, with an attendance well beyond 300, for an evening of presentations and pitches by 5 startups. Selected startups to pitch the audience are Control Yourself, SiteZoogle, PraizedMedia, Klaxa, Twtapps.

Sylvain Carle is also doing an early session, with a more open format.

In the same day, php Québec is also holding a very interesting evening for php programmers: Rencontre php Québec at ETS. 1 presentation about the Facebook API, and 1 presentation about Atomik, an easy framework.

Also, of interest: Charles Sirois (TeleSystem, Enablis) and Robert Calderisi (World Bank) will present their views on entrepreneurship & africa at a Fraser Institute event, on May 7th.

Codefest is a weekend-long event targeted at php programmers, but also any other developers programming in other languages, planned from May 1st to May3rd. Come over if you want to meet other developers, and co-work on current & open source projects

Event website

Here is a report of a previous Codefest

Another report

Proposed Projects in 3.0:

• MediaWiki
• Drupal
• WordPress
• TikiWiki CMS/Groupware
• BeWelcome
• Habari
• Anne G. wikigraphe
• PHP Unit Tests
• PHP Quebec Employment section
• Laconica sera présent (ideas)
• sux0r.org
• Validation Testing Framework
• Your project! (Contact us contact@codefest.ws)

As a sidenote, Evan Prodromou worked on the first lines of identi.ca at Codefest 2.0. Organizers are also looking for additional sponsors.

There’s an “analysis” on TechCrunch on the StartupWeekend series, and the general conclusion is that it failed.

Since we’ve done Blitzweekend and there are discussions on holding another one, I have to take issue.

I don’t think StartupWeekends (or Blitzweekend) claimed at one point or another to build companies for every team that participates, in the same way that Y combinator, TechStars or Bolidea ambitions to.

They should be seen as a educational opportunity, and an opportunity to jump-start a new idea and team, get up to speed with what you’ve got to know when launching a new technology project, etc.

If at one point, a quarter of the participating teams got actually to get investment $ and/or launch a product, then that’s really more than everyone should expect.

We’ve had students, “9-to-5ers”, people in existing companies and startups, entrepreneurs, open-minded people who were curious in trying things out at Blitzweekend, and who would have never the opportunity to try out otherwise what would be the atmospehere and intensity when creating a product. That’s what Blitzweekend has to offer, and for the best and most motivated of them, it will be the first step for a company. Our role in this was to create the most favourable environment and support ecosystem for them to flourish and if possible, orient in the right direction.

Also, another interesting post related to this is John Stokes at Montrealstartup “Seedcamp mentoring“. There’s one interesting line co-opetition, which is also what one of first objectives.

So I have to conclude that TechCrunch doesn’t know what they are talking about or they haven’t actually participated in any StartupWeekend event at all, and it’s sad since they have titled the post “Analysis”

PS: And there’s StartupDrinks this afternoon from 5.30pm at Brutopia.

StartupDrinks gather Montrealers interested in building technology companies; where students, developers, marketing experts, designers, consultants, gurus, entrepreneurs, CEOs of tech companies, etc. are all welcomed to get a drink and share about their projects. 

StartupDrinks is organized by TechEntreprise/MTW and FlowVentures (@rayluk) and will be at Brutopia, 1219 Crescent Street, next wednesday from 5.30pm

The topic this time is how to bring Montréal to the next level. See this post on montrealtechwatch. Currently, VC funds such as iNovia, angel investors, incubators, entrepreneurs, universities are involved in the ecosystem, and StartupDrinks will be an opportunity to talk, buzz, and gather everyone around the subject. 

There are also rumours about another Blitzweekend coming in. It might be too early to announce a date or a place, nevertheless, if you know about the energy we’ve gathered at the last Blitzweekend, come over at StartupDrinks, ask us questions about the idea, and tell us what you’d like to get from the event, and what you’d be ready to do. 

StartupCampMontreal edition 4 is also coming right around the corner, with 400 entrepreneurs and gurus expected at the SAT. Another topic for conversation. 

For those new to the concept, view a report of the last startupdrinks.

If you are interested, you have to register here. Registration is free and allows us to print name tags for everyone (plus many nifty things such as this, but it’s another story)

We had last week StartupDrinks at Brutopia, an open gathering of entrepreneurs and people involved in tech startups.

The Drinks was organized both by MTW/TechEntreprise and Flow Ventures. Although it’s fair to say that the event was fairly promoted between Montréalers thanks to Twitter

Matthew Harrisson from BDO also came in and “sponsored” the event by buying food.

All in all, a great evening, with around 70 entrepreneurs who came for the event, many welcomed new faces. Next time, with spring in full bloom, we’ll get the terrace, and surely get more people coming in.

Thanks for everyone who attended, and do follow MTW to get updates on the next one (Apr 29th)

Embrase, a Montreal firm supporting early stage companies, has announced the 4th edition of Startup Camp Montreal 4.

It’s an evening where 5 chosen technology startups will get to pitch to investors. The formula is similar in principle to Capital Innovation, albeit attendance is more open; and previous startupcamps attracted filled the SAT room.

Be sure to check the event’s page for more details

This upcoming wednesday March 25th, technology entrepreneurs and everyone interested in startups are invited to Montreal StartupDrinks. The event is done in association with FlowVentures and TechEntreprise. It’s an informal but intense event, where you get to finally meet people behind all those twitter accounts and websites, and talk to them about your technology challenges, new viral marketing tactics, the life of an entrepreneur :-), and the opportunity to meet other Montréalers valuable for your venture.

The meetup will be at Brutopia, 1219 Crescent Street, from 5.30pm.

We haven’t had a Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast this month, so it’s an ideal meetup to hook up with others starting new technology ventures (or wanting to start new ones). If you have a passion for technology, if you are looking for opportunities in the technology space, if you are the sort of person who checks several times of day Hackers News and cie, then come over to share a drink with us. The past StartupDrinks have had a solid 50+ attendance of new entrepreneurs, programmers, investors, service providers and more.

Register on TechEntreprise if you want to come. Note: we need this to print tags for attendees.

Hint: If you are coming to the event, and want to start something special, do read the profile page of attendees.

Capital Innovation (see also for a (partial) list of people attending), a forum gathering entrepreneurs and funders, is also planned this wednesday, with high profile speakers such as Guy Kawasiki. If you are going to Capital Innovation, be sure to drop by Brutopia later in the day for a beer.

Seen below are shots from StartupDrinks in January

I dropped by (quickly) at the Tikifest 5 à 8 today.

The meetup gathered TikiWiki users, developers and the TikiWiki community, who gathered in Montreal for the Tikifest 2009 event.

The 5 à 8 was quite impressive, with a jolly crowd, a very good presentation by Marc Laporte, and the announcement of the beta version of Tikiwiki 3.0, which was produced during Tikifest.

So far, Tikiwiki has been downloaded 700.000 times, has 1000 options/features, and sees user contributions very frequently. Lots of good numbers; Marc Laporte wondered at one point at a php Québec codefest how come Drupal or WordPress were ahead, but I think there’s nothing to be “jealous” about.

One thing which surprised me a lot, as an outsider, was how open the TikiWiki community was. There is a sense of welcome, openess, inclusive participation. It’s the sort of community any software project (or for that matter, a web startup who’d want to offer a “platform” and foster a development community) would want to take lessons from. Kudos to Marc, congrats to every member of Tikiwii.