THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

CONTACT THE TECTORIA BLOG

Got a cool story about technology and creativity in Victoria? Email stories, tips, pictures, links and anything of interest to Tessa Bousfield at: tectoria@viatec.ca

The Mustard Seed

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Our Tectorian of the Week is: The Mustard Seed! Plus, all our VIATEC Food Bank Challenge participants!

The Mustard Seed Street Church has been essential in fighting hunger and restoring faith to a large portion of people living in poverty, as well as the working poor, in greater Victoria since 1975. The Church ministries are nearly 100 percent community funded and include Vancouver Island’s largest Food Bank, a Family Center, Hospitality programs, and addictions recovery at Hope Farm Healing Centre as well as more traditional Church services.

The Mustard Seed positively impacts, on average 5,000 individuals per month, with more than 50 volunteers keeping things running everyday. However, their shelves have been very bare lately due to more assistance given in 2016 and donations being lower.

Well, in the past 4 weeks, 34 companies have come together for the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge to raise cash and non perishables for the Mustard Seed! Today from 12pm to 3pm, all the participants will drop off their remaining donations to the Mustard Seed for the final tally. If you have anything to donate, please swing by and say hi to the VIATEC team while you’re there OR donate from the comfort of your chair.

A HUGE thank you to all our participants. Winners will be announced soon and many families will have a wonderful holiday season as a result. Well done everyone!

2016 Participants:

  1. Avocette Technologies
  2. AXYS Technologies
  3. BDC
  4. Beanstream
  5. Carmanah Technologies Corp.
  6. Collect! Credit & Debt Collection software
  7. Codan Radio Communications
  8. Complia Health
  9. Crowd Content
  10. CUBE Global Storage
  11. Econics
  12. Flytographer
  13. Frankie’s Modern Diner
  14. FTS Forest Technology Systems
  15. GenoLogics
  16. GlobalWide Media
  17. HP Advanced Solutions
  18. IndyKey Rewards
  19. Latitude Geographics Group
  20. Monk Office
  21. MUSIC Group Innovation CA Inc.
  22. RevenueWire
  23. RingPartner
  24. Schneider Electric
  25. SendtoNews
  26. Smart Dolphins IT Solutions
  27. StarFish Medical
  28. Technology Guys IT Solutions
  29. Tourism Victoria
  30. Vecima Networks
  31. VIATEC & Ground Control Cafe
  32. Victoria Airport Authority
  33. Victoria Flying Club
  34. Vigil Health Solutions Inc.

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HP, northStudio and Schneider Electric

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Our Tectorians of the Week is: HP Advanced Solutions, northStudio.com and Schneider Electric!

Why this awesome trio? They’re sponsoring the upcoming iWIST Science and Tech Crawl on April 27th!

Attendees will get to visit six amazing STEM organizations in a pub crawl style format. The fee includes hosted tours/talks at six science, engineering & tech companies, bus transportation, lunch and a wrap up with appies and prizes.

Click here for more info and to register.

About iWIST (Island Women in Science & Technology): Founded in September 2011, this 100% volunteer powered group of over 300 members organizes events every two months where women in STEM fields can connect, exchange views and network together.

Carmanah Technologies

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Our Tectorian of the Week is: Carmanah Technologies! 

Carmanah Technologies won first place in both categories of the 2015 VIATEC Food Bank Challenge: Greatest Overall Contributor and Greatest Per-Employee Contributor (supporting the Mustard Seed). Having received second place by just $300 during the last challenge, they were determined to come in on top!

2015 Winners

​Greatest Overall Contributor

Greatest Per Employee Contributor:

VIATEC Food Bank Challenge Participants!

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Our Tectorians of the Week are: Arpix Media, Avocette, AXYS Technologies, Carmanah Technologies, FTS, Isolation Network, Planet Clean, Red Brick Media, Revenue Wire, Smart Dolphins IT Solutions, Simply Rooted Media, Schneider Electric, StarFish Medical, UNIT4, Vigil Health Solutions and xMatters!

Why? Because they’re all stepping up and raising cash and food donations for the Mustard Seed Food Bank through the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge!

Week 1 of 4 is just wrapping up today and although VIATEC won’t be posting results until Monday, we can tell it’s been a very active week. The announcement that Dan Gunn, CEO of VIATEC, will get a tattoo of the VIATEC logo if $100,000 is raised, may have upped the ante a bit! It even caused Dallas Gislason of the GVDA to raise the stakes by offering to do the same if $110,000 is raised! Arpix Media also submitted $500 on the very first day!

Week 1 was also the launch of the newly introduced weekly photo contest. Participants receive the chance at winning an addition 250 points if their pic is the best of the bunch. It also gives participants a chance to see what their competition is up to…

Red Brick Media went with a video instead of a picture in order to capture the action of their team doing push ups!

  • Want to join the challenge? (It’s not too late)… email kwalker@viatec.ca
  • Want to give a personal donation? Click here and make sure you select “VIATEC Food Bank Challenge” as your reason for giving on the second page
  • Want to donate to one of the participants to help them win? See the company list above or below!
  • Want to just witness all the fun? Search for #VIATECFoodBankChallenge on social media!

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Schneider Electric

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Schneider Electric started out with a focus on steel in the 19th century and switched gears to electrical distribution and automation in the 20th. They now specialize in manufacturing, hardware and software R&D, and they are one of the largest technology companies in Greater Victoria.

A small fraction of the very large Schneider Electric team accepted the award for Innovative Excellence at the VIATEC Technology Awards Show on June 26th. Project Manager, David Anderson accepted on behalf of his team for their innovative power quality meter. It was designed to help businesses understand where they are using their power and how to use it more efficiently, and it’s been VERY well received.

“Here in Victoria we have power metering design and manufacturing, all under one roof, and this allows us to optimize the project design life cycle and deliver our product in a timely manner,” commented Anderson. “Our future is going to be exciting because we are uniquely positioned to help customers solve their energy efficiency issues and also provide world-class leading products.”

In addition to this award, they have also earned the following in 2015 alone:

  • World’s most admired companies in 2015 (Fortune Magazine)
  • World’s Most Attractive Employers in 2015 (Universum)
  • Hervé Coureil, CIO of Schneider Electric, Finalist for the 2015 CIO Leadership Award (MIT Sloan CIO Symposium)

On top of their innovative achievements, they continue to have a strong presence in our community. In particular, they are top contributors in the VIATEC Food Bank Challenge for the Mustard Seed year after year, and in 2013 they won first place.

We are very excited to see what this powerhouse team achieves next!

Click below to view the Schneider Electric’s video interview for Innovative Excellence, alongside their tough competition!