Transcript
Nyla Ahmad:
So AI is definitely one of the ones where, and I think we’re seeing, the government is putting a lot of money behind it. And a couple of months ago we saw a lot of the leaders of AI, from companies like Google and Facebook and Microsoft, and elsewhere proactively returning to Canada to take permanent positions in some of these new AI clusters. So I would expect to see us, and I would hope to see us, gaining a lot of traction on the global stage around AI. Diversity effect, diverse perspectives, is a really important requirement of innovation. I think the principle even applies when you look at it at a national scale, diversity of organizations, that may have already been working or thinking about the same thing, working them together. Canada has, I think, the opportunity. Innovation is a very fragmented space across any of the any of the areas of innovation they could be focusing on, and I think Canada’s very fortunate because the government has recognized this and they’re putting in a lot of mechanisms to actually break up some of the fragmentation to create a lot of collaboration.
EDIT welcomed thousands of attendees over ten days to explore hundreds of world-changing ideas. Exhibitions, workshops, and speakers shared their perspective on how to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges, including poverty and lack of education.
The Say Yeah team visited throughout the week to support our peers, collaborators, and clients from The Moment, August, OCAD, Rogers, and more. We explored some of the over 50 exhibits, 125 speakers, and 40 workshops, capturing some of our experience with our day at EDIT video from October 6, 2017.
At EDIT, the future was palatable.
On October 6, a thrilling talk by Nyla Ahmad, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at Rogers Communications, focused on the future of enterprise, and the toggle between innovation and invention. She spoke of the wave of women in the past and present who are making a difference in the technology sector, as well as the heavy impact that artificial intelligence is expected to make in Canada.
A great panel spoke on drones and their ability to significantly impact the future of healthcare. The possibility of drones saving lives by way of delivering blood to remote communities was a hot topic of discussion. A possible future, that’s actually happening today.
See Zipline in action in Rwanda as they overcome geography to deliver safe blood with their drones.
We believe opening such an iconic event to the community, including industry professionals, families, students, designers, and inventors will contribute to a stronger, well-informed, and engaged society. Seeing such promise in technology and objectives both locally and abroad only serves to fuel passion in business and society.
After a glimpse of what is to come for health, education, and poverty reduction, and other essential pillars of life , there’s no doubt we’re on the cusp of another technology renaissance that can shape a better world.
EDIT, Design Exchange, and the United Nations Development Programme (UDNP) partnered together to establish this festival in hopes of inching closer to meeting sustainable development goals with technological innovations.
EDIT took a comprehensive look at both a local and global future across a variety of human, urban, and technology tracks. Ultimately, it set an inspiring foundation that segue to the exponential future explored at the SingularityU Canada Summit, October 11 and 12, 2017.
The future is here, and it’s just getting started.
We’ll help you navigate the right now and a changing tomorrow with forward thinking strategic work that returns results today.