Getting entrepreneurs focused on HANA at the Montreal International Startup Festival

On July 15-18, SAP’s Startup Focus team, together with Labs Canada, will be descending on the 2015 International Startup Festival in Montreal, where our goal is to connect with new startup communities in a region buzzing with innovation and entrepreneurial activity. This is part of our global effort to get on the ground and start more conversations with exciting startups around topics such as Big Data and the Internet of Things.

Startup Focus’ mission is to show what SAP HANA, our in-memory database management system, can do for smaller, growing businesses, shifting the perception that SAP software is exclusively for large, established enterprises. To do this, we provide access to technical HANA experts, marketing and sales support, and our global community of customers, partners, investors and Big Data thought leaders.

Startup events and festivals are excellent opportunities for us to communicate these benefits to entrepreneurs. Thanks to Labs Canada ‘s sponsorship of the Montreal event, we’ll be in the Data Tent covering themes such as ‘Harnessing Goliath’ (startups using enterprise best practices for success), the investment scene in Montreal, and building Internet of Things solutions, providing startups with workshops on data, creativity and HANA enablement.

There will also be a real-world HANA success story on how the Société de transport de Montréal has used HANA and Big Data to improve transportation in Montreal – a talk which SAP is co-hosting with the CIO of the organization.

As a precursor to the festival, local startups  are participating  in  an inaugural ‘open dataset challenge’ co-sponsored by Startup Focus, MTLDATA, Montreal Hacking Health, and Montreal’s Smart City Accelerator InnoCite. Teams will undergo a vetting process and once selected, they will be invited to pitch their solutions to a panel headed by Startup Focus, local community partners and SAP Labs Canada executive leadership, the last of which is fast becoming a key presence  in the Montreal startup scene.

As a program, Startup Focus seeks   to discover and empower new and unfamiliar startups in Montreal and beyond with SAP technical resources, and liaisons into the extensive enterprise landscape. To communicate these core benefits and the elements of success, Startup Focus members  SearchYourCloud and Outside IQ  will be on present during the festival to demo their solutions, provide the pulse of their respective industries, and play the role of ambassadors to startups keen to learn more.

Click here to find out more about SAP’s global Startup Focus program, and if you want to get in touch to find out more about our involvement at the International Startup Festival.