Superstar Innovators Will Speak At UNB Conference in Fredericton
FREDERICTON – This week, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies chairman Bibop Gresta and founder of the lean startup movement Steve Blank are in Fredericton along with other high calibre speakers.
They are part of the Future of Innovation: An RBC Leadership Conference, hosted by the University of New Brunswick’s J Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (TME) on October 19-20 at the Delta Fredericton.
The event, in celebration of the TME’s 30th anniversary, aims to inspire New Brunswickers, said TME Chair Dr. Dhirendra Shukla.
“The whole thought is amazing people can come here and we can begin to transform the thought process and begin to transform the culture. And from where we are, what does the new direction of Atlantic Canada and New Brunswick look like? How can we have an optimistic and positive future?” he said.
“Because everyone keeps talking about, ‘oh we’ve got so much debt, we’ve got this and that.’ We understand they’re problems, but there’s so much potential and so many amazing things that can happen. And so, within the power of humans, we can make change happen. So that’s why we brought a diverse group of people together because it takes a village, it takes all groups coming together to make a change,” Shukla added.
The conference will focus on four themes of innovation: education, transportation, cybersecurity and energy.
While this isn’t the first time the TME holds an RBC Leadership Conference, this is its first on this scale.
“I’ve never seen such a line up of amazing people coming to Atlantic Canada. It’s not just technology. It’s got the human factor, it’s got women in leadership, we’ve got someone that just flew in today from Google that’s going to be part of it,” Shukla said.
Beside Gresta and Blank, the line-up of speakers also include 20-year-old Google Science Fair winner Ann Makosinski, who showcased her invention on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2014; Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, who advocates for the education of Afghan women and children through the Afghan Institute of Learning; NB Power CEO Gaetan Thomas; Q1 Labs co-founder Sandy Bird; and Wicked Ideas Media founder Lisa Hrabluk, among others.
Muthu Singaram, the founder of Virtual International Business Accelerator and CEO of the Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre at IIT Madras in India, will be a panel speaker at the event. A serial entrepreneur involved with several incubators in India, Malaysia and Singapore, one of Singaram’s incubators focuses specifically on medical devices.
Having visited Fredericton many times in his work with the TME, he encourages New Brunswick startups to try entering markets in India through the hundreds of incubators present there. Incubators can help provide the support that companies new to the market may need.
“There’s a huge potential for any small company who wants to enter India because you know, the market is among the largest in the world. So if you do something that the local market there would need, it would be a great opportunity to break into that market,” he said.
“One of the things that possibly can work is to work on medical devices. Many of the medical devices are expensive and they’re usually imported. So if someone can come up with devices that are affordable, that would work.”
Singaram is also working on connecting Canadian entrepreneurs to the Malaysian and Singaporean markets. He wants Canadian startups to collaborate more with startups in other parts of the world.
“That’s where I see advantages – for all these companies to work in a team throughout these existing incubators. At least they can get help with legal, accounting [matters] and things like that in India and other countries,” he said.
The conference will also celebrate some alumni and companies that have benefitted from TME’s programming and mentorship. Shukla said this community is “critical” for TME to support. It showcases the important work done by Canadian companies at home and abroad.
“If we can’t change our local dynamic and be optimistic and begin to shine the beauty on our local environment, how are we going to present that in a global setting?” Shukla said.
He hopes the conference will inspire a change of culture and mindset in institutions, the private sector and government agencies.
“What I’m saying is let’s come together as a community to change the conversation so that people look at us as ‘That’s a community that turned around. That’s a community that’s doing the right things.’ And it’s going to pay off long term,” he said. “If anything, the conference is about hope, it’s about humanity, that you can be the change agent that transforms everything.”