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Encouraging Collaboration in the Digital Future—VersionMe Media, Taproot, RBC, Dentons

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Guests:

Tom Sides, Technology Partner, Dentons

Robert Tyndale, Founder & CEO, VersionMe Media

Mark Beckles, Senior Director, Youth & Innovation, RBC

Interviewer:

Mack Male, Co-Founder & CEO, Taproot Edmonton

Show Notes

““I can imagine the reason behind that is because with all this technology, with all this technology, with all these platforms that’s around VR/AR, videos, photos etc., a lot of businesses and companies require businesses, individuals, managers, teams, to help navigate and operate in the space.”

“For example, who here understands or knows what’s 5G? Roughly a third of the room. For people who don’t know 5G is going to be the next wave of mobile device where essentially in terms of communication it’s going to be super fast, allowing people to basically translate data at realtime. What does that mean? It means essentially doctors are going to be able to control robots from across the world, and basically operate on people.” “

“When it comes to the opportunity of job creation in the whole digital space of agencies, or freelancers, you’re going to see an explosion. Also, as we’re speaking of the VR technology which I recommend everyone check out there. That whole space is going to require content and information, a management team, communication teams, and it’s going to need a full amount of services to correlate and create those VR experiences and allow people to experience different things. In my line of work it’s just open field and it’s amazing.”

Bio

Tom Sides: Tom is a Partner and Chair of the National Technology Transactions Law Group. His practice focuses extensively on technology, intellectual property, privacy and related commercial legal issues for clients in the energy, financial institution, health, forestry, information technology and telecommunications industry sectors. In addition to technology and other industry sector clients that Tom has represented at Dentons, he has extensive legal and business experience in the software and telecommunications businesses. Tom’s unique combination of business and legal experience allows him to provide practical, business-focused legal advice to his clients.

Robert Tyndale: Robert is an entrepreneur with more than ten years of experience in marketing, specializing in brand development, partnerships and social engagement as the founder of VersionMe Media. Born in Edmonton, he is a creator at heart and has been involved in a range of local and international projects across the globe. Robert was one of the early pioneers of Tastemakers Edmonton: a company created in 2011 that was one of the first organizations of its time to believe that Edmonton was one of the most under-appreciated places in Canada. On his podcast, 360 Chat with BobbyT, he highlights his experiences in building a flourishing marketing agency while sharing a variety of interviews with local and international tastemaker

Mark Beckles: Mark Beckles: With over 25 years’ experience in financial services, Mark has held executive leadership roles in banking, insurance, risk management and the non-profit sector. Currently, Mark is the Senior Director, Youth Strategy and Innovation and has national responsibility for executing RBC Future Launch, a $500MM investment to ensure that young Canadians are ready for the future of work. Prior to assuming this role Mark was Head, RBC Insurance Advice Centre, responsible for leading over 500 licensed insurance advisors who provide insurance advice and solutions to RBC Insurance clients across Canada. Mark has served as Regional Vice President, Retail Banking in the Greater Toronto Region at RBC.

Mack Male: Mack is on a mission to change the world through code and prose. He has focused on the power of software ever since becoming interested in computer technology as a kid, and he has built software-based solutions for education, journalism, open government, and other industries. He also has a passion for storytelling, and has covered technology, urban affairs, and many other topics as a blogger and journalist. In late 2016, He started Taproot Publishing Inc., a digital publishing company based in Edmonton to apply innovative software and new business models to local journalism. He is a dedicated community builder, and has given back to Edmonton through thousands of hours of board, committee, and other volunteer work for more than a dozen different organizations.

This episode is brought to you by the C-Tribe Festival. C-Tribe re-imagines the festival experience with the goal of bringing together innovative and creative people and proactive thinkers. By integrating a business conference with music performances, trendy fashion shows, intimate roundtable discussions, culinary experiences, wellness sessions, and artistic activations.C-Tribe curates inspiring environments that help catalyze action.

Dr. Kyle Murray— The Vice-Dean at the University of Alberta School of Business and Leading the School Wide Initiative Around Blended and Experiential Learning

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Kyle Murray Vice Dean at the University of Alberta School of Business

Guest: Dr. Kyle Murray, Professor of Marketing and Vice Dean at the University of Alberta School of Business

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Chairperson, C-Tribe, and VP of Canadian Operations, AutonomIQ

Show Notes

““The biggest misconception that people have when it comes to understanding what it is that people do is a lot of people see professors just as teachers. What you don’t realize is that a lot of professors, including myself, we don’t teach a lot (maybe one or two courses a year) we spend a lot of time doing research, publishing that research in journals and occasionally in books and in my case, also doing some administration in managing people. Currently, we have 500 employees that I have oversight over. When people see professors just as teachers, that has some real consequences because whether it’s donors or the Government of Alberta (or whoever is providing funding) they don’t always have a good understanding of what it is the university actually does—that a lot of time is spent on research. That can have an impact on the way we think about funding universities and the misconceptions we have about professors.

“What’s really changed in the last 5 or 10 years is funding for universities is getting tighter and tighter so we rely, more than ever, on the support of our alumni and the business community in order to offer a world-class education that’s really driven by that intense research culture. Often what separates us from other universities and colleges in Canada and around the world, is we generate the research—and in many cases write the textbooks that other schools teach from— and that’s really the value of having that research intensive focus here. That differs significantly from us just teaching something that may derive from other countries.”

Bio

Dr. Kyle Murray is the Vice Dean and a Professor of Marketing at the Alberta School of Business. He held a previous role as the Director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta before making the transition to Vice-Dean. Kyle began his career as an Assistant Professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business and he has been a visiting professor at INSEAD (France), Monash Business School (Melbourne, Australia), and the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland). Dr. Murray holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Marketing and Psychology are from the University of Alberta.

Kyle’s research examines human judgment and decision making, using the tools of experimental psychology and behavioral economics to better understand the choices that people make. He’s currently working on complex behavior change challenges in business and society, including the Canada-wide BIOrg project.

His research has applications in consumer marketing, customer loyalty, e-commerce, and pricing. He has consulted in these areas for clients including the Competition Bureau of Canada, Consumers Council of Canada, General Motors, Industry Canada, Johnson and Johnson, Leger, The Research Intelligence Group, LoyaltyOne, and Microsoft.

As Vice Dean, Kyle is responsible for providing leadership and overseeing the day to day functioning of the School, including more than 500 full and part-time employees. This includes strategic planning, budget and finance, human resources, information technology, facilities management, and administrative oversight. He’s also leading the School-wide initiative for blended and experiential learning.

This episode is also brought to you by AutonomIQ: leveraging AI to remove the biggest bottleneck when building software. Without getting too technical, AutonomIQ teaches computers and algorithms to test your software so that your most expensive engineering talent doesn’t have to.

Thank you for Unlocking the Festival Handbook

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Colliding Global Creativity, Diversity, and Tech At Canada’s C-Tribe Festival

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C-Tribe Festival - Media and Influencer Launch

Announcing official dates and schedule for the C-Tribe Festival: A five-day collision festival set to showcase the best of the Canadian creative and innovation ecosystem in nation’s northernmost metropolitan city, Edmonton.

Edmonton, Canada, November 12 to 16, 2019 –Canadian innovation and creativity will be on full display at this year’s C-Tribe Festival: a five-day collision festival which celebrates the best of the national tech and creativity ecosystem.

View the photos from the latest Media + Influencer Launch here.

In its forthcoming year, C-Tribe has teamed up with RBC Future Launch, Dentons Canada, and Innovate Edmonton to curate a series of main stage talks, creative showcases, and live performances that aim to push the boundaries of opening up the eyes and minds of underestimated communities. Namely, underestimated communities on the global level like Edmonton.

The Youthful Cities Canadian Urban Work Index funded by RBC Future Launch listed Edmonton as the #1 city for youth to live; ranking high in affordability, entrepreneurial spirit, and economic opportunities. Vice President for Corporate Citizenship at RBC, Valerie Chort says RBC Future Launch is a decade-long commitment to helping Canadian youth prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.”We are committed to acting as a catalyst for change, bringing government, educators, public sector and not-for-profits together to co-create solutions to help young people better prepare for the future of the work through “human skills” development, networking, work experience, and mental wellbeing supports.”

More than 1500 attendees will flock to the host city of Edmonton, Alberta for the immersive programming. The festival programme is further broken down into three categories, with an aim to demonstrate how the intersection of culture, innovation, and creativity can result in actionable solutions to the challenges of our times.

C-Tribe Festival | Media + Influencer Launch

Previous notable speakers have included Burning Man public relations director Megan Miller, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute founding member Jonathan Schaeffer, and blockchain community pioneer Mihaela Ulieru.

Alberta has been an artificial intelligence leader for more than a decade, with Google AI subsidiary DeepMind fulfilling their first international office in Edmonton. This is yet another indicator that the city is an emerging hub for ideas, talent and opportunities – and the ideal host for C-Tribe Festival.

Festival founder and chairperson Sahr Saffa said the festival acts as fertile ground for ideas and collaborations. “We already live in a world of collisions. A world where two seemingly opposing concepts could be molded into one and transformed into new and re-imagined industries. Collisions break down barriers between ideas, points of view, and create new grounds that we can explore and build upon together. Edmonton is an emerging innovation and creative hub, it’s punching above its weight on a global level, and we believe it’s the perfect time to continue to spotlight the next generation of business leaders, artists, innovators, and creators” he said.

About C-Tribe Festival

Founded in 2017 C-Tribe Festival celebrates diversity and helps innovative and creative people achieve their dreams. The C-Tribe Festival is a media initiative of the C-Tribe Society. Originating in Edmonton, Alberta, the festival has evolved into one of the northern city’s best representations of its socioeconomic and creative energy. The C-Tribe Festival runs from November 12 to 16 at the Legends Building right in the core of downtown Edmonton.

CONTACT

Name: Sahr Saffa
Phone: 1-780-860-0839
Email: hello@ctribefestival.com

Daniel Matishak— The CEO of a Digital Media Publishing Company who has turned his Passion into a Global Powerhouse

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Daniel Matishak - It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast

Guest: Daniel Matishak, Co-founder & CEO, Mindable Inc.

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Chairperson, C-Tribe, and VP of Canadian Operations, AutonomIQ

Show Notes

“I’ve been very blessed to go to conferences or I see world leaders, thought leaders, authors etc., and there’s just so much that I learned and I just think to myself “it would be so cool if I could share these ideas with people.” It’s kind of like what TED Talks does. For daily life what I really want to do is to build a platform and what we’ve built there — but where I can go find some of the best authors in the world and just say, “Hey, I would like for you to create a product or a mini-series with us” or do whatever I can do so that the average human doesn’t have to spend copious amounts of money like I have to learn these things.

This is coming from having a very privileged life: I’m white, I’m male, I grew up in Canada so I haven’t had a lot of horrible heartbreak or things happen to me. Personally I think that life is a lot easier than we are taught it should be. I think people take pride in life being a struggle and hang their hat on things being hard. Life is really whatever you decide it to be. Your thoughts create your reality. Whatever you tell yourself is what will be. I have always wanted life to be easy, I wanted it to be light, enjoyable and fun and I’ve made it so because I believed in that.”

Bio

Founded in 2010 by Daniel Matishak, Mindable is one of the most exciting digital publishing companies in the personal transformation space.
Mindable invested in an idea that they were passionate about and grew from a basement operation, to being ranked one of the top 2,000 websites (https://astrologyanswers.com/) in the world (ranked by Alexa.com). Mindable was voted as one of the fastest growing tech companies in 2015 (Deloitte), coming in at #14 of the Top 50 in Canada, and #122 of the Top 500 in North America!

How have they pulled this off? One strategy that has paid off is a mostly remote workforce, that enables the company to attract top talent not just from their own backyard, but from across the globe.There are, of course, challenges that come with a dispersed team like Mindable’s. Namely – how do you maintain the right culture when more than half your staff never sets foot in the office?

Over the years Mindable has had the opportunity to tap into some of the most interesting markets and as we have mentioned, we’ve found our success and passion publishing authors, articles and products in the self-discovery and personal transformation space. This massive market grants Mindable a digital playground to publish content, test new ideas and connect with a valuable network of unique individuals.

Nisha Patel— City of Edmonton Poet Laureate & Canadian Individual Slam Champion making movements with her words

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Nisha Patel - It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast

Guest: Nisha Patel (@anothernisha), City of Edmonton Poet Laureate & Canadian Individual Slam Champion

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Chairperson, C-Tribe, and VP of Canadian Operations, AutonomIQ

Show Notes

“Eventually I reached a point where I was like, “you know what, I want to see what happens if I pursue this full time.” I’m not sure what will happen and I don’t know if I can pursue this full time, but you hear about people in their retirement years, or you hear from Millennials, “oh, I want to write a book one day”, or “I want to travel the world when I retire”, or “I want to do this when I retire.” I don’t want to live a life waiting for retirement, I want to try things now. Either I can spend this money when I’m 67 (or whenever the retirement age is) or I can use all of my savings to see what it takes to be a full time artist and do what I want for a year. My year was up a few months ago, but I think I’m doing pretty well right now to buy myself a little bit of time as an artist.

Bio

Nisha (@anothernisha) is an Indo-Canadian poet, artist, and public speaker in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Edmonton. She is also the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion, the 2019 Edmonton Slam Champion, and the Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

She is the author of “Limited Success” and co-author of “Water“. She is the 2016 Edmonton Indie Slam Champion and a four-time member of the Edmonton Slam Team. She is a finalist of the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. She is the former Artist-in-Residence at The Nook Cafe and The Sewing Machine Factory.

Her work has also been published in The Glass Buffalo Vol. 2 No. 3 & The City Series: Number Four – Edmonton, as well as The Polyglot Issue 3: Curating our Canons.

Nisha holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta School of Business with a major in Business Economics and Law, a minor in Political Science, and a Certificate in Leadership.

Overall, Nisha, is one of those people that I wish I spent more time getting to know during the earlier parts of our working relationship as members of the Global Shapers community. Her story is so beautiful for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most to me is that she has allowed a very dark moment in her life—where their literally was no way out— to propel her into being the most celebrated artist her in the city and amongst the best in Canada. She’s a hidden talent here in Edmonton and has basically taken over a world I had no idea about: the world of written poetry and artistry. What’s interesting though, is that throughout this podcast, I uncover that she thinks about the same things while building her artistic business that I would think about while building a tech business.

Johnathan Holland, Founder & CEO, SmartPay Checkout – How a fresh look at taking payments online is sweeping the FinTech space

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Johnathan Holland - It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast

Show Notes

“As an entrepreneur it takes every opportunity, and every advantage you can get to be successful. Obviously, the probabilities and the statistics are against you when you’re building a company. The most impactful people for me were the people that helped in the very early days of the business. The thing about these people is I actually don’t really know them.

In the early days, I would literally sit in front of a computer and Google “how to build a company in Canada?” What I realized is that everyone around me wasn’t going to help me achieve the level of success I was looking for which was a multi-billion dollar company—which is no small feat. In the early days, if there’s no one giving you advice that you can honestly look at and say “I wish I could trade places with this person,” find examples of people online, read their books, listen to their podcast and do whatever it takes to surround yourself with the information and knowledge that directly correlates with where you want to be.”

Bio

Johnathan Holland is a serial FinTech entrepreneur in the payments space with a proven track record of success. Johnathan went through the Next 36 accelerator in 2016 where he was taught by business leaders with 10 figure exits. His current business, SmartPay, has just graduated from the #1 globally-recognized incubator, the DMZ. SmartPay continues to grow month over month, where it’s exceeding over six figures of revenue every single month. Yes, you heard that right: every month. However, this wasn’t achieved overnight. It’s taken Johnathan 2.5 years to see any revenue from any of his business ventures and an additional year and a half just to turn its first profit.

The SmartPay solution is simple, but so effective: they allow eCommerce businesses to integrate debit payments on their website. They’ve approached the problem a different way than some of the incumbents in the space like PayPal and VISA

Outside of building a fast-growing technology rocket ship, Johnathan comes from humble beginnings and considers himself a late bloomer. Despite this, he advocates for Canadian entrepreneurship and believes that the country has what it takes to grow the next wave of multi-billion dollar companies.

Vanesa Flynn—an energy healer that’s fighting to improve the mental well-being of herself and others

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Vanesa Flynn - It Takes a C-Tribe Village

Guest: Vanesa Flynn, Energy Healer & Usui Reiki Teacher, Vanesa Flynn

(website)

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Founder at C-Tribe Society and VP of Canadian Operations at AutonomIQ

Show Notes

“After losing everyone and everything that was close to me, I had to rely on myself. Looking back, that was so important to my journey and it was what I needed because that was my catalyst for my change. If I didn’t have that happen in my life, I would’ve tried to do what was inauthentic to me. I really think that my journey has helped me melt my ego so that I’m able to be authentic and know that it is okay for me to be myself. I don’t think that I am like a lot of people, but I’m showing people that it’s okay to be yourself. When you’re yourself, people can see that you’re the real you, and that it’s okay to be the real you.”

Bio

With a fairly challenging past, Vanesa unconsciously began her healing journey after attending a meditation institute that was lead by Thai Monks. Meditation quickly became a pillar to her healing by helping her release her trapped emotions. In 2016 Vanesa began learning about Ayurvedic (/ˌäyərˈvādik/) medicine, the chakra (ˈCHäkrə/) system, and journaling; in 2017 she met an Oracle who helped her heal the wounds of her soul through Shamanic (/SHəˈmänik/) practices.

Her journey of awakening—and challenges— started when attending university in 2011. Her desire was to become a registered dietitian, but every year she attended, she was kicked out because of her failing grades. What kept her in school and afloat, per se, was the fact that she lost an immediate family member every year she attended university; despite her performance in school, they allowed back year over year. However, by the end of her third year, she had lost her entire family–everyone and everything that was close her vanished.

Although it was not acceptable in her family, she had a passion for business, as well. She joined a network marketing company in 2010 where she was first exposed to business. It eventually went under, unfortunately, but it ignited her passion for owning her own company. She dropped out of university and started a healthy meal delivery company in 2014. This gave her the platform to combine everything that she loved ranging from health, business, and helping others. After 9 months of growing the company, everything came to a crashing halt when the business partnership failed.

Fast-forward to 2017 is when she began deep self-reflection and understanding her rights as a medicine person. Her relationship with the Oracle has evolved into a teaching environment to which she is a student to this day. Vanesa was referred to her Reiki Teacher and she has taken her training. After receiving her Reiki Master she began working with clients.

Throughout her journey, she has come to realize that helping others is what truly fulfills her. Vanesa wants to share her healings, teachings, and guidance with others so they can heal and evolve. She has, since then, dedicated her life to evolving the consciousness of Earth.

Brands and things mentioned: Jesus Walks, Kanye West

Malin Pattersen, VP, Canadian Operations at Vev Design – The 22 year old fashionista turned tech businesswoman

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Malin Pattersen - It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast

Malin Pattersen, VP, North American Operations at Vev Design (malincornelia)
Interviewer: Sahr Saffa (@sahrsjunior)

Show Notes

“I felt like an alien a lot of the time. I think it’s because of the way I carry myself, and the way I dress, and the fact that I have an accent. There’s a lot of factors that make me alien-ish. Sometimes it’s challenging because it feels like you have to prove something and you have to work 10x harder in order for them to believe you, trust you, trust your ability, and that you’re good at what you do… but I think it’s [the tech industry] going in the right direction and it’s obviously a conversation that needs to be had.”

Malin’s final research paper on How Might Changes in the Fashion Industry affect of the Role of a Project Manager at Fashion Scout

Brands mentioned: Vev Design, Holzweiler, Saks Potts, Sara Toronto

Bio: A fashionista turned tech businesswoman, Malin (@malincornelia) graduated with First Class Honours at Winchester University (UK) studying fashion and business, worked as a PR executive for Scandinavian fashion success Holzweiler. Just recently she moved across the Atlantic Ocean to establish a design enterprise software called Vev Design in the North American Market; all by the age of 22! Malin has had an unconventional path to where she is now, working retail floors to afford contact lenses, to making lunch for 30 + people and 16 hour work days (as an intern you do whatever you have to do), just to be part of the art that is fashion. Her well-connected network offered her the opportunity to scale the Norwegian Startup, Vev, abroad. Malin is a firm believer in young leaders, and thinks the best way to describe her (and her career) is ‘a jack of all trades’.

Issac Olowolafe, Founder of Dream Maker Inc. – It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast

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Isaac Olowolafe - It Takes a C-Tribe Village

Isaac Olowolafe, Founder at Dream Maker Inc.
Interviewer: Sahr Saffa (@sahrsjunior)

Show Notes

“It’s a trickle down effect: if there’s one member of the family that has changed their mindset for the better, then during family gatherings and holidays — when family is together and conversations are happening — the conversation is now changing because of the type of mindset those individuals have. Now you’re making an impact within other families. We’ve seen that happen in so many different instances where one person has a connection to me [Isaac Olowolafe] or Dream Maker, and that person has, let’s say, three siblings and some extended family, that one person now can impact close to 60 people… as you can see there’s definitely a lot of change that we’re doing.”

Bio:

Isaac Olowolafe Jr. (@DreamMakerTO) is an award-winning real estate entrepreneur, angel investor and philanthropist. Isaac’s corporation, Dream Maker Inc., successfully operates multiple divisions including a brokerage, real estate development, wealth management, property management, education, private equity and insurance. The Development division celebrated the completion of the first major mixed-use development (condos, townhomes, retail) called Dream Residences at Yorkdale, located directly across from Yorkdale Mall, and has more developments underway across the GTA. Through his love of sports, Dream Maker Developments became the jersey sponsor of the Men and Women National Basketball Team and will be participating in the 2019 World Cup in China.

Isaac received a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Toronto. He has received numerous awards and recognition, including a Harry Jerome Business Award, an Enterprise Business Award by Planet Africa, an Arbor Award from the University of Toronto, a Business Leadership Award by Leadership and Governance Canada Inc. and a Public Service Award from the Transformation Institute for Leadership & Innovation and Toronto Board of Trade Award.

In addition to his membership in the Ryerson Innovation Circle, Isaac made a generous donation which named the Isaac Olowolafe Jr. Digital Media Experience Lab in Ryerson’s iconic Student Learning Centre. Recently Isaac Olowolafe Jr. Funded the launch of the 1st Black Tech Incubator out of Ryerson DMZ, The Black Innovation Fellowship, along side with the launch of Dream Maker Ventures Fund.

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