IBM Canada, in partnership with the Ontario Centres of Excellence and Communitech, has unveiled the IBM Innovation Incubator at Waterloo’s Communitech innovation hub.

The new incubator, which is meant to help startups scale and compete globally, is part of IBM’s Innovation Incubator Project, an initiative that was funded with a $24.75 million investment from IBM and $22.75 million from the Ontario’s Jobs and Prosperity Fund. IBM’s other innovation spaces are located at the Markham Convergence Centre, the DMZ, and MaRS.

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As the Republicans in Washington prepare to dig into the coming round of budget negotiations, their top priorities will include an systemic overhaul for U.S. taxes, which President Trump has characterized as "just about the highest in the world." But how much do Americans really pay compared with other nations? It may be less than you think.

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Technology is re-shaping the business landscape faster than ever. Moving from connected cars and homes to self-driving cars and smart environments, intelligent technologies are pushing us to innovate beyond traditional boundaries.

But is Singapore’s technology and innovation ecosystem—involving startups, incubators, accelerators, corporates, and venture capital investors—ready to harness the enormous potential of the future smart economy?

Solve — MIT’s initiative that brings together problem-solvers of all stripes to tackle the world’s pressing problems — has four new global challenges for 2017: brain health; sustainable urban communities; women and technology; and youth, skills, and the workforce of the future. Applications for those who have a solution to any of these challenges are due August 1.

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If you’re traveling in the United States, don’t expect to have great cell service. A recent study by Speedtest revealed the major airports with the best and worst cell service across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Central America. The verdict? There’s only one city in the states where travelers can expect fast service.

Not only is Kansas City on the cutting edge of urban technology improvements, but it’s now sharing its insights to help improve other smart cities around the world. In a press release, Kansas City announced that it is now opening up the gates on its smart city data. In its first batch of data, it will share smart city insights with leaders from 18 cities, two countries and five federal agencies.

Wouldn't it be great if there was one simple thing you could do to help you better prepare for retirement and make you feel more confident about your prospects for financial security at the same time? Well, there is: Put your retirement plan in writing. A recent Schwab report shows that people who have a written retirement plan were 60% more likely to increase their 401(k) contributions and twice as likely to stick to a monthly savings goal than people without such a plan.

We all have some preconceived ideas about the nature of entrepreneurialism. But, according to business master himself, Tony Robbins, starting a company or two does not an entrepreneur make. Financial savvy and business acumen may be enough to get a startup off the ground. But it takes a true entrepreneur to see beyond the creation of a project, propel past the daily managerial duties and take the all-important risks to achieve greatness.

The top-10 list of top venture capital firms that backed startups in the first half of this year has undergone a change with early-stage investor Blume Ventures racing ahead of two bigger investors. Also, a few firms dropped out of the list while some new investors made an entry. Watch the video to know more.

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Traditional investment process is filled with blind spots that lead to overlooked and undervalued companies, believes Deepak Menon, Regional Manager (Southeast Asia) at global VC fund Village Capital. The blind spots in India are as prevalent as anywhere in the world, despite it being a vibrant startup ecosystem with a lot of entrepreneur support organisations and VC activity, he said in an interaction with e27.

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Technology for identifying at-risk atrial fibrillation (AFib) patients was chosen as the winner of the inaugural Alexandria LaunchLabs Scholarship Award, which recognizes excellence in health care technology, entrepreneurship and business competencies. The technology, developed by a Mount Sinai researcher and entrepreneur, Ya-El Mandel-Portnoy, PhD, was selected from entries submitted by 26 of New York City's top academic entrepreneurs, who presented their work to investors and biopharma business executives at the 2017 NYC Life Science Innovation Showcase on June 13, 2017.

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It is almost universally acknowledged that in order to succeed in the 21st century, students must learn much more than the “three Rs” and basic computer competency. The term “21st century skills” is used often in educational circles to refer to a range of abilities and competencies that go beyond what has traditionally been taught in the classroom, including problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation. Others define the term as “information literacy, media literacy, and information, communication and technology literacy.”

I’ve been an entrepreneur for quite some years now, and I’ve learned that the single most important and satisfying thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to offer help to others. When I was just starting out with my current company, Chattypeople, I had some interesting offers to buy it, or merge the company. There were a few friends like VC David Blumberg and entrepreneur Oliver Roup who were able to give me really great strategic advice on the value proposition of the deal, and whether or not it was worth it. Even though I am a pretty seasoned entrepreneur, it was invaluable to have advice from objective entrepreneurs who could be that sounding board, and give time and energy in a truly helpful way.

Greetings from D.C.  Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, the U.S. and the U.K. are the top five “most innovative” countries in the world, according to the latest Global Innovation Index (GII 2017), an annual report produced jointly by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  The report assesses 127 countries using multiple criteria to determine ranking.  Rounding out the top 10 are Denmark, Singapore, Finland, Germany and Ireland.

CLEVELAND, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 15, JumpStart is teaming with some of its closest partners and collaborators for the third annual Startup Scaleup—an event that celebrates the growth of Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurial ecosystem, provides a place for a diverse range of ambitious entrepreneurs and small business owners to network and learn from one another and showcases the many resources available to help them grow their businesses.

After Mobile World Congress and IoT World earlier this year, there was a lot of buzz about 5G, smart mobility, general IoT, and smart cities. It feels like we’re entering the future, and the excitement is palatable.

Unfortunately, there are many soldiers on the battlefield without a plan.

Smart cities need an orchestration framework. The smart cities of tomorrow require more than simply deploying connectivity, sensors, and devices. Incrementalism will not serve cities well. Foresight and planning are necessary to build cities that are truly smart.

None of the Indian or Chinese cities features in the top 15 global cities of future list prepared by AT Kearney, an international business-consulting firm. In its new Global Cities 2017 report, the firm has ranked 128 cities according to their projected levels of potential to “attract and retain global capital, people and ideas in the coming years.” The report consists of two parts: a) Global Cities Index which ranks cities on the basis of their performance and the Global Cities Outlook which evaluates their potential for future. “Together, the Index and Outlook present a unique lens on the world’s largest and most influential cities and those primed to make a strong impact,” says AT Kearney. It adds that top cities identified are “positioned for continued growth and global influence in the future.”

Last year, Richard Laermer decided to let his employees work from home on a regular basis. "We hire adults, they shouldn't be tied to the office five days a week," said Laermer, who owns a New York-based public relations firm. "I always assumed that you can get your work  done anywhere, as long as you actually get it done."

Turns out, he was wrong.

Networking is at the core of open innovation and it is a socioeconomic process where people interact and share information to recognize, create, and indeed act upon business opportunities. We have all seen cases of collaboration that create effects which are at best additive, delivering a sum of the parts which is less than the sum of each of the individual components. OI 2.0 generates synergies and network effects rather than just additive effects. Synergy describes two or more entities interacting together to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

We may live in a digital world, but soft skills like communication, problem solving, collaboration, and empathy are becoming more valued than technology, says Paul Roehrig, chief strategy officer for Cognizant Digital Business, a business and technology service provider.

“People skills are more and more important in an era where we have powerful and pervasive technology,” he says. “It sounds counterintuitive, but to beat the bot, you need to be more human.”