Annual General Meeting and 2020-21 Board of Directors

Digital Nova Scotia (DNS) would like to thank everyone who attended our virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) on September 17! Since the last AGM, we've certainly all experienced unusual times with the global pandemic impacting our personal and professional lives. Despite these obstacles, the DNS team and our Board have remained focused on playing a leadership role in supporting the continued growth of our sector, and our province's digital economy.

Highlights of the CEO Report

DNS CEO Wayne Sumarah spoke on a few of our successes from the past year. We've tackled the changing operating environment head-on, seizing the opportunity to amplify our use of digital technologies to ensure the continued successful delivery of our programs, promotional activities, and professional development and training offerings. Here are a few of the highlights from Wayne's report:

• Hosted 47 training sessions with over 1,600 training seats filled by participants from more than 700 organizations across our province.
• Grew our membership by 40% to 180 total members.
• Promoted our members and their successes through feature blogs on our website, our social media channels (over 8,000 followers), and our weekly email newsletter (over 2,000 subscribers).
• Promoted events hosted by DNS and our members through our online Events Calendar, with 369 events receiving over 26,000 pageviews throughout the year.
• Posted more than 800 job opportunities from our members to our Jobs Portal, with over 65,000 pageviews this year.
• Partnered with Tourism Nova Scotia on a digital assistance program to match tourism businesses with digital service providers to improve their online presence.
• Launched the Skills For Hire program with our partner Bluedrop Learning Networks to provide training for entry-level careers in tech to unemployed or underemployed residents of Nova Scotia.
• Delivered 7 Digital Discovery Camps for 113 campers ages 9-14 across our province in partnership with the Discovery Centre and 24 industry mentors.
• Engaged community groups around the province to deliver digital literacy training to over 400 participants through the Tech Shy 2 Teach Savvy program with our partner Infinitus Academy.
• Initiated a number of targeted research initiatives, ranging from roundtables to online surveys, designed to gather further insights into: the needs of our members, the talent and labour supply issues in our sector, the impact of COVID-19, and perceptions about the local tech job market.

The tremendous support of our members, funding partners and other key stakeholders has enabled DNS to continue to grow and deliver the highlights shared in Wayne's report. Our sector faces a future with incredible opportunities. Now more than ever, we can play a leading role in transforming and accelerating the growth of our digital economy.

Member Referral Program

During the meeting, Wayne announced our new Member Referral Program. If you’re a current Digital Nova Scotia member and you know a company or organization that could benefit from membership, submit a referral! If they join, you’ll both receive a FREE 2-month extension to your annual membership. [fusion_button link="https://digitalnovascotia.com/referral-program/" text_transform="" title="" target="_self" link_attributes="" alignment_medium="" alignment_small="" alignment="left" modal="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_display="normal,sticky" class="" id="" color="default" button_gradient_top_color="" button_gradient_bottom_color="" button_gradient_top_color_hover="" button_gradient_bottom_color_hover="" accent_color="" accent_hover_color="" type="" bevel_color="" border_width="" border_radius="" border_color="" border_hover_color="" size="xlarge" stretch="default" margin_top="" margin_right="" margin_bottom="" margin_left="" icon="" icon_position="left" icon_divider="no" animation_type="" animation_direction="left" animation_speed="0.3" animation_offset=""]MORE INFO[/fusion_button][fusion_separator style_type="none" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_display="normal,sticky" class="" id="" flex_grow="0" top_margin="" bottom_margin="20" width="" alignment="center" border_size="" sep_color="" icon="" icon_size="" icon_color="" icon_circle="" icon_circle_color=""][/fusion_separator]

2020-2021 Board of Directors

The DNS Board of Directors includes volunteers from the private sector, educational institutions and supporting agencies. We strive to maintain a diverse Board to reflect the diversity of the digital sector in Nova Scotia. Our Board Directors for 2020-2021 were voted on by our members at the AGM.

New Board Directors

Tony Leclerc, Indigenous Games Dawn Jutla, PeerLedger Mike McPhail, MNP Carrie Forbes, League Data

Returning Board Directors

Jenn Priske, REDspace Andreas Robinson, Infinitus Academy Lisa Jackson, Consultant David Fraser, McInnes Cooper Neville Ashleigh, CGI Christine Hamblin, JHIT Consulting Jim Fitt, Velsoft Ian Macleod, Birch Hollow Consulting Emily Smits, Modest Tree Andrew Rau-Chaplin, Dalhousie University Leigh Anne Dingwall, Maplewave Alex Paul, Mi'kmaw Economic Benefits Office Matt Stewart, Collegio Glen Lavigne, SolutionInc