Last year, BetaKit broke the news that major tech conference Collison would not return to the city of Toronto, relocating under a new name to Canada’s West Coast.
So what was Toronto tech supposed to do for those few days in June when the weather is nice? Fear not, because this year, BetaKit also broke the news that local tech leaders had come together to fill the gap with a new, non-profit, volunteer-run event called Toronto Tech Week.
“ Toronto Tech Week belongs to everyone. Toronto Tech Week is by definition a platform, and it succeeds or fails by the virtue of all the hosts and all of the ecosystem in Toronto wanting to participate.”
How did Toronto Tech Week come to be? What will the ‘community-driven platform’ look like? How will it be different from other tech events?
BetaKit is the official media partner for Toronto Tech Week, but I have no answers to these questions. Thankfully, our guests this week—Toronto Tech Week founding partners and co-organizers Ameet Shah (Golden Ventures), Satish Kanwar (Good Future), and Mell Truong (Sage Consulting)—do have the answers.
In addition to the above questions about Toronto Tech Week’s origins (hint: like most good things, it started with a tweet), we also discuss the collective responsibility of Canada’s tech ecosystems to tell their story and highlight some of the 100-plus events taking place throughout the week (including Homecoming and BetaKit’s ambitious offerings). Note: if you want to host your own event, you still can!
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One disclosure to get out of the way: BetaKit is majority owned by Good Future, the family office of Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar, two former Shopify executives. As a demonstration of the clear editorial firewall that exists between the parties, Satish had to pitch me to come on the podcast, which was a wonderful reversal after all the requests I’ve made of him to do so in the past. He’s really hoping you enjoy this episode so we’ll welcome him back.
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The BetaKit Podcast is edited by Darian MacDonald. Feature image courtesy Toronto Tech Week.