 This is has started out to be an amazing year, I am really excited to be joining the start-up program in Silicon Valley this year! The Canadian Consulate in Palo Alto has partnered with BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund to host the 2020 Women in Tech Silicon Valley Program. The program runs from February 25-27, 2020 and is tailor-made to help promising Canadian women-led companies accelerate their growth. “Congratulations to the 12 Canadian women-led tech companies that are turning innovative ideas into thriving businesses,” said the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade. “Our government wants to help support more success stories like these ones, which is why we created Canada’s first-ever Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. Through this strategy, we create national networks of support and mentorship and invest in financing opportunities, just like BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund.” The 12 tech companies selected are women-led with proven business traction in their industry:
“For tech companies with global ambitions, Silicon Valley is a fantastic location to make connections and seize market opportunities,” said Rana Sarkar, Consul General of Canada in San Francisco. “Our goal is to bring women-led companies to San Francisco and Silicon Valley for an intensive three-day program that helps propel their growth and expand their network.” The agenda for the three-day intense in-market program is designed to support the needs of the 12 companies selected. The companies will receive direct introductions and one-on-one meetings with, potential investors and strategic partners, participate in forums with local peers to share best practices, receive advice from local experts, and benefit from other networking opportunities. “Our mandate is to support and grow great women tech leaders,” said Michelle Scarborough, Managing Partner, Strategic Investments and Women in Technology Venture Fund, BDC Capital. “What we have heard repeatedly from our portfolio and the ecosystem is they need help making strategic connections outside of Canada, so we are glad to be working with the Canadian Government to help propel the growth of women-led tech companies and to inspire more women to play strong leadership roles in tech.” BDC has made it a priority to support the growth and success of women entrepreneurs at every stage of their business, through access to financing and capital, advice and resources. The $200 million Women in Technology Venture Fund is dedicated to investing in women-ledtechnology companies and is helping to build a robust ecosystem to support women in tech and in investment roles today and in the future. Find out more at bdc.ca/womenintech. About the Trade Commissioner Service As part of Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) helps Canadian companies and organizations succeed globally. With trade offices across Canada and in 161 offices around the world, the TCS can provide Canadian businesses with on-the-groundintelligence, qualified contacts, partnership opportunities, and practical advice on foreign markets to help them make better, more timely and cost-effective decisions in order to achieve their goals abroad. About BDC CapitalBDC Capital is the investment arm of BDC—Canada’s only bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs. With $3 billion under management, BDC Capital serves as a strategic partner to the country’s most innovative firms. It offers a full spectrum of risk capital, from seed investments to transition capital, supporting Canadian entrepreneurs who wish to scale their businesses into global champions. Visit bdc.ca/capital. #startups #womenwholead #womenfounders #sfo #Canada #ODAIA #HelenKontozopoulos #AINorth
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Upside Foundation | Why is it important to build social responsibility into your business?12/4/2019  Our team joined The Upside Foundation of Canada in the fall, to support for Dixon Hall by packing 500 hygiene kits. We also took part of a video!
We are joined by Wattpad, Nudge.ai, TribalScale, Zoom.ai xocial.com, Willful, SpaceiShare Inc., and us! ODAIA who contributed to the video! Upside Foundation is helping scaling Canadian startup founders make a difference in the world by giving back to the charities of their choice through donating equity instead of cash. Check out this Forward video to hear directly from some of the amazing founders who having pre-committed equity in their businesses. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17846116396728043/ #TheUpsideFoundation #ODAIA #PhilipPoulidis #HelenKontozopoulos #GivingBack #Canada  Panel: Creative Ways to Collect & Use Data for AI Helen Ngo, ML Engineer, Dessa Sarah Sun, Chief Data Strategist, GoldSpot Discoveries Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-Founder, ODAIA.AI Moderator: Rogayeh Tabrizi, CEO, Theory & Practice Date: November 22, 2019 Time: 2:30pm Location: The Carlu, Toronto, Canada Link: https://torontomachinelearning.com/2019-conference/#schedule  #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #ProductDevelopment #AIsaas #Toronto #Canada #WomeninTech #TMLS2019 #HelenKontozopoulos
 Ensuring Diversity & Inclusion in Artificial Intelligence Date: November 14, 2019 Time: 6 - 9pm Location: Element AI, Toronto, Canada Host: AI4Good, Element AI, Real Ventures About the panel: “Ensuring Diversity and Inclusion in AI” is an opportunity to learn about the need for diversity throughout the technology sector, with a focus on the effects of a lack of representation in advanced technology sector such as AI. The event will feature a panel of founders and research leaders who are working towards bringing representation to the technology that shapes are lives. Discussion will center around the effects of the current status quo, how to change the face of technology, and what can be done to overcome the biases already in the system. The event will be hosted at Element AI and will provide time to network with those driven towards inciting change throughout the technology sector. Panelists: Anna Klimbovskaia is the COO & co-founder of Diversio, a technology company that leverages data to analyze, improve, and track diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She was formerly Director of Research for the Office of the CEO at the Royal Bank of Canada, where she led RBC’s thought leadership on the Future of Work and developed RBCUpSkill, a digital tool helping Canadians build resiliency in an age of AI and workplace automation. Anna is an Advisor for the Pan-Canadian K-12 Computer Science Education Framework, a joint initiative between Canada Learning Code, Amazon and the Government of Canada. Helen Kontozopoulos is the co-founder of ODAIA.ai a consumer journey predictive analytics platform created out of The University of Toronto in 2018. She is an Adjunct Professor at the UofT, where she teaches product development, design, and entrepreneurship. She also co-founded an innovation lab out of the Department of Computer Science, where she helped students use AI and emerging technology to create commercial ready products. Lara O'Donnell is the Director of Research at Element AI, a Canadian AI software and solutions provider that has deep roots in conducting fundamental and applied research. At Element AI, Lara focuses on building relationships with academic and research organizations that share common research interests and values and turning these relationships into tangible activities. Prior to this, Lara was a Senior Director of Research at CIFAR, an organization dedicated to tackling questions of global importance such as diversity and inclusion, through the creation of global, interdisciplinary teams of the world's top scholars. Kishawna Peck is the Founder of Toronto Women in Data Science, an organization that holds an annual conference and events that demonstrate the broad applications of data science across different industries and sheds light on the career journeys of women in data science. Everyone is invited to participate in the conference, which features exclusively female speakers. She is also an analytics professional currently working as a Manager of Financial Data Analytics at HomeStars. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in technology and for building diverse talent pipelines for data science and other advanced technology fields.  #AI #Speaker #Diversity #ArtificialIntelligence #ElementAI #ODAIAai #Toronto #Canada #AIinEthics #Ethics #HelenKontozopoulos
AI Stream at Elevate 2019 Conversations about artificial intelligence are often focused on future promise – the world that AI will build. But what does AI mean in 2019? Date & Time: Wed, Sept 25, 10:00AM-4:00PM Location: MaRS Centre, Toronto, Canada About: Elevate AI will investigate the commercialization and practical application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning right now. At Elevate AI, academics, startup founders, and corporate leaders will discuss the AI-powered products that are being built, shipped, and sold today. Guests should expect sessions where today’s AI leaders show their work and speak openly about the ethical and practical challenges they face in their industry. Event link: https://elevate.ca/events/ai/ Media: U of T researchers, entrepreneurs to showcase work at Elevate 2019 tech festival https://www.utoronto.ca/news/u-t-researchers-entrepreneurs-showcase-work-elevate-2019-tech-festival     #Elevate2019 #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #MADMEN #MATHMEN #Marketing #Sales #Speaker #Toronto #Canada #Elevate
 September 14, 2019 @ FITC.CA
Toronto, Canada Overview What do you think of when we say “AI team”? Does it include you? This presentation will discuss how an AI digital transformation within an organization requires various stakeholders from data scientists and machine learning engineers, creative, business, marketing, sales, and customer service to work together. To successfully create and integrate artificial intelligence services into applications will need diverse teams with various backgrounds who can understand and empathize with their diverse customers and users. https://fitc.ca/presentation/building-ai-products-for-humans-why-math-men-still-need-mad-men/ ObjectiveTo talk about the battle between the AI Team and the rest of us. Target Audience Business, marketing, sales, creative Five Things Audience Members Will Learn
September 13, 2019
Overview A new format for Web Unleashed, the roundtable sessions are a group discussion used to workshop ideas, solve real-world problems, and allow for all voices to be heard. Helen Kontozopoulos will lead a discussion on the practical uses of AI, especially in the creative and marketing fields. https://fitc.ca/presentation/roundtable-practical-ai-ml-applications-in-creative-and-marketing/ Topics Discussed
 Hosted by UX/D Toronto and FITCJoin us for this networking lunch for the Toronto UX community as part of the FITC Web Unleashed 2019 conference.
Date: Friday, September 13 Time: 1pm - 2pm Location: Hilton, Toronto Share experiences, discuss solutions to tough problems, and discover new opportunities with attendees and speakers from FITC Web Unleashed 2019. This is a great opportunity to meet designers, developers, directors, and students who are building and developing the exciting field that is UX. As the UX field continues to grow, the opportunities are numerous for building your career or joining the field. This is the lunch for you to connect and learn more. Your host - Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder, ODAIA FITC Web Unleashed speakers who will be attending: Catt Small, Senior Product Designer, Etsy Carl Sziebert, Staff UX Engineer, Google #UX #CustomerJourneys #UXDesign #UXCareers  Technology is changing and evolving, and with it, there is more data being collected about us and the world in general. Public and private lives are available in databases, but what is being done to safeguard our privacy? Are we exchanging our digital lives for something worthwhile, and is the data being used ethically?
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Helen KontozopoulosBlog about; tech, entrepreneurship, and random geeky stuff. Archives
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