Innovation in Action Tour Highlights Halton Innovation
November 16, 2018, Burlington, ON – Innovation in Action Tour Highlights Halton Innovation
The Innovation in Action Tour, hosted in partnership with TechPlace and Haltech, brought together over 50 attendees for an action-packed day of facility tours, lightning talks and networking opportunities. “This event is dedicated to supporting and showcasing best-in-class innovative businesses in Halton Region” said Anita Cassidy, Acting Executive Director at BEDC, “we wanted to give people a look behind the doors of our most innovative and inspiring businesses as peer-to-peer learning is vital to today’s entrepreneurs and this event was focused around just that.”
Mark Majewski, Business Development Manager at OCE.
Attendees started off the day with an engaging discussion kicked off with a lightning talk by Mark Majewski, Business Development Manager at OCE. Mark discussed opportunities and trends in technology highlighting the importance of corporate culture as integral to innovative businesses. The breakfast agenda concluded with Tracey Kadish, Associate Dean, Business and Media Graduate Studies, Applied Research and Entrepreneurship at Mohawk College, highlighting Mohawk days at TechPlace and the talent and resources post-secondary institutions can bring to business, big and small.
Attendees in Javelin Technologies 3D Printing Lab.
Following the breakfast agenda, guests hopped on the bus to the first stop of the day at Javelin Technologies. Guests heard John Brown, Director of Sales, discuss how Javelin Technologies continues to breed a culture of innovation by focusing on their employees through Human Resource driven initiatives, emphasizing the importance of business partnerships, customer relationships and clear communication, “innovation means communicating what you are going to do and what you aren’t”.
Attendees touring Urtech Manufacturing with Karen Bozynski, Director of Business Development.
Urtech Manufacturing was the next stop of the day where attendees took a tour of the Urtech Manufacturing facilities, the UrStart Hardware Accelerator and learned valuable lessons from Karen Bozynski, Director of Business Development. “Enabling agile engagement of electronics experts and resources helps support innovation” said Bozynski. “The UrStart Accelerator offers membership services and events to help Canadian electronic hardware companies get to market faster. At Urtech, our team applies our decades of industry experience and adapts our world-class manufacturing capabilities and global supply chain to support the realization of innovative products, from prototyping through scaled volume production. Events like today provide awareness this capability exists not only in California or Asia. We have a valuable, competitive offering to bring products to market here in Ontario.”
The final company visit of the day was iLLUMA-Drive who use the services of Urtech Manufacturing and Javelin Technologies to procure their equipment. iLLUMA-Drive was founded in 2015 and has been in heavy research and development mode; the team was thrilled to share their experience with the audience. Derek Hopkins, Founder, President and CEO, gave an engaging talk to attendees about their trials and triumphs to produce their revolutionary Digital Smart DC power and Energy Management solutions.
Derek Hopkins, Founder/President and CEO at iLLUMA-Drive and Pam Damoff, Member of Parliament Oakville North-Burlington demoing a CENSE green DC energy management system.
Member of Parliament for Oakville North-Burlington, Pam Damoff, attended the iLLUMA-Drive visit and even got to wire a CENSE green DC energy management system. Mid-tour iLLUMA-Drive received some exciting news that will take their business from research and development to commercialization as iLLUMA-Drive learned they had achieved electrical certification for their first product, CENSE, with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) approval. This allows them to connect CENSE to the electrical grid in both Canada and the USA. CENSE is a low voltage DC panel that allows in-building DC grids to be constructed with huge improvements in electrical efficiency.
“I was thrilled to join the Innovation in Action Tour” said MP Pam Damoff “Having met with the company In their early stages, seeing this innovative business moving forward with their product and operating right here in North Burlington was truly inspiring. Even more exciting is Illuma-Drive’s electrical certification which will allow them to commercialize their products in North America.”
From left to right: Pam Damoff, Member of Parliament Oakville North-Burlington, Shann McGrail, Executive Director at Haltech Regional Innovation Centre, Derek Hopkins, Founder/President and CEO at iLLUMA-Drive, Anita Cassidy, Acting Executive Director at Burlington Economic Development Corporation and Mark Steffler, Manager at TechPlace.
Burlington Mayor-Elect Marianne Meed Ward spoke in support of the Innovation in Action Tour, “this event helped bring awareness to the Burlington business community. Both Urtech Manufacturing and iLLUMA-Drive have leveraged Burlington’s highly connected location and top talent pool to succeed as leaders in their respective fields. These businesses have, and will continue, to bring a number of highly-skilled jobs to Burlington and, I am very excited to see what the future holds for these two innovative Burlington businesses.”
The day ended with a networking reception at TechPlace, where attendees shared key learnings from the day. TechPlace and Haltech would like to thank our sponsors Ridout & Maybee, Gowlings WLG and Nickel Brook Brewing Co. This event would not have been possible without our fantastic host companies, Javelin Technologies, Urtech Manufacturing and iLLUMA-Drive, who kindly opened their doors for this event.
About the Companies
Javelin Technologies are experts in 3D. They have enabled thousands of Canadian Designers and Manufacturers to aim high with solutions for Electro-mechanical Design, Data Management, 3D Scanning, 3D Printing, and Post Processing.
Urtech Manufacturing provides a wide array of services from product prototyping and engineering, to production-scale manufacturing and post production services to both North American companies and global Original Equipment Manufacturers.
iLLUMA-Drive is a Digital Energy company that plans to reinvent the use of power through their unique solutions– Digital Smart DC power and Energy Management.
About TechPlace
TechPlace is a one stop destination for new and growing technology companies. With the support of partners from across the public and private sectors, it is dedicated to connecting, developing, and advancing entrepreneurs at all stages. This means providing access to space, programming, mentorship, networking, and resources that are fundamental to growing a business in today’s technology-driven marketplace.
Led by the Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), TechPlace exists to help technology, talent and ideas come together under one roof to create and promote opportunities for economic growth.
About BEDC
Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) has a mandate to enhance the growth prospects of existing companies and bring new high-value firms to the community. BEDC’s focus is on growing the economic base to sustain Burlington’s competitive and prosperous community. BEDC is the first point of contact for companies looking to expand, start-up or locate in Burlington.
About Haltech
Haltech is at the nexus of Halton Region’s innovation ecosystem, working with technology companies to accelerate innovation for business growth. We help technology entrepreneurs and companies to validate, scale and grow product and service innovations with a wide range of FREE services that include: Business Advising & Innovation Support, Entrepreneur Skill Development and Corporate Innovation Partnerships.