You won’t find your next co-founder by hiding away in that basement. Look away from the screen and meet other humans face to face at the Startup Festival’s Tent Expo.

The International Startup Festival isn’t just about pitches and speakers. The idea being to cater to the various very specific needs of start-ups, we’re creating a lineup of 20-or-so tents to serve as functional meeting points, places to go when you’re looking to connect with peers, mentors and experts.

Each tent will be focusing on a particular area of interest, whether you’re seeking new talent, advice, funding, exposure or knowledge.

Because let’s face it. You won’t meet your next co-founder hiding in your basement.

Our first instinct was to seek tech tools to make these connections happen, but we thought that in this case, good old physical spaces would work much better than a fancy app. So put that smartphone back in your pocket and check out the list of confirmed tents below.

More will be confirmed soon and you’ll find full details for each tent in the Startupfest event programme on site.

Each tent is championed by a startup-savvy anchor; if you’re interested in collaborating with one of these champions, leave a comment below or send us an email and we’ll put you in contact with the right Champion.

Co-Founder Tent

Champion: Heri Rakotomalala

A place where co-founders can meet and find their better half, collaborate with those from other companies and learn more about what makes a successful team.

Mentor Tent

Champion: Ian Jeffrey of FounderFuel

FounderFuel’s elite group of serial entrepreneurs, investors and senior executives are holding office hours to help you with your startup. Schedule yourself 1-1 time at the Mentor Tent for a quick dose of rapid-fire feedback, advice and tough love from seasoned veterans.

Talent Tent

Champion: Phil Gauvin of Matchfwd

We know it’s a huge festival with a jam-packed program. The #TalentTent is set up for you to spark connections with designers, developers, entrepreneurs, thinkers, moneybags, sorry, investors. Be sure to post your info on the Talent Wall, to check out professional opportunities shared by startupfest participants on matchFWD’s job feed, and to listen to live interviews with speakers.

Office Hours Tent

Champion: Katherine Johnsen of Startupfest

The Office Hours tent will offer a chance for attendees to drop in and talk with some of our presenters and advisors. It’s an opportunity to bounce ideas off one another, get advice, and expand on some of the topics being talked about.

Grandmother Judges Tent

Champion: Fiona Gilligan of Arranmore Holdings Inc.

We don’t believe in doing things the same old way every time. At Startupfest we actively seek out judging panels that have valuable insight to add to these startups that are outside of the ordinary. Grandmothers are one of the fastest growing demographics of the Internet and teenagers are the highest users, swing by each of their tents to win their stamp of approval.

Teenage Judge Tent

Champion: Kyle Seaman of High Score House    

Same idea as the Grandmother Judges Tent

Investor Tent

Chair of the Investment Prize: Chris Arsenault from iNovia Capital

If you want to make sure you’re in the running for the $50k Investment prize, find a judge walking around the event identified as such, or find them at their base camp. To learn more about the $50k prize click here.

Cleantech Tent

Champion: Max Finder of Inerjys

The Cleantech Tent will feature some local, and some not so local, clean technology hardware startups. There will be some very cool prototypes on display, and the tent will be a breath of fresh air from the web and software feel of the rest of the event. Most importantly, this tent epitomizes the Startupfest theme of ‘Startups that matter’ as they are attempting to clean up and change the world.

Mobile Tent

Champion: Martin Dufresne of Alliance Mobilite

The Future of Mobile is the Future of Everything! Come see what’s hot, what’s coming and who’s doing what in Mobile. Meet and connect with homebrew and international mobile startups and beyond!

Women in Tech Tent

Champion: Sandy Sidhu of Montreal Girl Geeks

Run by Montreal Girl Geeks, this tent will offer the opportunity for startups to arrange meetings with the female speakers at festival, with each 2-hour sessions covering various topics.

DOer Tent

Champion: Meghan Grady of Twilio

A DOer is a particularly driven individual who takes action, picks up tools available to them and builds something special. Learn how we enable our developer communities and how you can use powerful tools to build your startup. Get a demo and pickup some swag from Twilio and SendGrid.

Startup Canada Tent

Champion: Christian Beauclair of Microsoft BizSpark  

In partnership with Startup Canada, the first-ever, entrepreneur-led, national movement to enhance the nation’s competitiveness and prosperity, come learn about Microsoft BizSpark membership perks for startups! Sign up to get access to Microsoft software through a no-charge MSDN Subscription for Microsoft Software and Tools (including Windows Azure); benefit by participating with your peers online and in person; learn how you can connect with startups, investors, mentors and partners in your area! Plan to stop by BizSpark Booth and enter to win cool prizes exclusive to Startup Festival attendees.

BDC Tent

Champion: Charles Morand of BDC

The BDC tent is the place to come to meet the BDC Venture Capital team, either during our formal office hours or informally throughout the Festival. As one the largest and most active early-stage venture capital investor in Canada, BDC is always eager to meet the nation’s budding entrepreneurial talent.

Fasken Martineau Tent

Champion: Jean-Nicolas Delage of Fasken Martineau

Fasken Martineau is proud to launch its Start-Up program during Startupfest. Come and visit our tent during office hours to learn more about the program and enter our contest for a chance to win a one-year membership in the program. Outside of office hours, we are pleased to lend our tent to anyone who needs a space for meetings – come on in and make yourself comfortable.

Don’t wait to be part of the Fasken Martineau Start-Up community!

New York City Tent

Champion: Meghan Murphy of Twilio

Featuring NYC startups from the DOer Express, swing by this tent to catch their pitches and demos. The DOer Express is a bus ride from NYC to MTL with a full suite of festival prep: mentoring, technical advising, and entrepreneurship talks. Apply to join the DOer express.

Ontario Tent

Champion: Brydon Gillis

A number of startups attending the festival will have traveled together (and done some pre-conferencing!) on a private train car from Ontario. Expect a showcase of Ontario-based startup talent, and check the posted schedule to plan your visit!

Quebec City Tent

Champion: Coach Davender Gupta and Sébastien Tanguay of Québec International

 The Ville de Québec tent showcases our emerging startup community’s strengths in gaming, mobile, business productivity and applied technologies, as well as the new FastTrac TechVenture startup bootcamp.

La tente de la Ville de Québec présente notre communauté émergente de startups et leurs forces dans les domaines tels que le gaming, le mobile, la productivité des entreprises et la technologie appliquée, ainsi que le nouveau bootcamp FastTrac TechVenture.

Valley Tent

Champion: David Nault of iNovia Capital

 C100 is a non-profit, member-driven organization dedicated to supporting Canadian technology entrepreneurship and investment. C100 is comprised of a select group of Canadians based primarily in Silicon Valley, including executives of leading technology companies, experienced startup entrepreneurs and venture capital investors.  C100 members are passionate about leveraging their collective experience, expertise and relationships to help mentor and grow a new generation of successful Canadian-led technology companies.

Montreal Tent

Champion: Gabriel Sundaram of Notman House

Showcasing Montreal’s homegrown talent, if you’re interested in seeing the best the city has to offer, this is the place to stop by. Meet with a wide variety of local startups and learn more about the Montreal startup community including the Notman House Project. See the schedule they’ll be posting to find out specifics of who will be there at what time.