Made in York Region: The Future of Tech

Join ventureLAB on November 7, 2019, for the second annual Made In York Region: The Future of Tech event. Experience the innovative and technological prowess of York Region’s top tech companies as well as up-and comers. New this year, Made in York Region: The Future of Tech will feature a guided tour of two globally renowned tech companies in addition to showcasing over 30 start-up and scale-ups. This year’s event also features a pitch competition, an engaging panel on Advancing Technology, and a Founder Story panel on Shifting Perspectives: Building the Tech Titans of York Region. Made in York Region: the Future of Tech, is a showcase of ‘Made in York Region’ technologies, products, and solutions that are transforming experiences for Ontarians and Canadians. This event gives companies the opportunity to showcase their products to a large audience, including industry, investors, government, media, and more. 2018’s inaugural event featured 30 exhibitors, attracted 250 attendees, with five panels and 18 speakers. This year, Made in York Region: The Future of Tech is presented by ventureLAB in partnership with the Regional Municipality of York, highlighting the Region’s strengths, expertise, and success stories.

Date: Thursday, November 7, 2019

Time: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Main Venue: ventureLAB, 3600 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, Ontario, L3R 9Z7

Get your free tickets today: https://miyr.eventbrite.ca

Event Agenda:

8:00-12:30 pm: Guided Bus Tour of York Region
12:30-1:30 pm: Registration and Networking Lunch
12:30-3:30 pm: Exhibitor Showcase
1:30-1:45 pm: Opening remarks
2:00-3:00 pm: Pitch Competition
3:00-3:30 pm: Advancing Technology - What comes first? Panelists: Lally Rementilla, Mark Miller, Mark Wood
3:30-4:00 pm: Shifting Perspective: Building the Tech Titans of York Region Panelists: Jason Tham, Sanjay Malhotra
4:00-4:15 pm: Pitch Competition Awards
4:15-4:30pm: Closing Remarks

What can we expect at Made in York Region: The Future of Tech?

Guided Bus Tour of York Region Tech Companies Attendees interested in experiencing the innovative and technological prowess of York Region’s top tech companies can register for the Guided Tour of York Region, where they will visit a tech company in Markham, Richmond Hill, and Vaughan. Each company will take guests on a walk-through of their facility, provide insight into the day-to-day operations of their organization, and open the floor for a question and answer period with their team. Get your ticket today!

ventureLAB (Markham): ventureLAB is a leading technology hub located in Markham in York Region, Canada’s second-largest tech cluster. Through its programs focused on capital, talent, technology, and customers, ventureLAB has supported over 2,000 tech companies and entrepreneurs, including 100 companies that have raised over $100 million and created 3,500 jobs. ventureLAB’s innovation hub is a 50,000 square foot facility that is home to over 45 tech companies and partners that employ over 300 people. At ventureLAB, we grow globally competitive tech titans that build-to-scale in Canada.
Mircom (Vaughan): Mircom is a global designer, manufacturer, and distributor of intelligent building and life safety solutions. Mircom’s vision is to make buildings worldwide safer, smarter and more livable. We trace our beginnings back to the early 1960s, when our founder, Mr. Tony Falbo, started out manufacturing apartment intercoms and related systems in Toronto. His prior company quickly expanded to include fire detection and alarm systems and grew to become one of the largest fire safety manufacturers in Canada. This experience led Mr. Falbo to launch Mircom in 1991. Today, Mircom stands as one of the fastest-growing companies in the building solutions sector and the largest independent fire, life safety, and intelligent building system manufacturers in North America. Our product portfolio spans Fire Detection & Alarm, Communications, Mass Notification, Security, Building Automation and more. Reaching customers in over 100 countries worldwide, our unwavering commitment to North American manufacturing enables Mircom to offer customers the highest quality products with superior value across our vast range of solutions.
Compugen (Richmond Hill): Compugen has been a proud member of the York Region technology community for over 38 years. Founded by Harry Zarek and headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Compugen operates 14 offices across Canada and the United States and achieved revenues in excess of $670M in 2018. Compugen works with mid-to-large-sized organizations to provide strategic IT planning, infrastructure products and services, as well as complete as-a-service offerings to governments and corporations. With a staff of over 1,500, the company is committed to supporting customers with single locations, and those with broader, North American reach. Our Richmond Hill location and proximity to the major technology manufacturers; access to highly trained, local resources; and excellent infrastructure, have all played a role in our success. We are proud to have grown into one of the largest systems integrators in the country through our commitment to assisting our customers to harness the power of technology. In just the past 12 months, our strategic partnerships with the global technology leaders have led to awards such as Cisco Canadian Security Partner of the Year, Dell EMC Shining Star Partner of the Year, and HP Systems Partner of the year.

Guests should arrive at ventureLAB (3600 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, Ontario, L3R 9Z7) promptly at 8:00 am for registration and will board shuttles provided by the Regional Municipality of York to be taken to each venue.

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.

Panelists:

Lally Rementilla President, Quantius

A huge supporter of Canadian innovation and talent, as well as an experienced investor with a gender lens, Lally is the Canadian lead for The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, a global consortium of venture capital funds and institutions who are mobilizing $1 billion in investments into female-founded companies. She also serves as an associate fellow with the Creative Destruction Lab – a program designed to accelerate the growth of massively scalable science-based ventures, with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation. She also sits on the investment committees of Pique Ventures and Grand Challenges Canada. She has sat on the board of the Information Technology Association of Canada, Canadian Women in Communications, Innoversity and Theatre Passe Muraille. Mark Miller CEO, Volaris Group& COO, Constellation Software

Mark Miller is the CEO of Volaris Group and the COO and a member of the board at Constellation Software Inc. – Volaris Group’s parent company. He began his career as a software developer and it was during that time that he co-founded Trapeze Group in 1995. Mark has a passion for software technology and building innovative businesses that last forever. His goal is to help intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs surround themselves with a great team so that they can be leaders in their industries. Mark Wood CEO, Mircoart Services Inc.

Mark brings over 30 years’ experience in the electronic manufacturing world to his current role with one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies. Mark joined Microart Services Inc. 13 years ago and as the current CEO has led the annual double-digit growth through building effective relationships with customers and the Microart Team. Mark has been able to blend the traditional value of the customer with new thinking and technology to ensure that Microart continues to build quality products that meet customer need. His ability and passion to share his experience and knowledge allows him to fully understand manufacturing from concept to completion making him a valued resource to customers at all stages of their product’s life. Get your free ticket today!

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.

Panelists:

Jason Tham CEO, Nulogy

Jason Tham is the co-founder, CEO and brand ambassador for Nulogy. He is focused on corporate development, executive leadership, and understanding the evolving landscape of Nulogy's clients. He is also on Nulogy's board and speaks throughout the industry on the agile supply chain. Jason draws from his experience in the continuous improvement and packaging groups at Kellogg’s highly automated production facility, and in R&D, manufacturing and quality at Magna International. Jason graduated with a BSc (Hons) with a Management Sciences option from the University of Waterloo. Sanjay Malhotra CTO & Co-Founder, Clearbridge Mobile

As CTO and Co-Founder of Clearbridge Mobile, Sanjay Malhotra has built an agile team of mobile experts who have created award-winning solutions for media, telecom, fintech, healthcare, mobile payments, and QSRs. With a wealth of enterprise consulting experience, Sanjay helps clients understand the positive impact of digital transformation, and the ways mobile technology can drive revenue and enhance existing enterprise infrastructure. In his role, Sanjay oversees the delivery team and provides technical leadership focused on driving innovation initiatives. Recognized as a leading mobile technologist, Sanjay Malhotra has held multiple leadership positions in the technology industry for the last 20 years. Prior to co-founding Clearbridge Mobile, he provided enterprise consulting services to clients in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and UAE. Sanjay was also a frequent lecturer at Microsoft on SharePoint and holds a B.Math in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.

Event Emcee:

Marc Saltzman Technology Evangelist

For the past 25 years, Marc Saltzman has been a prolific tech expert with one simple goal: to break down geek speak into street speak. Marc is a freelance journalist for more than 30 publications -- including USA TODAY, Costco Connection, Yahoo, MSN, Metro, AARP, Zoomer, and Toronto Star -- a prolific (16-time) author, radio and television personality, public speaker, and host of “Gear Guide,” which runs on Cineplex movie theatre screens across Canada. In the fall of 2019, Marc became the host of a new Bloomberg TV show, Tech Impact, which airs Saturdays at 830pm ET in the United States. Marc lives in Vaughan with his wife Kellie and three kids. Get your free ticket today!