Tech Thursday Live!

Is the Canadian tech ecosystem over-watered?Four people who've operated inside the system sit down to ask whether government funding has become so pervasive in Canadian tech that it's distorting how companies actually get built.Featuring Derrick Hunter (Bluesky Equities, Alberta Enterprise Corporation), Graeme Harrison (Augur VC), Michelle Scarborough (formerly BDC Capital), and Cam Linke (Amii), with Philippe Burns moderating.The conversation works through three zones where government money shapes the ecosystem: grants, venture capital, and the non-profit support organizations that surround them. Along the way: why Canadian VC funds take 12 weeks to make decisions US funds make in 30 minutes; why less than 10% of Canadian VC managers ever reach their carry; and what each panelist would do tomorrow with a magic wand to fix it.This is the audio version of the Tech Thursday panel originally recorded in Calgary, April 23rd, 2026.Read the recap on the Calgary Tech Newsletter at calgarytech.substack.com.Tech Thursday is Canada's largest tech community event series, hosted weekly across Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Ottawa. Sponsored by Boast, Neo Financial, Skip, Motiv, Alberta Innovates, Crestview Strategy, and BLG.

Most founders think about patents too late, or too early. In this live panel recorded in Calgary, Moderator Louise Lee sits down with IP lawyer and patent agent Jason Hogg (BLG), space tech co-founder Kurtis Broda (Wyvern), and medical device founder Danny Zahynacz (RAD Medical Technologies) to cut through the myths around intellectual property and give founders practical, honest advice.They cover the real questions early-stage founders should be asking about trademarks, patents, and trade secrets, and the costly mistakes that happen when they don't. From why chasing patent counts impresses no one, to why your trade secrets might matter more than your patents, to how to think about freedom-to-operate searches without breaking the bank, this conversation is packed with hard-won wisdom from people who've been on both sides of the table.Whether you're pre-revenue or scaling fast, this episode will help you protect what matters, without losing focus on building your business.Sponsored by Elevate IP, a federally funded program helping Canadian entrepreneurs navigate and protect their intellectual property.

This podcast is a live recording from a Tech Thursday that took place in Calgary called 'The Tech Behind Data Centres'. Our speakers were:Thomas Farran, VP at Longbow Capital. Longbow is an investor in VoltaGrid, a company that just signed a 2.3GW deal with Oracle.Benjamin Sutton, Product Marketing Manager at CoolIT. CoolIT was acquired last week for $4.75B, the city’s largest tech deal ever. Joe Gentile, Account Executive at eStruxtures Data Centre. eStruxtures is Canada’s largest data center provider.Moderated by: Vlad Oujegov, Founder of Western Canada Data Centre Alliance. We discussed:Massive Scale: The scale of data centers is changing significantly; for example, a proposed 2.3-gigawatt facility would be the largest capital expenditure project in Canadian history.Bring Your Own Power (BYOP): Because local grids often cannot support gigawatt-level demands without 5–7 years of upgrades, developers are increasingly building on-site natural gas generation to meet immediate power needs.Grid Benefits: While some projects are "behind the meter," experts suggest grid-connected facilities can benefit the community by providing flexible loads that can be managed during peak demand or storms.The End of Air Cooling: Modern AI chips from Nvidia have reached a thermal limit where they can no longer be cooled by air alone.Liquid Cooling: New data centers are adopting 100% liquid cooling, which is far more efficient than air. This technology reduces Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) from a historical 1.6 down toward 1.1.Free Cooling: In regions like Alberta, operators can utilize "free air" cooling for hundreds of days a year when the ambient temperature is below 10°C, significantly reducing water and power consumption.Sovereign Compute: There is a growing focus on "sovereign compute" to ensure Canadian data remains under Canadian jurisdiction and brand, free from the reach of the U.S. Patriot Act.Market Growth: Alberta is currently viewed as a "frontier market" with over 1.2 gigawatts of approved grid-connected projects, surpassing the status of global hubs like Northern Virginia in 2018.Follow Ben Sutton on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminsutton95/Follow Thomas Farran on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasfarran/Follow Joe Gentile on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-gentile-20082429/Follow Vlad Oujegov on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladoujegov/Follow Western Canada Data Centre Alliance on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wcdca/Follow Tech Thursday on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/company/tech-thursday/

Adam Froese has had one of the more unusual journeys in Canadian tech. He was a former Olympic field hockey player, ex-Deloitte investment banker, Venture Capitalist at Harvest Ventures, and co-founder of SecondShop, a company that provides the strategic operating layer for retailers like Costco and HomeDepot. In 24 months, the company has sold over $100M worth of retail goods, through it's integrated logistics and recommerce marketplace. The business started with a Wayfair couch that came in the wrong colour. What followed that thread revealed an $800B gap in the global retail supply chain that nobody was seriously solving.In this conversation we get into why the real moat isn't the marketplace, it's the truck. Why Canadian VC is broken and what the incentive misalignment actually looks like from the inside. Why government R&D grants are distorting the companies that receive them. And why Adam says he is not building this company to make money.One of the more honest conversations we've had on the show.

On this Episode, we take you live to our panel CTO vs. CTO. We had Saba El-Hilo, the CTO at Certn, and Cullen Jennings, the CTO for Audio Visual and AI at Cisco. These two went head to head on AI in the Workforce, how cybersecurity is changing, and new requires for data sovereignty around the globe.

Get ready to dive deep into the world of insurance innovation with the latest InsurTech trends and solutions! We were thrilled to co-host this event with Flora Fertility to explore what the future of insurance actually look like. We break down the biggest innovations in InsurTech and what they mean for the industry moving forward.The panel featured:Christy Lane, Co-Founder & President at Flora FertilityFinn Magee, CEO at Insurtech CanadaDiane Horsfield, VP Client Success at TruflaModerated by: Philippe Burns, Co-Founder at Tech Thursday

On January 29th, Tech Thursday partnered with the DMZ and TDIP to bring together some of the most exciting early stage Tech companies in Calgary. The conversation focused on taking a service, and bringing it to scale through productized solutions.Our speakers were:Amanda Julian, Chief Science Officer & Co-founder at MonarkAddy Graves, CEO and Co-Founder at CashewLourdes Juan, CEO and Co-Founder at Knead TechModerated by: Justine Clark, Strategic Partnerships Lead at DMZ

 Welcome to Tech Thursday Live. A live recording from the first Tech Thursday event in Calgary in 2026. The topic of this conversation was 'Hot Takes for 2026'. This is a panel featuring: Kelly Schmidt, the CEO at HeadversityMark Le dain, CRO at Fueled Graeme Harrison, the CEO at Augur VCWe talked about everything from whether or not there's gonna be Robot Olympics, if there's an AI bubble or not, and what the future of the human is gonna be in the workforce. We had this event in front of a sold out audience in Calgary, and it was a ton of fun.We hope you enjoyed this live recording. Every week we're gonna be releasing live recordings from our events, whether they take place in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Ottawa. So be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcast. Enjoy Tech Thursday Live.