The Networker Spring 2018

THE LATEST NEWS FROM CANADA’S LARGEST TECHNOLOGY PARK read about

WHERE WE WORK Page 8

WHAT WE’RE GEEKING OUT ON Page 14

WHERE WE LIVE Page 20

Networker

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

kanatanorthbia.ca info@kanatanorthbia.ca

T H E K A N ATA

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION Spring 2018

OTTAWA

THE LATEST NEWS FROM CANADA’S LARGEST TECHNOLOGY PARK

LONDON

NEWPORT BEACH

read about

SECURING How Kanata North companies are protecting an increasingly connected world from emerging threats.

Stephan Jou is the chief technology officer of Interset. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

WHERE WE WORK Page 8

WHAT WE’RE GEEKING OUT ON Page 14

WHERE

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

WE LIVE

kanatanorthbia.ca info@kanatanorthbia.ca

Page 20

Networker T H E K A N ATA

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

BUSINESS ASSOCI Spring 2018

OTTAWA

LONDON

NEWPORT BEACH

SECURING How Kanata North companies are protecting an increasingly connected world from emerging threats.

Stephan Jou is the chief technology officer of Interset. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

Canada’s largest technology park is our targeted and growing audience of business leaders, professionals and talent.

Connect with Cindy Cutts for details:

cindy@obj.ca

2 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

KANATA NORTH PROFESSIONALS

FOLLOW THE KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION FACEBOOK GROUP

welcome message

A COMMUNITY TEEMING WITH IDEAS ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT FOR KANATA NORTH About a month ago, I had my first meeting as a member of the Kanata North Business Association board of directors.

As a new kid on this board, I couldn’t be more excited for this meeting and to learn how the business association works from behind the scenes.

The day before, in preparation for the meeting, I took some time to review the agenda items, plan for the meeting and swing by Chapters to buy myself a fresh journal to capture my notes. It has always been my view that a fresh role brings a fresh start. So, fresh journal.

A few days later, I posted on LinkedIn that I had accepted this exciting opportunity and I couldn’t

have been more surprised by your outpouring of support. What I could see very quickly was that there is a community of professionals who care deeply about this region, that people have ideas and suggestions about “what’s next” for Kanata North and that a detailed plan is in motion to build an engaged community. It’s working.

So I took out my journal and started capturing your comments as they came in. You reached out by e-mail, text, in hallways, parking lots and grocery stores and shared your passion, giving me page after page of data that I have used as my inspiration for Kanata North. Thank you!

I encourage all of you to keep reaching out. Our website says that the Kanata North Business Association advocates for and strives to create an environment for business success by facilitating connections, awareness and community pride to be a place where people want to work. It’s real.

There are so many events coming up this spring including TechNATA and the Autonomous Vehicle Summit in a few weeks. You can find further information on the following pages, as well as online on the Kanata North Business Association website under events.

Please make sure to stop by and share your ideas for our future – I still have lots of pages left in my new journal to fill, and look forward to our discussions.

Amanda Gordon Board of directors member Kanata North Business Association

SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 3

KANATA NORTH PROFESSIONALS

FOLLOW THE KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION LINKEDIN GROUP

what’s inside

CONTENTS 06 What’s new, what’s next: Upcoming events

and key dates 10 Cancer Computer powers virtual medical labs

from Kanata 13 DataKinetics defies the odds 14 What we’re geeking out on: How Kanata firms are

safeguarding an increasingly connected world 17 New Quarterhill CEO eyes M&As amid IoT pivot 18 Mitel strikes MLB deal to upgrade stadium communications 19 Infinera enters a new phase of growth in Kanata 20 Where we live: Kanata North’s sweetest business 22 Re:Design: TEDxKanata recap

“LET’S HAVE FUN, LET’S COLLABORATE, LET’S BE HUMAN.” – Rabih Maalouf, Wind River’s vice-president of worldwide engineering, on the company’s corporate culture in Kanata. See page 8.

Networker ATA THE KAN

Winter 2017

SUCCESS HAPPENS HERE Connect with Kanata’s high-growth community

SERIOUSINTECH LIVES TH KANATA NOR

rs, the entrepreneu scenes with at Behind the and executives tech hub engineers leading of Canada’s the forefront

WHERE WE WORK

WHAT WE’REON GEEKINGforOUT the masses

WHERE WE LIVEties

deepens Brookstreet community with Kanata

Networker Irdeto secures cars connected

.ca kanatanorthbia

NXP eyes AI

rthbia.ca info@kanatano

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

T H E K A N ATA

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

Winter 2017 BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE SERIOUS TECH LIVES IN

KANATA NORTH Behind the scenes with the entrepreneurs, engineers and executives at the forefront of Canada’s leading tech hub

WHERE WE WORK

4 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

Irdeto secures connected cars

WHAT WE’RE GEEKING OUT ON NXP eyes AI for the masses

kanatanorthbia.ca

WHERE WE LIVE Brookstreet deepens ties with Kanata community info@kanatanorthbia.ca

BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

The cover of the last issue of the Networker featured a beautiful aerial photo of Kanata North taken by Fan Song.

Unfortunately, due to an editing error, we neglected to include a photography credit and properly thank Song for sharing the great shot. Sorry about that.

FOLLOW US

KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION: 500+ COMPANIES, 21,000 EMPLOYEES, CANADA’S LARGEST TECHNOLOGY PARK CONTRIBUTED $7.8B TO CDA’S GDP #SERIOUSTECHLIVESHERE

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GROWTH & PROSPERITY IN OTTAWA’S TECHNOLOGY HUB FOLLOW KANATA NORTH BUSINESS ASSOCIATION ON INSTAGRAM

small business development and tourism. These projects also need to demonstrate environmental, social, and/or cultural benefits to the community. Find out more on the City of Ottawa website, ottawa.ca under Economic development funding.

what’s new

WHAT’S NEXT?

WOMEN’S DAY – EFFECTIVELY BUSINESS & COMMUNITY MOTIVATING AND BUILDERS BREAKFAST LEADING SCIENTISTS March 22 AND ENGINEERS IN R&D 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

The annual Women’s Day Business LABORATORIES & Community Builders Breakfast is a celebration of women who are activating a spark for change in their communities.

The event brings together many of Ottawa’s diverse business professionals to meet, mix and mingle over breakfast. Hear great speakers, network and build new connections.

Organized by the Ottawa Opportunities Network, an online/offline community hub supporting and connecting social entrepreneurs, professionals and the nonprofit community. See our events calendar for more details.

March 26-27 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Clarke-Reavley Consultants provides consulting services in the fields of R&D management, science policy, technology transfer and intellectual property management. They are offering a two-day R&D management workshop targeted to first-line R&D supervisors/ team leaders or scientists/ engineers who are being considered for “promotion” to management. Visit our events calendar to find out more.

DISCOVER TECHNATA TECH EXPO & TALENT HUNT March 28 Brookstreet Hotel Kanata North’s largest Career Fair and Tech Expo is back! Discover TechNATA offers local businesses the opportunities to demo their products and recruit talent.

Open to students, new grads and working professionals, TechNATA is the number one job fair for the tech sector in Ottawa. Come to discover the hundreds of job opportunities and culture of some of Ottawa’s coolest tech firms. Visit www.discovertechnata.com for more details.

THE COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUNDING PROGRAM Applications open until March 29, 2018!

The City’s Community Economic Development (CED) Funding Program is now open for applications. They are seeking projects that support growth of the local economy through such areas as: job creation, economic diversity, entrepreneurship,

STORIES ABOUT OUR BUSINESS COMMUNITY Business in Kanata is booming!

Find out why success happens here in stories about our community.

Learn how NXP Semiconductor provides the silicon backbone for autonomous vehicle software and how Irdeto’s Cloakware protects connected cars. Find out more about the people who work in Kanata North and see why many enjoy living and working here.

See our ‘Where We Live’ series on www.SeriousTechLivesHere.com.

8

Welcome to

East India Company Restaurants For the past 50 years, we have presented the largest Indian buffet in Canada. East India’s notable cuisine can be enjoyed at either of our two locations in Ottawa, with takeout and delivery options as well.

Downtown:

210 Somerset St. W 613-567-4634

Ottawa West: 1993 Robertson Rd. 613-721-3777

eastindiaco.com

6 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

East India Company EASTINDIACOMPANYRESTAURANTS

SPOTLIGHT

com SUMMER LUNCH PARTIES AND YOGA AT THE HUB

OTTAWA AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE SUMMIT: MOBILITY-AS-A-SERVICE (MAAS) April 4 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

The 3rd annual Ottawa Autonomous Vehicle Summit with the theme Mobility-as-aService (MaaS), is a one-day conference that will take place on April 4 at the Brookstreet Hotel.

Presented by the Kanata North Business Association and Invest Ottawa, in partnership with the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence (CAVCOE), the 2018 edition will showcase the advances in automated driving technology and the impacts it will have to society. There will be a series of panels, industry experts and keynote speakers with participants from industry, academia and government.

For more details see our events calendar.

THE 17TH ANNUAL RE$EARCH MONEY CONFERENCE

April 10 from 8:00 a.m.

- 8:30 p.m. and April 11 from 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Breaking Through the Status Quo: Scaling Canada’s Innovation Game A number of challenge areas keep coming up in studies of Canada’s innovation ecosystem. Instead of repeating the difficulties the 17th Annual RE$EARCH MONEY conference Breaking Through the Status Quo: Scaling Canada’s Innovation Game will shed a spotlight on innovators who are breaking new ground and overcoming old habits of thinking. From these exemplars, we will review policy implications and how we can generate more success at scale.

Starting in June we will kick off our summer activities at the Community Hub. A new survey on lunch time programs and food truck schedules is being developed

by KRP and KNBA and will be available soon.

Yoga at the Hub all Summer long with Inner Revolution Yoga Studio!

Our friends at Inner Revolution Yoga Studio will be back this summer offering FREE Yoga at the Community Hub on Legget Drive starting in June.

Join us Tuesdays from 12-1pm all summer long!

Here are our top 5 reasons to take a lunch time yoga break: 1. Gets your body moving 2. Improves mental clarity 3. Creates positive social time during your day 4. It is a mood booster 5. It is FREE!

MAKE-A-WISH ROPE FOR HOPE June 15th 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Make-A-Wish Rope for Hope is a unique challenge event that calls on participants to raise pledges in exchange for a once-in-a-lifetime exhilarating experience to rappel down the side of the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata. Participants can take part in a variety of ways: as individuals, in teams, or as part of a colleague or corporate group. All money raised

by Make-A-Wish Rope for Hope Ottawa rappelers goes to granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions in Eastern Ontario. For more info see our events calendar.

NEED PRINTING? From Photocopies to Business Cards, Books, Carbonless Forms, Trade Show Products Banners, Signs & everything in between!

Graphics Design Services offered on-site.

SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 7

APPLICATIONS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 29, 2018!

The Community Economic Development Funding Program

The City’s Community Economic Development (CED) Funding Program is now open for applications. They are seeking projects that support growth of the local economy through such areas as: job creation, economic diversity, entrepreneurship, small business development, and tourism. These projects also need to demonstrate environmental, social, and/or cultural benefits to the community. Find out more on the City of Ottawa website ottawa.ca under Economic development funding.

where we work

From two-man startup to R&D powerhouse for IoT KANATA OPERATIONS AT THE FOREFRONT OF WIND RIVER’S ENGINEERING EFFORTS

By Leo Valiquette

H

ow often have you heard the story of the local startup acquired by the multinational company that fades away as its intellectual property heads south?

This isn’t that story.

What began as a two-person Kanata startup in the late ’90s – DSP Foundry – is today a thriving operation with 200 staff. The local team develops software virtualization platforms that simplify how we manage the increasingly complex mix of autonomous systems and intelligent devices connected to the cloud.

The company is Wind River, based in Alameda, CA. When it acquired DSP Foundry in 1997, Wind River had already

#1

established itself in the market with VxWorks, the first real-time operating system with the ability to communicate across computer networks.

The company, and the Kanata operation, continued to grow in the embedded networking business over the next decade. In 2009, Intel acquired Wind River.

Today, Kanata is Wind River’s largest leadership hub for engineering and one of its five global R&D Centres of Excellence.

The local team works on products such as the Titanium Cloud line of virtualization software and the Helix line for autonomous and IoT-connected vehicles.

The Kanata operation is headed

by Rabih Maalouf, vice-president of worldwide engineering for all of Wind River. Maarten Koning, co-founder of DSP Foundry, is still part of the Kanata operation in the top technical role of Wind River Fellow.

So why did Wind River, and then Intel, see value in growing the Kanata operation?

Rabih Maalouf is the vice-president of worldwide engineering for all of Wind River. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON It came down to a deep pool of talent, post-secondary programs that produce quality engineering and computer science grads, and affordability in real estate and payroll costs courtesy of the

exchange rate.

But the biggest factor was, and continues to be, the talent.

“The engineering depth, not just in Canada, but specifically in the Ottawa area, is incredible,”

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“THE ENGINEERING DEPTH, NOT JUST IN CANADA, BUT SPECIFICALLY IN THE OTTAWA AREA, IS INCREDIBLE.” – Maarten Koning, Wind River fellow

said Koning. He originally stayed on to help build the team as the operation grew, hand-selecting talented engineers who were a good fit with the cultural dynamic the founders had created.

As the market shifted in the 2000s from hardware to virtualization with cloud computing, that pedigree of telecom and networking expertise made the Kanata area an obvious choice to lead the charge for Wind River.

With Kanata’s tech sector continuing to grow in areas such as software-as-a-service, e-commerce and autonomous vehicles, talent is in tight demand. But Maalouf sees this as a positive development. The diversification of the local tech

SOFTWARE THAT NEVER CRASHES (SO WE DON’T, EITHER)

The emphasis at Wind River is on a collaborative culture. market creates fresh opportunities “The richer the industry, the more talent we will attract to the city,” he said.

Workplace culture

The onus is on employers to up their game and ensure they offer not just competitive salaries and benefits, but an environment that makes people want to come to work.

For Koning, ongoing professional development is important, along with a tangible connection between an individual’s effort and the achievements of the company as a whole. But it all begins with engagement.

“It’s in the interests of the company to have happy, productive engineers,” he said. “The No. 1 driver is the relationships within the office – the relationship with their boss, the relationship with their peers.”

The emphasis at Wind River is on a collaborative culture that encourages people to share ideas and recognizes those individuals who lift the productivity and the morale of everyone around them.

“Let’s have fun, let’s collaborate, let’s be human,” Maalouf said.

The team inject that fun and humanity with Tech Sharing Days (which people can geek out and play show and tell with their interests), time off to compete in Wind River’s annual Engineering Symposium, chili cook-offs, euchre tournaments and ski trips. There is even a board where people can post notes that praise the efforts of their co-workers.

Maalouf sees a lot of value in just walking around the office and treating co-workers to a smile and a sincere hello.

“I grew up believing if you are happy and smiling about what you are doing, you are going to do a better job at it,” he said.

Autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things: Talk about technology these days and the conversation inevitably arrives at devices on the network edge that amass data and need to make decisions.

Sure, a big part of the equation involves drawing on the elastic computing power of the cloud for big data analysis, but more and more, we need “on-premise” platforms that allow devices to assess a situation and respond in a millisecond. It could be a driver assist system in a car, or a robot working side-by-side with a human it could harm.

In these scenarios, even a second of delay as data is uploaded to the cloud for analysis could mean the difference between life and death.

Add to that the complexity and variety of operating systems that could be involved. The challenge is to enable machines and devices to make quick decisions on the network edge, using software virtualization technologies that never fail and that reduce the amount of physical hardware required in the device.

“This is what Wind River’s DNA is all about – we’ve been building systems like this for airplanes and industrial systems for a long time,” said Maalouf.

“People don’t realize how this technology is going to save lives,” added Koning. “Seeing this kind of software repurposed for automobiles is a natural progression.”

Many thanks to our 2018 TEDxKanata Sponsors!

SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 9

MAKE-A-WISH ROPE FOR HOPE June 15th 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Make-A-Wish Rope for Hope is a unique challenge event that calls on participants to raise pledges in exchange for a once-in-a-lifetime exhilarating experience to rappel down the side of the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata. Participants can take part in a variety of ways: as individuals, in teams, or as part of a colleague or corporate group.

All money raised by Make-A-Wish Rope for Hope Ottawa rappelers goes to granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions in Eastern Ontario.

Harnessing Kanata’s innovation engine to help beat cancer NOT-FOR-PROFIT TEAMS UP WITH LOCAL TECH FIRMS TO POWER MEDICAL RESEARCH

I

n the heart of the Kanata Research Park, within the home of Purecolo – Ottawa’s newest data centre – beats a freshly commissioned node of Cancer Computer’s cloud services servers.

This really is a story wrapped in a story. A group of successful home-grown tech entrepreneurs are arming the world’s best and brightest cancer researchers with the computing resources they need to beat cancer. They’re backed by a fast-growing network of corporate sponsors. And it’s all in support of the researchers and academic organizations who are the “customers” of Cancer Computer and who benefit daily by harnessing the resources afforded to them at no or significantly subsidized cost.

The organization believes that computers, via computational biology, will cure cancer.

Founded by Roy Chartier, who’s day job is designing cloud and supercomputing platforms for enterprises and the public sector, The Supercomputer For Cancer (Cancer Computer), began life as a few nodes of recycled donated servers running in the closets and basements of its founding team.

Executive director Tyler Nelson joined in 2016 as a growing cadre of academics, IT and marketing professionals as well as not-forprofit operational experts came together to build and scale the social enterprise that’s become Cancer Computer.

Shortfall spurs action

While society at large – and often our personal lives – are touched by cancer in its many forms, most of our attention, donations and corporate sponsorship support in the fight against cancer is focused 10 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

From left, Roy Chartier, the founder and chief technology officer of Cancer Computer, with Simon Quigley, the technical architect at Cancer Computer. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON on patient treatment.

Unfortunately, there is a collective lack of awareness of how under-resourced cancer researchers are globally in their fight to advance their work to find and validate new treatments and pharmaceuticals.

While most academic and some publicly funded compute resources are available to the community, these tools are typically not offered free of charge and are capacity constrained.

Furthermore, it’s not uncommon for researchers to wait months

or years for a slice of time on a supercomputer platform to conduct critical elements of their research.

It was this shortfall that spurred Chartier to take on the challenge.

In just a few short years, Cancer Computer’s innovative business model – powered by its team of dedicated volunteers and corporate sponsors – have propelled the social enterprise to one of the top-performing infrastructure contributors to the fight against cancer globally.

Incorporated as a Canadian

not-for-profit with CRA charitable status, Cancer Computer operates in what Nelson describes as the “Goldilocks zone” – a nod to the use of the phrase to describe a “just right” space where everyone supporting Cancer Computer benefits.

On one side of the business model, Nelson and the team find corporate sponsors that donate various hardware elements, servers, storage arrays, racks and power supplies, all of which have typically reached the end of their life in a production environment.

This point in time is typically also when the financial capital depreciation benefits have been exhausted and the point where, after three or four years, the market’s natural evolution has delivered faster processors, more efficient storage and lower operating costs that power the natural IT replacement and upgrade cycle.

Hardware donated to Cancer Computer is supported by an eligible offsetting tax deduction for the corporate sponsor along with the community and staff goodwill benefits.

The Cancer Computer team then works to reconfigure, upgrade where possible and redeploy the hardware into one of their growing number of sponsor supported data centre partner locations across Canada.

Here at 390 March Rd., Purecolo – along with DNS Networks, a managed IT service provider – have come together in a perfect depiction of Cancer Computer at work.

The hardware was deployed into a DNS Network infrastructure hosted by Purecolo, and today a team of cancer researchers are using it to model drug and protein interactions inside a virtual lab run

by Cancer Computer.

That’s a social enterprise in action – and it’s happening right here in Kanata.

Tyler Nelson is the executive director of Cancer Computer. Roy Chartier is the organization’s ‎chief technology officer.

Martello plans IPO in 2018 following merger NEWS BRIEF

One of Ottawa’s fastestgrowing companies kicked off 2018 by doubling in size via a merger with a Montreal firm and re-affirming plans to go public later this year.

In January, Kanata’s Martello Technologies said it was joining

forces with Elfiq Networks.

While the two companies called the transaction a merger, Elfiq became a subsidiary of Martello.

Company officials said the two firms complement one another. While Martello

develops software to help IT professionals detect issues with enterprise communications systems, Elfiq has products that can troubleshoot and find fixes.

“We’ll grow faster and solve our customers’ problems more effectively, and will be

well positioned to accelerate market share through both organic growth and future acquisitions,” said Martello CEO John Proctor, who was named to the position in late 2017.

Proctor – the former vice-president of global cybersecurity at CGI – replaced former chief executive Bruce Linton, who became Martello’s co-chairman of the board

alongside Terry Matthews.

In addition to planning an initial public offering, Martello is also on the hunt for additional acquisition targets, Proctor said.

Last fall, Martello was named the 48th fastest-growing company in Canada – the highest ranking among Ottawa firms – on the Profit 500 list, with five-year revenue growth of 1,552 per cent.

Kanata networker full page ad-1outline.pdf 1 3/8/2018 12:52:15 PM

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NEWS BRIEF

Thinkwrap’s triple-merger to accelerate innovation: CEO The head of one of Canada’s top ICT companies says the Kanata firm will double down on product development while being able to “think bigger” following a merger with two

12 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

other tech firms.

Earlier this year, Thinkwrap Commerce said it was merging with Toronto’s Tenzing and Redmond, Washington-based Spark::red. Those two firms are

managed hosting providers for customers using Oracle or SAP Hybris commerce platforms.

“This transaction puts us in a position to innovate quickly and build a leading suite of

ecommerce applications and services,” said Thinkwrap CEO Steve Byrne in a statement.

Thinkwrap was founded in 2004 and provides strategy, design, software development and integration services to enterprise e-commerce companies including Aldo and Simons.

Steve Byrne is the CEO of Thinkwrap

NEWS BRIEF

ThinkRF opens U.K. office to tap into European markets Fresh off a $5-million venture capital round, Kanata’s ThinkRF plans to use a new office outside London, England, as a base for growth in key markets in Europe.

The expansion follows the creation

of a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary and opening of its headquarters in the Washington, D.C. area earlier in November.

ThinkRF specializes in spectrum analysis solutions to monitor,

detect and analyze wireless signals.

Combating corporate espionage is one application of its technology; ThinkRF’s product can “listen in” on a wide spectrum of wireless signals and determine if it’s coming from a

“friendly” device such as an iPhone or something potentially more nefarious such as a surveillance bug.

In October, ThinkRF landed $5 million in venture capital from Wesley Clover International.

DataKinetics defies the odds to reach 40th anniversary HERE’S HOW A KANATA NORTH FIRM HAS THRIVED AMIDST DRAMATIC TECH CHANGES

T

hink about this for a moment: DataKinetics is older than the internet.

How many tech companies are older than the internet? The list isn’t that big, and the internet – as we know it now – has only been around for about 25 years.

Even fewer companies make it to 40 years. As Forbes pointed out several years ago, life expectancy in even the Fortune 500 stands at only 15 years and is declining all the time.

And even fewer have done it in Ottawa. DataKinetics has been a part of Ottawa’s tech community since the late 1970s, outliving firms that were once household names such as Nortel, Gandalf and JDSU. So how has DataKinetics defied the odds?

Durability

DataKinetics helps the world’s largest banks as well as credit card, brokerage, insurance, healthcare, retail and telecommunication organizations process more than a billion transactions every single day – speeding up things such as your bank machine withdrawal or that credit card authorization from your shopping trip last night.

It’s not glamorous, and we don’t usually make headlines, but the fact is that our products and services are generally not removed once they’re installed into production environments. They make that much of a difference each and every single day – quietly running in the background and helping our clients make things easier and faster for their customers.

At 40 years, we are durable. We have thrived in some of the greatest periods of growth in the history of the tech business, successfully weathered some of its biggest slumps

and, to top it all off, been profitable in almost every single one of those years.

While we’d like to think there was that one thing that made us unique, the truth is simply not that glamorous. It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a laser-like focus on meeting the needs of our customers – often times anticipating them. While buzzwords such as In-Memory Acceleration and Big Data have only recently entered the mainstream lexicon, we can honestly say that we’ve been doing these things for decades.

We started with a home run

To be completely honest about it – we hit one out of the park in our first at bat. Our flagship product, tableBASE was, and still is, enormously successful.

It runs in the mainframe data centers in three of the top five global banks, three of the top five global credit card companies, three of the top five U.S. property and casualty insurance companies, and two of the top five U.S. health insurance companies.

In fact, if a Fortune 50 company is running a mainframe, tableBASE is most likely helping it with its largescale transaction processing.

More than just one product Years ago, we were about one product, one platform and one operating system. But now we’re reaching out to all platforms, databases and operating systems – through data integration and replication – including the cloud.

Today, we offer several complementary products – some developed in-house and others supplied through strategic partnerships – designed to further

provide data optimization and performance enhancements for our customers. It’s simultaneously allowing us to diversify and evolve with the technological core of today’s data centers.

Our goal is to be around for at least another 40 years helping our customers deliver new service offerings and meet their business objectives.

To that end, DataKinetics recently started a spin-off company – omNovos – designed to bring our data expertise to the burgeoning omni-channel business in the retail sector, growing the workforce of the combined companies by 50 per cent.

Our research team is also hard at work on building the pieces required to support new and emerging technologies such as Blockchain and Smart Contracts.

Ultimately, it is our fundamental understanding of data and rulesbased processing that allows our clients to save billions of dollars while simultaneously improving mainframe asset performance and reducing overall IT risk.

We’re also about people

We support our customers with – get this – live human beings.

OK, I’m being facetious. But our customers are very important to us, and if a customer has a problem in their data center (as we say, if a customer is “on fire”), we’re ready to help. Now. We’re on it. No hunting on a support page searching frantically for a phone number. No 10-minute automated attendant recordings telling you to go back to the website.

A live person will be able to help.

A person in one of our offices. And no offshore “first line” support shops either.

Our customer support and engineering staff are tasked with addressing our customer’s problems.

Occasionally, that means fixing

DataKinetics products help process a billion transactions daily, including ATM withdrawals and credit card authorizations. STOCK IMAGE problems with products from other vendors. We are in it for the long haul.

And about our community

We love the city, its organizations, and institutions for all that it has provided to our employees and their families.

From the quality of life that is hard to find anywhere else (trust us on this), to the fantastic support and promotion that such well-run organizations such as the Kanata North Business Association provide, you’ll be very hard-pressed to find a comparable place to live and work.

That’s also why DataKinetics and its employees are committed to giving back to the community and support some of the community organizations that focus on improving the lives of people in this beautiful and vibrant city.

Locally, DataKinetics is a leader among tech firms for per-capita donations to charities such as the United Way, attaining 100-percent employee participation and the highest average donation per employee.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. We are also recognized contributors to several other important organizations such as The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, and CHEO, among other organizations.

Collectively, this is who we are today and why we’re still in business after 40 years. The same corporate culture, technological innovation and approach to customer excellence is also why we’re still going strong and see years of additional growth ahead.

Andrew Armstrong is the chief customer officer at DataKinetics SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 13

NEWS BRIEF

March Networks rolls out marijuana tracking solution

A Kanata developer of video surveillance technology is teaming up with a cannabis compliance specialist to offer new services to the rapidly growing marijuana market.

Ottawa’s March Networks is working with KIND Financial to help cannabis companies track inventory from the time

it’s cultivated to when it’s sold to consumers using a combination of cameras and RFID tags.

It allows growers, producers and retailers to run searches on a specific plant and find its last detected location. If anything is amiss – such as the inventory going missing – clients can review related

video surveillance footage to find out what happened.

March Networkers and KIND Financial say the firms’ solutions can help cannabis companies meet compliance requirements mandated by some U.S. states where marijuana is legal.

what we’re geeking out on

Protecting cyberspace from Kanata

A DIVERSE HUB OF LOCAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS AND MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE FINDING NEW WAYS TO SAFEGUARD AN INCREASINGLY CONNECTED WORLD

By Leo Valiquette and Lucy Screnci

J

ust before 9 a.m. on a Tuesday in November 2016, Carleton University’s IT department notified the public about “network issues” on campus.

This wasn’t some random glitch.

The university had “detected an attempt by an external group or individual to hack into the IT network.” This affected some 3,200 computers, disrupted the school’s email platform and the online portal used for course registrations, payroll and other services.

It proved to be a classic “ransomware” attack. Computer files were being held hostage pending payment of a ransom demand in the popular cryptocurrency bitcoin. That demand was valued at the time at almost $39,000.

Thanks to its IT staff, Carleton was able to address the issue within a couple of days without paying up.

But ransomware and other forms of malware remain an ongoing and growing threat for organizations across Canada and particularly in Ottawa.

Last summer, IT World Canada tracked stats that showed Ottawa carrying a malware infection rate 980 per cent higher than the national average. In its 2018 IT 14 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

Trends in Large and MediumSized Canadian Businesses survey, Montreal’s Novipro reported that 32 per cent of Canadian businesses have already fallen victim to a ransomware attack or other computer threat.

Consider it the price of progress, as digital transformation driven by cloud-computing technologies remakes how we work, transact business and conduct our personal affairs. The more our professional and personal lives intersect online, the greater the opportunity for opportunistic elements to take advantage.

How do we stay one step ahead of the bad guys? It’s a multifaceted challenge. But an increasing number of companies in Kanata’s growing cybersecurity hub are doing their part.

Entrust Datacard: Do you have a plan?

“There isn’t a single solution that an organization can put in place,” said Greg Wetmore, vice-president of product development at Entrust Datacard. “It really requires excellent user education, a mature information security program, basic patching software and keeping applications up to date.”

Greg Wetmore is the vice-president of product development at Entrust Datacard. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON Entrust Datacard supplies digital security features such as chip credit cards that protect information flowing between mobile banking apps and banks. It also helps governments safeguard ID documents such as driver’s licences and passports.

“THERE ISN’T A SINGLE SOLUTION THAT AN ORGANIZATION CAN PUT IN PLACE.” — Greg Wetmore, vice-president of product development at Entrust Datacard.

From Wetmore’s perspective, almost every breach starts with a credential, such as a password, with which the attacker can escalate privileges or access privileged information. Entrust is a strong proponent of a second type of verification, encrypting and

backing up data, and securing applications.

In today’s connected world, it’s not a question of if a breach will occur, but when. That means equal attention must be given to how you will respond and recover.

“Organizations need to prepare for things like critical incident response and crisis communications,” Wetmore said.

“They should have good business continuity and disaster recovery plans that anticipate a breach or a delay in service of assets.”

Interset: What can you learn about the threat?

Just across March Road, the team at Interset helps cybersecurity professionals with data analytics algorithms and mathematical models. These can detect and quantify behaviours within a network that are typical of various kinds of malware attacks, such as ransomware.

It can also identify troublesome anomalies in enormous organizations by using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools. If Interset’s software finds a user is operating at an unusual time of day or interacting with information it shouldn’t be, those pattern deviations might signal that an employee’s account has been compromised.

NEWS BRIEF

Sciemetric Instruments receives $2.9M to help auto sector Building on its long-standing ties to North America’s auto sector, Sciemetric Instruments will use $2.9 million in federal support to advance its industrial Internet of Things product offerings.

Stephan Jou, Interset’s chief technology officer, offers three steps to triage how to respond to an attack.

First, patch your computers as soon as possible.

“It’s a hard thing to do when managing a large suite of computers, but getting that hygiene level up is important,” he said.

Next, consider behaviour to help pinpoint the kind of malware at play. Jou looked to that Carleton incident as an example: “I think it would have been really helpful in this case to see: Is it a brand new case of ransomware?

Is it a binary that’s never been seen before, but it’s behaving like ransomware? I think that sort of system would have been able to give a heads up earlier.”

Lastly, like Wetmore, Jou emphasizes the need to have a response plan in place.

“I find with a lot of companies that the best thing to do is to be open and transparent,” he said.

“Have a well-laid out response plan in advance with details on who’s going to do what.”

In the early 1990s, Sciemetric developed analysis tools to detect defects during the manufacturing process. It’s since evolved into data management and analytics technology.

The federal funding came from the Strategic Innovation Fund and was part of $41 million distributed to 11 companies with the goal of supporting Canada’s automotive industry.

Stephan Jou is Interset’s chief technology officer. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

Herjavec Group: Are you compliant?

“THE BIGGEST DRIVER OF SECURITY IN THE COMING YEARS WILL BE COMPLIANCE.”

Recognized as the No. 1 private cybersecurity company in the world by market research firm Cybersecurity Ventures, Herjavec Group – with offices in Kanata North – works with large enterprise customers to deliver managed security services around the world.

“No executive wakes up and says I can’t wait to spend money on security today… but it’s no longer a choice,” company founder and CEO

Robert Herjavec said in a report released earlier this year. “The biggest driver of security in the coming years will be compliance.”

What does he mean by compliance? Businesses will have to adopt certain security practices because they will be required to do so by government regulation, both at home and abroad, in response to the evolving malware threat.

— Robert Herjavec, company founder and CEO, Cybersecurity Ventures, Herjavec Group

This year, for example, will see the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) come into effect on May 25. This regulation aims to protect the personal data of persons in the European Union.

This does impact Canada. If you do business in Europe that has you collecting, storing, transferring or processing data on EU citizens, you will have to comply with the

dictates of GDPR. If you don’t, the penalties can amount to tens of millions of dollars, or more.

“You could be a company with offices in Europe that’s sharing internal data, or you take data from a client based in Europe, or you could just have a customer who’s there,” Ira Goldstein, Herjavec Group, SVP of Technical Operations, said in the report.

Being prepared, having a response plan, being compliant with new regulation. Consider it the price of doing business in an increasingly connected world to keep your operations, your reputation and your stakeholders secure.

SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 15

NEWS BRIEF

Stratford Managers strengthens product offering Stratford Managers is expanding its offering of leadership training workshops following its acquisition of an award-winning curriculum.

The Kanata-based management consulting and services firm

says the new learning material, developed by CORE Consulting, will complement its existing leadership development services.

“Stratford helps our clients win, and we know one of the best ways to do that is to help them

strengthen their leadership,” said president and CEO Jim Roche in a statement.

The competency-based workshops focus on coaching, team building and conflict management, among other topics,

and won the HR Reporter 2017 Awards for Top Management/ Executive Development and Best Leadership and Team Development.

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New Quarterhill CEO handed M&A mandate

F

ew Ottawa tech firms have undergone a transformation quite as radical as Kanata’s Quarterhill over the past year.

The company previously known as patent licensing firm WiLAN dramatically pivoted in 2017, changing its name to Quarterhill and plunging into the industrial Internet of Things sector through a $63.5-million acquisition of Saskatchewan-based International Road Dynamics.

Patent licensing is still part of its business. However, WiLAN is now a subsidiary of Quarterhill alongside International Road Dynamics and Viziya, a software and services provider.

The firm made another major move in December, naming Doug Parker – an M&A specialist and

former OpenText executive – as its new president and CEO. He replaced Shaun McEwan, who held the position on an interim basis.

Parker has a mandate to continue making acquisitions that build upon Quarterhill’s new direction.

But despite the focus on the firm’s transformation, Parker said he wants to leverage the firm’s strong history in Ottawa’s tech community – a story that dates back to the early ’90s when it was a pioneer in high-speed wireless technology.

“WiLAN is obviously a wellknown and successful technology company in the Ottawa region. I think this is an opportunity to build on that,” says Parker, who adds he sees the company’s history as a good foundation to growth.

WHAT’S THE INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGS?

Doug Parker is the new CEO of Quarterhill.

PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

Parker was previously OpenText’s senior vice-president of corporate development where he oversaw approximately $2.5 billion in acquisition spending and onboarded roughly 3,500 employees.

Reflecting on his experiences, Parker says a successful acquisition requires a broad-based effort and calls M&A transactions “a bit of a team sport.”

“M&A is not necessarily a clear playbook. It’s a process of continuing improvement, in capability, process and people,” he says.

Like the commercial side of the Internet of Things – which typically refers to the wireless connection of appliances, devices and objects for applications such as controlling home electronics and lights with a smartphone – the industrial sector utilizes sensors and informationcollecting devices to generate data and communicate information and analytics to users and each other.

Here’s an example involving Quarterhill subsidiary International Road Dynamics.

In Western Canada, the firm is helping to manage trucks traffic in British Columbia with a network of weigh-in-motion and automatic vehicle identification technologies that are designed to improve the efficiency of commercial vehicle traffic. Once a transponder-equipped vehicle has been initially checked, it can be cleared to bypass all subsequent inspection stations for up to 24 hours.

SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 17

WOMEN’S DAY – BUSINESS & COMMUNITY BUILDERS BREAKFAST March 22 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

The annual Women’s Day Business & Community Builders Breakfast is a celebration of women

who are activating a spark for change in their communities. The event brings together many of Ottawa’s diverse business professionals to meet, mix and mingle over

breakfast. Hear great speakers, network and build new connections.

It’s organized by the Ottawa Opportunities Network, an online/ offline community

MLB taps Ottawa’s Mitel for on-field communication systems

T

he Toronto Blue Jays’ next call to the bullpen will be powered by an Ottawa telecom firm.

In the midst of celebrating its 45th year in business and ringing the bell at the NASDAQ stock exchange in late February, the Kanata North firm announced its technology will power communications systems on the field for all 30 teams in Major League Baseball.

The deal unifies communications between the press box, dugout, bullpen and video review rooms at every MLB ballpark from the Rogers Centre to Wrigley Field, where teams have until now relied on independent systems.

There’s a practical reason to adopt Mitel’s solution: the new system can monitor and record

Fenway Park in Boston will be among the 30 MLB stadiums adopting Mitel technology.

hub supporting and connecting social entrepreneurs, professionals and the nonprofit community.

See our events calendar for more details.

MITEL NAMED NO. 2 UCAAS VENDOR IN THE WORLD Kanata’s Mitel came within a percentage point of seizing the top position among unified communicationsas-a-service vendors around the world based on market share, according to a report released earlier this year.

Synergy Research Group says Mitel is the No. 2 global uCaaS vendor based on its number of subscribers.

“Mitel has set a high bar for growth these past few years, quickly cracking the million-customer mark,” said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group founder and chief analyst, in a statement.

Mitel said it has doubled the size of its uCaaS business since 2015. Its growth in that space was accelerated by last year’s acquisition of ShoreTel.

PHOTO BY THE MASSACHUSETTS OFFICE OF TRAVEL & TOURISM

every call teams make during play, ensuring compliance with MLB rules and regulations.

There’s a brand benefit for Mitel with this deal as well. The firm will become the official presenting

OPENING A NEW OFFICE?

sponsor for instant-replay reviews across the league, making Mitel synonymous with baseball’s most exciting plays.

At the stock exchange, Mitel CEO Rich McBee rang the bell to close

trading on Feb. 26, which the firm says also kicks off celebrations for its 45th birthday coming up on June 8.

Mitel’s tech will be in place for baseball’s opening day at the end of March.

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18 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

NEWS BRIEF

David Gourlay, Jenna Sudds vying for Kanata North council seat

The fall municipal election may still be several months away, but the contest to represent Kanata North has already attracted two highprofile candidates.

Lobbyist and former Ottawa Champions president David Gourlay was the first to announce his intention to run

in February.

Two weeks later, Jenna Sudds said she would also be seeking the council seat.

Sudds is the former executive director of the Kanata North Business Association and currently heads the CIO Strategy Council, a nonprofit.

Infinera expands Kanata presence on strength of local talent pool SILICON VALLEY-BASED FIRM HAS GROWN FROM THREE OTTAWA EMPLOYEES IN 2009 TO MORE THAN 50

engineers. In December, Infinera executives flew to Canada’s capital to announce plans for the Kanata expansion – which include an expansion of 6,000 square feet at 555 Legget Dr. – and called their Ottawa location the “fastest growing R&D department for the company.”

A

n optical networking firm that set up shop in Kanata just under a decade ago is entering a new phase of growth in Canada’s largest technology park with plans to hire dozens of additional engineers in the coming years.

Silicon Valley-based Infinera creates products that facilitate the high-speed transfer of information over optical networks. Specifically, its fiber-optic network technology pioneered the use of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in its

Calibre of Kanata workforce Kuang-Tsan Wu is a director at Infinera.

PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

intelligent transport networks.

Infinera’s pitch, in plain language?

“Imagine a world with unlimited bandwidth.”

The firm set up a design centre in Ottawa in 2009 with three local employees. It’s since grown to more than 50 staff, predominantly

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE SUMMIT

Infinera director Kuang-Tsan Wu was a member of the company’s initial Kanata team and has witnessed the company’s steady growth in the region first-hand.

A 22-year veteran of Nortel’s optical division, Wu says many other engineers were looking for new opportunities following the tech giant’s collapse. The sudden exodus of Nortel talent into the local labour market ended up providing a strong

2018

Gourlay and Sudds are seeking to replace veteran politician Marianne Wilkinson, who announced in early March that she plans to retire from municipal politics nearly 50 years after she was first elected.

Ottawa voters head to the polls on Oct. 22.

base for Infinera’s initial recruiting.

The calibre of Kanata’s skilled workforce was a motivating factor for Infinera to continue investing in its Ottawa operations, says Sonja Wilkerson, the firm’s senior vicepresident of human resources.

“We have seen a talent pool – a skillset, a quality of talent – that we attract to Infinera that keeps us interested in Kanata,” she says. “With the amount of talent that exists in that hub, it’s absolutely critical for us to tap into it.”

To find new recruits, Infinera hosts open houses and collaborated with Invest Ottawa to house a recruitment fair in late 2017.

However, it also taps into resources within its own walls, believing that paying attention to properly onboarding new hires and fostering an environment where employees can be successful can turn existing staff into ambassadors for the company.

“We certainly rely on personal referrals,” says Wilkerson. “That’s beginning to happen, now that we have critical mass.”

MOBILITY-AS-A-SERVICE

The 2018 AV Summit will showcase both the progress in automated driving technology and the far-reaching impacts this will have to society.

The Brookstreet Hotel April 4, 2018

Visit OttawaAVCluster.com to register.

TICKETS: $129 SPRING 2018 KANATA NETWORKER 19

Ottawa’s AV Summit returns

where we live

The sweet success of La Maison du Kouign-Amann

KANATA NORTH COUPLE BUILDS ON FARMERS’ MARKET SUCCESS WITH SCHNEIDER ROAD BAKERY By Paula Roy

A

family-run bakery known for satisfying the sweet tooths of its customers from Kanata North and beyond is readying expansion plans after several years of phenomenal growth.

From its modest beginnings as a home-based business six years ago, La Maison du Kouign-Amann has developed a fervent following

20 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

among loyal clientele who venture from all across the National Capital Region to Kanata North for its tasty French-inspired fare.

Co-owner Fran Jung, who runs the bakery with her husband, Geoff Brown, says she fell in love with baking as a teenager in the south of France. After several other careers, her passion paved the way for her

first professional culinary venture, which was creating and selling her company’s signature pastries, called Kouign-Amann.

Jung concedes that she’s asked multiple times a day how it’s pronounced.

“It’s quite simple: ‘Queen

Amann,’” she says with a laugh.

These muffin-sized, flaky pastries boast layers of caramelized sugar and butter, plus an optional dollop of flavoured topping.

La Maison du Kouign-Amann’s first retail outlet was at the Carp Farmers’ Market. It was there that

on April 4, 2018 Join us at The Brookstreet Hotel to learn about Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), Connected Vehicles (CVs) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS), and discuss what’s happening, the trends, how you can play a role, and connect with other technology companies interested in the AV/CV/MaaS ecosystem.

Mobility as a service is presented by the Kanata North Business Association and Invest Ottawa, in partnership with the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence (CAVCOE)

Register today to secure your seat.

OttawaAVCluster.com

Jung and Brown learned how limiting selection could actually benefit their customers.

Originally, the couple offered their pastries in a multitude of flavours. However, their customers found the options too enticing and had trouble deciding, leading to slow-moving lineups. That led to Kouign-Amanns only being offered in plain, raspberry, lemon, Nutella and caramel varieties.

Expansion

While the pastries are still sold at the Carp and Hazeldean farmers’ markets, La Maison du KouignAmann now has a permanent home at its Schneider Road bakery where it also sells cookies, sweet and savoury tarts, sandwiches and more to neighbouring tech workers as well as visiting customers from across the National Capital Region.

A storefront was never in the original plan, Jung concedes.

“I was fine with selling at the market and thought in the beginning that would be enough,” she recalls.

However, the business then agreed to supply several local coffee shops, which quickly ballooned to 20 across Ottawa, Gatineau and Montreal. This meant securing space for a commercial kitchen, and the owners figured they should use part of their new space for a small shop.

“I am so happy we made that choice,” Jung says. “We are enjoying it so much.”

When it came time to select a location, the couple says the choice in neighbourhoods was easy. They’d lived in Kanata North for more than a decade, and their

The husband-and-wife team of Geoff Brown and Fran Jung are the co-owners of La Maison du Kouign-Amann. PHOTOS BY MARK HOLLERON early west-end successes at the Carp Farmers’ Market correctly gave them confidence that they’d receive a steady and strong volume of traffic.

Indeed, the business has grown by nearly 200 per cent since it was formally launched.

“We are constantly amazed when people from Orléans, Gatineau or even farther afield walk through our door and tell us they have heard we have exceptional pastries,” Jung says.

INVEST IN YOUR FUTURE

Brown notes that the continued residential growth and commercial diversification of Kanata North is benefiting their business, which recently launched a catering service to respond to demand from customers in the tech sector.

Jung and Brown have fast-tracked their expansion plans and are in the process of adding 1,000 square feet of space that will be used for an expanded seating area.

Jung notes that the bakery is a popular destination for cyclists and is also accessible in about 25 minutes from downtown via nearby Corkstown Road. They also welcome many weekend visitors out on drives through the nearby countryside.

“Our success here in Kanata North proves that if you offer a good product and good service, people will seek you out,” Jung says.

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TEDxKanata applies tech solutions to human problems LOCAL SPEAKERS POSE THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW WE LIVE ALONGSIDE ONE ANOTHER By Kieran Delamont ompared to an average business Re:Design

C

networking event, TEDx conferences – such as the latest edition held in Kanata in early March – are high-energy affairs.

Inside the Brookstreet Hotel, pulsing dance music greeted guests as they took their seats ahead a series of inspiring talks by eight speakers who tackled thought-provoking questions about how we live alongside one another.

“What you are about to experience, I truly believe, will change each and every one of you,” TEDxKanata organizer Jenna Sudds told attendees at the start of the event. “The person you walked into this room as five minutes ago? In five hours from now you will walk out with new inspiration.”

22 KANATA NETWORKER SPRING 2018

Though disparate in topic and varying widely in approach, each speaker channeled this year’s theme – “re:Design” – in a different way.

Presenters included CPAC’s Catherine Cano, who spoke about getting millennials engaged in politics, as well as Treasury Board President Scott Brison, who presented his vision for running government like a startup.

“We can’t be a Blockbuster government serving a Netflix citizenry … Digital gives us the power to reboot our relationship we have with our citizens,” he said, later adding, “Government exists to improve the lives of people. There’s got to be an app for that!”

With TEDxKanata taking

place in the heart of Ottawa’s tech community, it was no surprise that many of the presentations contained tech overtones.

As speaker after speaker delivered their talk, a simple message began to cut through: technological solutions for the world’s problems are possible, but only if we ensure that our social solutions stand just as tall – a reminder to keep people first.

Iterations of this idea varied in interesting ways.

Mark Sutcliffe, a local media commentator and business owner, discussed the concept of privilege and encouraged the audience to move outside technology when looking for solutions to human problems.

“We all live in bubbles,” Sutcliffe said in his talk. “If you aren’t born in Canada or another western country, you start farther back. There’s no computer chip to even things out.

You carry that disadvantage your entire life.”

Other speakers included Marianne Gee of Gees Bees Honey, who underscored the importance of bees to the environment and used the creatures as a metaphor for battling climate change.

The audience also heard from speakers such as Jay Gosselin, the founder of MentorU and the Discover Year Program, who spoke about getting young people excited

about post-secondary education through programs that involve travel and volunteering.

DA-Integrated co-founder Scott Bulbrook spoke about his time working to create a digitally accessible communication device for someone with muscular challenges, while Emily De Sousa, a 22-yearold environmental activist, spoke about plastic pollution in the earth’s oceans.

Ideas worth sharing

For Sudds, the implicit theme of applying technological solutions to human problems and, ultimately, the call for people to do more for one another made the conference a perfect fit in the heart of the Kanata tech sector.

“When I think about Kanata, I think about the technology community. We are designing and we are redesigning. That’s what our technology community does,” she said. “We’re always iterating, working on the next thing. Starting from scratch. It’s a process. This is what has to happen to be successful.”

This year marked the fourth iteration of TEDxKanata, an event that’s grown considerably in size and stature.

In 2015, Sudds said, there was about 100 people in attendance.

That’s since quadrupled.

“We’ve grown every year, to now when we have over 400 of you in the room here with us,” she said, to raucous applause.

“What we’re doing here tonight, please do share,” Sudds later added.

“It’s our chance to share your big ideas, right here in Kanata, with the world.”

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SECURING How Kanata North companies are protecting an increasingly connected world from emerging threats.

Stephan Jou is the chief technology officer of Interset. PHOTO BY MARK HOLLERON

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