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CENGN Summit: Top 8 Highlights from the Big Day!
Published: December 6th, 2018
The CENGN Summit is an annual event that brings together over 300 ICT professionals from across the country. We join to discuss the key topics and trends in the technology sector. This year’s CENGN Summit had the theme Prosperity Through Connectivity, recognizing increased dependence traditional sectors are having on connectivity and network infrastructure to optimize their efficiency and stay competitive. As we close the books on the awesome event, CENGN would like to thank all the attendees, speakers, sponsors and supporters for making the 2018 CENGN Summit such a success!
With the Summit already a week behind us, we wanted to look back on all the awesome things that took place! Here are our top 8 highlights from the event:
1.Getting Our Morning Tech On
Kicking off the morning with some technical learning, Peter Heath, Senior Manager of CENGN’s training program hosted a training session discussing OpenStack and Kubernetes and the pros and cons of the platforms. The training seminar was just a preview of what’s to come for CENGN’s 2019 training strategy. In fact, the seminar was used as a launching point for the CENGN Academy, our organization’s new branding on training. We’ll be rolling out a new set of training opportunities for Canadian ICT professionals and students to take advantage of, focusing on making our training accessible and valuable to all stakeholders and levels of expertise.
If you would like to stay up-to-date on CENGN Academy, visit our web page here!
2.Funky Fresh Socks for All
As each attendee walked through the door, we not only handed them a nametag and program, but this year, we supplied all 320+ guests with CENGN Socks! We had 2 options for socks; one being black with the CENGN ‘C’ and the other was argyle for those who preferred a funkier look! They were a huge hit and especially fitting for the cold weather that has hit Ottawa this winter!
Click here to check out our Instagram page with JC supporting the socks at the Summit.
3.Engaging Keynote Speakers
Throughout the full-day event, we had 3 exceptional keynote speakers join us for the day! To start the day, we had CENGN President and CEO, JC Fahmy, discussing this year’s theme of Prosperity Through Connectivity. He emphasized how it is essential for Canadian organizations, sectors, and citizens, to collaborate in new ways and take advantage of new opportunities to further benefit from the rising enhancement of connectivity in this age of data.
Watch JC’s presentation video here!
Following JC was Jacob Glick discussing the awesome technology the future holds as well as showing off his company glasses called “Focals” by North Inc. Jacob wanted the audience to take away that Canada has the power and the opportunities to define the next generation computing platform and use it as a proving ground for next generation networks.
Watch Jacob’s presentation video here!
Our last keynote of the day was Robert Bauer, Managing Director of Commercial Innovation at AIG, who discussed connected societies and how they are unleashing new opportunities for business. These opportunities are profiting our society both economically and socially. Robert Bauer continued by elaborating on how the power of technology can seize new opportunities, decision-making capabilities, and achieve greater impact on society.
Robert Bauer’s video coming soon!
4. Provoking Panels on the Most Relevant ICT Issues
We held 3 provoking panel discussions within our summit program. The panelists all varied in occupation and expertise which made for very interesting discussion. Our guests were also provided with time at the end to ask any question they desired. Here is a quick highlight of each panel:
Business in a Hyper-Connected World
For this panel, we had 6 speakers join us; Javan Erfaniain from Bell Canada, Ian Jolliffe from Wind River, Marc Pare from CloudOps, John Proctor from Martello Technologies, Geoff Sullivan from Juniper Networks, and lastly, Andre Leduc from ITAC as our panel moderator. These 6 networking and business experts discussed and answered questions on how tech business decision makers and policy-makers can position themselves to take advantage of the opportunities present in ICT, as well as avoid being left immobile as new challenges appear.
Connectivity Beyond the Smart City
This panel focused on the challenges and solutions of extending ultra-speed network connectivity from urban city centres to the rural and northern areas of Canada. It became quickly apparent that there are unique connectivity issues facing those living directly outside the urban centres and those living in more Northern and remote communities in Canada. The panel consisted of ICT professionals varying in companies and titles such as Jacques Latour from CIRA, Avedis Menechian from Storm Internet, Howard Slawner from Rogers, Shawn Sparling from Nokia, and our moderator, Alfonso Licata from ORION.
Transforming Vertical Markets Through Connectivity
This discussion was very forward-thinking as each panelist looked at how advancements in ICT and networking are moving different industries forward, and what organizations must do to take full advantage of the transformational potential of these technologies. Our speakers were experts in different sectors, but all had significant experience in how their industry integrates with network technology. Our panelists were Don Duval from NORCAT, Samer Geissah from TELUS, Avvey Peters from Communitech, Mari Teitelbaum from CHEO, and Claudia Krywiak from OCE as the panel moderator.
5. A Jam-Packed Networking Area
320+ attendees coming from various areas/levels of work such as government, multinationals, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and students, makes for an awesome networking opportunity. In addition to our attendees, we also had multiple sponsors join us for the day, including Bell Canada, CloudOps, Huawei, Juniper Networks, Mitel, TELUS, Wind River, Algonquin College, CANARIE, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, ORION, Invest Ottawa, and Ottawa Tourism. These sponsors were all able to set up booths within our foyer and educate our guests on what they do as a company, upcoming technology developments, as well as answer any questions. Many of our sponsor booths provided slideshows, hand outs or videos on the day of the summit. CENGN decided to provide our guests with these resources after the summit as a digital tote bag.
Click here to View the CENGN Summit Digital Tote
6. Innovation is Here!
We invited 8 of Canada’s top advanced networking SMEs to present their company and its solutions. Each company had previously used CENGN’s services to help commercialize their solutions, so it was great to see all the companies receive 3 minutes to leave a big impression on the CENGN Summit audience. The companies who joined us were: Aditum Heath, Breqwatr, Crypto4A, LoginTC, Solana Networks, SRC Solutions, Ukko Agro, and Zighra.
Click here to watch the recorded videos and see how they did!
7. Honouring an Upcoming Next Generation Leader
New this year, we decided to give an award to a student who we recognized as an exceptional member of the ICT community and we feel went above and beyond during their intern placement at CENGN. Sam Robillard, a fourth-year engineering student from Carleton University, was the recipient of the award this year as he leveraged his CENGN internship to present his work at an Open Source Networking Meetup and secure a placement at Nokia, a long-time member of CENGN.
Congrats Sam! Click here to watch the Student Award video.
8. Free Tickets and Glasses and Beer -Oh My!
At the end of the day, the energy at the reception was immense because of the anticipation of the wonderful draw as well as the Brew Tour. There were three breweries and 6 showcased beers in total in which our attendees could pick between!
Additionally, we were able to offer amazing prizes to 2 of our attendees thanks to Jacob Glick as well as OSEG (Ottawa’s Sports and Entertainment Group). All attendees were entered into the draw to win 4 REDBLACKS tickets as well as a pair of Focals from North Inc. with a value of $1200.
Congratulations to both of our winners this year!
All in all, CENGN would mark off the third annual CENGN Summit as a success yet again. We cannot thank everyone enough who sponsored, supported and attended the event. We could not have done it without you! We are looking forward to start planning next year’s CENGN Summit as well as what’s to come in 2019 for the ICT Community.
About the Author
CENGN, Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, drives technology innovation and industry growth through our testbed, technical expertise, talent development, and partner ecosystem. Through our projects, CENGN enables small and medium Canadian Enterprises to test and validate promising technologies, removing barriers to product commercialization and accelerating market growth.
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