Vancouver is often talked about as future tech hub. Already big companies like Microsoft & Amazon are expanding their presence in Vancouver. I reached out to our guest today to chat about the expanding tech sector in Vancouver. We discuss some of the opportunities and challenges with this growing sector of our local economy and how it fits into the global tech market.

Tyler Orton is a reporter at Business In Vancouver newspaper who specializes in B.C.'s tech sector.

He also hosts BIV's daily show on Roundhouse Radio 98.3, tackling headline news and interviewing the city's most notable names in business.

Kevin Crowe is the founder of Give A Mile. Give A Mile is a ‘not for profit’ online platform that enables people to visit a palliative ill loved one or people with a life threatening illness through crowdfunding of flights via donations of travel loyalty miles. Kevin was inspired to start Give A Mile after losing a very close friend to brain cancer.  Kevin is also a member of the leadership team of Long View Systems a technology company.  As a member of the Long View leadership team he has helped take the company from 11 people to over 1,100 people working across North America.  Kevin also loves to pursue endurance sports having completed several ultra-marathons including the Canadian Death race and the Ironman.  He currently lives in Calgary with his amazing wife and awesome son.

Alex is a cyber security expert professionally but also has a deep passion for drone technology. His passion led him through a hobby interest in flying drones, to building and racing drones. He now helps organize a regional drone racing league in Vancouver. In the conversation, we chat about the growing sport of drone racing, some of the safety concerns around drones, the development of flying AI, and a few of the numerous commercial applications for drone tech. Lots of people are familiar with drone tech, but few appreciate how dramatically this tech will weave its way into our daily lives. 

Robert Merki is Director of Product at CognitiveVR. He started exploring web development at the age of 10 and continued building technology products all throughout his youth. After working at a variety of technology startups, Robert joined cognitiveVR to head up product development. CognitiveVR is a virtual reality analytics company based out of Vancouver BC. The company’s analytics platform helps their customers overcome the complexity of VR to bring them deep insights into how their users are interacting with their products. With the advent of VR, analytics becomes a vital way VR experience creators hone and optimize their narratives, games, and tools.

Rachel is a consultant and trainer to project managers, freelancers, and creative teams. She is also an active leader in the Digital Project Manager community in Vancouver, BC. This episode is a lot of fun, Rachel and I talk about the evolving history of project management and it's increasing role in the digital economy. Then we go down a few fun rabbit holes about finding a higher purpose, machine learning, AI, and other futurist topics.

David reviews with us his eco-system for a healthy culture and we chat about the evolution of corporate culture through the years. We also touch on some of the key struggles that business owners deal with when trying to develop a healthy culture.

Kevin is a Microsoft MVP specializing in App-V and application delivery technologies. We chat about the MVP program, App-V itself and its evolution from Softgrid. We also touch on application delivery options for IT shops and MSPs. Then we look forward to the future of application delivery, how Azure will play a role and industry adoption of cloud infrastructure.

Vanbex is a group that specializes in strategy, marketing, and operations consulting for blockchain companies. Lisa has a relatively long history with blockchain tech having worked with companies like Mastercoin, Ethereum, Factom, and Tendermint. Lisa is a strong believer in the future of the blockchain and its power to evolve countless aspects of not just finance, but all businesses. We chat about the politics of bitcoin, the fast evolution of the blockchain markets, and hurdles still in place before the mainstream adoption of blockchain currencies.

Luis Giraldo is the Founder and CEO of Ook Enterprises, a Managed IT service provider focusing on the small business space in Vancouver. Luis and I explore the what and the why of managed services for businesses. As well as, some of the trends we see in the partnering and sales process for managed service business owners as well as companies looking to outsource their IT to a partner.

Marc Stoiber is on a mission to make speeches and presentations interesting and engaging. Marc has a rich history in advertising and has won numerous awards for his work with all sorts of brands including local brands as well as huge multi-national ones. We talk about the evolution of marketing and advertising in the digital age and why TED-style speeches have become such a pop-culture phenomenon.