Discover Tech, Discover People

Six years ago in a dark English pub, surrounded by oak paneling, one of Canada's top literature professors gave me advice I've followed terribly; "Read more than you write, and when you read poetry, read it out loud." Attending Discover Tech YYC on Friday I started to see in business, what he was trying to teach me about poetry.

Poetry and business are similar in my mind’s eye. Poetry is about patterns and rhythm in words. Business is rhythm and pacing of more complex information. It enables continuous discovery of how we all fit together so we can find new horizons of human flourishing.

I attended Discover Tech YYC with one main rule for myself; be present and authentic. I needed a job, so I went to a career fair. People are good, so I left there with hope.

First there was Robbie from Launchcode; "I know there are many things you can do, but what are you passionate about?" We quickly realize that although we connect on values and energy, their exact needs don't fit what I want to become world-class at. Freed by our honesty, we both move on to other candidates.

Garmin gave me a bell, but wasn’t hiring for my position. Helcim has engaging talent and a passion to make life easier for small merchants, but not quite the right fit for my expertise. A friend commends Attabotics for their culture, and while waiting to chat with them I strike up a conversation with Getty Images.

"We need a product manager to help us internationalize our search bar" says Matt, one of the key developers on the project. Immediately my interest is piqued. The community I researched in Nepal have the same word for green and blue; how might a programming team design the UX with ambiguity for different socio-linguistic biases? I vividly remember a village elder (pictured below), dictating the words. How could I apply those skills to the problem facing a multinational team? I explored the question with a few more members of the team, before moving on.

One of my side projects is organizing a TedX talk on why game design is the key to solving climate change, when I saw "rewards" as part of a company's poster, I knew I had to chat with them. Kudos is a platform that increases employee engagement through rewards and recognition. They have discovered that long-term team empowerment comes less from win/lose competitive rewards, and more from thoughtful recognition. Imagine how much better the world would be if people felt truly inspired to be their best selves at work. Kudo's doesn't need my specific skillset, but I love their vision and wish them the best.

Technology isn't exciting because it is something new, it is exciting because it can do something very old better. Life exists because carbon atoms have capacity to bond with 4 different elements simultaneously. Silicon similarly enables bonds with 4 different elements. Technology is incredible because of the bonds it enables between us. Life wouldn't exists without collaboration between elements, and technology scales collaboration like nothing else. That is the new energy taking Calgary by storm, I feel it each moment at the event, as I move to my next conversation.

Technology isn't exciting because it is something new, it is exciting because it can do something very old better.

Userful has made it easier for organizations to scale visual information by linking screens. Ever wondered how fast-food organizes the information on their visual menus, or how industrial operations control critical information flows? The answer usually is, with a lot of headache. Userful makes that bundle of complex servers, cables and applications much simpler. At their team I'd be able to dig into the information visualization needs for a variety of business sectors, and weave it into an intuitive product for their customers. It would be great to apply the passion for data-science I discovered in PwC, but haven't been able to fully integrate in my career.

It's been an hour-and-a-half of conversations, and I'm thirsty. I move off in search of some water and find something better; a game. Before long raucous laughter and competitive grunts are echoing as three new friends and I dance a plastic ball across the ping-pong table. Besides being excellent players, they also happen to be technology recruiters. We discuss some potential opportunities, and I resume touring Calgary's hard-hitting tech industry.

"Oil and Gas will be booming again soon, and we desperately need good people," says the director of Long View, a company I have a long-standing affinity for. "Our team enables a variety of businesses to apply machine learning in a way like never before," says the team at Alta ML. "Our company is launching new code each day, and making it much easier for small businesses to manage their fleets," says a lead developer at Filip.

The tech industry in Calgary is booming, in part thanks to these two men. Brad Zumwalt has been a critical investor in multiple companies, and gathers key information on the local tech scene. Craig Elias has inspired hundreds of entrepreneurs and coached an undefeated record of pitch wins at the Inventures summit. "Where Calgary really lags behind," says Brad, "is in tech companies of 1-5 individuals, our per-capita number is lower than most Canadian cities." We've got energy, and a whole lot of room to grow.

"Where Calgary really lags behind," says Brad, "is in tech companies of 1-5 individuals, our per-capita number is lower than most Canadian cities." We've got energy, and a whole lot of room to grow.

But is that momentum helping everyone? Is technology just a tool to help those with more, have more while those without live more miserable lives, trapped in tighter information loops? Maybe the internet is just a cacophony designed to distract us from the reality that our planet is dying, wealth inequality is growing, and millions of families are being displaced by needless war. Research shows only four things have ever solved income inequality in society; war, famine, disease and violent revolution. None of those sound good to me.

Near the end of the day I have an in-depth conversation with a director at Benevity. We talk about impact, product management, ESG and engineering. Benevity is one of Calgary's big tech success stories, but it is a particular kind of success. Success at helping large corporations share not just their profits, but decisions about their profits with a wider group of people. Freedom exists at scale in our complex society because we created mechanisms (such as the rule of law) to democratize decision making. The journey in that direction has been in fits and starts (how long it took women to vote, and for minorities to get some representation is painstakingly slow), but I think we all know it is the right direction to move in. It’s an honour to have global leaders in corporate impact based here in Calgary.

Our world isn't getting simpler, and the only thing growing faster than the scope of our problems is each person’s access to information. Environments like Discover Tech YYC enable the collaboration we need to synthesize that information into practical solutions. Six years ago I won one of Canada's top academic awards, but chose to pursue business because I felt it would enable a different kind of learning. The learning that can only come through failure. I've successfully failed. Perhaps it's because I didn't spend enough days like Friday, doing nothing more than present and authentic conversation. Now that I've done my rush of writing my own business poems, it's time to step back and admire other's work, out loud and with the enthusiasm that this isn't a journey anyone has to do alone.