EMBRACING A DIGITAL FUTURE
Friday ushered in the third Stampede since the price of oil crashed.
This year, despite the moribund crude price, the lack of progress on the sanctioning of liquefied natural gas projects and the B.C. vote, two things are unmistakable.
One is the acknowledgment — finally, some will say — that this time it’s different. And second, is the growing realization, with some significant momentum, that there’s more to Alberta’s economy than energy.
Is it robust enough to validate Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s statement at CBC’s annual pancake breakfast that “data is the new oil” in terms of its economic potential? That might be overstating it. But if you believe the exponential trends in the tech world — and considering the expertise, experience and training in this city — he might not be far off.
Between the efforts of local entrepreneurs, who are of a younger generation and becoming today’s community builders, our universities and the provincial government, the idea of data becoming an important aspect of Alberta’s economic growth is gaining traction.
Among the first signs was San Francisco-based Rocket Space’s recent decision to establish a presence in downtown Calgary. This week, the U.K.-based technology company Deep Mind Technologies Ltd. — acquired by Google in 2014 — announced it will set up an office in Edmonton, its first outside London.
Yes, Edmonton. The city celebrated Canadian author Mordecai Richler once characterized as the country’s boiler room.
This is not only a recognition of Edmonton’s importance in the Canadian artificial intelligence construct, but a huge validation for the work done at the University of Alberta’s Machine Intelligence Institute.
Also this week was Oren Berkovich’s visit to Calgary. Berkovich is chief executive of SingularityU Canada Summit, the Canadian arm of the disruptive educational institution established by Peter Diamandis in California.
The structure of SingularityU (SU) is best viewed as a think-tank that delivers a curriculum that changes in real time and is focused on understanding and applying quantum changes in technology to executives, lifelong learners and entrepreneurs.
Its first Canadian presence will be in Toronto, but two Alberta-based companies, of 15 in Canada, have signed on as founding members — Suncor and ATB Financial. Berkovich sees Calgary as an important second stop, after Toronto, and a potential host for the next SU Summit.
The Toronto summit will be live-streamed in Calgary through partner organizations such as ATB, Suncor and Innovate Calgary, and Berkovich wants to augment its impact by holding followup sessions with key members of the Calgary community.
Berkovich spent a decade in the Israeli army before founding a cybersecurity firm in Israel and later worked for four years with Deloitte in Toronto. He is well-versed in the rapid changes taking place in the tech world and unafraid to challenge conventional thought.
The objective of SU is to equip companies and individuals with the tools to take advantage of rapidly changing technologies. Its also of key importance to the Alberta government and Calgary Economic Development.
The disruptive change taking place in the energy sector is unknown outside of the oilpatch, much less outside the country.
One of SU’s objectives in coming to Canada is to take research and innovation already happening at the country’s academic institutions, as well as tech incubators, to a global level.
Canadians don’t tell each other what we do well, let alone the rest of the world. “The underlying value is connecting experts with deep knowledge in various fields that are impacting our future ... from CEOs to students,” said Berkovich. “It’s about creating more ways to share this knowledge with people who are hungry for this — and want to have a strategic conversation about what it means.”
Sometimes it all sounds a bit fuzzy, but it shouldn’t. The world is moving toward a convergence model, despite U.S. president Donald Trump’s protectionist stance, where progress is possible through collaboration and discovery.
“It’s about how do we make sure Canada has a voice in this global conversation. It feels like there is a sense of urgency and drive to action that transforms people’s mindsets,” said Berkovich. “Our purpose is to share this mindset with Canadians as much as possible across the country. SU is the vehicle to do that.”
Canada can be part of the ecosystem seeking to solve some of the grand challenges facing the world, such as how to better produce and use all forms of energy or more efficiently feed the planet. Our banking system is often held up as an example of prudence and stability, but the financial sector — just like the auto manufacturers — is ripe for disruption.
ATB Financial chief executive Dave Mowat sees partnering with SU as a way for the bank to understand how to respond to the inevitable change.
“It is about getting better internally, to have that exponential thinking inside the organization so that we can cope with what is going to come at it,” he said. “The better we get at that, the better we will be able to serve our customer.”
This goes to areas such as using artificial intelligence to harness the potential presented by analyzing vast quantities of data, whether in health care, manufacturing or energy.
The fact SU sees Canada as an important link in the global quest to solve grand challenges and wants to help connect the country’s companies and academic institutions should be seen as a vote of confidence. But in classic Canadian fashion, it’s an American institution, represented by someone from Israel, who sees our potential. There’s something wrong with that picture.