TechPlace Celebrates a Milestone 2026 Annual Open House

On October 8, TechPlace welcomed Burlington’s innovation community to our 2026 Annual Open House & Innovation Showcase, and this year’s event had a little extra significance.

It marked our first Annual Open House since moving into our new home at the Robert Bateman Community Centre, bringing founders, partners, community leaders and supporters together to experience the next chapter of TechPlace.

And there was plenty to celebrate.

Our biggest startup showcase yet

This year’s Open House featured our largest exhibition floor to date, with 15 startups showcasing the ideas, technologies and businesses they’re building right here in our region and beyond.

The showcase gave attendees an opportunity to meet founders face-to-face, learn about the challenges they’re working to solve and see firsthand the range of innovation happening across the TechPlace ecosystem.

Creating those connections is a big part of what the Open House is all about. TechPlace brings entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, partners and the broader community into the same room, helping new relationships take shape and giving growing companies greater visibility.

Hosting the event at the Robert Bateman Community Centre for the first time made that especially meaningful. Our new location gives TechPlace new opportunities to connect entrepreneurship and innovation more closely with the broader Burlington community, while continuing to be a place where high-potential companies can connect, grow and build.

Introducing the first AI Catalyst Award winners

The evening also marked another TechPlace first: the announcement of the inaugural AI Catalyst Awards.

Created to recognize the people and companies using artificial intelligence to build businesses, transform organizations and create meaningful impact, the awards celebrated five leaders helping shape what’s next for AI in our community.

Congratulations to the inaugural winners:

• AI Startup of the Year: FloraTrack AI
• AI Transformation Award: AI Materia
• AI Community Impact Award: The Infinite CDO Advisory Ltd.
• AI Student Builder Award: Humanik Technologies Inc.
• AI Catalyst Award: Codalio

The first year of the AI Catalyst Awards gave us an opportunity to shine a light on the different ways AI is already being developed and applied across our ecosystem, from emerging startups and student innovators to organizations putting the technology to work in new ways.

We’re excited to continue building on that momentum.

Powered by partnership

Events like the Annual Open House are ultimately about community, and we’re grateful to everyone who joined us and helped make this year’s event our biggest yet.

A special thank you to our event partners, Innovation Factory and Angel One Investor Network, for their continued work supporting Burlington’s technology and startup community.

We’d also like to thank Innovation Factory, the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, and Brock LINC for partnering with us to bring the inaugural AI Catalyst Awards to life, along with our judges, Brian Lenahan, Pritam Ambekar, and Daniel Thanos, for lending their time, expertise and perspective to the selection process.

We were also honoured to welcome MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos, who presented Discover Burlington with a congratulatory certificate recognizing the evening and the work being done to support innovation and entrepreneurship in Burlington.

And, of course, thank you to each of the founders and companies who exhibited, shared their work and helped fill our new space with the energy that makes the TechPlace community what it is.

Our first Open House at Bateman was a pretty great way to celebrate how far the community has come, and an even better look at where we’re headed next.