Ahh..went to the enterprise toronto small biz forum 2002 today, about from 9:30 and ending at 5 at the convention centre. (also happening at the same time upstairs was the ontario university fair) .There were also different high schools who were actually going to this entrepreneurship conference, at least for the morning, so the morning events were always packed, for example in the first keynote speaker event, in a room the size of the trade floor upstairs, people still had to stand against the walls. Overall a great day, didnt end up w/ as large a bag of souvenirs from the trade floor as my dad did (its his first time) but thats ok, thats not what i came for =) .. there were a lot more keynote speakers than last year, and they were good speakers. Only thing i wish was that the panel of 5 entrepreneurs at the end of the day should have been given more than the mere 1 hour, questions included. here are some notes from this conference.. most of the interesting stuff comes up in the Q & A

bruce poon tip - gap adventures
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- trinidad-born canadian, started a sustainable eco-tourism company, he's also worked w/ united nations programs to help local communities develop sustainable tourism as a viable source of income rather than going into drugs or logging. apparently was a big feature on toronto star travel section yesterday
- links to notes:

bruce_poon_tip_gap_adventures.htm
bruce_poon_tip_gap_adventures_questions.htm


entrepreneur panel
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- ben hum(started software company),
- ted manziaris ( started his recycling business while in university, would have been a big TIG feature member if TIG was around back then..hmm maybe earthyouth could feature an article about his green business success story) ,
- lana tomic (started spa baby... can give free certificates to charities eg free manicure..),
- reema rafay (started staffing company. also spoke at one of the UTEC speaker events last year),
- jim nicholson ( bought a printing company 15 years ago)

- links to notes:
panel_intro_ben_hum.htm
panel_intro_jim_nicholson.htm
panel_intro_lana_tomic_spa_baby.htm
panel_intro_reema_rafay.htm
panel_intro_ted_manziaris.htm
panel_questions_and_replies.htm

Finally got the last and funniest photos from tq live event back in july, thanx Mel! Here's one of the best photos: featuring me ( on the left) and steve, another TQ student, doing our Jaron Lanier impersonations!

Jaron Lanier by the way is known as the inventor of Virtual Reality, Spielberg consulted him when making Minority Report, he still goes around the world (including visiting Toronto) lecturing on the future and VR. He was one of the better, more dynamic speakers who actually didnt put us to sleep. We know him mostly as the big friendly guy with dreadlocks.

Those are actually hula skirts on our heads, we were in the hawaiin girl's dorm room on the last evening of the event. And he has a short beard not a long one like the one I'm depicting here.