Tech Talent North – Western Edition
June 14, 2023
Conference Day!
TAP Network’s community of People and Culture professionals met in person at Tech Talent North last month! This year’s Western Edition conference of 500 People and Culture leaders in tech was an inspiring day of content-rich collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The feedback we’ve heard the most has been centred on the content and connection with industry experts and peers. It was also a fun day to collaborate and recharge.
“Thrilled to have attended Tech Talent North last week, where I soaked up valuable insights from top-notch speakers, engaged in thought-provoking breakout sessions, and saw new and familiar faces IRL!”
What makes this day unique, relatable and applicable, is that the conference is built by tech sector culture leaders and innovators. The formula is simple: when we connect our diverse network of professionals, it’s always a day well spent!
Community and Content
Before the main event, we had a full house for the early bird workshop which focused on creating quality employee experiences through employee-centric benefits.
We were honoured to begin Tech Talent North with opening remarks from our Conference Chair Tara Ataya, Chief People and Diversity Officer at Hootsuite, and from TAP Network's CEO, Stephanie Hollingshead. Stephanie shared a good news story, citing TAP Network’s May 2023 member pulse survey stats on projected growth for the tech industry, with 57% of the 99 member companies that participated anticipating headcount growth in 2023.
Tara moderated the opening keynote with speaker Camille Dundas, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, ByBlacks.com Inc. You could hear a pin drop in a room with 500 people as we all leaned-in to hear more of Camille’s powerful storytelling and How to Handle Microaggressions in the Workplace.
“It was such a privilege to hear Camille Dundas speak last week. I kept feeling myself lean in more and more with curiosity and enthusiasm. She shared this video and it's such a great quick learning to help understand the harms of microaggressions.”
We had incredible speakers with authentic content shared throughout the day in breakout sessions and keynotes. The sessions covered retention, communicating organizational change, hiring for diversity, rebuilding culture after tech layoffs, fostering indigenous tech talent, and much more.
Another highlight of the day was the lunch keynote with Josh Nilson, Co-Founder of Eastside Games, where we gained insight and inspiration into what it takes for tech to be a “great equalizer”. Josh inspired us with a call to action to further our organizational DE&I.
In support of Asian Heritage Month in Canada, the amazing volunteers at Elimin8Hate joined us for the day, to help us learn about anti-Asian racism and cultivate anti-racist workplaces.
That’s a Wrap
What a great atmosphere! We had time to connect during coffee and ice-cream breaks and at the closing “Wine’d up”. Thank you to everyone who was able to join and support the conference in Vancouver this year! It was an incredible day to connect with People and Culture leaders in tech.
“A big thank you to TAP Network for putting this together and creating a wonderful community of people leaders. I'm already looking forward to next year!”
For more on our upcoming Tech Talent North conference in Toronto this October visit the Tech Talent North website https://techtalentnorth.com/east/
About Tech Talent North
This event is built by tech sector culture leaders and innovators and was founded by TAP Network in 2012. We re-launched the event as Tech Talent North in partnership with Cube Business Media in 2021, and it is now offered annually in both Vancouver and Toronto.