Innovation Rodeo 2022
Crossing The Chasm
In Person & Online
July 11th to 15th, 2022
Spearheaded by Bow Valley College the Innovation Rodeo is run annually during the same week as the Calgary Stampede and this year it is being held in person at Platform Calgary (407 9 Ave SE, Calgary) AND online.
It is five days of keynote speeches, workshops, Innovation Challenges and pitch competitions designed to upskill Alberta’s innovators, change-makers, problem-solvers, aspiring entrepreneurs, startups, scale-ups, advisors, mentors, investors and ecosystem builders while helping them build new connections and learn how to commercialize new ideas faster.
The theme of the 7th annual Innovation Rodeo is Crossing the Chasm, and it features six keynote speakers, over 100 hours of in-person coaching from four out-of-province experts, gives away 100 copies of six different books selected to in-person participants, provides crowdsourced help to seven of Alberta’s most promising early-stage companies and AWARDS ALL THE REGISTRATION FEES from the event to participants in a crowd favourite pitch competition.
In-person tickets start at $15 for day passes and $60 for the entire week. Tickets to participate online-only are sold on a Pay What You Can (PWYC) basis.
In-person tickets are free for students and members of equity-seeking groups can call or text Craig Elias (+1.403.874.2998) to receive a discount code to also participate in person for free.)
Crossing The Chasm
The image above and the phrase “Crossing the Chasm” come from the book Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey Moore. The chasm exists because, after successfully selling a product to innovators and early adopters, many companies struggle with the next stage of growth which is to take the product to the early majority portion of the market.
It is during this stage that many promising products and services fail to cross the chasm between the early adopter market and the highly profitable early majority portion of the market.
You can attend in person or online.
In-person tickets give you access to the live event held at Platform Calgary, the food, the ability to book on-site coaches in advance of the event, the 600 books that are given away during the keynote speeches AND the ability to also attend the event virtually if desired.
In-person tickets are free for students and members of equity-seeking groups can call or text Craig Elias (+1.403.874.2998) to receive a discount code to also participate in person for free.
Online-only tickets are sold based on a Pay What You Can (PWYC) basis and give you access to the online version of the event, the opportunity to join a waiting list for the books if they are not all given away to the in-person participants, and the ability to book on-site coaches on the day of the event.
By-invitation-only Workshops held Tuesday to Friday morning are open to anyone who offered to be a mentor when they requested a book during a past Founder Friday, are alumni of 150 Startups summer student programming or the Sales Playbook Development Program or have participated in the Ash Maurya mentor training or many David Bland workshops hosted by 150 Startups.
Upskilling Alberta's Startup Community
Speakers, Facilitators, Coaches and Books
The Innovation Rodeo is designed to upskill Alberta’s problem solvers, innovators, entrepreneurs, change-makers, mentors, investors and ecosystem builders!
It is in person AND online, gives away 100 copies of each of the above books to in-person participants, AWARDS ALL THE REGISTRATION FEES from the event, AND has:
- 100 copies of six different books relevant to crossing the chasm so the impact of the speakers, facilitators, and coaches continues beyond the event.
- 100+ hours of on-site coaching with out-of-province experts who are onsite to assist participants with sales, playbook development, lead generation, inbound marketing, building a more equitable, diverse and inclusive startup community, corporate/enterprise/open innovation and almost anything else related to getting early customers and crossing the chasm.
- Six keynote speakers where some of North America’s top subject matter experts bring their expertise and examples to Alberta
- Five different pitch competitions that award at a total of $25,000 cash and $36,000 US in scholarships to Alberta’s most promising student entrepreneurs AND all the ticket proceeds to new founders from upskilling programs.
- Four by-invitation-only workshops where each day invitees spend three hours with the keynote speaker from the day before learning and applying their content to a local early-stage company that is selected based on a poll of Alberta’s most promising early-stage companies.
- Four different on-site coaches who are available 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day to assist Alberta’s early stage and scaling companies in crossing the chasm
- Three Innovation Challenges that award a total of $6,000 in cash to the teams of participants who do the best job of applying the speaker’s content to local early-stage companies
- One LinkedIn headshot session with a professional headshot photographer so participants can get that perfect headshot for their LinkedIn profile
Schedule
Throughout the week, participants will learn new tools, exchange ideas, and share connections while developing the relationships, skills, and confidence needed to create new ideas and cross the chasm faster.
Each day is designed to solve some of the most common problems encountered when targeting the different markets – innovators, early adopters and the early majority.
You can purchase individual day tickets or discounted tickets for the whole week and you can join for just the part of the day that is most relevant to you or stay for the entire day.
- Monday is for anyone looking to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in their organization or Alberta’s startup ecosystem or master the art of storytelling and features April Jones Boyle from Detroit and Canada’s Colleen Stewart.
- Tuesday is for anyone looking to get ‘Innovators’ as their first customers, features design sprint expert Josh David Miller (aka JDM) from Sacramento, an Innovation Challenge where teams of up to four attendees compete for $2,000 by applying Josh’s content to a local early-stage company that is selected based on company suggestions and voting results on a poll of Alberta’s most promising early-stage companies – to be set up this Friday – and a pitch competition where the top two entrepreneurs go on to the pitch competition finals on Friday afternoon.
- Wednesday is for anyone looking to get ‘Early Adopters’ as customers, features prototype thinking expert Tapiwa Dzingai from Chicago, an Innovation Challenge where teams of up to four attendees compete for $2,000 by applying Tapiwa’s content to a local early-stage company that is selected based on company suggestions and voting results on a poll of Alberta’s most promising early-stage companies – to be set up this Friday – and a pitch competition where the top two entrepreneurs go on to the pitch competition finals on Friday afternoon.
- Thursday is for anyone looking to get ‘Early Majority’ customers, features sales playbook author expert Cory Bray from Nashville, an Innovation Challenge where teams of four attendees compete for $2,000 by applying Cory’s content to a local early-stage company that is selected based on company suggestions and voting results on a poll of Alberta’s most promising early-stage companies – to be set up this Friday – and a pitch competition where the top two entrepreneurs go on to the pitch competition finals on Friday afternoon.
- Friday is for anyone looking to build or get the most out of a Startup Program and features corporate innovation expert Adam Berk from New York and two pitch competitions.
Speakers, Facilitators and On-site Coaches
Throughout the week we’ll have keynote sessions where six speakers from across North America share their insights, by-invitation-only workshops led by facilitators that provide crowdsourced assistance to some of Alberta’s most promising early-stage companies, on-site coaches available for free 30-minute coaching sessions throughout the week and judges who will select the winners of pitch competitions.
Adam Berk
Speaker & On-Site Coach
April Boyle
Speaker & On-Site Coach
Colleen Stewart
Speaker & Facilitator
Cory Bray
Speaker & Facilitator
Drew Williams
On-Site Coach
Josh David Miller
Speaker & Facilitator
Lyndsay Barch
On-Site Coach
Tapiwa Dzingai
Speaker & Facilitator
Why Attend
The 7th annual Innovation Rodeo is spearheaded by Bow Valley College and is five days of keynote speeches, workshops, Innovation Challenges and pitch competitions.
It runs Monday to Friday during Stampede week and helps like minded innovators, change-makers, problem-solvers, aspiring entrepreneurs, startups, scaleups, advisors, mentors and ecosystem builders to build new connections and learn how to commercialize new ideas faster.
Innovate faster
Validate sooner
Differentiate better
Get new products to market earlier
Reach positive cash flow quicker
You can buy individual day passes or a discounted pass for all five afternoons.
Can’t attend all day?
Not a problem. You can attend one or all of a day’s sessions.
Prize Sponsors
Ticket Sponsors
150 startup Founding Partners
