FUSION
People. News. Information.
SATHISH BALA
VOLUME 18, ISSUE 1
Harnessing the power of digital connectivity
2021 Group Publisher Sanjay Agnihotri
By Ramya Ramanathan
Editor Ramya Ramanathan rramanathan@metroland.com
founder of Schoolio – we support parents switching to home learning with curriculum, tutoring and support services.
Editorial Design Safi Nomani
Tell us about DESIFEST
Sr. Ad Manager Ricky (Kawaljit) Bajaj rbajaj@metroland.com Tel: 905 273 8170
We launched DESIFEST in May 2006, as a part of South Asian Heritage Week, to help battle the cultural bias, stereotypes and gender bias within our community that holds back our youth from excelling. With music as the glue, DESIFEST creates a platform that helps celebrate our uniqueness without dividing us. We focus on programming to help youth express themselves. Today, as one of Canada’s premier South Asian festivals, we attract over 150,000 attendees from diverse communities across Canada to participate in a week of music and arts-related events.
Assistant Manager Laura Jackman ljackman@metroland.com General Inquiries: info@canadianimmigrant.ca Circulation/Distribution Inquiries: ljackman@metroland.com ISSN 1910-4146 Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher
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How has COVID impacted what you do?
While COVID forced us to cancel our 2020 festival, we decided to continue to support our music community with live shows on Facebook. We planned for a few weeks of music, and that turned into 380 shows, 250,000 organic impressions monthly, and a growing Facebook ndian-born Sathish Bala spent his early years community (from 3,000 to over 12,000). We booked in Singapore before moving to Canada with his artists from India, Pakistan, Canada, US, Australia and family. Three decades later, he is an award-winning more. In 2020, with TD supporting us and government leader and entrepreneur working in the field of digital funding, we continued to employ audio/video teams, marketing, operations management and product digital and social media teams, invest in new hardware development. and software and teach the industry how to move music Using his strategic leadership skills, he seeks to programming to the digital space. implement positive change and increase the performance of various enterprises. Bala works to harness digital What inspires you to keep going? strategies to define roadmaps, deliver client-centric I believe that the work we are doing with DESIFEST solutions and identify opportunities for development is helping to loosen the tight grasp on culture, and by and advancement. He has pioneered the development letting go, we empower our youth to take the best values and launch of three digital companies, totalling $50M of our culture and make it their own. We will thrive as in sales with 150+ staff across 5+ countries. ONE community when we celebrate what makes us He is also the co-founder of a South Asian music different and unique. I want to be a part of this change. festival in Toronto, DESIFEST.
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Tell us about yourself
My family immigrated to Canada in 1989 from Singapore. While I was born in Tamil Nadu, India, I spent my early life in Singapore where I struggled to find my place in the world. I wasn’t academically strong, and this was a constant source of pain at home. Moving to Canada is the greatest gift my parents gave me. In Canada, I found mentors who helped me discover my strengths and build my personality and confidence. By the time I graduated from Ryerson University, I had already launched my first startup, Spyder Designs. Since then, I have successfully built and exited from three successful digital startups and held offices in Canada, Latin America and India. Today, I am the CEO and co-
CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 18 Issue 1 | 2021
What are your future plans?
Our big focus is to work with city officials to reboot the festival and create a safe live music experience. COVID (or versions of COVID) will be around for the foreseeable future, and we need to find the courage to dream up new ideas/processes and safety measures. We need more brave organizations to be a part of the solution and not watch from the sidelines.
What is your advice to immigrants and newcomers to Canada?
Be bold. Don’t fear but embrace the unknown. The future is bright and waiting for you. No matter how dark it seems, know that you can build your dream life in Canada.
