BC Tech Summit

Recently my class was very lucky to get the opportunity to go to the BC Tech Summit. The BC Tech Summit is an event where tech companies from all over North America come to show how technology is driving cross-industry growth and change, and how companies are emerging as global leaders in today’s data economy. Many extremely successful CEOs came to speak at the summit and share their stories of working in the tech industry. It is an extremely cool event and it is very hard to get into. It costs $999 for an adult to attend. We went on youth innovation day so we had to apply to go for free and we were accepted. I was very excited to go and I had a very fun day.

The day started off with us listening to a few speakers. One of our assignments for the day was to research two different speakers and take notes on their presentation. The first speaker I chose to research was David Katz, the founder Plastic Bank. Plastic Bank is a organization that allows people living in poverty to collect plastic and trade it in for money, items, or services. They then make the plastic reusable and sell it to companies to limit the making of plastic. In his presentation David Katz mentioned how removing plastic from the ocean is like trying to to mop water from an overflowed sink while the tap is still running. Way more plastic is being put in the ocean than is being cleaned out and we need to find a way to change that. His company is just a temporary solution that is trying to help this problem. Although this company seems like it’s cleaning our oceans and helping poverty it isn’t perfect. It is a profit company and David Katz puts all the profit in his pocket. If he really wanted to help he could use some of that money to with these problems more.

The other speaker I researched was Valerie Song, the founder of Ava Technologies. Ava technologies is a company that makes small indoor gardens that make growing your own foods easier and faster. They used technology from NASA to make growing your own food as simple as possible so everyone would want to do it. Her goal was to change the world and she might not have done that but she has made a difference. In her presentation she talked about how hard it is starting a company in the tech industry. There is lots of competition and 95% of the time the work isn’t very glamorous but she said it is all worth it in the end because of the rewards such as knowing that you are making a difference.

After the speakers in the morning we had the opportunity to sit down with some mentors from the tech industry and ask them some questions. I was at a table with a girl who works in entrepreneurship and a guy that works in medicine. I had many questions for both of them but we had very little time so I was only able to ask one questions. I was really curious about what it is like working in the tech industry as a women so that is the question I asked. I was able to record the conversation and I turned it into a podcast. It was very loud in there so the audio is hard to here but I tried to make it sound as good as possible. Here is my podcast.

After talking with the mentors we got to go to the university booths and talk to some schools about what programs they offered. I am interested in going into health sciences or medicine and there wasn’t a lot any of the schools their offered for me. BCIT has some cool programs for different specialties that kinda interested me. The part I liked about them was that you almost immediately get to start learning in a hospital which seems like a great way to learn.

Once our time was up at the university section we finally got to go upstairs to see the cool tech displays. There were tons of booths that were set up with so much cool stuff. I learned about a machine that can help disabled people walk, how you can grow veins to help sick people, and I saw my friend deliver a baby with a simulation doll. It was a very cool experience. After exploring for a little while we headed back downstairs for lunch then watched a few more presentations.

Going to the BC Tech Summit was an awesome experience. It was a little different than I was excepting but I learned so much about the industry and how it is changing the world. Tech is the future of this country and soon it will be apart of everything. The last task I had to do for the day was make a vlog. I took videos throughout the day then compiled them together. Here is my vlog of my day at the BC Tech Summit.