Canadian Music Week is thrilled to announce the “CMW Startup Launch Pad”, a pitch competition for new businesses that are based in, or connected to the Canadian music industry. The competition will take place during this year’s conference on Thursday, May 5th at the Sheraton Centre Hotel. “The conference is dedicated to further developing the Canadian music industry, and startups play an important role in that” states Danya Dixon, VP of Programming. The competition will offer startups an opportunity for exposure and investment, as well as advice from top industry professionals.
The event will be hosted by Darryl Ballantyne, CEO of LyricFind, and will feature merchant banker and Dragons’ Den panelist Michael Wekerle, Managing Director of Walden Venture Capital Larry Marcus, IAEL President Jeff Liebenson, Director of Mediaclarity Ltd Jeremy Silver, and Managing Partner at TAG Strategic Ted Cohen as judges. The prize package will include but not limited to:
* $10,000 cash from LyricFind and SOCAN
* Legal services from Liebenson Law
* Consulting services from TAG Strategic
* Personal, one-on-one meetings with each judge on Day 2
* A 15 minute presentation to the industry during the Global Creators Summit on Day 3
* Personalized post-conference email blast from CMW announcing the winner and company overview
* All startups selected to participate will receive CMW Conference passes and will be included in pre-show marketing materials.
To participate, startups must be based in Canada or be connected to Canada in some way. Applications will be accepted electronically; the deadline for applications is March 4, 2016. Startups must be in their beginning stage. All applications will be reviewed by the Startup Selection Committee including Darryl Ballantyne, Michael McCarty, Karen Allen, and Danya Dixon.
