Photo: Ryan St. Germaine (left). Photo by Nick Chau/Pebble Studios. Candice Loring. Photo by Genome BC.
By Sam Laskaris
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
Ryan St. Germaine no longer has to worry whether others believe that an Indigenous technology sector exists in Canada.
St. Germaine is the founder and CEO of Indigenous Tech Circle (ITC), a national non-profit with roots tracing back to 2021, but which formally launched in 2024.
ITC officials are gearing up to host the inaugural two-day Indigenous Tech Conference. About 250 attendees are expected for the event, scheduled for Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel.
St. Germaine said ITC was informally formed during the pandemic. The organization is dedicated to furthering Indigenous leadership, innovation and economic participation in the tech sector.
“A bunch of like-minded folks kind of came together. I think if it wasn’t for COVID, it wouldn’t have happened,” St. Germaine said.
“I had some time to kind of connect. And I started to just ask where the Indigenous tech people were at. And folks would respond to me with things like ‘there aren’t any’ and I called BS on that. And it led to some really great conversations.”
Remote meetings were then held more frequently.
“We aligned around mission and values,” said St. Germaine. “And I think, if I’m being honest, we were a little bit bored, and it was human connection. And it just kind of grew organically through that whilst we were doing other things.”
ITC was officially launched on June 21, 2024.
“We chose that day very intentionally to align with National Indigenous Peoples Day,” said St. Germaine.
ITC currently has about 1,000 members, many of whom will be attending the Vancouver conference. St. Germaine said he is not shocked with the interest the inaugural event has garnered.
“I think there’s been a pent-up demand for this,” he said. “I don’t think I built or created this ecosystem. It was here when I got here. Hopefully, I’ll leave it a little bit better than I found it and support in any way that I can.”
ITC board chair Candice Loring believes staging the national conference will be beneficial.
“The most important thing about having an event like this is bringing together community and creating space and place for Indigenous people where they don’t have to question if they belong,” she said. “That sense of belonging is built into the very fabric of our community.”
Like St. Germaine, Loring said she’s not surprised with the large number of Indigenous people in the technology industry.
“It was just a matter of finding everyone,” she said. “Oftentimes, when there’s very low representation of Indigenous people within specific disciplines or industries, we can feel very isolated and like we’re the only one until you reach out and realize that there is a community. You just have to look for it.
“We might be the only one within our office or within an organization. But we’re definitely not the only ones when we start looking in at the broader community, whether that’s within a municipality, within a reserve, to a province, nationally or even internationally.”
Loring said the Indigenous tech sector in Canada continues to grow.
“And the more we put the message out, the more people respond and join our community. And that’s really what this is about.”
Attendees at the Indigenous Tech Conference will include technology professionals, investors, founders, corporate partners, supporters and government reps.
The event will include panels on artificial intelligence, data sovereignty and founder showcases.
Another session at the conference will feature information on the five finalists of the Indigenous Venture Challenge. The initiative aims to connect Indigenous startups with investors.
A total of 77 companies applied to the challenge, which will see the winning applicant awarded $50,000.
“This has attracted a lot of attention from Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups that are looking to find the next generation of companies,” St. Germaine said. The list of applicants was first shortlisted down to 25. And now the finalists have been selected.
They are:
Red Rebel Armour, a Winnipeg-based, Indigenous-owned apparel and custom manufacturing company.
Carne Bar, which produces a B.C.-made protein bar.
KnowledgeKeepr, a data intelligence platform.
MRF FieldTech, an Indigenous-led technology company in B.C. modernizing forestry and environmental fieldwork.
Heartberry Soda, a craft soda brand.
St. Germaine said the original commitment was to award $50,000 to one winner. But he said there’s the possibility other finalists will also receive some type of funding.
“We are in talks with some other funders to see if we can expand upon that for the pilot or in future ones,” he said. “We’re evaluating the opportunities with external funders. The investors themselves may choose to do additional investments. There are groups in the ecosystem who have expressed interest in matching funds. And so, we’re exploring those opportunities.”
Loring said it’s not necessarily the conference sessions that she’s most looking forward to.
“It’s the connection with the people that are there,” she said. “So, it’s what happens in between the sessions. The impromptu conversations around the coffee area. Those organic conversations that you didn’t anticipate to happen and walking away with a bigger family than we started at the beginning.
“That’s truly at the heart of what we’re doing, is bringing together people and creating a community. But not just for one day or two days at a conference, but a community that can last a lifetime in those connections.”
Loring said she hopes the conference will become an annual one. And she’s also hoping the event will move around to different locations across the country.
More details about this month’s conference and ticket information are available at https://www.itconf.ca/
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