As a university student, International Startup Festival founder Phil Telio studied civil engineering and learned how to build bridges and buildings. After meeting an inspirational startup founder, Phil was invited to build some virtual bridges instead.  “Like a lot of people, I started out working for tech companies working 90 hours a week, sweating it along, making a lot of mistakes and working on someone else’s dime until I finally got back and started running my own game again.”  Today, Phil is the mastermind behind the International Startup Festival, a Canada-based startup festival for entrepreneurs around the world. Phil and his team are working to expand StartupFest to international stages and make connections between Canadian startup communities and startup communities around the world.  In this week’s #StartupPodcast, Phil talks about startup conferences and festivals, why it is important to connect with your local startup community, and what to do if you’re nervous about networking. Learn how you can maximize startup events to help grow your business and create profit as well as social impact.