Our very first Innovation Mixer was a huge success Thursday at True North 2019! People from all around Kitchener-Waterloo were gathered together for the area’s largest scale tech event, hosting over 2,500 of Canada’s brightest innovators. True North focuses on driving Tech for Good, helping like-minded people get together to push Canada’s tech to the next level. This was an event we could not miss, and CENGN decided to make an appearance in a big way!  At the end of the two day conference, before the kick off of the True North Festival, CENGN decided to throw its own True North Innovation Mixer, inviting event goers to the Communitech Tannery building to keep the discussion going over some moonshine and snacks.

The networking event brought together inventers and trailblazers from a variety of different backgrounds. Not only did we have CENGN’s very own members, partners, and growing Canadian businesses at the event, we also were joined by our friends from Communitech, and small businesses from the thriving Waterloo tech community. Over 150 registrants from all different industries got a chance to mingle and better know their fellow Waterloo community. As for CENGN, we got to connect with great new companies and say thank you to our partners and friends from the growing region.

Watch the highlights from the True North Innovation Mixer here!

Lisa Klimstra, our Business Engineering Manager and newest member of the CENGN team, got to make her debut at the event! Lisa is our Kitchener rep responsible for sourcing, developing, and qualifying new commercialization projects for the regions small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Waterloo has always been a hub for innovative networking companies, and now with Lisa focused on the area, we will be poised to tap into the region to serve more businesses that can make use of our CENGN Data Centre and Cloud Test Infrastructure to validate their solutions. Lisa took the opportunity to introduce herself to the packed room and relay all the great work CENGN has on the go with innovation hubs like Communitech. Based on the buzz at the mixer, there is no doubt she will have busy working with all the innovative companies looking to leverage a CENGN project.

Not only did we have a blast at our mixer, but we also really enjoyed the entire conference! At the True North event we were able to join 2,500 of the brightest and boldest in listening to speakers and joining in on festival events.

Some highlighted discussion topics included living in the digital, the age of re-learning, and building bridges not walls. Here, people learnt how to properly leverage technology to make us safer and healthier, how to level up on technology when it is rapidly changing, and the global responsibilities and interdependencies we have as creators of tech.

It is so important to CENGN to continue to attend and contribute to events like True North, and host networking opportunities for the tech community. This allows us to continue to expand our ever-growing tech ecosystem, and bond with our current members and partners, as well as SMEs we serve. It helps to expand our knowledge on innovative tech and stay in the loop on the state of the tech community in different regions. In the end, we know that the collaboration between the companies, organizations, and talented professionals are what will make it strong. With events like the True North Innovation Mixer, CENGN seeks to help foster more collaboration to solidify the ICT global competitiveness of our country resulting in an increase in our innovation economy and prosperity for all!

Missed us at this event? Don’t worry! Check out where we will be next!

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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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