Education

TONIGHT: propel Director and Mentor, Dan Martell, to Keynote Rising Stars Gala

Jeff Roach — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:54:37 -0300

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Rising Stars Committee

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http://propelict.com/node/1791

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Dan Martell, 2009 Rising Stars Keynote Speaker

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Tickets still available - details below

An award winning Entrepreneur, Dan recently co-founded Flowtown, a company focused on providing web-based tools that allow small businesses to measure their online marketing efforts. Now living in San Francisco, Martell spends the majority of his time looking at ways to build a bridge between Silicon Valley and New Brunswick. As an informal angel investor, he is active in advising entrepreneurs using metric-based marketing tactics to gain market adoption.

Cost:
$75.00 per person. Tickets available at the door. Details at www.risingstars.ca

Jobs of the future will go only to the educated

Jeff Roach — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:21:45 -0300

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Brett Bundale

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Telegraph-Journal, Published Saturday September 26th, 2009

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http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/804370

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Study finds strong link between education, literacy and economic growth - New Brunswick's future workforce will need a high literacy level, Stephen Lund says

A top business development expert says unless literacy rates improve the coming wave of information technology-related jobs will overlook the province.

Stephen Lund, president and chief executive of Nova Scotia Business Inc., said during a recent meeting with the Telegraph-Journal editorial board that literacy levels will determine the prosperity of the region.

"The technology is changing so fast if we can't handle the technological evolution we'll get left behind," said the leader of Nova Scotia's private sector-led business development agency.

"Nine out of 10 jobs in the future will be IT-related," Lund said. "And I don't mean programmers. Take any industry and look 10 years from now - the entire workforce will need a higher literacy level."

Nearly 40 per cent of people in the bluenose province are functionally illiterate, he said.

"We've got thousands of knowledge-related jobs coming to Halifax," Lund said. "If we don't have the people ready for those jobs than the companies won't stick around."

But literacy rates are even grimmer in New Brunswick. A report released this month by the Canadian Council on Learning suggests New Brunswickers are more likely to struggle with reading and writing than other Canadians.

The data tracked literacy rates in more than 50,000 Canadian communities using 2003 literacy figures and 2006 Census results from Statistics Canada. Almost 50 per cent of Canadians had an adult literacy rate at or below Level 2, which is defined as having the capacity to only deal with simple material involving uncomplicated tasks.

In New Brunswick, there were regions where the percentage of people struggling with literacy jumped as high as 70 per cent.

"The debate in the future will no longer be about urban versus rural or big business versus small," Lund said. "It will be about educated versus uneducated and the jobs will go where the educated workforce is."

A recent Statistics Canada study found a strong link between education, literacy and economic growth. Using data from an international adult literacy survey, the study found that investments in education and skills training are three times as important to economic growth over the long run than investment in physical capital, such as machinery and equipment.

In addition, the study found that the average literacy score is a better indicator of growth than one based only on the percentage of the population with very high literacy scores.

A country that promotes literacy skills throughout its entire population will therefore be more prosperous than if the gap between high-skill and low-skill groups is large.

"We recognize the solution has to be about investing in early education," said Charles Cirtwill, executive vice-president at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a Halifax-based public policy think tank.

"Most governments have recognized they have a literacy problem and have responded by increasing spending," he said. "But one of the things we often forget is that it will be 20 years before they're in the workforce so it needs to be a balanced strategy and right now I don't think we've got it."

The challenge of moving from a resource-based economy into a knowledge economy is that many trade jobs - like mechanics, plumbers, electricians and pipe fitters - will require a higher level of literacy, Cirtwill said

But a particular challenge for New Brunswick will be moving past "the first generation call centres that fueled the 'McKenna Miracle,'" he said. "Those jobs have now moved into even lower cost areas like India."

"The call centres you now see in Atlantic Canada are second or third generation call centres where it's not just about handing calls in an expeditious way it's the capacity of the individuals answering the calls to do detailed technical stuff that requires a higher literacy level."

UNBSJ MBA Virtual Job Portal

Rowser — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:40:24 -0300

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Michelle Scott Coordinator, MBA Program, UNB Saint John

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UNB Saint John MBA Cathy Duan and Aaron Cao stand with Rick Hancox, executive director of New Brunswick Securities Commission. Matthew Sherwood / Telegraph-Journal photo.

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Recruiting talent is now easier

The MBA Program at UNB Saint John is proud to announce the launch of its job portal http://www.hirembaunbsj.com, providing one-stop access to the resumes of all graduating MBA students, as well year-round internship candidates. Our new online services will further facilitate your partnership with the UNBSJ MBA. You can:

Browse through student profiles and contact candidates directly
Post, receive and review job applications
Schedule on-campus interviews

We look forward to our continued partnership. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Michelle Scott at mscott@unbsj.ca

Know exactly what to do with your money before you get it

Jeff Roach — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:36:06 -0300

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John Pollack

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New Brunswick Business Journal, Published Tuesday August 4th, 2009

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http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/749647

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Joe Gebbia, Founder of AirBnB.com

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Propel ICT Inc. hosting conference call with entrepreneur Joe Gebbia 3 p.m. Wednesday

Develop your business before asking for money.

That's the main point San Francisco entrepreneur Joe Gebbia will be trying to impress upon New Brunswick technology business owners when he speaks at a virtual event, or conference call, Wednesday.

As the co-founder of AirBnB.com, a website which pairs frugal travelers with people looking to rent their spare bedrooms, couches and airbeds as accommodations, Gebbia knows a thing or two about getting by with little money.

"As entrepreneurs trying to get our company off the ground, we would beg, borrow, scrape," Gebbia said by phone. "We didn't have any money, but we had a vision for what we wanted to do."

"It drove us to get creative to fund the company when we didn't have any money and in the early days when the company wasn't making any money," he said.

During the 2008 U.S. election Gebbia and his partners created a novelty cereal - Obama-Os and Captain McCains - and sold them for $40 each over their website. They sold all 500 boxes of the Obama-Os but the Republican candidate's cereal wasn't as popular.

This not only raised money but got them publicity, including a five-minute interview on CNN, as well as features in a slew of other print, broadcast and online media.

"The more time you can spend working without money to build the product and get traction the more you'll know what to do with your money when you actually get it," Gebbia said.

Instead of testing an idea with a lot of someone else's money, Gebbia suggested doing it with a small amount of your own.

"Through that process you really learn where funds are needed," he said.

Gebbia and his two partners got their business idea in October 2007 when a design conference in San Francisco "whipped out the hotel supply in the city."

Since Gebbia and his friends were struggling to pay their rent, they decided to rent out their floor space overnight.

"We made $1,000 by having people sleep on airbeds," he said.

In August 2008, AirBnB.com was launched, and today it boasts listings in 82 countries and 1,150 cities around the world with 30,000 registered users - both travelers and hosts. The website makes money by taking 10 per cent from each rented space.

After one year the business is "pizza profitable" Gebbia said - all three partners are covering their cost of living and the business has some working capital to grow.

The company raised small amounts of money from family and friends in the early days and $20,000 from Y-Combinator, a venture firm specializing in funding early-stage startups.

AirBnB.com is no longer looking for investors and Gebbia said he expects the business to take off in its second year.

"It's an easy way for people to save money when they travel and for people to make money with resources they already have," he said of the website.

The virtual meeting, which can be access by phone or online, is being put on by Propel ICT Inc., a provincial technology industry association, which aims to help create more thriving ebusinesses.

Propel executive director Jeff Roach says Gebbia's message is one maritime entrepreneurs need to hear.

"I think people automatically jump towards professional money," he said. "I've got this idea, I want to start a business, where can I get some money?"

"Put as much value as you possibly can into your business before you introduce professional money into your business," Roach said.

The meeting is at 3 p.m. Wednesday, and is open to anyone interested in growing New Brunswick's ICT sector. For information, including how to access the call, visit the Propel ICT page on Facebook.

IT industry hopes to become carbon-neutral

Rowser — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:37:55 -0300

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Chelsea Murray

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Telegraph Journal, Published Monday July 20th, 2009

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http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/733861

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Bill St. Arnaud

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Over the phone from his Ottawa office, Bill St. Arnaud confirms a slew of staggering numbers.

The global IT industry emits three per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - an amount equal to that of the airline industry.

The planet's one billion computers together emit one billion tons of carbon waste annually.

These numbers double every four years.

"Computers don't emit CO2 directly - they don't have a tailpipe," said St. Arnaud, chief of research for non-profit networking corporation Canarie Inc., "but the power they consume is enormous."

St. Arnaud is a keynote speaker at this year's World Congress on Privacy, Security, Trust and the Management of e-Business Industry Day in Saint John on Aug. 25. His presentation will not only cover how the IT sector is failing environmentally, but also how companies all over the world are banding together to turn the numbers around.

Mammoth data centres such as those owned by Google and Microsoft, always-turned-on home and office computers, electronic-parts manufacturing factories, and telecommunications transmitting and receiving stations eat up huge amounts of energy.

And many countries, including the United States, still use dirty coal-fired plants to deliver that power.

This is why next-generation IT will be zero carbon, said St. Arnaud. It's a lofty goal considering the industry as a whole hasn't reduced emissions thus far. Still, he believes awareness is spreading to all corners of the business.

Corporations such as Google and Microsoft have started building data centres in areas abundant in renewable resources. Both have centres on the Columbia River in Washington, close to readily available hydro power.

Citing information he heard from a provincial government official, St. Arnaud said Google was even negotiating with the New Brunswick government about setting up shop in the province and taking advantage of our renewable energy potential.

He said the region's high winds and tides make it particularly enticing, but government officials wouldn't confirm.

Swedish telecommunications provider Ericsson also started building wind-powered cell phone towers last year. The company plans to have 100,000 of these erected by 2012.

"The threat of climate change is so serious it's going to dramatically raise the cost of power," said St. Arnaud. "The industries that adapt will be winners."

Congress 2009 is a three-day conference organized by the University of New Brunswick and McMaster University's e-Business Research Centre in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada Institute for Information Technology.

This year's event includes workshops, tutorials, panel discussions, research paper presentations, and keynote speakers including Mark Williamson, deputy director general of Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science in Ottawa; John Weigelt, national technology officer with Microsoft Canada; and Walid Hejazi, professor of international business at the University of Toronto.

Organizers hope Industry Day will give attendees a better understanding of how small, medium and large Maritime businesses can build capacity and prepare for the future by leveraging e-business.

Industry Day Provides Opportunity to Learn About the Power of e-Business

Rowser — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:46:15 -0300

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NRC-IRAP

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2009 World Congress on Privacy, Security, Trust and the Management of e-Business (Congress 2009), August 25, 2009 at the Delta Brunswick Hotel in Saint John, NB

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Industry Day, the kick-off event for the 2009 World Congress on Privacy, Security, Trust and the Management of e-Business (Congress 2009) conference, will be held August 25, 2009 at the Delta Brunswick Hotel in Saint John, NB.

The theme for this year’s Industry Day is “Leveraging e-Business.” Broadly defined, e-Business involves carrying out economic, social, and political activities using computers and communications networks such as the Internet. The day will bring the local business community together with regional, national, and international representatives of the public sector, private sector, academia, and the research community to jointly explore how regional economies can leverage the power and potential of e-Business.

Industry Day will feature two major keynote addresses, three invited talks, and three panel discussions examining innovative uses of information and communications technologies (ICT) in three economic sectors of particular interest to Saint John —energy, transportation and health — as examples of how ICT can be exploited in all sectors. Participating in Industry Day will give attendees an understanding of how this region can build business capacity and how small, medium, and large private sector organizations can leverage e-Business in order to better position themselves to thrive in the future.

Congress 2009 will be held August 25-27, 2009 at the Delta Brunswick Hotel in Saint John, NB. The three-day conference will include workshops, tutorials, panel discussions, research papers, and keynote speakers including Dr. Walid Hejazi, professor of International Business at the University of Toronto and author of the 2008 Rotman-TELUS Joint Study on Canadian IT Security Practices; Dr. Mark Williamson, deputy director general, DRDC Centre for Security Science in Ottawa; John Weigelt, National Technology Officer, Microsoft Canada; and one of the world’s leading e-Business researchers, Dr. Viswanath Venkatesh, George & Boyce Billingsley Endowed Chair in Information Systems, Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas.

Detailed agendas and online registration for both Industry Day and the full three-day Congress 2009 conference are available online at http://pstnet.unb.ca/congress2009. Industry Day registration includes a continental breakfast, refreshments breaks, lunch, and a networking reception at the New Brunswick Museum as well as the Congress 2009 workshops.

Congress 2009 is organized by the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and McMaster University’s e-Business Research Centre (MeRC) in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT). Early Bird registration rates are available until August 1, 2009. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. A 10 per cent discount is available to CIPS and IEEE members.

For more information please contact:

Greg Sprague		Jeff Roach
NRC-IIT		Propel ICT
greg.sprague@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca		jeff.roach@propelict.com
506.444.0492		506.642.9029

Industry Day Agenda (August 25, 2009)

8:00 a.m.	Registration and Refreshments
8:30 a.m.	Welcome Khaled Hassanein, Director, McMaster eBusiness Research Centre (MeRC), McMaster University Christian Couturier, Director General, NRC-IIT Bob Manning, Chair, Enterprise Saint John
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.	Keynote: Next Generation Internet to Reduce Global Warming Bill St.Arnaud, Chief Research Officer, CANARIE Inc.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m.	Refreshment Break / Networking Opportunity
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.	Invited Talk: The New Brunswick Energy Hub Claire Lepage, NB Department of Energy
11:00 – Noon	Industry Panel: Leveraging e-Business in the Energy Sector Yves Gagnon, Universite de Moncton Dave Duplisea, NB Department of Energy Curtis Howe, NB System Operator Dave Wagner, Atlantic Hydrogen
Noon – 1:30 p.m.	Luncheon / Networking Opportunity Keynote: Cross-Border Security and Transportation as Critical Infrastructure Trefor Munn-Venn, Conference Board of Canada
1:30 – 2:00 p.m.	Invited Talk: Marine Security Emilia Warriner, Transport Canada
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.	Industry Panel: Leveraging e-Business in the Transportation Sector Steve Palmer, Remsoft Andrew Easton, NB Department of Public Safety Grant Mitchell, RST Transport Mark McIntyre, DRDC Atlantic
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.	Refreshment Break / Networking Opportunity
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.	Invited Talk: Innovation and eHealth Cheryl Hansen, NB Department of Health
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.	Industry Panel: Leveraging e-Business in the Health Sector Norm Archer, McMaster University Derrick Jardine, FacilicorpNB David Townsend, University of New Brunswick Gerry Verner, former CEO, Anywhere Group
5:00 – 5:30 p.m.	Wrap-Up Mark McIntyre, Group Leader, Maritime Information and Knowledge Management, DRDC Atlantic
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.	Networking Reception (NB Museum, Hall of Great Whales)

Industry Day Workshops

Time	Workshop #	Subject
9:00am - 12:00pm	1	Introduction to Intrusion Detection
2:00pm – 5:30pm	2	Interactive Privacy: Utilizing Assessments to Support Effective Decision-Making
2:00pm – 5:30pm	3	Towards an Open Source Vulnerability Assessment Framework

Mt. A names business centre head

Rowser — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:20:26 -0300

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Times Transcript, Published Tuesday June 23rd, 2009

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http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/rss/article/707357

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Sackville's Mount Allison University added another feather to its cap with the appointment of a top executive to the directorship of the university's Ron Joyce Centre for Business Studies.

Tim Hynes is an award-winning researcher in corporate finance and strategic management and was chairing the business administration department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

Hynes has a wealth of experience and knowledge in corporate finance and strategic management and 15 years of teaching and research experience.

He has also worked for prominent Canadian companies and holds degrees from St. Francis Xavier University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary.

The centre was created last year with a founding gift of $5 million from Ron Joyce, the co-founder of Tim Hortons and a member of the Order of Canada and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. He also holds an honorary degree from Mount Allison.

The university will also contribute $5 million to the centre's operation.

Junior Achievement returns to region

Jeff Roach — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:28:33 -0300

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Greg Weston

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Times & Transcript, Published Thursday June 18th, 2009

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http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/rss/article/703267

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Gilberte Godin from School District 1, David Hawkins, committee chairman for the Moncton Junior Achievement Company Program, and Karen Branscombe, superintendent of School District 2, were all smiles yesterday at the official launch of the program at Moncton City Hall.

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After a three-year hiatus, the Junior Achievement Company Program will again be up and running for southeastern New Brunswick high school students this fall.

The return of the hands-on entrepreneurial initiative was announced at a press conference at Moncton City Hall yesterday morning, with members of the business community, school superintendents and Mayor George LeBlanc in attendance.

"Moncton is really a very entrepreneurial community and we had a great opportunity here," says David Hawkins, president of CouleurNB and a corporate sponsor of the program. "It just feels so much like the right thing and so much like the right place to do this and to do it really well."

The extra-curricular activity gives high school students the opportunity to conceive and implement a business plan, under the stewardship of a volunteer from the local business community. Offered free of charge to interested students, the 18-week-long program will begin in October. Also running in other areas of the province, it had been cancelled in this region about three years ago.

"Basically, Junior Achievement took a hiatus for a period of time from delivering the Company Program, because we didn't have the students coming into high school that were familiar with the program," says Britt Dysart, chairman of the Junior Achievement New Brunswick Board of Governors. "The main reason was, about three years ago, we noticed a decline in our in-school programs to the point where we were only reached about 100 to 150 students in the southeast."

During the past three years, such classroom activities in the lower grades have grown to involve more than 2,000 students, Dysart says, which should create more interest in Junior Achievement among the region's high school students. Their goal is to have three groups, one working in French and two bilingual, of about 15 to 20 students each. Junior Achievement is also looking for volunteers to act as mentors.

"It's a program that the Moncton business community and the two school districts, anglophone and francophone, have been really hoping that we'd be able to reintroduce in the south-east region. This has been a Moncton community effort to present the case that there is the critical mass and there is the interest to make the relaunch successful," Dysart says. "I think it's a great day for Moncton students that we're able to bring it back. The volunteers get as much out of it as the kids."

David Savoie, now a partner and project manager at Acadian Construction Ltd. in Dieppe, participated in the Company Program as a high school student in 1992. He says the experience was rewarding and he is excited that Acadian will now be acting as a sponsor.

"For me, it opened up the entrepreneurship and business world to my eyes. When you're in high school, you're not always thinking of that kind of stuff. It gelled everything together for me to go through the program," he says of his school group, which created a company that sold reusable cloth lunch bags. "I think it allows the students to get tied to the business world in an easy an accessible way and it gives the business people a way to give back."

Hawkins says the hands-on experience helps develop students' business skills and gives them a chance to see if a career in business is right for them.

"They get some teamwork skills and I think that's a very important dimension of it," as well as teaching leadership, planning and financial responsibility, he says. "They get a lot of exposure to all of those things on a very small and intense basis. It would be awful easy to become a 21-year-old and have none of that experience."

High-tech library planned for UNBSJ

johnsgunn — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0300

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CBC News, Published Tuesday, June 9, 2009

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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/06/09/nb-unbsj-building.html?ref=rss

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The most recent concept presented to and discussed with the public. Courtesy of http://urbanplans.blogspot.com

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A new high-tech building planned for the University of New Brunswick Saint John campus will attract future students, say recruiters.

"It's going to be a state-of-the-art library and technology centre," said UNBSJ recruiter Cory Brown, describing the high-tech learning commons planned for the campus.

The provincial and federal governments announed on Monday that they would provide $18 million for the $25-million complex to be used for research and public gatherings.

Brown said he's looking forward to telling potential students they'll have new technologies and resources right at their fingertips when he's recruiting around New Brunswick.

UNBSJ vice-president Robert MacKinnon said the school will begin working on plans for the new building this week.

'A library of the future'

"It won't be a traditional library. It will be, in a sense, a library of the future. We've got an opportunity to create a building that's unique to Saint John, unique to UNB," said MacKinnon.

"This building is going to mean a lot to the campus. It's going to completely change the way our students are able to study on campus, with an integrated technology and information system in the library. This will mean better services for our students."

New Brunswick Energy Minister Jack Keir said he also hopes the funding will help draw people to UNBSJ.

"You know, the biggest factor that we're going to overcome to get where we want to go … is to make sure we've got the work force in place to do it."

Report - 2009 World Congress on Privacy, Security, Trust and the Management of e-Business