Ross McDonald | Banker | Strategist | CFO

Canadian Waste Recycling Expo

The 12th annual Canadian Waste and Recycling Expo will take place in Vancouver, Canada, on 28th/29th October 2009. The event strives to bring together various stakeholders - including equipment manufacturers, municipal/other buyers, site operators, policy makers and expert advisors - and is targeted as a Canada-wide, rather than BC specific, event.

In addition to the exhibition hall then two days of expert sessions are available. Free exhibition entry tickets are available via CWRE.

Clean West, a clean energy corporate finance firm, is positive about the waste to energy sector so will attend the event on Thursday 29th October.

BCIC Connect 09 event

Ross McDonald, President of Clean West, today will attend Connect 09, the annual landmark event of the BC Innovation Council, as a nominated technology leader within the clean energy / clean technology sector.

Connect '09 will bring together 500+ company executives, academics and entrepreneurs for a series of panel sessions, awards and a huge Structured Network session.

The Structured Network session will include a number of industry-specific network areas, at which a few local technology leaders will interact with and provide guidance to event attendees. Clean West encourages BC innovators and policy-setters to attend this commendable event. For those with interest in clean energy or clean technology - such as wind power, solar power, or biomass / waste to energy - then feel free to visit the clean technology stand in the Structured Network session to make an introduction. See you there.

Wind turbines

When we think of wind turbines, we visualise tall structures with long, vertical blades that stand in open fields or coastlines. However inventors are also targeting other styles of wind turbines that are designed to work in alternative locations, such as atop commercial buildings. Below are a few such innovators ...

Sweat energy

The list of clean energy generation ideas gets longer every day. One rather odd niche is 'sweat energy' ... using human physical activity to generate electricity ...

Brainstorming

Globalive, the Canadian telecoms firm that has grown like a rocket in the last few years, is a new entrant into the Canadian wireless telecoms industry that is currently dominated by dinosaur corporates with internationally uncompetitive services and policies that invoke rage with many consumers. As a insight into consumer attitude then Virgin Mobile, a recently launched virtual mobile operator, uses the rather odd phrase 'no rip-offs' as core to its marketing.

Having recently won, at cost of $442 million through government auction, a major slice of wireless spectrum then Globalive has announced a very clever, public brainstorming website - wirelesssoapbox.com. Though the website, Canadian citizens are encouraged to present ideas, voice opinions and provide feedback on their telecoms experience.

What a simply beautiful idea ...

TED.com - ideas worth spreading

TED.com is a remarkable website. It's compelling, insightful and its content is virtually guaranteed to make someone stop and think. TED.com provides free, streaming, video presentations by a wide variety of business, social and political leaders on important topics ... hence the strapline 'ideas worth spreading'. Think of it as recorded keynote speakers. To encourage video viewing by the public then TED.com presents the talks in easy categories ...

Tesco Property Market

People have been buying and selling residential property for a long time. So estate agents, or realtors, have a traditional business that has evolved incrementally over the years but strategic innovation limited. Perhaps the most significant change in recent years has been the widespread adoption of the internet within the property search process, through such companies as RightMove and Fish4Homes ...

Airline entrants

Transatlantic flights are lucrative for airlines. The London-New York route is estimated to be generate $1.4 billion annually. British Airways is the dominant incumbent (with 3,000 of total 7,000 seats per day). Virgin Atlantic is an established competitor, offering broadly similar service for a similar price. But several start-up airlines have emerged, with materially different value propositions ...

Biometric ATMs

Barclays Bank has announced that it will launch biometric-enabled ATM machines in the United Arab Emirates. The new ATM machines will use fingerprint scanning as a secure form of customer authentication. Barclays hope that the innovative new technology will reduce fraud.

Apple WWDC 2007 - strategic innovation?

Apple [Computer] Inc has just hosted its 2007 WorldWide Developers Conference.

There are many internet sites that provide detailed commentary on the conference but the main themes  from the conference are greater commitment to games; new functions for October 2007 release of OS X Leopard; Safari web browser for Windows and on-schedule release of iPhone. All interesting stuff to Apple fans, of which there are lots, but it is the iPhone imminent release that is of particular to those interest in corporate strategy as this new product represents a major shift in strategic direction for Apple.