Events from May 29 – March 20 – Digital Nova Scotia – Leading Digital Industry

Online Workshop: Data Bias + Artificial Intelligence

AI can enhance automation, improve forecasting, + make our lives more efficient, but what are the ethical considerations for its use? About this Event When: Monday, November 9, 2020 from 10:00am to 12:00pm Where: Virtually on Zoom ( Zoom details will be included with your registration confirmation) Description: With products such as Alexa, Google Home, Siri, and countless others, artificial intelligence-technologies have become a household mainstay. AI can enhance automation, improve forecasting, free up humans from tedious tasks, and revolutionize customer experiences. But, as with any innovation, there also come all of our Black Mirror-type fears, like “What if it goes wrong?” With many examples of AI technologies not working as intended due to data biases and many other influences (hint: Google “Microsoft Tay”), it’s becoming critically important for organizations to better understand how to design better AI-enabled products and services. In this interactive and challenging workshop, you'll explore the relationship between data and predictive systems, and develop the curiosity and critical thinking skills to be more aware of how our biases can influence AI and machine learning systems. Participants will walk away with practical tools and frameworks that can be used to improve how AI is deployed to be more inclusive, […]

An Introduction to Graph Convolution Neural Networks and Background Theory

ACENET presents an exploration of graph convolutional neural networks and an introduction to the underlying mathematics. Join ACENET's Mat Larade in this session as he introduces various machine learning and mathematical concepts leading up to GCNN's. This includes various architectures of neural networks, such as feed-forward, convolutional , and recurrent, and some of the mathematical theory underpinning their operations, with explanations of why each network is used. These topics will be explored using both rigorous mathematics, approachable metaphor, and attempts at humour. All are welcome, regardless of their level of technical expertise, as we will begin at basics, and build towards an understanding of a complex neural network architecture. There will be time reserved at the end to answer any questions you may have. We will be recording the presentation part of this session, the question period at the end will not be recorded. Participants must register using their institutional / organizational email address (not a personal email, ie. gmail). Register

Webinar: Business Intelligence Basics

This 90-minute session with Dan MacLeod from Dunvegan Loyalty Builders is for businesses that need to use data to make decisions. As a group we will discuss the difficulties of accessing, linking, and reporting from all of your sources of data. There will be a demonstration of the speed and functionality of the Power Tools that Microsoft has built into Excel and Power BI (Business Intelligence) Desktop. The Power Tools are used to build Interactive Reports from scratch. Interactive Reports offer a shorter, straighter pathway to improve the efficiency and accuracy of your business. The best part is that Excel is on most computers, and experienced staff can quickly learn to use the Power Tools that are free in many of the current versions of Excel. Power BI Desktop is available as a free version that is very robust and suitable for most businesses, plus a subscription version for very large users. Participants will learn about: Powerful tools built into Excel What can be accomplished with the free version of Microsoft BI Desktop How to construct a Pivot Table to view data and drill down into the details How data can be placed on an interactive map; view your results […]

Our Island Our Future

Join the Cape Breton Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Cape Breton Partnership for a luncheon event with Cape Breton University President, David Dingwall. “This is not just a building. This is an anchor to assist the community in reaching its goal of growing the population of Cape Breton Island.” - David Dingwall. President Dingwall will speak about the Centre for Discovery and Innovation and the ways in which you can help to create a prosperous future for Cape Breton Island. For more information about the Centre for Discovery and Innovation, please visit: www.innovateourfuture.ca For this event, all COVID-19 protocols will be strictly followed based on the Province of Nova Scotia's public health and safety protocols. All attendees will be required to wear a mask unless they are seated at their table. Register

A Conversation with Dr. Strang: An Update for Nova Scotia Businesses

Join Nova Scotia's Regional Enterprise Networks for a virtual update session for Nova Scotia's business community. This virtual session will include an update for Nova Scotia businesses featuring Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang and Department of Business Deputy Minister Bernie Miller. In Nova Scotia, Regional Enterprise Networks (RENs) are leading a collaborative approach to economic development and supporting business growth. Nova Scotia's RENs currently include the Cape Breton Regional Enterprise Network, Cape Breton Regional Municipality Regional Enterprise Network, Cumberland Business Connector, Pictou Regional Enterprise Network, Truro & Colchester Partnership for Economic Prosperity, Valley Regional Enterprise Network, and Western Regional Enterprise Network.   Register

The Next Frontier for Canadian Startups: A Virtual Panel on IP and Scaling

You’re invited to join Namir Anani, President and CEO of the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), along with his distinguished panel of guests as they dive into scaling Canadian startups and the significance of IP. COVID-19’s devastating economic impacts include the loss of 1 million Canadian jobs, faltering supply chains, and a historic increase in Canada’s debt. Canada’s path to post-COVID economic recovery will be tied to the competitiveness of Canadian startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the heart of Canada’s economic engine and growth. SMEs represent the vast majority of the Canadian economy. Those that are knowledgeable in IP are more competitive than SMEs with little or no knowledge of IP. SMEs that hold formal IP are three times more likely to grow domestically than those that don’t. IP-generating SMEs are four times more likely to expand internationally and nearly two times more likely to have high growth rates of more than 20% per year. This virtual panel discussion will delve into the following topics and considerations: Creating, Protecting, and Incentivizing Canadian IP Building a built-to-scale Canadian business culture Our distinguished panel consists of: Jason Tham, CEO of Nulogy Martha Casey, CEO of Volta Melissa Chee, […]

Government Aftershock: The Role of Gov’t and Startups in COVID-19 Recovery

In this virtual panel discussion from OPIN and Volta, you will learn how government can work with startups in the COVID-19 recovery effort. As a part of the Government Aftershock event, the Nova Scotia Outpost for Public Sector Innovation (OPIN) and Volta are co-hosting a virtual panel discussion on government leveraging startups in the COVID-19 recovery effort. The discussion will focus on procurement processes and procedures, experiences from both the business community and public sector, and discuss potential for a new path forward. This is an opportunity to learn how and why startups and government work the way they do, and what a more productive relationship might look like in the future. Panelists: Alexandra McCann, Executive Director, ONSIDE Luke DeCoste, Co-Founder, Proof Raye Lemke, Strategist, Government of Nova Scotia Andrew Anningson, Head of Production - Canada , Binogi Chris Mitchell, Chief Procurement Officer, Province of Nova Scotia What is Government Aftershock? Government Aftershock, an event convened by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, will run across locations globally, combining local conversations with an international dialogue about how crisis has played out across different countries and different contexts. Participants will hear from, and help inform, […]

Halihax Virtual Lunch & Learn – November

Join us for a lunch and learn featuring a lightning talk on the topic of development employment trends in 2021 OUR SPEAKER Michelle Murray Regional Manager @ Randstad Technologies Michelle Murray is the Regional Manager for Randstad Technologies, Canada's largest provider of IT Staffing Solutions. With over 20 years of IT recruitment experience focused on delivering to Atlantic Canada working with clients and candidates covering all areas of IT. Register

Volta’s Virtual Pitch Competition

Tune in to watch up-and-coming entrepreneurs pitch their business or idea to a panel of industry-expert judges. This Pitch Competition is open to Volta Residents, Network Members and anyone from the tech community in Atlantic Canada. This Pitch Competition, is an excellent opportunity to practice your three-minute pitch, fine-tune your deck, and get feedback from peers and industry professionals. You will also gain valuable experience presenting to investors, and potential early adopters. Plus, you never know who may be tuning in to watch! Each competition will have a judging panel, comprised of entrepreneurs and community leaders. Judging will be based on the pitch, not the business, and will focus on the presentation quality and content The winning Pitch will receive $500 Visa Gift Card + their name will be engraved on Volta’s Pitch Competition trophy! Register

Azure Analytics Immersion Workshop

Join MNP and Microsoft for a 2-part virtual event on November 17th, designed to get you started with cloud analytics on Azure. Part 1 is an instructional session, intended for both business and technical users, that will describe how modern approaches to analytics can transform your business - and more importantly, the concepts you must understand to do more with your data. Part 2 is a hands-on lab, where you will learn to plan and implement the migration of an existing on-premises enterprise data warehouse to Azure Synapse Analytics and integrate it with both cloud-based and on-premises services and data sources. Feel free to register for the full day, or just Part 1 if you are not interested in completing the lab portion. By attending this workshop, you will better understand how to: Create an analytics pipeline that goes from data ingestion to insights using Power BI Empower self-service analytics Enable a truly data-driven culture in your business The lab will also cover: The planning process for Azure Synapse migration Identifying schema and data incompatibilities, Efficiently migrating data from on-premises databases to the cloud Data distribution in Azure Synapse Analytics Migrating ETL jobs to Azure Data Factory Supporting ad-hoc workloads […]

The Atlantic Technology Summit @Home Edition

The Atlantic Technology Summit is moving online Mark your calendar for the 2nd annual Atlantic Technology Summit, the East Coast’s premiere technology conference. On November 18th, 2020 senior leaders, executives, and industry experts will take to the virtual stage for this one-day event you won’t want to miss. Join us online to discover how technology is impacting our region, learn about exciting new advances and strategies to leverage technology for your organization and expand your professional network.   General Admission Tickets Include: 27+ Sessions covering the latest technology trends, informative discussions and panels with industry leaders Build your own agenda - attend the session that most interest you Access to live keynotes with Q&A Participation in live discussion forums with other technology professionals Passport Program to win prizes from our exhibitors Network and connect with other attendees Live Engagement with our exhibitors and sponsors, learn about their latest products and services Full access on any device anywhere with both our web and mobile apps   Register