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… 

Quick post to remind everyone to check out Vidfest and The Vancouver International Game Summit.   Looks like it’s going to be a great event this year.  I’ll be there on Saturday to pitch Strutta at the Pitch ‘n’ Play part of the event.

A note to the organizers: We accidentally scheduled Launch Party on the same night as the Opening Reception.  I apologized to Adam, and explained that the reason we chose May 21st to host Launch Party was because of the VCs that would be in town for the VC Road Trip. Maura, Dimitri and I promised to pay more attention in the future….. Hey maybe we should have a unified calendar… err techvibes does I guess, but VIDFEST is not on there.  Besides, I told Boris Wertz that I wont use it until they break up with their 1999 web design?  That said, their blog is a great resource for the city and should be read daily if you want to know anything about the tech scene in Vancouver.