Over the course of three days, the Whistler Summit delivers a unique experience with a fine balance of learning and peer networking opportunities. The presentations of the day carry over into conversations at night over dinner and social events. All events take place at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler Frontenac Ballroom unless otherwise noted. This schedule for the 2019 Summit will be launched in January 2019, stay tuned!
At the meantime, you can refer to the Whistler 2018 Summit program below.
All sessions take place in the Frontenac Ballroom unless otherwise noted.
The Old “Old” is the New “New”: Blockchain, ICOs, Crowd-sharing and other Innovations.
As technology companies look to disrupt existing markets and find innovative ways of raising capital, the application of “old” law looms dauntingly over them, apparently striking without warning. Whether looking to grow using an initial coin offering, revolutionizing a marketplace by crowdsharing resources (like ride or accommodation sharing), shifting between subscription models to microtransactions, or exchanging cryptocurrency for fiat money, entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans alike eventually run into the reality that “old” legal regimes govern their “new” activities. What does it mean when some true innovation comes along when there is an existing regulatory framework? McMillan has been at the forefront in navigating the complex world of securities, fintech, gaming, and intellectual property regulation in Canada for these emerging economies, and our experts will lead an engaging and practical discussion.
From tax incentives to US tax reform, KPMG will share insights on the key issues tech CEOs are facing in 2018.
Do you drive your company every day by force of will? What if you could get your people to hold each other accountable? What if you could implement specific operational systems to support that culture? Scott will talk about what has worked in developing the culture of StarFish over the past 18 years.
How will Blockchain change your industry?
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain have become quite a hype over the last year. Since early 2017 the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies increased from around USD 18 billion to over USD 650 billion and back down to around USD 400 billion. There has been much press about the disruptive abilities of blockchain. It has the potential of large scale disintermediation and automation, but has there been real application so far? ICO’s have overtaken VC money as the main source for seed capital for startups with approximately USD 5.7 billion raised since January 2017. These are exponential technologies and every tech entrepreneur needs to be aware of them!
I have been working exclusively with technology product and service companies now for 35 years, and I continue to be amazed at the differences between how the best companies and teams work, and how most companies and teams work. In this talk I will take the audience behind the scenes of several of the industry’s most successful, iconic and disruptive technology products and services, and share the backstories especially of the key people behind those products. There are several lessons that can be learned from these individuals and companies to increase your own chances of creating industry defining products and services.
Please arrive 5 min. in advance – late arrivals will not be admitted.
Frans Tjallingii, Co Founder & CEO, First Coin Capital Corp.
Dr. Hoffman worked for over thirty years at NASA, where he served as the first NASA Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) reporting directly to the Chief Engineer. He founded the NASA Academy of Program Project and Engineering Leadership with responsibility for designing, developing and implementing an integrated system of learning, engagement and building expertise in the execution of complex programs. This presentation will focus on the lessons, insights, and methods for creating and sustaining a workforce of program and project management excellence.
Engage in discussion about current initiatives aimed at creating champion organizations with the intent to realize business strategy and develop talent, learning and ensuring people engagement.
How the design of your organization impacts quality, speed, and innovation.
I was hired by the founder to grow and sell his company. This is the story of how the consistent application of a small number of best practices enabled us to map out a path to exit, navigate the challenges we faced along the way, and choose from multiple offers when it came time to sell.
One of the biggest problems with business content is that customers forget 90% of what you share after 2 days. And the typical goal for creating a message and sharing it with a customer or internal audience is to influence their behavior in some way. But how can they act on your message if they only remember a tenth of it? How do you even know which tenth they’ll remember?
Join this interactive session to discover strategies for transforming yourself and your message into something worth noticing and remembering. To help us understand how people pay attention, remember content, and ultimately act on it, we look at the field of neuroscience, which reveals insights on how the brain processes information and tends to remember it – or, more often – forget it. Join us to learn how to convert neuroscience insights into practical guidelines you can use to craft content with lasting impact. This is critical because both your internal and external audiences make decisions in your favor based on what they remember, not on what they forget.
RTM Strategy: What do we know…what do we need to find out?
Branding is one of the hottest topics in the business world. It’s also one of the most misunderstood. Re Perez demystifies branding, explains the difference between branding and marketing, and demonstrates why you need both (branding and marketing) to play the game of business in today’s marketplace. This session challenges your current thinking around branding and will inspire you to approach your branding just like Fortune 500 brands. Using real live case studies to showcase the power of branding, you’ll be sure to walk away with several actionable ideas to advance your brand ahead of the pack.
The truth about brands and branding.
The difference between branding and marketing.
How to increase the monetary worth of your brand.
How to position your brand for market leadership.
Common mistakes entrepreneurs and marketers make when building a brand.
Simple tips to be a memorable and profitable brand.
In 2018 15-50% of Tech company revenues worldwide will be invested in route to market (RTM) activities and investments. In almost all cases the RTM investments far exceed the amounts that Tech companies invest in R&D. In fact, there are no examples, anywhere in the Tech world, of high performance Tech companies that do not possess a highly productive, scalable and sustainable RTM strategy.
Tech company CEOs, the Venture Capital Firms that fund new Tech companies and the headhunters that attempt to recruit RTM talent, all agree that demand for world class RTM capabilities in hardware, software and telecommunications companies currently outstrips supply. The required tech RTM people are very difficult to recruit, and import into Canada or the USA…big companies need them, and little companies need them even more.
What do we need to find out about what is going on in our organization when we get back to the office.
In this session Bruce R Stuart, partner in Vancouver-based Channelcorp will help you and your teams examine the current issues in Tech RTM thinking. A 30-year veteran of the WW tech industry Bruce and his partner Margaret have worked globally with the likes of Adobe, Autodesk, HPE, HP, VMware, IBM, Cisco, SAP, Xerox and others as they and their partners have made, and remade their RTM strategies as many Tech companies transform to a recurring revenue future.
In fall 2017, HTC CEO and Chairperson Cher Wang was driving the company to focus on virtual reality (VR). HTC’s first VR product, VIVE, released in spring 2016, was applauded for its superior immersive room-scale capabilities. However, early adoption of VR beyond gamers and technology enthusiasts was off to a slow start. At the same time, competition was mounting from Sony, Facebook, Google, and other technology leaders. Wang had to make big strategic bets: should she prioritize hardware, software, services, or some combination?