Jess Richard, VP of Accounts & Marketing, was honoured to present at the 2012 World’s Best Technology (WBT) Conference in San Diego California on behalf of CollegeMobile.
At the end of the summer, the opportunity to apply for a spot to present at the World’s Best Technology (WBT) presented itself. The WBT is the nation’s premier event showcasing the largest collection of vetted and mentored companies and technologies emanating from top universities, labs, research institutions, and the private sector from across the country and around the globe. The Accounts & Marketing team quickly set off filling out the application in hopes we would be one of the select companies chosen to present at the conference. Our hard work was rewarded when we were informed that we had been selected to attend the conference in October 2012 and present CollegeMobile’s innovative technology to a panel of judges and potential investors and technology partners.
The months leading up to the WBT Conference were filled with preparation for my presentation in San Diego. The WBT partners presenters with a panel of mentors that helped guide the presenter through the process and give feedback and guidance on our presentations. I was lucky to have very helpful mentors that gave me constructive feedback and really helped me to fine tune my presentation to the San Diego tech crowd.
After all of the preparation it was finally time for me to depart for Sunny San Diego! I left Saskatoon on October 24th and proceeded to hit every airline delay possible that day. Finally after a grueling 16 hours of flying and sprinting through airports I arrived to 22 degrees of Californian weather, much welcomed after 72 hours of non-stop snowing in Saskatoon!
The following day I made my way over to the San Diego Convention Centre, which was conveniently located directly across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel that I was staying at. I set up my trade show booth amongst other innovative companies like AMITA, Cygnus Connect, Vendasta (from Saskatchewan!) and RaceHQ (to name just a few). After setting up, everyone made their way to the second floor of the Convention Centre, which had the most amazing view of the harbor. The presenting sponsor, Northrop Grumman, opened the conference by showcasing some of their innovative aerospace technologies. The conference proceeded onto the Trade Show portion of the day where I met companies from around the world who were all motivated by innovation. One of the most notable booths at the trade show was the PlantForm booth, their slogan “Our tobacco plants don’t cause cancer. They’ll help cure it.” caught every eye that passed their booth. The Canadian company produces plant-based technology that produces cancer-fighting drugs!
Mid afternoon signaled the beginning of the Technology Presentations by all of the chosen presenting companies. I was scheduled to present at 3:40 that day so I had the chance to see some of the presentations before me. One of the most notable was an iPad application that responded to motion and was targeted at children who were unable to use the touch screen to play games. The presentation was not only innovative but very heart-warming as he used a little girl with Cerebral Palsy to tell his story of the technology and how it helped her to interact with the games. It came time for me to do my presentation and the allotted 6 minutes flew by in a blink. There were about 40 people watching my presentation and I had about a dozen people stop by my booth after to learn more about CollegeMobile and our customized native mobile applications. The evening closed with a networking reception and everyone had a chance to unwind from the busy day and meet people they hadn’t had the chance to talk to yet.
Overall my experience at the World’s Best Technology Conference was a very positive experience. I am now looking forward to connecting with the people I met at WBT and hopefully collaborating with and forming partnerships together in the future!
