The largest wearable tech community in the world is headed to the nation’s capital next week as We Are Wearables officially add Ottawa as its third chapter, joining Toronto and Chicago. The first event features two wearable startups in the Ottawa area, GestureLogic and Gymtrack, along with a panel discussion on the ingredients that are making Ottawa home to many wearable tech companies moderated, by UNTETHER.tv founder Rob Woodbridge. BetaKit is proud to announce that, in addition to We Are Wearables’ Toronto event, we will be a sponsor of #WWOTT.
GestureLogic is one of the companies featured at the June 23 event. The Ottawa-based company is revolutionizing fitness with its intelligent fitness technology, LEO. LEO helps users optimize their workout and avoid injury by providing real-time, actionable feedback derived from monitoring bio-signals looking at metrics such as muscle activity, fatigue, heart rate, lactic acid, and more. The company successfully raised 2.8 times its funding goal on Indiegogo last year. GestureLogic’s CEO and founder Leonard MacEachern will be presenting and demoing LEO at the event as well as participating as part of the panel.
Fellow Ottawa startup, Gymtrack, is also helping to create the future of fitness with its wearable and connected gym system that automatically tracks a user’s entire workout at the gym. Gymtracks’s wearable, smart pin, and barbell attachment work together to measure anything from cardio to weight training, helping gym goers do away with pens and pencils and notebooks while working out. Earlier this year, Gymtrack raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by White Star Capital and Real Ventures.
“Canada has fast become known as an epicenter of wearable tech and Ottawa is a big part of the reason why,” said We Are Wearables founder and Senior Editor at BetaKit, Tom Emrich. “There are a number of wearable startups in this city developing products and services working on anything from advancing fitness, helping people see and even control things with their mind and we can’t wait to celebrate this. Next week is all about bringing the Ottawa community together to showcase the wearable tech talent right in their own backyard and create an opportunity for discussion around the wearable space.”
Ottawa is also home to wearable startup e-Sight, who have developed electronic glasses that enable the legally blind to see and Personal Neuro Devices, who have been working in the innovative EEG or brainwave space since 2010.
The We Are Wearables Ottawa event will take place in the heart of the downtown area at the Systemscope office in the Byward Market. Doors open at 6:00PM, and the event kicks off with opening remarks from Tom Emrich and Ottawa organizer Jennifer Greenberg. The event is free, and on top of cool tech, #WWOTT will also be serving beer and food. You can register for it here.