Here is my recommended song for this post.

So we recently went on a class field trip. We went to the BC Tech Summit at the Vancouver Convention Centre. There was a day during the summit called Youth Innovation Day. The day involves many speakers, mentor tables, university presentation stations and a whole lot of fun.

We started off the morning morning hearing from the Honourable John Horgan. He talked about what the government of Canada is doing for the tech sector and youth that want to get into it. There are many initiatives to promote the tech industry as well as promote more and more jobs in the industry.

After John Horgan, a man by the name of Brent Bushnell. He is the CEO of a company called Two Bit Circus. The company is all about youth innovation. They host touring circuses where youth can come and showcase their work and the company also shows off some of their innovations. It’s a way for youth to get creative, learn engineering and provide a fun experience that promotes the tech sector.

Brent talked about how the company came about and some of the cool things they have done. Brent also talked about the ideaology of the company and presented the idea that he is following his passion, changing the world and solving/addressing a problem. He, and his company, are promoting creative problem solving in youth and increaseing the interest in technology and innovation.

I found his presentation interesting. It was really informative and made me think about the creative process and finding a solution to a problem. (Hmm it sounds a lot like Blue Sky)

After Brent Bushnell, the founder and CEO of Plastic Bank came on. David Katz is someone who lives locally in Vancouver and has created a world-wide company that is actively changing peoples lives. If you haven’t heard of Plastic Bank, it is a company that has set up locations in third world countries and provides a service to the people there. They accept plastic and give either money or nessesscary supplies for people, like cooking oil or a stove. They then take the plastic and send it to companies who use social plastics in manufacturing.

When David came on he talked about turning off the tap of plastic in the ocean. He said that the last thing he thinks humanity should do is remove plastic from the he ocean. He believes that plastic should be collected before it gets into the ocean and to do that Plastic Bank was created. He has locations set up in Haiti and a few other third world countries. They are also looking at expanding to the Philippines in the future.

I found his presentation very interesting as I have already heard about his company. (He is a scout leader with my group) It has grown a fair bit in the course of a year and I was really quite happy to see/hear more about what Plastic Bank is doing and the procès they went through to get to the point they are at.

After all of these speakers we began a rotation. We first started out at the Mentor tables. We were split into groups and got to talk to a person working in the tech industry. We also recorded it, so we, of course,  made some podcasts of the experience.

My mentor works for a company called Teck. They are a mining company that utilizes technology to create a sustainable mining procedure. The man I talked to works with creating an online map/interface of mining areas. He gets multiple data points and constructs a VR experience to see the proposed mine. The company can then use this to show the people living nearby the proposed mine as well as other people that would be involved with the mine. It was really interesting to learn about the mining industry and how technology is changing it, for the better.

After the Mentor Tables we went on a university tour. I talked to UVic and BCIT. I was mostly interested in Enviromental Sciences so I particularly asked about that but at BCIT I ran into someone who is with the faculty of Construction and the Enviroment. He is using drones to do geographical maps of areas that could be developed or are apart of planning. I found that really interesting. There are a lot of oppritunities in BC for environmental oriented jobs and university courses. There are also a lot of innovations going on the utilize technology to better do enviromental surveys, programs and other basic tasks to do with enviromental sustainability.

After the univeristy walk we went to another area with some more universities. They were handing out a lot of free  also had many more stations that talk about some of other programs that universities offer. There was one station for BCIT that covered their nursing programs. They even brought an Annie doll that they use to practice labour procedures.

After that that we had lunch and then there were more speakers. There was a professional wrestler, an entrepreneur (that plays Ultimate Frisbee) and a Team Canada soccer player.

Overall I found it a very enjoyable day. It was really inspirational and I really started to get excited about going to university and looking at different options, locally. There were a lot of inspirational speakers and one thing really struck home with me, follow your passions and don’t give up on them. It is the exact same as what I discovered in California. I am beginning to see that the idea of follow your passions is what’s driving the technology sector and almost every other sector as well. Following your passions is what makes the world work.