My first CapCHI

Verdict: a Worthwhile Canadian export

In Canada for a few days on a bit of a busman’s holiday and as a regular attendee of Manchester and UK wide tech events, I was far too tempted by my curiosity to not want to see how tech and startup events run in the country.

I attended CapCHI, the first of a few free tech events, in Ottawa. CapCHI (pronounced “Cap-k-eye”) stands for Computer Human Interaction in the national CAPital of Canada.

The format of the event is actually quite good, I have to say! This is something missing from the UK events, or at least the ones I attend in Manchester, which is pretty close to all of them. Unfortunately, my delayed jet-lag was catching up with me and I could feel myself struggling to hold my head up. But I ploughed through regardless, as the pitches were really quite professional. The entrepreneurs all rehearsed the pitches well. The slide decks were well polished and they had definitely hit their pitches. Something we in the UK don’t really consider all to well in the tech space (indeed, we are naturally skeptical of that sort of format, so tend to rile against it).

It was a freezing cold night (minus double digits) and I’d just been dropped off at the venue. CapCHI was held in the Fox and Feather Pub on Elgin Street in downtown Ottawa and this longer than usual programme showcased 5 businesses, each covering an area of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) including IoT, Apps, Big Data and VR to name but a few.

Else

Showcasing their IoT stew pot, Oliver, which downloads recipes and combines the ingredients loaded in the 6 canisters placed atop the device to cook a meal for you whilst you are away. Khalid Aboujassoum, founder and CEO and ex-swimmer apparently, took the audience through a polished pitch, with backup answer to the panel’s questions already prepared. Sensible choice and good foresight. Though unfortunately, due to technical glitches, we couldn’t see the pot working. Arguably, given the time, it may not have been possible to cook a meal in the time anyway. Though trust me, I’m perfectly happy to be corrected on that :)

Branch

Ahmed El Mahrakawy, co-founder and CEO of Branch, a proximity messaging and data capture company. It uses BlueTooth Beacons to send context aware ads and promotions to retail shoppers.

This is particularly interesting for us, since we covered Manchester based OfferMoments who recently also won the 2016 Pitch@Palace award. There is definitely a market for this sort of tech, albeit that it isn’t all that new.

SimWave

Co-presenters Adam Caithness (Head of Business Development) and Matt Thomas, CFO, introduced the audience to their company and showcased a schematic of SimWave’s 4D VR booth.

And no, there was no robot dancing was necessary during the pitch :)

Their “4D” booths aggregate a number of technologies to enhance the immersive experience, including both a vibrating floor, heat, cold, custom designed 3x4 fan pillars and amazingly, smell, to enhance the immersive experience. Their target market were museums and exhibitions.

The key takeaway from SimWave for me is they seemed aware of and addressed their market needs well. In particular, their VR booths could be decomposed into a vibrating floor instead of the full VR experience, opening a new market to them in the process.

Tumello

Podcast categorisation platform Tumello, headed up by Joel Kapongo. Their podcast categorisation and search tool is designed to locate particularly relevant content for people as it learns more about your preferences.

InteractiveStudios

Last in the order but definitely not least, was perhaps the most established startup. Colin Pritchard, COO, introduces IS which designs interactive graphics for touchscreen kiosks. Perhaps not the most innovative participant, the technology is well know and the concept established. Yet, they are turning over a healthy number. Yet, members of the audience introduced one potential difficulty in entering the market. It is almost entirely dominated by one player at all points in the supply chain.

The UK certainly does not have that monopoly problem. Yet, it was very interesting for me to see this pan out, since I know very little about the Canadian economy and the players in this market. Hence, I found that invaluable information.

The Misc

The event has free food and beer. Pretty standard. We have that too and it often provides me with my evening meal every day of the week :) Saved a fortune!

However, what’s different is the event is also attended by 3 panel “judges”. Expert mentors who have done it before, offering mentoring advice to the entrepreneurs. Each company spoke for a period of around half an hour, taking questions and advice from the panel judges as well as the floor if there was time.

The five companies in attendee did themselves proud tbh. Each of the pitches were polished, well thought out, organised, informative and solution focused. It wasn’t a straight up tech event. That wasn’t the reason for the meet and it’s a good format to enhance tech events with and crucially, gain feedback from an open (unaware) market.

I think it’s worth Mancheser’s tech event organisers looking at something like this. Indeed, having spoke briefly to Manchster tech scene’s resident monarch-maker Claire Foster (twitter.com/SquareJazz) there may be an appetite, if not one already forming. Worth a punt I reckon.