Ottawa Business Journal

In this special episode of Techopia Live, we'll be diving into the world of artificial intelligence, a rapidly growing field that is transforming the way we interact with technology. AI is being used in a wide range of industries, from healthcare and finance to transportation and entertainment, and has the potential to revolutionize the way we live and work. Joining us today is the University of O...

Invest Ottawa, the city’s lead economic development agency, recently celebrated a big milestone, its 10th anniversary. At its home, Bayview Yards, and virtually, Invest Ottawa delivers a wide range of programs to new entrepreneurs and established businesses. Select companies are invited into accelerator and scale-up programs. In the episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher Micha...

We know that equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) can help foster a more productive workplace and create a place where your employees can thrive. But a recent Gallagher survey found that 60 percent of employers still lack a clearly articulated EDI strategy — and by that we mean more than a sentence or two in a policy book. With so many approaches to EDI training available, it’s understandable for...

A career in the technology sector offers many advantages -- innovation, global markets, a fast-paced and dynamic work environment. For all its allure, one problem persists in the technology sector, including at a local level. It’s the lack of gender equity in the tech labour force. Experts estimate that women make up less than 30 per cent of technology workers and that percentage isn’t rising fast...

Are you ready to don a suit of armour, brandish medieval weapons, explore dungeons and slay dragons? If so, be sure to check out Ottawa-based mobile gaming developer Northern Forge Studios. The studio recently caught the attention of serial entrepreneur Jason Flick, who was looking for new projects after vacating the CEO chair at You.i TV. Flick, a Pokémon GO enthusiast, stumbled across Northern F...

Have you ever wondered about the future of technology? More specifically about the future of wireless telecommunications networks that are more and more pervasive in our everyday lives? We’re not simply talking about smartphones – think about GPS, or autonomous vehicles. OBJ’s Michael Curran sat down with Halim Yanıkömeroğlu, a professor of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University t...

Getting your house in order on the legal front is essential when building a successful technology company. In this bonus episode of Techopia Live, OBJ publisher Michael Curran speaks with Conor Cronin, a corporate and securities lawyer at Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP. Cronin shares his thoughts on technology trends for 2023 as they pertain to legal matters.

Network administration, especially when it comes to security, is getting ever more complicated. That’s especially true when you consider powerful trends such as machine learning and the exponential traffic spike coming from 5G. What are network admins to do? Enter Kanata-based Corsa Security, which specializes in network security virtualization. Corsa helps large enterprises and security providers...

What do Canada and Sweden have in common? (Besides the fact they won’t face each other in the World Cup.) Swedish-based global tech design company Syntronic is building its presence in Canada, more specifically Ottawa. Since arriving in Canada, Syntronic has grown its workforce to approximately 550 employees, many of them located in Kanata. This fall, Syntronic continued its growth by acquiring St...

The pandemic was hard on everybody. From a business perspective, however, few were harder hit than hospitality and tourism operators. People weren’t going out. Events were cancelled. And, as things came roaring back earlier this year, a large number of workers had left the sector. On this week’s Eastern Ontario Business Journal podcast, Phil Gaudreau explores how tourism recovery is looking in eas...

As the jingle goes, good things groooow in Ontario. As it turns out, good things are made in Ontario too! Maybe you drove to work in an Ontario made car today. When you stopped to blow your nose – ‘tis the season, right? – you might have used a tissue made right here in Ontario. As you sat in your office chair…guess what, eastern Ontario makes furniture too. From planes and trains to boats, from c...

Kyle Braatz is on a mission to change health care. That’s a lofty goal, but the company he leads and co-founded is growing in leaps and bounds with revenues exceeding $600 million. In September, Braatz was named the 2022 CEO of the Year by Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade. Over almost 12 years, Braatz has taken the company from an idea he and business partners Brad Dyment and...

Canada has a long and successful history in mining. While some might think the industry’s best days are behind it, experts say a convergence of factors ‒ economic, geopolitical and environmental ‒ could mean mining is poised for unprecedented growth in Canada. This growth is critical to Canadian manufacturers, including Ottawa’s own technology sector, because these minerals are key components in e...

Under normal business circumstances, growth is kind of what we expect. You open a business and, assuming you know what you’re doing, you keep introducing new products or improving your existing ones, money gets made, bills get paid. Simple, right? OK, maybe not so simple. Especially during a pandemic. But there are a few businesses in eastern Ontario that have enjoyed significant success during th...

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of bikini lines? If you’re part of Ottawa’s tech scene, you might think of an up-and-coming startup that’s quite literally turning heads with its products. Founded in 2016, Bushbalm specializes in “advanced skin care products” that can be used after waxing bikini line areas. Its first big break came in 2020, when Bushbalm appeared on Dragons...

In this post-pandemic world of work-from-everywhere, IT services are quickly changing. Still, many businesses take these services for granted, things like cloud computing, cybersecurity and network monitoring. This lack of attention can be a big mistake, sometimes even crippling company operations. In this episode of Techopia Live, Ottawa Business Journal publisher speaks with Mitchell Carkner, CE...

One of Ottawa’s most iconic technology companies is changing its brand after 37 years and boldly looking to the future. Christa Quarles, who has spent two years as CEO, is championing a new corporate brand that better reflects its wide software portfolio, which ranges from CorelDraw to products such as Parallels, which helps users run Windows on a Mac computer. The new corporate name, a variation...

The cost of housing increased dramatically through the pandemic. Politicians of all stripes are proposing a wide variety of remedies to the problem, and the most common one is: build more houses. Ontario's Housing Affordability Task Force and the main Ontario political parties all seem to agree we need 1.5 million new homes by 2031. In this month's EOBJ podcast, Phil Gaudreau gets into how they ca...

Noibu is one of Ottawa’s hottest e-commerce companies. In the 2022 Fastest Growing Companies competition, Noibu reported three-year revenue growth of 1,721 per cent, grabbing second spot in the top-10 ranking. Noibu, which specializes in finding technical bugs in e-commerce sites, continues to gain momentum. In this episode of Techopia Live, OBJ publisher Michael Curran gets the inside story on No...

After many months of sky-high valuations for privately-held technology companies, record-setting venture capital deals and bullish stock markets, the winds of change are blowing across the technology sector landscape. Some technology stocks have tumbled in value and there are signs that venture capitalists will become more stingy with new and follow-on financings. While many of these shifts are in...

Kinaxis is bucking a downward trend for global technology firms. As others lag, Kinaxis has just opened a multi-million dollar headquarters in Kanata and has also posted record financial results, upping its guidance for investors. Kinaxis CEO John Sicard speaks with Ottawa Business Journal publisher Michael Curran in this episode of Techopia Live podcast.

Canada's unemployment rate dipped below five per cent earlier this year, the lowest it has been since a time when bell bottom pants were all the rage, walkmans played cassette tapes, and a Trudeau was prime minister — just not the current guy. There are signs that things are changing, however. Recent layoffs at companies like Shopify and hints of a recession have affected the hiring situation for...

Microsoft 365 and Teams have become essential to most companies, especially given the reality of remote work. So what happens when these platforms become unstable or don't work? Enter Martello Technologies, longtime specialist in monitoring and debugging IT networks. The Ottawa-based software maker, publicly traded on the TSX Venture exchange, is undergoing a pivot to grow its client base and reve...

High-speed internet access? Doesn’t everyone have that? Well, not if you live in some of the more rural or remote regions of our province. This edition of the Eastern Ontario Business Journal Podcast takes a look at the sometimes thorny issue of connectivity with guests Jim Pine from the Eastern Ontario Regional Network; Joe Hickey, CEO of Rock Networks; and Richard Allen on behalf of Frontenac Co...

The “right to disconnect” is an issue that has gained prominence over the last few years, especially since the pandemic resulted in many employees working from home for extended periods of time. The Ontario government’s Bill 27, the Working for Workers Act, 2021, amended the Employment Standards Act, 2000 to require employers with 25 or more employees to have written policies in place on disconnec...