Made in York Region 2019

November 21, 2019
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On Thursday, November 7, we held our second annual Made in York Region: The Future of Tech event at ventureLAB. New this year, we hosted a guided ecosystem bus tour in the morning to two top tech companies in York Region: Mircom in Vaughan, and Compugen in Richmond Hill. In the afternoon, we were back at ventureLAB with over 350 attendees. Offering tours of our space and new hardware lab, plus over 30 exhibitors, two panels with inspiring speakers, and one exciting pitch competition — we hope you were one of the lucky ones who joined us!

Pitch Competition

New this year, we hosted a pitch competition that awarded one grand prize winner $10,000. Nine semi-finalists were selected for the pitch competition, and five finalists were selected to pitch to the live audience. This year's pitch competition winner was TROES, a Canadian advanced battery energy storage systems company, specializing in smart distributed energy storage solutions that integrate TROES’ proprietary battery modules, battery management systems (BMS), enclosures and power conversion system (PCS). A runner-up prize of $5,000 of in-kind services from Bereskin & Parr was also handed out. The runner-up award went to SmartONE Solutions, a Markham-based company dedicated to the development of next-generation Smart Communities, connecting hundreds or even thousands of homes to a central network offering unique community-based services.

Semi-finalists:

Speakers

We had two exciting panels this year, highlighting the future of tech and founder stories — the story behind the company. Thank you to all our speakers for a great discussion!

Panel: Advancing Technology – What Comes First?

The future of tech is here. From AI to machine learning to autonomous vehicles, technology has vastly improved the way we live, work, and learn. So where do we go from here? This panel will explore foundational technologies: the underappreciated yet exceptionally important pieces of improving technology — the parts you cannot see, but need to power “simple” technologies like your smartphone, or more “advanced” technologies like driverless cars. Speakers:

Keynote Panel: Founder Stories – Shifting Perspectives: Building the Tech Titans of York Region

Technology is used to enhance the lives of those it touches, but not often do we consider where the idea behind a globally viable product comes from. This keynote panel highlights the story behind the company and provides an intimate opportunity with founders and CEOs to learn from their past experiences. Speakers:

And of course, thanks to our event emcee, Marc Saltzman!

Stay tuned for a video recap in the coming weeks, and next year's event in Fall 2020!

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