Talent

The global pandemic is accelerating the pace of social and technological change, a dynamic that is serving as a “great equalizer” for innovators and entrepreneurs.

Among many of the technological disruptions advanced by the outbreak, working and conducting business remotely is knocking down traditional barriers, leaders from the worlds of entrepreneurship and academia say.

Randall Lane, Forbes CCO and editor, facilitated the panel discussion on how talent and innovation collide in the race to reset today's workforce and rebuild economies.

Three engineers with deep ties to Waterloo Engineering were among the contributors to the 2020 edition of Letters to a Young Engineer, an annual publication given to graduating engineering students.

Sukh Singh (BASc ‘12) and Harleen Kaur were frustrated with how they saw news being presented and how it was fueling the spread of misinformation. In 2017, the brother-sister team launched Ground News as a way to provide the public with a full picture of the news stories they’re consuming.

Dubbed as the world’s first news comparison platform, Ground News helps users see how news stories are covered around the world and across the political spectrum. It then goes deeper to reveal where and when the story originated and how the narrative changes over time and across geography.

Eric Migicovsky (BASc ’09) had no idea what to expect when he started his own company. Although he created the Pebble — one of the world’s first smartwatchs — Migicovsky had only just completed his engineering degree at Waterloo.

“I had no expectations,” Migicovsky said. “I was fresh out of school and just happy to build stuff. I have great memories of running the assembly line to build the watches in the garage behind our house.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced industries to re-evaluate and transform their purpose. Canada and the world need a resilient and future-ready workforce to help drive our economic recovery.

During the University’s first virtual Waterloo Innovation Summit, industry leaders explored how attracting and retaining highly-skilled talent has quickly become a top priority across organizations in all sectors.

Norah McRae is leading a global conversation on the future of talent and lifelong learning.

Michael Litt (BASc ’11) smiles when he recalls the factors that led him to starting the company that would later become Vidyard. A cross-country road trip with his friend and now business partner Devon Galloway (BASc ’10) created the right environment for bouncing around ideas and building a dream for the future, but it was Waterloo’s co-op program that molded Litt into the entrepreneur that he is today.

The reality television competition series, which premieres tonight, Thursday, July 2, is based on the American series RuPaul’s Drag Race and tests the contestants on acting, dancing, branding, improv, performance, sewing and everything a drag queen does in their career.

It was an event well-attended, although presented entirely virtually for the first time ever.

Within the initial 12 hours, Velocity’s virtual Fund Pitch Competition (VFPC) garnered more than one thousand pageviews through its new VFPC video portal — a page designed specifically for this term’s competing entrepreneurs. Eleven companies went head-to-head in hopes of receiving up to $400,000 in pre-seed investments.