Many employees have spent the better part of the last year under tremendous stress as they deal with disruption and isolation from traditional support networks. Employers have an opportunity to support the personal well-being of their employees by rethinking their approach to employee benefits – increasing employee health, productivity and retention. In this podcast, OBJ publisher Michael Curran speaks to Meldrum Horne partners Jamie Meldrum and Michael Horne about new ways employers can promote wellness at work.

Fostering wellness at (remote) work: How employers can promote staff health

Ottawa-based software company Fullscript has become a near permanent feature on the city’s lists of fastest-growing companies - and this year, it's celebrating its tenth anniversary.
In this episode of Techopia Live, CEO Kyle Braatz shares what’s contributed to the company’s rocketship-like growth, and his plan to make the business sustainable at a time when the healthcare industry his company serves is at a crossroads.

How Fullscript is staying ahead of the competition

In this episode of Techopia Live, Alvaro Pombo reviews the financial fundamentals for Ottawa-based ProntoForms and shares pearls of wisdom on how to lead a growth-oriented micro-cap in the Canadian market. The 20-year CEO also explores the challenge of enterprise sales growing at scale and the values that ProntoForms holds at its core.

Alvaro Pombo: Pearls of wisdom from a growth-oriented micro-cap in Canada

When the Ottawa-based CEO of IMI wanted a better understanding of how his employees were doing, he set out to build Rhonda, an AI-powered digital persona that could check in with employees and monitor their satisfaction. Now Rudi Asseer is taking Rhonda to market as a SaaS solution that other companies can use to connect with employees and strengthen company culture.

Help me, Rhonda: IMI’s AI-powered digital persona gets real-time feedback from employees

High-speed internet access? Doesn’t everyone have that? Well, not if you live in some of the more rural or remote regions of our province. This edition of the Eastern Ontario Business Journal Podcast takes a look at the sometimes thorny issue of connectivity with guests Jim Pine from the Eastern Ontario Regional Network; Joe Hickey, CEO of Rock Networks; and Richard Allen on behalf of Frontenac County. 

The discussion examines what governments of all stripes are doing — or should be doing — to improve rural internet access in Eastern Ontario, what some of the challenges are in getting powerful internet connections out to the countryside, and how the pandemic has changed that conversation in the past two years.

Eastern Ontario Business Journal Podcast discusses rural high-speed Internet

Kyle Braatz is on a mission to change health care. That’s a lofty goal, but the company he leads and co-founded is growing in leaps and bounds with revenues exceeding $600 million. In September, Braatz was named the 2022 CEO of the Year by Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade.

Over almost 12 years, Braatz has taken the company from an idea he and business partners Brad Dyment and Chris Wise hashed out in his living room to a multinational enterprise that provides nutritional supplements and other natural health-care products as well as treatment plans to more than five million patients.

Now with 900 employees, about 300 located in Ottawa, Fullscript raised US$240 million in equity financing – the biggest such funding haul in the nation’s capital since the dot-com boom in the early 2000s – and acquired one of its biggest competitors.

[CKEBLOCK]adslotposition1_content_embed[/CKEBLOCK]
There is no stopping the University of Ottawa alumnus, who is the 23rd recipient of CEO of the Year, joining a who’s who of local business executives, including Shopify co-founder Tobi Lütke, Calian Group’s Kevin Ford and Kinaxis CEO John Sicard.

CEO of the Year is sponsored by Boyden, a specialist in executive recruitment with offices in Ottawa.

For more about Braatz, read this profile in Ottawa Business Journal: https://obj.ca/article/local/fullscript-co-founder-kyle-braatz-named-ottawas-2022-ceo-year

Techopia EY With Kyle Bratz -Audio

What do Canada and Sweden have in common? (Besides the fact they won’t face each other in the World Cup.) Swedish-based global tech design company Syntronic is building its presence in Canada, more specifically Ottawa. Since arriving in Canada, Syntronic has grown its workforce to approximately 550 employees, many of them located in Kanata.

This fall, Syntronic continued its growth by acquiring Stittsville-based manufacturing company Lloyd Douglas Solutions. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. This marks the second local acquisition for Syntronic, which previously purchased DragonWave’s operations in 2022.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran talks with Syntronic’s senior vice-president, Darrell Wellington, who is based in Kanata. Wellington, who has worked for more than 20 years in the local technology industry for companies such as MOSAID and BlackBerry, says Syntonic is having a big impact on Ottawa and its technology sector.

Techopia Live: Syntronic’s grand design for Ottawa

Getting your house in order on the legal front is essential when building a successful technology company. In this bonus episode of Techopia Live, OBJ publisher Michael Curran speaks with Conor Cronin, a corporate and securities lawyer at Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP. Cronin shares his thoughts on technology trends for 2023 as they pertain to legal matters.

Legal tech trends for 2023

Have you ever wondered about the future of technology?

More specifically about the future of wireless telecommunications networks that are more and more pervasive in our everyday lives?

We’re not simply talking about smartphones – think about GPS, or autonomous vehicles.

OBJ’s Michael Curran sat down with Halim Yanıkömeroğlu, a professor of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University to talk about what the future of wireless connectivity could like for Ottawa and beyond.

The future of wireless networks could be in the clouds

Fellow is joining the war on useless and inefficient meetings.

Earlier this year, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke told employees to purge their work calendars of all recurring meetings with more than two people. Lutke suggested that too much time was being wasted in ineffective meetings, resulting in lower productivity for Shopify.

Aydin Mirzaee, a co-founder of Fellow and business colleague of Lukte, is responding to the rally call against useless meetings.

This fall, Fellow unveiled a new feature set that helps managers limit inefficient meetings, including a calculator to reveal the true cost of group meetings.

The new feature set works with Google Calendar and lets administrators impose guidelines on employees who are setting meetings. For example, it can restrict the number of employees invited to a meeting. It can also recommend excluding an employee who has too many meetings in a given period of time.

Mirzaee says new data suggests that, in a post-pandemic business world, managers are now spending 14.5 hours, an increase from 9.4 hours in 2019.

"While meetings are often cited as a huge source of productivity drain, this isn't about declaring an all-out ban on meetings. It's about proactively redefining an organization's meeting culture and changing the way meetings are conducted to boost productivity and reduce cost waste," says Mirazee.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran speaks with Mirzaee to get his insights into how organizations can encourage productive and efficient meetings.

Read more about Fellow here: https://obj.ca/company/fellow/

Techopia Live: Fellow’s new tools help fight ‘useless meetings’

Keeping up with employment case law isn’t easy, but it is important, especially when it comes to making sure your employment contracts are enforceable.

Employers should be reviewing employment contracts regularly, particularly in light of a few recent decisions handed down by the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

E﻿mond Harnden LLP partner Paul Lalonde and associate Zoriana Priadka join us to review three notable cases touching on the issue of employment contracts.

They’ll explain the key points, how to know if it’s time to take action, and how to avoid introducing additional risks when renegotiating employment contracts.

J﻿oin OBJ's Michael Curran as he leads this discussion about mitigating your risks in an ever-evolving employment law landscape.

What Can Happen When You Don’t Have A Carefully Crafted Contract

Eastern Ontario is home to many businesses involved in the agriculture sector. From growers and producers, to transport and processing, it’s a sector that generates tens of billions of dollars each year in Ontario.

With this issue of Eastern Ontario Business Journal, we focus on agriculture, “agrifood” and agritech. Our special section, Lay of the Land, gives an overview of the industry in the region, introduces some of the major players, and examines how traditional farming is melding with technology to create exciting new possibilities.

In a podcast to complement the report, host Phil Gaudreau talks with two special guests to get their views on the state of the industry, the labour challenge, and what the future might look like.

Check out the special report in the Eastern Ontario Business Journal.

EOBJ Podcast: Special report on agriculture in Eastern Ontario

Entrepreneurs make the world a better place. They solve big problems and innovate to find solutions that no one has ever considered. In doing so, entrepreneurs create jobs, wealth and even, on occasion, help address social issues.

This episode of Techopia Live features the person who is leading the charge for entrepreneurs across Canada, Kayla Isabelle, CEO of Startup Canada.

Kayla Isabelle is an Ottawa Business Journal and Ottawa Board of Trade Forty Under 40 recipient from 2022 and a Globe and Mail 2023 Changemaker.

Kayla Isabelle joined Startup Canada in 2019 and gradually moved up the ranks. Today she manages an Ottawa-based team that supports more than 135,000 entrepreneurs across Canada, through its online program and cross-country tour.

While Kayla Isabelle remains bullish on entrepreneurship in Canada, she says there are also troubling trends in this post-pandemic period.

Techopia Live: Isabelle leading the charge for Canadian entrepreneurs

Techopia Live host Riaz Sidi visited SAAS NORTH 2023 conference, a two-day conference that attracted more than 1,000 attendees from around Canada, the U.S. and beyond on Nov. 15 at the Shaw Centre. 

At the event, Sidi spoke with several key participants ‒ including Veronica Farmer of Wesley Clover, Solon Angel of FreshFounders, Andrew Lemoine of Autocorp.ai, Aydin Mirzaee of Fellow and Mark Stephenson of Cube Business Media ‒ to get their reaction to the conference and its highlights. Check out their conversations here, and stay tuned for more coverage.

Techopia Live: Saas North 2023 highlights: Part 1

Supervising your employees while they’re at work is tough on its own. Being concerned about what they do outside the office makes it even tougher.

But wait, is that really an employer’s business in the first place? The answer? Yes, when your reputation is at stake. Knowing how to determine if you're at risk depends on the employee, their role and what actually happened.

Join us as Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran learns from Emond Harnden employment lawyers Sarah Lapointe and Fabienne Lajoie what you need to know about disciplining employees for off-duty conduct.

Off The Clock But Not Off The Hook: When To Discipline For Off-Duty Conduct

This year’s SAAS NORTH 2023 conference, held Nov. 15 at the Shaw Centre, attracted more than 1,000 attendees. Known as a hub for Canadian SaaS founders and their teams, the event heard from key players in the Ottawa community like Solon Angel, Kyle Braatz, Julia Elvidge and Sacha Gera.

To join in on the fun, Techopia Live host Riaz Sidi took viewers to the event with him, getting reaction and highlights from heavy-hitting Ottawa leaders Urooj Qureshi, founder and CEO of Impactor App; Jennifer Francis, founder of SheBoot; Janeffer Gangji, founder of Exemplify Talent; and, Joanne Kiskis, vice-president of marketing at Polymath.

Techopia Live: highlights from SaaS North 2023: Part 2

Wesley Clover International occupies a unique role in Ottawa’s technology ecosystem. It’s more than a company. It’s a foundation upon which dozens of technology startups have launched and scaled.

Wesley Clover was founded by Sir Terry Matthews, the city’s greatest tech icon. After 51 years leading the local tech scene, Matthews is still hands-on with the company and its portfolio. He is supported by a team of executives, including Ben Morris, vice-president of technology strategies.

Morris grew up in Kanata in the shadow of the community’s technology office towers. Today, he has a diverse job that varies almost daily. On behalf of Wesley Clover portfolio companies, Morris deals with banks, investors, prospective clients and generally solves problems to help the portfolio thrive.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Morris speaks with Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran to provide an inside look at Wesley Clover and the tech trends that will shape the sector in 2024.

Techopia Live: Inside Wesley Cover with Ben Morris

OBJ publisher Michael Curran speaks with Perley-Robertson Hill & McDougall partner Dirk Bouwer about legal trends that are relevant to executives in the technology sector.

Legal trends in the tech sector

The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence in 2023 was the innovation story of the year. It dominated news headlines as well as boardroom discussions. How will AI disrupt existing industries? How can it be used to increase efficiency? What are the broader implications of AI?

In this bonus episode of Techopia Live, Michael Curran of Ottawa Business Journal and Susan Richards of numbercrunch explore what AI could mean to Ottawa’s technology sector. Plus, two local companies that are staking their futures on AI explain their opportunities and future plans. Special guests include Patrick Tan, CEO of Esprit-ai, and Orchid Jahanshahi, a vice-president at NuEnergy.ai.

Techopia Live: What AI means for Ottawa’s tech sector

If you believe that innovation only happens inside semiconductor chips and software, think again.

Two social entrepreneurs from Ottawa are determined to improve food security, especially for Indigenous communities in Canada’s North, through innovation in agriculture.

Back in 2015, Corey Ellis and Alida Burke co-founded The Growcer and created a food system solution that allows “anyone anywhere to grow food locally.”

Years later, they are perfecting hardware, education and distribution to help The Growcer flourish. The company has sold approximately 85 of its growing systems, which range in price from $250,000 to $350,000, and employs about 30 people, most based in Ottawa.

Ellis and Burke say they are most proud about growing 10 million servings of vegetables through their systems in 2023.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran talks to Ellis and Burke about their ambitious growth plans, including a lease plan to make the units more accessible for buyers who can’t make an upfront capital purchase.

Techopia Live: Growcer ready to flourish in 2024

Experience has taught rehabilitation counselor and Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care founder Linda Simpson that employers love hiring people with disabilities.

Especially when they have trustworthy guidance on the best way to do it.

That said, keeping up with standards and regulations isn't easy, especially for small employers operating on a shoestring budget.

Since Linda is a small business owner herself who understands how to keep a business alive through turmoil and change, she brings a unique perspective and skill set to the table - it makes her the ideal resource for employers large and small.

Today she'll be chatting with OBJ's Mike Curran about the accessibility standards employers need to know in 2024.


What you'll learn:
An overview of new accessibility standards for education and training
Where employers should focus their efforts
How the team at Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care can help

Who should attend:
Small business owners
CEOs
Human resource executives

#disability #inclusion #disabilitypride #disabilityawareness #employment #humanresources #training

What Employers Need To Know About Accessibility Standards In 2024

Finding a winning idea in the technology sector is really hard. Identifying a concept, understanding market fit, doing the research, and securing clients is a daunting task for Canadian entrepreneurs, let alone new immigrants to the country.

Mary Yazdani’s technology career dates back 20 years to her native Iran, where she earned a master’s degree in systems networking and telecommunications. In November 2016, Yazdani moved to Canada and only a few years later, she established herself as an award-winning entrepreneur, including an Immigrant Entrepreneur Award from the City of Ottawa in 2021 and a Forty Under 40 in 2023.

At GenesisLink Consulting Services, which she founded in 2000, Yazdani spends much of her time consulting with new and established entrepreneurs on sales, marketing, R&D, human resources, and strategy. She is particularly passionate about helping immigrant entrepreneurs from Brazil, Portugal, India, Egypt, and other countries.

In this episode of Techopia Live, the publisher of the Ottawa Business Journal speaks with Yazdani about her growing business ventures, her business model, and what might come next in her entrepreneurial journey.

Techopia Live: The genesis of Mary Yazdani

When you think of internet service provider options for Ottawa, you’ll inevitably think of the big national companies that dominate this space, notably Bell and Rogers. What many people fail to realize is that local providers still exist.

Way back in the 1990s, in the early days of the Internet, these local providers were essential. Most early adopters turned to these local ISPs to access the web and email.

All these years later, one local ISP is still thriving. Storm Internet Services was launched in 1996 to serve Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. Today, Storm has approximately 9,000 residential and 1,000 commercial customers, offering DSL, fibre, wireless, cable connectivity, and IPTV.

Storm has offices in Ottawa, Perth, and Chesterville, with local support and call centre staff.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran speaks with Storm chairman and CEO Birket Foster about how this longstanding local ISP continues to thrive and how upcoming CRTC decisions could open up new opportunities.

Techopia Live: How one local internet provider has weathered the storm

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many local technology companies have struggled with how to deal with hybrid and remote work, often referred to as the “new normal” in today’s workplace. There are so many conflicting opinions on how to maintain productivity and engagement in this shifting work environment.

In this episode of Techopia Live, correspondent Riaz Sidi visits TechTuesday, a monthly event organized by the Wesley Clover Foundation.

The February event was devoted to “The New Normal: Navigating Culture, Preferences and the Office.” Featured speakers in this episode include panelists Mary Clement of Ross Video, Amber Pate of Kinaxis, Heather Tyrie of Fullscript, plus Kanata MP Jenna Sudds and City of Ottawa councillor Cathy Curry.

Check out future TechTuesday events here: https://www.wesleyclover.com/events/techtuesday/

Techopia Live: TechTuesday tackles the new normal at work

The road to entrepreneurship was a winding one for Adam Miron.
While he was a biology student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Adam got involved in politics with the Liberal Party.
It was the early 2000s and Stephane Dion was the Liberal leader. He asked Miron to come to Ottawa to work for the party.
For the better part of a decade, Miron immersed himself in politics, then media with iPolitics and then some political consulting. He developed a keen interest in the intersection of public policy and market opportunities.
That expertise served him well in 2013, when his brother-in-law Sebastien St. Louis presented Miron with a big idea: seize the opportunity presented by the legalization of medical marijuana.
That was the beginning of Hexo Corp., a Gatineau-based producer of marijuana that, at its height, had a billion-dollar valuation and more than 1,000 employees.
Miron’s involvement with Hexo ended in February 2022, when he resigned from the board to let new executives operate the company. 
With Hexo in his rearview mirror and other entrepreneurial pursuits concluding, Miron says he is feeling unencumbered these days.
That’s good news for Invest Ottawa, which secured Miron as its co-chair in June 2023. He is now helping the city’s lead economic development agency as it transitions to a new CEO.
In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran speaks to Miron about his passion for advising young entrepreneurs and what he is excited about at Invest Ottawa.

Techopia Live: Miron focused on paying it forward

Techopia Live is heading out to the Ottawa Valley. Based in Arnprior, Convergence Design Services dates back to the 1990s, but more recently the company has quietly doubled its revenues, ranking sixth on the Fastest Growing Companies in Eastern Ontario.

Convergence is keeping pace in the ever-changing world of technology with projects in electric vehicles, robotics, AI, Smart IoT and space.

Its president Ben Seaman joined Convergence in 2019 to succeed a retiring owner-operator, but his electronic design experience dates back to the telecom heyday with JDS Uniphase, followed by positions at Honeywell Aerospace and Curtiss-Wright Defence Solutions.

Seaman says the promise of working with senior engineering talent at Convergence lured him back for a second stint with the company.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher speaks with Seaman about major projects underway at Convergence, the benefits of being based in Arnprior and the challenges of doubling revenues.

Techopia Live: Growth by design at Convergence

There is a misperception in the technology industry that startups can emerge from nowhere and achieve overnight success. While that can happen, it’s definitely the exception. It’s more common for success to emerge after a long period that is defined by setbacks and challenges.

Alfred Jay’s entrepreneurial journey began back in 1998, the early days of the dot-com craze. Although early products such as CommunityZero attracted millions of users, Jay and his co-founder Philippe Dame came to the conclusion that a pivot was necessary. It was 2008, the financial crisis was taking hold and the co-founders believed their business model was flawed.

That was the start of today’s Recollective, a qualitative online research platform that is used by some of the world’s most recognizable companies, including Mattel, Nikon, RBC and Michaels.

The reset has paid off. Recollective revenues are up 400% in the past five years, headcount has increased from 24 employees in 2019 to 110 employees and the company boasts more than 2,000 customers.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran talks with Jay about this quarter century working in local tech. Also, Jay talks about why Recollective is finding such traction with its customers these days and what artificial intelligence might mean to market research in years to come.

Techopia Live: Alfred Jay recollects the big pivot

With valuations down and a tight venture capital market, tech venture founders are looking for ways to stretch their working capital.

In some cases, that means cutting expenses and laying off employees. In other instances, it means going back to early-stage investors for more money.

The Capital Angel Network is answering this call in this challenging economic climate.

With approximately 60 members, CAN says it’s staying committed to its portfolio companies with a significant increase in follow-on investments.

In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran speaks with Suzanne Grant, executive director of CAN. Grant provides an update on the local angel scene, plus previews the upcoming National Angel Capital Organization Summit, which happens in Ottawa on May 7-8.

Techopia Live: Angel investors respond to tight financing market

If you’re looking to work for a local technology company, be warned, the job market has shifted. Only a few years ago, HR departments were clamouring for fresh recruits. That’s not necessarily the case today, when many tech firms are laying off staff and cutting costs.

In this uncertain job market, the Kanata North Business Association organized its annual job fair, Discover Technata, attracting more than 30 exhibitors and securing 4,000 registered attendees.

The participation from companies and job seekers suggests the tech job market cannot be painted with one brush. Some companies such as MDA Space, which is building satellites for a billion-dollar contract with Telesat, are aggressively recruiting in Ottawa and across the country.

OBJ publisher Michael Curran visited the job fair to speak with organizers, exhibitors and attendees to get a sense of hiring trends. The podcast guests included KNBA chair Guy Levesque, uOttawa co-op team lead Chantal Yelle and MDA Space talent acquisition director David Mann.

Techopia Live: Tepid job market doesn’t dampen spirits at Technata

Join us for an engaging webinar on the transformative impact of acoustic pods in today's workplace environment.
Acoustic pods have emerged as an innovative solution by providing focus-friendly spaces, flexibility for varied work types and environments that adapt to the needs of users. In this session, we will tap into the evolving needs of modern work, and how to revolutionize your workplace.
Don’t miss this opportunity to discover the new era of workplace and the high-performing office as OBJ's Michael Curran chats with Burovision Ottawa’s president Gillian Oxley-Harper, and Framery’s Kendryn Hutt.

What you will learn:

What solutions are needed for the new era of work
Who benefits from having acoustic pods and how to engineer a smarter office.
Why having a space for privacy and acoustics is crucial

Who should tune in:

Productivity and procurement specialists
Employers and organizational leaders
Human resource executives

Best Offices Ottawa: How to set your office up for success

The Ottawa Business Journal is the leading source of business news and information Canada's national capital region. CEOs and business leaders turn to OBJ for the business news they can't find anywhere else – unique and relevant content tailored to business managers, owners, professionals and executives.

With a number of media platforms available to reach our audience, Ottawa Business Journal has something for every advertiser. OBJ's scope includes its monthly newsmagazine, the largest business news website in Ottawa, OBJToday daily e-newsletter, active social media channels, a YouTube channel with hundreds of videos, multimedia industry projects and some of Ottawa's premier business events.

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