👋 Welcome back to VTJ’s Midweek Memo: your weekly digest of the city’s top tech events, personnel moves, job openings, and industry opportunities.

Before we dive in, we’re curious…

P.S. VTJ Members! You’ve got a special offer on the #VTJTalks below. Not a member? Sign up now.

THIS MONTH

Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee at WeWork

🗓️ Tuesday, March 12 | 🎟️ Free registration

• You’re invited to join us every Tuesday between 8:00-10:00am to connect with the Vancouver tech community in an informal atmosphere.

• ​​Huge shoutout to our co-hosts, Coffeebar. Join us for the usual tech buzz, easygoing conversation, and to support Coffeebar, a local artisan café.

Can B.C. healthcare "move fast and break things" or is there a better way to innovate?

🗓️ Tuesday, March 12 | 🎟️ Buy tickets

• For healthtech startups, finding access to the healthcare system can feel like a search for the holy grail. Even companies that are fortunate enough to have physicians or nurses on their leadership team struggle in finding partners within the system to facilitate use, do evaluations, and provide user feedback.

• There are deep, systematic barriers to the development of innovations within the B.C. health system, notwithstanding the notable exceptions of significant success.

• ​What would happen if we changed the narrative? What would happen if we "pulled" innovations into the healthcare system and carefully evaluated them? How do we best capture some of the value of new innovations in our healthcare system?

• Speakers include:

  • Dr. Steve Reynolds, MD, FRCPC

  • Loki Jorgenson, Senior Director, Strategy & Innovation for Circle Innovation

SPONSORED BY CBRE

Vancouver's Tech Office Experts

Connect with The High Technology Facilities Group at CBRE – leaders in sourcing office space for BC’s startup and unicorn companies. The HTFG excels at helping clients find unique workspaces that drive productivity, reflect values, attract top talent, and fuel workplace culture.

Check out how The HTFG can help, or reach out to Alain, Blair, Kevin or Andre from The HTFG.

Tech Morning Coffee with Method & Metric

🗓️ Tuesday, March 19 | 🎟️ Free registration

• You’re invited to join us every Tuesday between 8:00-10:00am to connect with the Vancouver tech community in an informal atmosphere.

• ​Huge shoutout to our co-hosts, Method & Metric, for this coffee get-together at Kafka's Coffee on Richards and Smithe. Join us for the usual tech buzz, easygoing conversation, and to support Kafka's Coffee.

#VTJTalks: Demystifying Tech in Calgary

🗓️ Wednesday, March 20 | 🎟️ Buy tickets

• ​Think Calgary is all cowboys and oil? There’s more to the story. 

• Calgary is also home to a growing number of Canadian unicorns, including Neo Financial and Benevity, and has seen major investments in recent years by AWS, RBC, Mphasis, Infosys, Slalom and IBM.

• ​Join us for a candid dialogue about what is driving the momentum in Calgary’s tech and innovation ecosystem. Hear industry leaders bust myths about Calgary’s diverse economy, dive into opportunities and challenges that lay ahead and learn how you can be part of it.   

• Speakers include:

  • Lucas McCarthy, CEO & Founder, Showpass

  • ​Rick Bird, General Partner, CEO of Thin Air Labs

  • ​Stephanie Van Eyk, General Manager, Slalom

  • ​Megan Zimmerman, Senior Director of Business Development, Calgary Economic Development

SPONSORED BY STARBOARD RECRUITMENT

Vancouver's trusted recruiter - Starboard Recruitment

With experience supporting teams at Discord, TikTok, EA, 6sense and others ranging from early-stage to IPO-ready and enterprise, David FitzGerald focuses on delivering quality talent and top-of-market client/candidate experience - while saving companies money. Connect with Principal Recruiter and Founder, David FitzGerald, today to learn more and read testimonials.

Vancouver Takeover at SXSW

🗓️ March 8-10

• Headed to SXSW this week? Check in with Frontier Collective at Canada House for the Frontiers of Innovation Day.

• Join for a curated experience of music, art, frontier technologies, and provocative panel discussions. We are organizing three major events, designed to ignite conversation and turn ideas into action.

Startups & F*ck Ups: A Conversation on the Hard Parts of Venture Building

🗓️ Tuesday, March 19 | 🎟️ Buy tickets

• entrepreneurship@UBC has pulled together a panel of tech veterans – people who've seen and experienced it all in venture building; executives who had to make tough decisions to ensure their startups’ survival; vulnerable and resilient leaders unafraid to reveal the lessons they’ve learned through the hardest parts of scaling a company – pivots, hiring/firing, layoffs, mistakes, botched product launches, and more.

INNOVATEwest

🗓️ April16-17 | 🎟️ Buy tickets

• Experience INNOVATEwest, where thousands of tech and business leaders converge to connect, learn, discover, and grow. Engage in matchmaking, networking, lead generation, and business development alongside industry thought leaders and innovators.

• INNOVATEwest recently announced its keynote speaker, Guy Kawasaki, the renowned Chief Evangelist of Canva and former Chief Evangelist of Apple. Guy is not just a tech icon; he’s a visionary whose insights have shaped modern marketing and innovation.

SPONSORED BY MCAULEY PRIVATE WEALTH (RBC)

Achieve financial freedom with professional wealth management

With a focus on technology executives and entrepreneurs we take the time to understand what you want to accomplish with your wealth. Whether you need assistance managing wealth for yourself, your family or your business, we provide the professional advice you need, from start to finish.

Contact us to speak with one of our team members

MUST-ATTEND EVENTS FROM OUR PARTNERS

• Women in Leadership: Digital Innovators | March 7

• Vancouver Tech Community: March 2024 | March 19

Check out the full list of tech events 

🤝 VANCOUVER TECH JOBS

Whether you're looking for a dream role or a dream employee, Vancouver Tech Jobs has you covered, with open jobs including:

• Ignite Technical is hiring a Project Analyst

• Lululemon is hiring a Manager, Portfolio Management

• Andela is hiring a Communications Manager

• Asana is hiring a Product Designer (Early Career)

• Electronic Arts is hiring a Manager, Research Operations

Growing your team? Post a job with us »

👋 YOUR COMMUNITY

🗣 VTJ Community Slack – Connect with the community using our dedicated Slack! This is your chance to network and chat with your friendly neighbourhood tech professionals from anywhere. Reply to this email to join.

🤝 Vancouver Tech Jobs board – Looking for work? Looking for your next hire?

🗓️ Vancouver Tech Events Calendar – All the events in one place.

💪 Become a VTJ Corporate Member and get your brand in front of thousands of tech professionals, investors, decision makers, and leaders. Get in touch today.

📱 Stay connected with VTJ on Twitter and LinkedIn.

That’s it!

If you have anything interesting to share, fundraising news, hiring, product announcements, or anything else, please reach out anytime! Just reply back here or email us.

And before you go, we’d love feedback to help us improve!