A recap and wish for 2009,

As another year turns the page, fundfindr.tv has been pleased to present some of the top minds in investment, entrepreneurship and events for your viewing pleasure this past year.  Our mission has always been to democratize venture capital and venture success.  Key to this goal is sharing great content - over 153 posts - with you, our viewers.  Herewith, some of these Top posts and videos from the past year.

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Interviews:  Over 45 exclusives including highlights from The Funded’s Adeo Ressi.

Adeo was definitely one of the amazing people we met - no bullshit and committed to  helping leveling the playing field between the ideas and money.  In his New Year’s message he announced great plans for Thefunded.com next year - ping us and we’ll send you his message.  We also highly recommend you check out and register for the site if you are a CEO.

Other no nonsense types with valuable advice, we had the pleasure of featuring included: Robin Chakrabarti who started the year as a key man in The Dragon’s Den, Bootup Lab’s Danny Robinson, Super blogger John Chow and Miss 604 Rebecca Bollwitt. Robin shared some success snacks with our viewers and ended up joining Boston Pizza International CEO Mike Cordoba in launching a new Investment company targetting mid-market firms with high growth potential.  No doubt, we’ll hear much more from Robin in the coming year.

Danny launched his latest venture Strutta as a destination video competition’s site, transformed it to an API licensing model all while launching an exciting new Vancouver-based incubator Boot-Up Labs geared to build real companies first and attract VC later.

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Straight from the investor’s mouth: We gathered pearls and nuggets from leading Angel Fund managers and investors like Basil Peters, Mike Volker and Yaletown Venture’s Ralph Turfus.  The video thumbnail above  features Part III of the exclusive fundfindr.tv interview with Mike Volker on Angel funds and how they are structured for success.

Webisodes and Features: Our first Webisode set the tone on our mission to educate entrepreneurs and our many features including a growing roster of top expert speakers like Dr. Geordie Rose, Barry Jinks and Eric. T Petersen ended the year with a big finish.  Look for their excellent knowledge sharing and upcoming presentations by Darrin Barefoot at IMC, Mossadiq Umedaly at VEF and many more on backbonemag.com and fundfindr.tv.

Can’t miss Events: Way too many to cover them all but fundfindr.tv was there capturing the excitement at: New Ventures BC, New Media B.C’s Fusion Forum, Small Business BC, Enterprize 2008, VEF Momentum, VANTEC, Massive Tech Show.  Riiplay some of the excitement here and look for much more in 2009.

fundfindr News: Like many of our subjects, fundfindr Media also transitioned through the year.  Stay tuned for much more Knowledge on Demand, top opinion leaders and experts captured on video as we put finishing touches to the upcoming launch of the Riiplay.tv Alpha - covered here on Techvibes.

We are convinced that in today’s economy Knowledge is Power and we’re committed to helping you get it.  Register for an Alpha invite at www.riiplay.tv today.  Just hit the riiplay button and provide your email.

So, set your goals high, attack the year with optimism,  reflect on  hits and misses from the past year and learn as much as you can to prepare yourself for success.  Make 2009 your best year ever!  We will.

Thanks for watching,

Bret Conkin and the fundfindr.tv team

Been a busy month for events so far, fundfindr.tv captured the excitement at VEF Momentum’s launch, a new initiative under the Vancouver Enterprise Forum banner to promote youth entrepreneurship.

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Great presentation by Dr. Geordie Rose of D-Wave Systems at the VEF Momentum Launch last week. Well worth a look. Nuggets include: Focus on Cascadia, Think big - like Quantum computers in Geordie’s case - and other must have knowledge for you to succeed in the hard art of fundraising your venture.

Not enough incentive? Well consider that D-Wave just closed a multi-million dollar financing round. Learn from those that do! So tune in, follow these steps, be persistent and get out there and do it!

Need to capture your event? Whether your needs are videography, photography, transcription, promotion or webcasting let fundfindr Media Services know at 604.250.9666 or info@fundfindr.tv. We can make sure that your event never ends…

Busy week with September ramping business up again.  Monday was Small Business BC funding your small business presentation and Thursday and Friday we are covering two hot events both coming soon to fundfindr.tv!  Got an upcoming hot event, let us know at news@fundfindr.tv.

The Internet Marketing Conference is being held Thursday and Friday at the Coast Plaza Hotel and fundfindr is pleased to be a Bronze sponsor.  I think there are still some tickets available if you act fast.   Nice job by IIMA president John Hossack and team helping bring an event of this calibre to Vancouver as it has previously been offered in Helsinki, Barcelona and Stockholm.   Should be a great line-up of experts including keynote Eric. T. Peterson on Web Analytics, Yahoo’s Bob Page (I trust this is the right Bob Page not this one, Social Media Marketing Success Stories with Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, and our favourite Victoria Secret’s Jonghee Jo on Making Testing Sexy! Look for upcoming webcasts of the conference and maybe a few tweets during (follow fundfindr on Twitter) at fundfindr.tv!

Simultaneously, our fundfindr Media Services team is covering the excitement of the Start Up Rock Stars - Top 10 finalists competing in the Oral presentation of the New Ventures BC (NVBC) competition.  The finalists include Echoflex Solutions, Pure Lignin, Sound of Motion Technologies (way to go Vlad) and GR Building Materials who we videotaped at VANTEC (congrats to Geoff).   Video profiles of the Top 10 are coming to fundfindr.tv so stay tuned.  For more info, check ou the NVBC blog.

It seems like everywhere you turn - mass media, blogs, conferences (like London’s Social Media Conference pictured here) all around the world - the story is consistent. Your business, large or small, needs to harness social media to ensure success in today’s wired world. A recent poll even suggests that almost half of the business leaders polled felt that social media was more important than mass media. Yet many of those same business leaders acknowledge that they are less familiar with social media than their customers. Are you ready to compete in this arena?

Social media, like YouTube and Facebook, have transitioned from being ignored by mass media, to being studied, to being glamorized and finally partnered with by mass media. The reality is clear in media studies, increasingly your customers can be reached online or mobile. Many of the fastest growing companies in the US are embracing this move - here are Ten Tips if you are behind the adoption curve.

1. Get on the bus. Your competitors are. In this race of word-of-mouth, don’t get left behind.
2. Listen to 20-somethings. The generation of social media early adopters and users. Tune in.
3. Start. Launch a YouTube channel, Twitter account and Facebook group for your product or business.
4. Blog. It’s easy. There are an estimated 8000 new blogs daily. Make sure you’re in the mix.
5. Learn. Follow resources like fundfindr.tv or join groups like the International Internet Marketing Association.
6. Aggregate. Set up an aggregator like Netvibes to ensure you get the blog news you need.
7. Listen. Ensure your customers can talk to you via comments, video, or chat not just phone and email.
8. Get Alerts. Google Alerts is a convenient, free way to pick up your brand in the blogosphere.
9. Collaborate. Contribute to or comment on other sites or blogs to drive exposure and collaboration.
10. Test. Use Google Analytics or hire pros to help you navigate the social media marketing arena.