ESTEVAN – The Estevan Innovation Council launched ticket sales for the inaugural Innovation Conference and Trade Show Wednesday morning at a media event at Affinity Place.
Preparations for the conference are still underway, but it’s already clear that the province-wide event will offer numerous learning, networking as well as entertainment opportunities never seen, not only in Estevan but also in most of the province.
“I am pleased to announce the very first Innovation Conference in Estevan and I think it's one of the first of its kind in Saskatchewan. This conference is going to be held October 26 and 27th, 2021 at Affinity Place and at the Wylie-Mitchell Hall and the Exhibition Hall. And we are so pleased to be able to welcome all the people in Saskatchewan, internationally, nationally to the city of Estevan to be able to see what kind of innovation there is in Estevan, in our province and all over the world,” said innovation council chair and City Councillor Rebecca Foord.
IT manager for the conference James Lainton joined the launch virtually via a mobile robotic screen, and Foord said that it was just one example of some of the technologies to be showcased at the conference.
“There's a lot of trade show booths and presenters that are going to be bringing innovations, some of their robots, a lot of different cool things,” Foord said. “A lot of people have created things potentially for the oilfield or for agriculture. There's a lot of drone technology in agriculture right now.”
The Estevan Innovation Conference and Trade Show will shed light on the innovations currently underway in Estevan and neighbouring areas. It will highlight the changes occurring in rural and small-scale urban centres to optimize living and working from Estevan. There are further plans to include the community, which will be announced closer to the event.
Foord added that the conference may also inspire others and maybe even help generate some ideas for inventions.
“If you're innovating and you don't know the proper places to go or how to get to the next step, this will be a point where you create the network and the connections to be able to move to that next step. So I think it'll be a lot of inspiration as well,” Foord said.
The two-day event, themed The Future Is Here, will showcase panellists covering topics in energy, agriculture, technology, mining and education. Jeff Sandquist, corporate vice-president of Global Developer Relations for Microsoft with strong ties to the city of Estevan, will deliver the keynote address.
“We're going to be having speakers from all different categories from all over the country and Saskatchewan to be able to speak to those. And a lot of them are local people who have created something and/or who have a business in this area who have innovated something,” Foord pointed out.
A tradeshow will be taking place on the concourse at Affinity Place with vendors and local innovators. The trade show part of the event will be free of charge and open to the public.
“There's going to be 42 booths that showcase innovation. There's going to be various companies that are showing their inventions, what they've created. And there's a lot of local ones that we may not realize it's people that we see every day in our community, and we say ‘Oh, hey, how's it going?’ And we know them, we interact with them, but we don't realize how much they've brought to the table in our community for innovation,” Foord explained.
The trade show will run both days of the conference from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The innovation council is currently working on the list of trade show participants and getting things set up.
The event will also feature a banquet at the Beefeater Plaza.
“This banquet is going to be something brand new that the city has probably never seen, something that we've never done before. It's inspired by the CBC show Back in Time for Dinner,” Foord said.
The theme of the banquet will be Back in Time for Dinner – Food and How We Cook and What We Eat is Innovation Itself. The main course will be a 1950s TV dinner style feast along with entertainment by Chris Kutarna. Kutarna, a futurist born and raised in Regina, is now a fellow at Oxford University. He is also an author, global speaker and facilitator.
“We're really excited to be hosting this event which is the first of its kind to be held in Saskatchewan,” said Foord. “This event will play an important role in growing the conversation about innovation in Estevan, while also attracting innovators from across Saskatchewan and Canada to the area.”
Mayor Roy Ludwig, on behalf of the innovation council and the City of Estevan, said that they are very excited about the opportunities the upcoming conference will open for the Energy City.
“We're very excited about this upcoming conference. It'll give us an opportunity to showcase our local entrepreneurs, but also to showcase innovation, which is the future,” Ludwig said.
He also thanked the dedicated innovation council that’s been working hard to make the conference happen and invited people from all across the province to come and enjoy the event.
“We're looking forward to this. We know it's going to be a great turnout. It'll be awesome for our local community with all our hotels, restaurants, it'll give us the opportunity to showcase our city and to show what a great innovative city we have, “Ludwig said.
“Tell your friends and neighbours, and … people from out of our community … please come enjoy our city. And you will be duly impressed at this conference.”
The Innovation Conference and Trade Show will also see a pitch competition led by Jeff Taylor from Southeast Business Start-Up. More details are to come.
To make the event happen, the council will need help from volunteers, and Foord pointed out that for local people it may be another option to partake in a conference.
“It's something everybody should be a part of … It's something so big that you don't want to miss it even in a volunteer capacity because it's just incredible,” Foord said.
The Estevan Innovation Council was established in 2020 to develop Estevan as an intelligent community and a rural tech hub. The goal is to inspire, support and sustain the innovation eco-system of Estevan. By providing opportunities for innovation locally, they hope to create a future of economic diversity, opportunity, attraction, and growth for the community.
As of Wednesday morning, tickets for the event are on sale and can be purchased online at innovationestevan.ca. Tickets are $75 until Oct. 1 and $100 thereafter. Tickets for the banquet are $50.
The conference tickets cover all speaker presentations, some of which alone are worth the price of the ticket, Foord said.
“There's Beth Valiaho from the International CCS Knowledge Centre for the CCS technology. We have CCS technology in Estevan, but if you asked anybody on the street, they'd be like, ‘Well, I don't know.’ But it's really important to learn about that and talk about that. Josh Gustafson, who's a local from Macoun, he's created Covenant Energy. That's something he's coming to speak about.
“And Jeff Sandquist is going to be our keynote speaker. And he's worth $75 or $100 right off the bat. Derrick Big Eagle is coming to speak. Joel Pinel and Hailey Schwabe, co-founders of Vize Labs are coming. They're just 10 speakers that you really don't want to miss, plus, Jeff Sandquist,” Foord said.
More details about the upcoming conference can be found at www.innovationestevan.ca.
