Not too long ago my class and I went on a one day field trip to the BC Tech Summit. At first I had no clue to what it acutally was, but the more I learned about it the more intrigued I became. The BC Tech Summit, is almost like an exhibition where a few thousand people go to one spot in downtown Vancouver, and look at new forms of technology and how it is changing our world. Another cool part about is that entrepreneurs, and people like motivational speakers from generally BC, come to the Summit and talk about there expierences in life or more specifically with technology.
Of course, we were given assignments while we were there. One of the assignments was to listen and take notes on two of the speakers, after you were done taking the notes you would write about them and about there company. I chose to talk about David Katz, as I thought that his company was rather interesting. This is what I wrote about him:
David Katz and Plastic Bank
David Katz is the Founder and CEO of Plastic Bank. When he was just starting his company he made an appearance on Dragons Den in one episode. In that episode none of the Dragons gave him an offer as they thought that his company was a scam as it is not a not for profit company and it is made so that he is able to pocket a lot fo the money his company makes. David has spoken at many events, as he is said to deliver a “genuine paradigm shift that inspires his audience to see opportunity, where others see problems”. Now onto what his company actually does. HIs company makes it so that anybody can find plastic on the side of the street or wherever you might find it, and take it to a centre where you can exchange it for money or anything that is use to you look cooking fuel etc. It is supposed to empower recycling ecosystems around eh world and stop plastic from getting into and polluting our oceans, and at the same time it is supposed to help people living in poverty by making it easier to create a better future for themselves. “The Plastic Bank creates social and environmental impact in areas with high levels of poverty and plastic pollution by turning plastic waste into a currency”. Another problem with plastic bank is that he is not really getting rid of plastic in this world as he is just buying plastic off of one person and selling it to other company’s. So he essentially he is just moving the plastic from one place to another. After learning about David Katz and Plastic Bank, I think that he has a great idea, but I think he went the wrong way with it, and if he changed it in some way it could possibly help the world immensely.
The other person I decided to talk about was Brent Bushnell who is an entrepreneur for Two Bit Circus. This is what I had to say about him:
Brent Bushnell and Two Bit Cirucs
Brent Bushnell is the Co-Founder fo a company called Two Bit Circus. Two Bit Circus’ main focus is based on youth innovation. The company hosts “Circuses” for youth to come and showcase their work. That is not all that Two Bit Circus does, at these showcase events they also show off some of their own innovations. Bushnell’s company has created a fun way for youth to get creative and try something new, and gain skills that will help them later on in life. Brents reason for Co-creating this company is fully based off of following his passion. I think that following your passion is a great motivation to create amazing work. That is exactly what Brent and Two Bit Circus.
One of the other tasks we had was to look at the options for university’s while we were there. A few university’s showed up to the tech summit, including BCIT, UBC, and UVIC. I mainly talked to the person who was advertising for UVIC. The reason I chose to focus on them was the fact I didn’t know much about UVIC and to be completely honest I hadn’t put any of those university’s on my list. I wanted to hear what they had to say about UVIC. I still dont think I am going to go to any of those universitys as I have thought carefully about what universitys I want to go to. For the past couple of years I have thought about what Universitys I want to go to, currently I would prefer to go to Stanford, even though it is probably to expensive, and the acceptance rate is very low. My next option is McGill. The reason I chose it is, from my perspective it is a very good school, and it seems attainable for me. My third choice is University of Alberta. I chose that based off of the fact it has a fairly good engineering program that I am interested in. My fourth choice is UBCO, I chose that because I believe I can get into it without having to many issues, and it still needed to be decent distance from home as my parents want me to leave the general area of Vancouver.
The last assignment that we had to do while we were there was, to create yet another podcast. We had to interview a mentor who was at the summit to talk to youth about his company. I am not going to talk much about the person as I have a podcast that can explain everything. The person I interviewed was Dave Donaldson from Teck, which is a mining company.
Going to the Tech Summit was truly and eye opening expierence as it showed how quickly technology is effecting th world. It was given to me in many different examples such as entrepreneurs, and people in industry’s such as mining.