Tech summit will connect students with industry professionals

This  year’s  Revelstoke Tech Summit will feature a steller line-up of information tech industry professionals. The City of Revelstoke’s Youth and Tech Working Group has announced a number of incredible IT industry key note speakers who will converge on the Performing Arts Centre and Revelstoke Secondary School for the Revelstoke Tech Summit February 22, 2018.

“The workforce is evolving at an incredible rate through technologies such as AI, machine learning and augmented reality, to name a few. Youth will need to be equipped with the technical and soft skills to forge a career in an increasingly complex labour market,” said Hayley Johnson, Tech Strategy Coordinator for the City of Revelstoke.

2018’s Summit theme Hack into Tech: The Future of Work will address how technology is changing the type of jobs available, the diversity of careers that incorporate technology, and the skills Canada’s youth will need to successfully integrate into the workforce.

VP engineering at buddybuild, and former VP engineering at Mozilla Foundation, David Ascher has been confirmed as keynote speaker. His presentation will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Simon Wex of Adobe and made up of professionals from the games development, digital arts, web development, and tourism sectors.

Confirmed for the Summit trade show in the afternoon are games developers Sad Panda Studios (Kelowna) and the Centre for Arts and Technology (Kelowna), in addition to representatives from a growing concentration of locally based talent including InFlik Productions, Keri Knapp Photography, Shopify, Cruise Line Employment Services, BC Hydro, Telus, mobile photography tech company Moment, location data platform company Mapbox, and Lortap Construction. Students will have the opportunity to see the tech used in this diverse range of industries and ask professionals about their careers.

The Summit will conclude with an evening presentation open to the public and specialist technology workshops will be offered to students on 28th Feb and 1st March, 2018. An event website will be launched early 2018 with a detailed program of events.

“This Summit will be great opportunity for students to meet and hear from the growing list of tech and innovation workers based here in Revelstoke, and further afield in the Okanagan, which is home to over 500 technology businesses and now a billion dollar industry,” said Nicole Fricot, director of Community Economic Development.

The Revelstoke Tech Summit is an initiative of the City of Revelstoke, who, in partnership with Community Futures, has funded a number of tech and entrepreneur events through the Revelstoke Technology Strategy, a two-year project to diversify the local economy through the promotion of the tech sector. The Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Economic Opportunity Fund also supported the implementation of the Revelstoke Tech Strategy in the amount of $30,000.00

The City of Revelstoke High Tech Strategy is funded through a 2 year grant provided by the BC Rural Dividend Fund. The BC Rural Dividend provides $25 million a year to assist rural communities with a population of 25,000 or less to reinvigorate and diversify their local economies. It was developed to recognize both the contribution rural communities have made to B.C.’s economy, and the unique challenges they face to diversify beyond natural resources.