Entrepreneurs storm Parliament Hill, Whistler wins Google Award, eBay trials touchscreen storefront

Every Monday, CommerceLab brings you a roundup of all the gamification, user experience and interactive display news that’s fit to print. (Or the stuff we liked best, anyway.)

This week, we’re recovering after an exciting Global Entrepreneurship Week that ran from November 18-24. The highlight was last Thursday, when a crowd of entrepreneurs gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to celebrate Startup Canada Day with a series of keynotes, parties and discussions with elected officials to further the national entrepreneurial agenda.

Big news for proponents of the Internet of Things: the appliance juggernaut General Electric announced a partnership with Quirky, a startup that specializes in connecting household objects online. Their new platform, Wink, aims to connect your smartphone to everything from your washing machine to your egg tray—and with the new injection of GE cash (some $30 million), the company hopes to roll out more than 30 products over the next five years.

And for proponents of both the Internet and things, good news out of San Fransisco: eBay is launching a trial touchscreen storefront in an actual, bricks-and-mortar mall. This is the first offering of its kind for eBay, which calls the touchscreen projections “connected glass” and lets users order select products right in the mall (although payment happens on the relative security of their own smartphones). The aim is to catch shoppers as they head from the Gap to the food court, removing barriers between in-store and online shopping.

Also, Google Canada announced this week that Whistler is the recipient of their much-coveted (we can only assume) eTown Award for 2013. The award is presented to the Canadian city that best uses the Internet and online tools to grow their brand and attract investment.

And finally, Fast Company has rounded up some of the coolest smart watches on the market right now. Holiday wish-list making officially starts today.