Canadian Space Commerce Association – An Industry Group to Promote and Support Canadian Businesses

Our next CSCA meeting is Thursday, July 4th, 2013 at the law firm of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP,  located at 199 Bay Street, Suite 4000, Commerce Court West in Toronto, Ontario.

This meeting is the CSCA annual general meeting. All members in good standing with the CSCA as of July 1st, 2013 are welcome to attend.

Meetings are called to order at 7:30 pm and the presentation begins at 8:00 pm sharp. If you’d  like to participate, please RSVP the meeting chair at meetings@spacecommerce.ca.

Recent speakers have included:

• Dr. Yaroslav Pustovyi, a former Ukrainian astronaut and STS-87 backup payload specialist, who talked about his NASA space shuttle training experience and discussed his perspectives on the changing role of the research astronaut in the new commercial spaceflight era (May 2nd, 2013).

• Eric Boyd from Hacklab.TO who discussed the HackLab movement and Canadian organizations like the Interaccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, the Kwartzlab Makerspace, the Makerkids non-profit workshop space for kids, Think|Haus, the Site 3 coLaboratory, UnLab and others. His presentation is available online here (May 2nd, 2012).

• Deepak Kaushal from GMP Securities who gave a quick twenty minute overview of how his company tracks investment  opportunities in Canadian space companies like MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) and COM DEV International (May 2nd, 2013)
  

• Rod Jones, the Executive Director of the Ontario Aerospace Council (OAC) discussed “dramatic growth, changing technologies, new competitors, complex supply chains and people shortages: what the Canadian aerospace industry sees ahead and how to win and grow in such a tempest.” His presentation is available online here (January 10th, 2013).

• Kieran Carroll, the VP Technology of Space Canada, who described a “useful and practical Labrador to Newfoundland stepping stone to space-based solar power” (January 10th, 2013).
  

• Laila Zichmanis, the CEO of Lumena Inc., who discussed the topic of brand management and how the science of marketing can impact the science and build the business of space. Her presentation is available online here (November 12th, 2012).

• Jonathan Beland, from Futron Corporation, who discussed the 2012 Futron Space Competitiveness Index and how Canada compares to other space faring nations (November 12th, 2012).

• Patrick Myles, the Vice President of Business Development and Communications for Teledyne DALSA, which, as outlined in the August 6th, 2012 press release “Teledyne Proudly Powers NASA’s Curiosity Rover,”  built sensors for the Curiosity rover out of their Quebec factory (September 13th, 2012).

• Richard David, the CEO of New York based NewSpace Global, which tracks 300 new-space focused companies with a focus on management, markets, capitalization, and technology for a variety of private investors and public funding organizations. His presentation, which provided an overview of his company and the metrics used to track newspace firms, is available online here. (September 13th, 2012).
  

• Jean-Marc Chouinard, from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), who discussed Canada’s contribution to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) with emphasis on the working group created last year to solicit commercial feedback on space debris, space weather regulatory matters, sustainable development on Earth and other items related to the “long term sustainability of outer space activities.” His presentation and the supporting documentation is available online  as part of the July 23rd, 2012 Spaceref.ca article “CSA Seeking Contributions for UN Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities.” (July 10th, 2012).

• Michael Hollinger, a partner with the law firm Heenan Blaikie LLP who practices in the area of securities, corporate and commercial law. He spoke on the topic of “Financing Space Business.” (May 10th, 2012).

• Scott Streiner, the Executive Director of the Federal Review of Aerospace and Space Programs and Policies (commonly known as the “Aerospace Review“), who gave a casual talk on the review mechanics and mandate for the  “comprehensive review of all policies and programs related to the aerospace/space industry to develop a federal policy framework to maximize the competitiveness of this export-oriented sector and the resulting benefits to Canadians” (March 8th, 2012).
  

• Kevin Stolarick, the Research Director for the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, who discussed the the role of sub-national factors (such as location, place and city-regions) in global economic prosperity and how they relate to the Canadian space systems industry and the larger aerospace industry (January 12th, 2012).

• Bryan Pilon, a project engineer for Cesaroni Technology who discussed the development of a novel Canadian built, stage-combustion aft-injected hybrid (SCAIH) propulsion system for a small rocket launcher (November 10th, 2011).

• David Vaccaro, program manager for Futron Corporation, along with several members of his team who discussed Canadian competitiveness in the international space and aerospace arena by referencing data collected for the recently published 2011 Futron Space Competitiveness Index (September 8th, 2011).

• Will Pomerantz, the VP of special projects at suborbital space tourism company Virgin Galactic and Stephanie Anevich, the Toronto based executive vice-president of Vision 2000, which is a part of the original Virgin Galactic accredited sales agent team in Canada (May 12th, 2011).

• Grant Bonin, a project manager with the  University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) Space Flight Laboratory (January 13th, 2011).

• Dr. Andrew Goldenberg, the CEO of Engineering Services Inc., (ESI) which has recently received three Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contracts for robotics development (November 10th, 2010).

• Robert Godwin,  the well known Space Frontier Foundation advocate and current space curator at the Canadian Air and Space Museum (September 16, 2010).

Our meetings are casual and provide the opportunity to meet business owners, scientists, activists and new contacts from within the space systems industry. After the meeting, we retire to a nearby establishment for more casual conversations and networking.