Local Community Advertising
The second annual #BCTECH Summit takes place in Vancouver next week and hosts are expecting more than 5,000 participants to show up. According to the Province, the event which runs from March 14th to 15th has already sold out.
"This is the tech event of the year,” said Amrik Virk, Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services.
About 50 people from Accelerate Okanagan are driving to the Summit next week. Among the 50 is Andrew Greer. He’s a program strategist with Accelerate Okanagan and he’s facilitating a panel discussion at the event.
“I have facilitated many times before but not an event this large,” said Greer.
His panel discussion is called Building for the Marketplace - Lessons in Transformation. It will host four speakers: Ryan Storgaard of Microsoft Canada, Rebecca Evangelou of Businesses Systems UBC, Lynette DuJohn of YVR and Geordie Rose of Kindred Al.
The Summit takes place at the Vancouver Convention Centre and will host more than 220 speakers from around the world. Along with showcasing technological creations, on the second day, the event has created space for 1,500 youth to participate in Youth Innovation Day activities.
"Made-in-B.C. technology and business acumen is gaining global attention, and the #BCTECH Summit is a phenomenal display of the strength of our sector," said Carl Anderson, president and CEO, B.C. Innovation Council.
In 2016, the #BCTECH Summit brought in an estimated $4 million in investments through B2B meetings, according to the Province. BC’s tech sector employment increased by 2.9 per cent between 2015 and 2016.
Accelerate Okanagan’s Andrew Greer said he’s not only looking forward to the Summit, but he’ll also be hosting a lunch-time learning session on March 16th. The day after the Summit, Accelerate Okanagan will co-host the Canadian Accelerator Summit in Vancouver.
``We have about 40 accelerators from Canada, US, and global who are coming in to share best practices and learn from each other,” he said.
The session will look at trends in the accelerator industry and various people from Accelerate Okanagan will be speaking on different topics. The Province also reported that tech workers in BC earn an average of $1,590 per week. That’s about 75 per cent higher than the average wage in B.C.
Local Community Advertising