Tuesday, September 29, 2026
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Victoria Conference Centre, 720 Douglas St, Victoria, BC V8W 3M7 (open in Google Maps)
$119.00–$229.00 CAD
Presented by Startup Canada
Featuring: Trieste Reading on LinkedIn
The Startup Canada Tour's second 2026 stop, and the last one before the national final. A full day for early-stage founders at the Victoria Conference Centre: keynotes, panels and workshops, an Ask the Expert Lounge where mentors take one-on-one questions, and an exhibitor floor of ecosystem and support organisations. Lunch is included with every pass. The day also runs a qualifying round of the Startup Global National Pitch Competition. Each stop sends its winner, with $8,500, on to the Grand Finale in Mississauga a month later, where the national winner takes $30,000. Pitches are three minutes with no slide deck, then three minutes of questions from the judges, and the audience votes a separate People's Choice award. Passes are split by who you are: a Startup Pass for founders and their teams under $1M in revenue, General Admission for service providers, mentors and investors. Trieste Reading, Chief Growth Officer at FrontFundr, is the first announced speaker, with the rest of the speakers and the schedule posted closer to the date.
Anu's Take
The detail that stuck with me is the pitch format: three minutes, no slide deck, bring the product if you have one. Somewhere out there a founder is on version nine of a deck that will never be opened in this room, which may be the most useful thing this event does all day. Victoria is the last qualifier before the national final in Mississauga, so whoever wins gets a month to work out what they actually said. If your pitch only works with the pictures, this is a good place to find that out.
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Published Tuesday, July 28, 2026 by Anu Jolliffe on LinkedIn
A day like this one is where your contact details get read before you do, which is the argument I made about what a free email address says to the people you want to work with.