This is the first article in a continuing monthly series that will chronicle the growth path of CommentAir Technologies, a startup based in Ottawa, Canada. CommentAir is developing a wireless technology fans can use at sports venues to receive the same real-time commentary as fans watching from their televisions, a wireless technology that also creates a platform for targeted consumer interaction. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
Siblings Katie and Luke Hrycak are in that category of entrepreneurs who could be called reluctant innovators. They found themselves in the midst of a problem they felt compelled to solve.
That problem was the quality of the experience in attending a major sporting event live versus watching it on television. They both found themselves dissatisfied with the experience of attending NHL games and UFC matches. Why? Because fans at the event can’t hear the live commentary.
“The question became ‘Why don’t fans have the commentary at the game?’” said Luke. “Can’t we combine both the audio and visual experience of sports? We believed that fans want and need a special feature that will enhance whichever sport they enjoy most.”
But neither Katie nor Luke had an engineering background. They were starting at zero in terms of having a product design, startup capital and any kind of market validation beyond their own fan experience and that of their friends.
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By Linda Forrest 
It’s been a busy week, with Francis Moran and me visiting Waterloo and region for a number of events, client and business development meetings. We kicked off our trip by attending the Girl Geek Dinner, which took place Tuesday evening at Waterloo restaurant Oliver & Bonacini.
One of these things was not like the others in that Francis was the only male in attendance; the inverse was just about true the following night at Demo Camp Guelph where I was one of a handful of women in the crowd. But the intimate room at O&B was filled to the brim with interesting, welcoming and friendly women who work in technology. The brainchild of Cate Huston, a software programmer at Google, who upon moving to KW from Ottawa started up a local version of this international concept, Tuesday’s dinner marked the third local iteration of the event, which is also organized by PJ Lowe, and Michelle Kostya.
The speaker for the evening was Carol Leaman, a serial leader of startups, who recently sold PostRank, an aggregator of social engagement data, to Google. Almost as soon as we were seated, it became apparent that many of the women in the dynamic crowd knew one another, thanks to the tight-knit and supportive tech community in the region. But they welcomed Francis and myself with open arms, and it took us just several minutes to establish the (very few) degrees of separation from everyone at our table. We had the great pleasure of sitting with a variety of women, all of whom are working or studying in different and fascinating aspects of the technology ecosystem.
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By Francis Moran
Following so soon after a recent post that declared, “Your customers aren’t werewolves; stop looking for a marketing silver bullet,” today’s title might suggest that I am stranded in a double feature at the marketing equivalent of a b-movie drive-in. Not exactly, but I was at a trade show last week that had me wondering whether trade shows aren’t marketing’s undead, soulless ghouls that suck the life out of budgets and contaminate sales funnels with lousy leads.
It was the third trade show I attended on behalf of various clients this year. The first one, in January, was that orgy of geeks and gadgets called the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It was followed closely by the National Retail Federation’s very serious Big Show in New York. These two shows may well be chalk and cheese compared one to the other, but if either is a zombie, someone forgot to tell them how to behave. Both were packed with industry experts, thousands of exhibitors, huge international delegations and masses of clearly alive and lively attendees. No George A. Romero production here.
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This is the next contribution to this blog by Associate Andrew Penny, an Ottawa-based business development and market strategist for B2B companies, and president of Kingsford Consulting Ltd. We welcome your comments.
By Andrew Penny
Since the first acts of commerce, the seller has always had the upper hand with respect to product knowledge, performance, service, costs, and all the other factors that a buyer wants to know. Today, your buyer has access to all that information before they even meet you. In a few seconds they can find out where your president went to school, what your customers think of you, how you manufacture your product, what your approximate costs are (or should be), how the product works and if any other firms like theirs have bought it. A push (not to say pushy) salesperson doesn’t stand a chance.
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By Alexandra Reid
Not a day goes by that I don’t learn something new which furthers my understanding of social media and the role of the community manager. I seek out new information and it finds its way to me. It’s a necessary and unavoidable part of the job description. But I’ve come to learn that success in my field depends on my ability to act on what I learn. Without the empowerment provided by a supportive, progressive and open-minded business environment, my ideas could never come to fruition.
Social media has become a new market point of entry for business, where individuals can reach the appropriate people, have their questions answered, concerns addressed and opinions heard with immediacy. As competition between companies for attention on social platforms becomes fiercer, social consumers have grown more sophisticated and discerning about the people and brands with which they interact, says an eMarketer study. They expect their needs to be met instantly and professionally. As intermediaries, community managers are the primary communicators of a businesses’ social media acumen. Employers must empower them with the opportunity to seek out better ways of engaging target audiences through social media and the support which develops the confidence to speak up and bring forward-thinking ideas to the table.
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Meet Screenreach Interactive
September 19, 2011 by Francis Moran
We first encountered Screenreach Interactive and its founder, Paul Rawlings, several months ago when we featured Jon Bradford, the man behind U.K. startup accelerators The Difference Engine and Springboard […]
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‘My PR agency can’t write’
September 16, 2011 by Francis Moran
“I’ve just come to expect that my (public relations) agency can’t write,” was the astonishing admission I heard a few weeks back from a vice president at one of Ottawa’s larger technology companies who called us to see if we’d be interested in participating in an agency […]
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There is such a thing as bad publicity
September 15, 2011 by Linda Forrest
There’s a famous adage in our industry that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I beg to differ. Your PR resources are doing you a disservice if they fall into any of the following five categories.[…]
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Small Business Philosophy 101: Making waves in a sea of competitors
September 14, 2011 by John Craig
One thing which has guided Purple Forge more than anything else since our inception is our product philosophy. We develop mobile applications around a high-level concept called mobile community engagement. Sound catchy? Well, as it turns out, it is and has […]
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How B2B entrepreneurs can establish and access thought leadership using social media
September 13, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
I have discussed thought leadership here before, but never laid out just how important it is and the critical social media steps entrepreneurs can take to establish themselves as, and tap into the minds of, thought leaders in their industries […]
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Where is our blog going next?
September 12, 2011 by Francis Moran
Over the past six months, our Commercialization Ecosystem series explored what works, what doesn’t and what must change to get technology to market. We featured the perspectives of dozens of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers from across North America and the U.K. So what’s next? Starting next week […]
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If your company does something and you didn’t tell your marketplace about it, did it actually happen?
September 09, 2011 by Linda Forrest
Outbound news is just one aspect of a company’s PR program, but it’s an important one. While there are ways to generate coverage without making announcements, it’s likely that your company has plenty of newsworthy announcements to share with its marketplace […]
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Social Media Breakfast Ottawa: Sam Ladner and the mobile work life
September 08, 2011 by Alexandra Reid
At Social Media Breakfast Ottawa yesterday, Sam Ladner presented her research on mobile work life, which seeks to add to our current understanding of the smartphone, with a keen eye on their effects on the work/life balance, both practically and symbolically […]
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By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
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The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]