Welcome to Digital Nova Scotia, Noel!

The Digital Nova Scotia team is growing, we’ve added a new member to our team! Noel Guscott (he/him/his) was born in Kingston, Ontario, but Dartmouth, Nova Scotia is truly his home. He has an insatiable curiosity about the impact of organizational decision-making on our lives and a desire to serve organizations to find those answers. This curiosity and dedication to service has shaped his career trajectory. Noel served in the Canadian Armed Forces from 2014 to 2018 as a Regular Force communications specialist, with experience operating telecommunications equipment at home and abroad. This experience solidified his interest in the digital and information technology sector. In 2018, he completed his military service and moved to Nova Scotia. Here, he completed an undergraduate degree in Political Science at Dalhousie University, graduating in 2020 with first class honours. He has also nearly completed a Master's degree in Political Science from Dalhousie supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Master's scholarship and the MINDS SSHRC-Department of National Defense Scholarship Initiative. Over the last five years, Noel has gained valuable professional experience in research, policy analysis, and project coordination across a variety of sectors and policy areas. From working as a junior policy analyst in the provincial health sector, as a research assistant contributing and coordinating insights to a variety of political, public policy and economics projects, or coordinating inventory and training in the military, Noel remains focused on providing high quality, evidence-based and timely analysis and recommendations to his team. Outside of work, Noel can often be found trying new restaurants or perusing various community markets, road biking, watching science fiction or reading and writing fantasy, cheering on the best soccer team in the world (Liverpool FC), or discussing public policy and other contemporary issues with whoever will listen. We asked Noel some quick questions to help introduce him to the DNS community, here are his responses; The tech sector in Nova Scotia is thriving, what are you most looking forward to about working in this industry? Is there a particular area in tech that excites you the most? I am just really excited to be part of this accelerated digital shift here in the province, and to understand how we can continue to attract and retain digital and tech talent in this beautiful province to meet the rising demand for digital services. So, you’ve finished one week with us – how was it? It was incredible! The entire team is friendly, open and engaging. I've learned a lot about the organization and its initiatives in a very short time, and the scale and pace of Digital Nova Scotia's contributions is incredible. I am blown away by the team's passion and drive to serve their members and the broader community. And on a personal note, I am really excited to begin work on my own labour market information project and to liaise with the other industry sector councils on this important work. What’s something you’re passionate about that might surprise us? I am extremely passionate about political, public policy and anthropological issues of outer space! Recently, government and private sector interest in traveling to space has grown immensely. I am interested in understanding how political systems will be leveraged to regulate activities in space, how we view things in outer space from a socio-cultural lens, and how states could or should be developing public policy solutions related to activities in outer space. It's also interesting because the space industry and the digital sector are extremely interconnected! Without the digital and information-communications technology, space travel would not have been possible. Perhaps there may be opportunities here for our province's sector in the future? The Canso spaceport secured $10.5 million this year and hope to launch craft next year. If anyone else is interested in stuff like this, I highly recommend you check out work by Dr. Alice Gorman, Dr. Bleddyn Bowen, and Dr. Cassandra Steer's works. If you were given a plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? Argentina (though Japan is a close second). I would love a plane ticket to Buenos Aires, and then I would try to explore as much of the country I could! I would especially love to visit Mendoza province for the mountains and wine, but the entire country is simply stunning. I would also love to visit the Cave of Hands in Santa Cruz province, various sites of the Incan empire - and so much more!

Quick hitters!

Spring or fall? – Fall Android or iPhone? – Android Comedy or thriller? – Thriller Coffee or tea? – Coffee Chocolate or Vanilla? – Chocolate Laptop or Desktop? – Desktop Breakfast or Dinner? – Breakfast Early Bird or Night Owl? – Early bird Ocean or lake? – Ocean Fun fact – I used to do, and still love, musical theatre!