MBET Blog Post: ‘CBET Continues to Grow & The Clip Mobile Team in Vancouver!’

The following post appeared on the Conrad Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology blog by students in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program. This particular post provides a brief snapshot of some of the experiences I had within the program.

Since my inaugural post, it’s been a whirlwind of a month.

To begin, if you haven’t heard the great news, local philanthropist Manfred Conrad and his family have generously donated $5 million to the The Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology which will now appropriately bear his name.  The donation will be used to support the culture of entrepreneurship and outreach both locally and abroad that CBET has been building here at the University of Waterloo. For more information you can check out the press release and article in the Waterloo Record.

During my hiatus (although after one post I’m not sure if you could classify it as such) I’ve been busy working on Clip Mobile, and what a month it’s been. For those of you who don’t know, Clip is Canada’s first mobile coupon application that’s currently available on the Apple iPhone and Google Android powered smartphone. (You can download the app from the Apple App Store here.)

During the past month, the Clip team have been busy traveling to various technology conferences and events across North America in order to gain a better understanding of where technology is headed, network with both industry leaders and potential clients, as well as showcase our app. We’ve attended MobileX in Chicago, the CTIA Wireless Conference in Las Vegas, and most recently as exhibitors at the F5 Expo in Vancouver last week.

Since I had the opportunity to play with Apple’s new iPad in Vancouver, I think it’s appropriate to highlight our experience from there!

Clip has had some very early success in the region of our Olympic host, with both a strong following of users and merchants. When we were approached by Lindsay Smith, the CEO of Massive Media, to attend the Expo as exhibitors we couldn’t say yes quickly enough. After all, the F5 Expo is all about pressing the reset button. It was designed to highlight how businesses can leverage technology in new and refreshing ways, while encouraging them to look and think outside of the box. In fact, it really sums up what we are all about at Clip!

The Pre-F5 Tweetup!

The week started off with the Clip Mobile team attending a pre-F5 Tweetup at a local Vancouver pub. For those of you who don’t know, a Tweetup is a meeting that’s organized over Twitter, and is often completely random and spontaneous. The Tweetup was a great way to connect with those who were attending the F5 Expo and find out what their motivations were for going. In true Clip Mobile fashion, we couldn’t let a great opportunity for self-promotion pass us up, and anyone who opened up our app would have noticed we had a great little deal on there. (Hint: Check out the photo below). It’s safe to say that the free pint was a rousing success; it was also a great way to work with no words, and let users understand exactly how the app works!

The F5 Expo

Lindsay’s grasp of business and emerging trends in technology was on full display at the Expo, which included an impressive lineup of speakers and a keynote presentation by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw. Unfortunately for the Clip team, we were unable to catch his talk because we were busy chatting up attendees and technology fans all day. If Vancouver is known for it’s beautiful scenery, Lululemon, and site of the 2010 games, let it be known that the people who wear yoga gear on the regular absolutely love their technology. In fact, they love talking about it even more, to the point that we ran out of marketing material and business cards by the mid-afternoon, and it’s not like we didn’t c0me prepared!! I could talk more about the Expo and the great people of Vancouver, but there’s about 150 business cards on my desk that need a follow up!

As for this blog, since I won’t be jet-setting around for the next little while, you can look forward to more frequent posts and thoughts about what my colleagues and I are up to. In addition, I’ll be highlighting some of the personalities, talent, and projects that are taking place here in the walls of the Conrad Centre.

I should also point out that if you want to stay in touch with me and are interested in my musings; everything from technology to sports you can follow me on Twitter here. You can also stay up to date on the latest Clip Mobile news by following us on Twitter as well.

Enjoy your weekend,

Paul

MBET Blog Post: ‘A Brave New World’

The following post appeared on the Conrad Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology student blog in a series of posts by students in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program.

Greetings!

Back in May 2009 I had the opportunity to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Shareholder Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska and listen to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, while I drank Coca-Cola, ate See’s peanut brittle and talked about the future of business and more importantly, the state of the North American economy. Their message of change was crystal clear. Business schools need to adapt to the fast-paced and changing times. Both Warren and Charlie firmly believe we all need to adapt our perspective on how we do business during these difficult times, and without a doubt we must innovate in order to cultivate a new, creative economy.

There are few other individuals out there that have their finger on the future of business as well as Mr. Buffett does. When he speaks, people listen. And for good reason, he’s rarely wrong. Just take a look at the class A share price of Berkshire Hathaway stock.

Around the same time, I was working at a major financial institution in Canada, and I found myself questioning a business model predicated on poor strategic decisions that seemed to be crumbling so quickly south of the border in the United States. Relatively speaking, we were fairly fortunate here in Canada. Some have even dubbed us as a model of how a financial system should be run. But even then, I realized that we must change our way of thinking, that was my tipping point, and there wasn’t a better time for change.

The MBET program here at the University of Waterloo offered everything Mr. Buffett said our economy should do to move forward. The choice for me was clear. MBET was the way.

The Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology has crafted a program that is unconventional compared to most. Executive Director, Howard Armitage, said it best when he describes the program as a ‘unique adventure’, a journey unlike any other graduate program offers. More importantly, it’s a program that focuses on cultivating the leaders and companies of tomorrow, not the next mechanistic spreadsheet guru.

Since starting six months ago in September, I’ve met some of the most intelligent and talented individuals I’ll ever meet. People from all walks of life who push the boundaries of conventional thinking and thrive on working in a collaborative environment. People who work hard, and can have a fun time doing it. While we don’t always agree on the model, the question, the method or even whether you should buy a Mac or PC (I’m not even going to explain why the answer is the one with three letters). We are all working towards a different tomorrow. A tomorrow that Mr. Buffett urged his shareholders and supporters to pursue at a time when the World desperately needs something different, and a tomorrow that the region of Waterloo seems to do so well.

Over the next few weeks and months, I look forward to telling you what we’re all up to here and where we think tomorrow is headed.

Without a doubt, I’m sure Warren was referring to an environment that creates an adventure much like the one we work, live, and breathe here at CBET.

Maybe if he’s not too busy, we should try to get him here for our next Entre-nous?

Paul