In this Series of Ignite Your Venture, we are partnering with Intrepid Equity to bring you insights & discussions from industry experts. Whether you are a new start up, established business or a business simply looking at new areas of opportunity – we will be chatting about what it means to become successful from start to end. Hosted by Angie Lim, Channel Audience Manager for Microsoft Canada Partner Network.
Join us in this LIVE webcast as we will be presenting & answering your questions in real-time. To do so, please be sure to have Live Meeting installed on your computer prior to attending to ensure a seamless connection. Install a free version of Live Meeting here.
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 – 2-3 PM (EST)
Venture capital plays a key part in enabling entrepreneurs to help accelerate their businesses. At the same time, raising funds can be a laborious and intimidating task. In this session, you will gain insight into the capabilities and approaches that venture capitalists value the most. You will learn how to prepare a comprehensive growth plan, and how to approach and engage diverse sources of finance. You will hear a variety of views from key business leaders on how to best help you get the outcome you deserve – the funding you need and an ecosystem of support to help you make the most of it.
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 – 2-3 PM (EST)
In business, you are who you hire. Randy Street, co-author of "Who: The A Method for Hiring", a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best seller, offers a ground-breaking solution to your #1 business problem – hiring mistakes. In this webinar you will discover a simple 4-step method for hiring the right people that has helped its practitioners to achieve a 90% success rate, gain insights from exclusive interviews with more than 20 billionaires, 60 CEOs, numerous investors, and other thought leaders on the subject of hiring, and also learn the secrets of success for over 300 CEOs who participated in a University of Chicago study.
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 – 2-3 PM (EST)
Channel selection, deployment and execution represent a strategic minefield for many companies. This session will focus attention on the critical components of an effective channel engagement strategy. You will learn approaches that help you make the most of every dollar you spend in accessing and engaging customers. You will gain insight into effective methods for assessing which channels to use, and how best to use them. You will hear views from experienced entrepreneurs and channel builders about the most effective ways to drive deal velocity and scale – helping to contribute to the accelerated growth of your business.
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 – 2-3 PM (EST)
Generating and effectively managing leads, especially when resources are scarce, can be a real business roadblock. In this session, you will learn how to establish a strategic lead generation and management process that accelerates performance and that utilizes resources effectively, particularly in an entrepreneurial environment. You will also discover how to measure the real effectiveness of your lead generation efforts – so that you can ensure every dollar you spend contributes to revenue creation.
Microsoft’s Hack and Defend Workshop is a premium session focused on getting into the mind of a Hacker. During the course of this half-day workshop you will discover the tactics used to penetrate your PC, become aware of the most threatening viruses online, and learn how to protect yourself.
We will explore the Microsoft-based platform through a scenario that will demonstrate different points of view – from developer to IT Pro, from consumer to the information worker. From the client to the cloud, this fun-filled demo-intensive exploration will excite you about the possibilities of the Microsoft-based platform. You’ll see how to build next generation applications with technology like 
