By Francis Moran

I had the chance last Thursday to attend for the second time one of the best networking events I know, Montréal’s StartUpCamp. I tweeted the highlights of the company presentations, as did some others, and you can see them here.

Because it constitutes my main business-development strategy, I am a relentless networker and let me tell you, there are several things that sets this event apart from many others I attend.

First is the energy in the room, which derives perhaps from its staging at the terribly hip Société des arts technologiques, located at the very epicenter of arguably Canada’s hippest city, or maybe from the funky lighting, house music and well-patronized bar. Granted, the noise level is not the most conducive to meaningful conversation, but even this somewhat hearing-impaired old guy managed to get by okay.

Or maybe the energy is simply organic to StartUpCampMontréal itself. With more than 400 attendees, Thursday night’s crowd was a cross-pollinating mix of about 70 gurus (the term its organizers use to indicate the more experienced business and investment people who help the presenting companies hone their pitches), 250 entrepreneurs, 50 students and 30 others.

Second is the format, which is a bit of democamp-meets-dinner-speaker. Five companies, selected by a jury of gurus, each presents for five minutes followed by questions and answers. This, the fourth edition of StartUpCampMontréal, saw about 30 companies apply for one of the five slots. The company presentations are book-ended by a pair of short, lessons-learned-style keynote speeches from entrepreneurs who bring some from-the-trenches wisdom to the night.

Third, the organizers work hard to make this a thoroughly interactive networking event. Phil Telio and Vincent Guyaux of Embrase are the main hands behind StartUpCampMontréal, although they have attracted a lot of other helpers. From the perspective of this sponsor, they settled on a brilliant tactic to encourage attendees to connect with us: they gave us a stack of drink tickets and then pointed each of us out at the beginning of the event and encouraged attendees to come and cadge a free drink from us. I can tell you it started a lot of conversations for me.

One of the things that impressed me most at the previous StartUpCampMontréal, which we also sponsored, was the open and receptive nature of the audience. Maybe that, too, is a Montréal thing because at most other venues, I’m the guy nosing into a group of people with my hand out in friendly introduction; here, it was the other way around. Several people approached me simply to thank me for our sponsorship and three became solid business leads. One of those leads came up to me again at last week’s event and then insisted on introducing me around to everyone he knew there. It was phenomenal.

We already have one superb client from Montréal, Xsilva Systems, whose suite of Mac-based retail tools is winning with high-concept retailers in both the bricks-and-mortar and online economies. It’s a city I’m always happy to spend time in, and not just for the incomparable smoked meat at Schwartz’s. Judging from what I saw Thursday, it’s fertile ground for us.

What about StartUpCampOttawa?

As a final note, I don’t know why Ottawa doesn’t have a similar event. We have camps galore, and an active and inter-networked start-up community. Next week’s Founders and Funders dinner is also a pretty good way for entrepreneurs and investors to come together, albeit a whole lot less structured than StartUpCamp. If there are others in Ottawa interested in exploring how we can bring this event here, I’d be delighted to hook up with you. And Phil Telio, the main organizer of Montréal’s event, has repeatedly expressed to me his interest in also helping make it happen here.

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