It’s cold, it’s rainy and it feels better to be hiding under a blanket at home than to be outside BUT there is an event worth getting OUT for!  Fashion’s Night OUT is presented by The Bay at White Space in V Lounge on March 8.  It indeed it will be a night to remember with cocktail reception, silent auction, live DJ and gift bags with a fashion show presented by The Bay.

The wonderful thing about this event is that 100% of the proceeds will go to Out in School.  Out in Schools is an amazing organization that facilitate discussions with youth on bullying, homophobia and stereotypes.  Vancouver is a tolerant city that embraces diversities but with the recent incidents of gay bashing and violence, there is much we need to do through education of our youths about tolerance.

Watch this video from Ellen DeGeneres about tragic suicides among gay teenagers due to bullying 

“These kids needed us. We have an obligation to change this. There are messages everywhere that validate this kind of bullying and taunting and we have to make it stop. We can’t let intolerance and ignorance take another kid’s life.”

Ellen DeGeneres is right, these kids do NEED us and we have an OBLIGATION to make a change. Join me and others who want to stand up and says NO, we will not lose our children to intolerance and ignorance.

Grab a ticket and show your support, purchase your ticket here at http://fnovancouver.eventbrite.com/

As some of you know, my cofounders and I all come from a technical background.  We use lean startup processes in our development work and we also apply it to  The Network Hub.  Lean startup is powered by three drivers –  use of platforms enabled by open source and free software, application of agile development, customer-centric rapid iteration.  A lot of people think it is for high tech only, I beg to differ.   We apply the same process to The Network Hub, lean startup is available to all entrepreneurs who is planning to start their business.

I highly encourage startup entrepreneurs checking out the conference, especially entrepreneurs in high tech.   You will learn why a startup successful and why another is unsuccessful.

This video will provide very compelling reasons why you should check out Lean Startup Conference 

If you are currently working for a startup or want to work for one and you haven’t heard of or understand lean startup – you definitely want to check out this conference.  Lean Startup Conference will be taking place in Richmond on May 5-6th at Hilton Vancouver Airport.

Who should attend? Anyone who is:

• either working for or planning to work for a start-up
• losing sleep because of having a brilliant idea and wanting to see it implemented
• tasked with designing new features and wants to know how to validate ideas and business assumptions with customers
• wanting to reduce waste and amplify learning
• curious to know what all the excitement is about

There are some amazing speakers lined up for the event such as Ash Maurya, Rishi Dean, Rob Walling, Owen Rogers and Steven Jones

For more information, check out www.agilevancouver.ca

This was the video that began our obsession with lean startup so I hope it gets you excited and wanting to check out Lean Startup Conference: 

October Entrepreneur Meetup!  “Can social media help grow your business?”

On October 21, The Network Hub held the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup at the office (422 Richards Street, Vancouver).

 We had a guest speaker Yu-kai Chou and over 150 people in attendance. Yu-kai is a Serial Entrepreneur and Social Media Advisor with over 5 years of adventures in the high tech startup world. He is the Founder and CEO of Viralogy Inc., a Social Personalization and Analytics Platform for eCommerce sites. Yu-kai’s team has also run many successful social media campaigns for LG, Levi’s, Los Angeles Lakers, Activision and more.

He spoke about the importance of social media. When he asked the audience if they were using social media, almost everyone raised their hand. Social media is one of biggest marketing tools and strategies out there. So, the audience listened carefully and asked lots of questions.

The meetup was packed with energetic people! There were lots of different business ideas being discussed. I think new connections and resources for business were made!  

I enjoyed meeting, chatting, and wine-ing with cheerful and dedicated people. In addition, Goldies Pizza supplied us with a few tasty pizzas and those were gone instantly! And thank you to Lonsdale Event Rentals for sponsoring us with beautiful glasses and tables!

  The Network Hub is planning a bigger meetup in early December. Don’t miss out!