The PACT event that we attended just had a release from the Trade Commissioners out of the San Francisco office. It looks like some of our feedback — specifically, moving the “Boot Camp” programs of prepping companies for investment and pitches to regional locations in Canada — are going to go ahead. We’ll keep everyone up to date on how this program evolves, it looks like there are definite plans for a similar event April / May 2009.

Thanks Guillaume, Thierry, and the rest of the San Francisco and Palo Alto office teams for putting this event on. We’re looking forward to be involved in the regional Boot Camps as well. Full post of the results / press release after the jump.

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We just wrapped an invite only VC Forum event (Danny talked about it a month ago). I ended up Twittering a few comments during the day.

I think the general consensus from both pitching companies and attending funding sources (a mix of mainly VCs, banks, and some government options like the NRC) was that it was a good event. We’re continuing to show that interesting things are happening here in VC, and there are lots of good potential early stage or Series A companies making things happen.

As always, I would love more transparency, but some of that will only happen over time. I think it was rough on pitching companies that they didn’t know much about who they were pitching to, but this is something you have to get used to. Be ready with your story, believe in it, and be willing to say you don’t know, or it’s something you haven’t encountered yet. One thread that was common was companies stating clearly either how much they were looking for today, or outright saying they *weren’t* looking for funding until some time in the future. Definitely appreciated, and a good way to set the stage for keeping in touch with potential investors.

Thanks to Blakes for hosting the event at their firm, and to Gordon Smythe from Propel and other participants for pulling this together.

Lastly, aside from pitch events, it sounds like lots of companies are interested in weekly working lunches, such as the one that Igor from Handi Mobility suggested for tomorrow. Interested in weekly meetups with your startup peers? Leave a comment and we’ll see about setting this up on a regular basis.

P.S. Yes, Launch Party 4 last night was excellent. This is a super busy week (check out the vidfest buzz on Twitter!) so we’ll be doing wrap up posts as time permits. It’s almost time to ready up for both DemoCamp and Founders & Funders…