Our network is our most valuable asset. Unlike other assets such as stocks and real estate, which tend to grow at a constant rate over a very long period of time, the value of our network grows exponentially as its size increases. Not only does it provide value to ourselves, but we in turn create value for each individual in our network. This value can be unlocked in monetary terms through business development, customer acquisition, or career development, as well as non-monetary terms through friendships, referrals, mentoring, and free advice.
To encourage myself and fellow Torontonians to participate in increasing the value of our networks, I have compiled the following list of technology and business networking events in Toronto. It is by no means comprehensive, but let me know if you find other interesting events and I will add them to this list.
Technology Networking Events
Weekly/Monthly Events:
hacklab.to – lots of events in Toronto’s first hackerspace
Toronto Geek Lunch – every Monday in downtown Toronto
Toronto Coffee & Code – coffee shop get-togethers organized by Joey DeVilla
Toronto Software Developers Lunch – monthly lunch organized by Kristan Uccello
Mobile Monday Toronto – first Monday of every month
Ajax Pub Nite – 2nd Monday of every month
Wired Wednesdays – 2nd Wednesday of every month
Rails Pub Nite – organized by Unspace, 3rd Monday of every month
Rails Project Night – monthly event hosted by Corina Newby
Refresh Events – Toronto Interactive Media Usergroup, 3rd Monday of every month
Toronto Flex User Group – monthly event organized by New Toronto Group
Toronto Java Users Group – monthly event
TASK – Toronto Area Security Klatch – last Wednesday of every month
Toronto Perl Mongers – last Thursday of every month
Third Tuesday – Canada’s Social Media Meetup
VizThink – visual thinking meetups organized by Ryan Coleman
PMI-SOC – Project Management Institute – Southern Ontario Chapter
Ad-hoc Events:
DemoCamp – un-conference meetings to demo tech projects
CodeCamp – a .NET community sponsored event
FlexCamp – Adobe Flex event organized by New Toronto Group
FacebookCamp – Facebook platform development
CloudCamp – Cloud Computing technologies
PodCamp – podcasting, blogging, and new media
ChangeCamp – open government
LifeCamp – a lifehacking event organized by Sacha Chua
StartupCamp – present your startup to other entrepreneurs
Founders & Funders – invite-only event for tech entrepreneurs and funders
Annual Events:
mesh – Canada’s Web Conference
FutureRuby / RubyFringe – awesome Ruby conference organized by Unspace
EnergizeIT – Microsoft’s annual event for Toronto’s IT community
Other Event Calendars:
TorCamp Google Calendar
TOGeekEvents Calendar
MSDN Canada
MaRS
StartupNorth
Upcoming
Linux Caffe
Business Networking Events
Rotman School of Management – a fusion of academic and business speakers
Economic Club of Toronto – Canada’s platform for policy makers and business leaders
Empire Club of Canada – one of Canada’s oldest and largest speakers’ forums
Toronto CFA Society – lots of speaker events for members and non-members
PRMIA – Professional Risk Managers International Association
CAIA Association – ad-hoc members-only events
GARP – Global Association of Risk Professionals
Toronto Board of Trade – engage with your peers and thought leaders
Toronto Talks – speaker events organized by John Klotz
Junior Chamber International – federation of young leaders and entrepreneurs
Other Groups:
Meetup.com
Facebook Groups
Posted in Events.
Tagged with Ajax, CAIA, CFA, ChangeCamp, CloudCamp, DemoCamp, ECOT, Flex, FlexCamp, FutureRuby, GARP, geeklunch, hacklab.to, Java, JCI, LifeCamp, mesh, Networking, PMI, PMI-SOC, PodCamp, PRMIA, Rails, Rotman, Ruby, RubyFringe, StartupCamp, TASK, TOGeekEvents, TorCamp, Toronto.
6 Responses
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DemoCamp as an annual event. Man that’s shameful on my part.
I guess I need to get off my ass and schedule another F&F. DemoCamp details are coming later today.
http://democamp.info
Hi Ray,
Excellent post. I’ve been to a number of these events, and they are excellent. Toronto has a vibrant tech community that loves to meet which makes us a closely knit family of technology enthusiasts.
If I may, I’d like to add our organization to the list under the Technology/Networking Events (Weekly/Monthly) list:
Refresh Events, http://www.refresh-events.ca/ – 3rd Monday of the month.
- Justin Kozuch
Founder, Refresh Events
Another one to add to this list is Third Tuesday Toronto (#TTT), organized by Joseph Thornley (@thornley). It’s a monthly meetup for PR folks. In fact, there’s a TTT tonight.
David, you mean you haven’t been doing this for 18 years? ;-) I’ve moved all the camps to a separate Ad-hoc Events section.
If I may add as well, the Toronto Perl Mongers (TPM) meets on the last Thursday of each month. It’s a laid back Perl user group with talks followed by libation. http://to.pm.org/
The Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference has held their annual conference in Toronto since 2002. We may be a slightly different and young crowd, but it’s also all about Technology~
Typically in January, this year we are held March 12-13th, 2009~
http://www.cutc.ca
Cheers,
Pek