In a packed room at the Chatham-Kent John D. Bradley Convention Centre, businesses, entrepreneurs, and innovation enthusiasts came together today to hear guest speaker, Duncan Stewart, Director of Technology, Media & Telecommunications Research for Deloitte Canada, provide insights into industry trends, predictions, and game-changers for business in 2019 and beyond.
The event, which is being hosted by Chatham-Kent Economic Development in partnership with WEtech Alliance, looked at key trends in the global technology, media, and telecommunication industry sectors that are anticipated to take hold over the next 1-5 years, and even beyond.
In attendance today was a wide range of media companies including those in radio, print production, and marketing and communications. Additionally, there were companies representing sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, and small business.
“The event was very well attended and we were thrilled to see Chatham-Kent companies coming out to learn about the direction that markets and industry will be taking globally,” said Taylor Hughes, Economic Development Officer with Chatham-Kent Small Business Centre. “Personally I have an interest in the future of esports, which is professional-level competition using video games, and as a sector is booming to be well past a multi-billion dollar industry.”
Stewart started the event off by discussing how the technology world of 2019 looks exciting, but that the world of 2020 and 2021 will be shifting as it is the first time in 15 years that things are not as clear in terms of the future of hardware. Rather, it is the future of software and machine learning that will be game changing technology that will drive the next five years.
“Software, services, and content – that is the trend for consumer spending moving forward. This is because people are keeping their hardware, their smart phones and computers, longer, and shifting towards buying service,” said Stewart. “If I have a business and I’m selling something, say seed from Pioneer, I would focus on selling through TV, computers, and smart phones because that’s where people are looking.”
As the event moved forward, Stewart covered topics including:
5G wireless technology adoption and implementation
Machine learning and artificial intelligence
Autonomous vehicles
Agritech
Health care
3D printing at the enterprise level
And much more
“As more and more companies become tech adopters, the lines between a tech and non-tech company will become more blurred,” said Yvonne Pilon, President and CEO of WEtech Alliance. “We live in a time when everyone should start seeing their business as a tech company.“
The event today is a part of the TeCK event series which is hosted by Economic Development and WEtech Alliance. Included in this series are also activities such as War Rooms and other events to help technology and innovation businesses of all size access tools to help them grow and scale to new markets.
To register for future events and activities, visit the Economic Development website at www.investck.ca click on Subscribe for News and Events Updates.
