The University of New Brunswick’s J. Herbert Smith Centre will host its annual Future of Innovation Conference on Nov. 19, bringing together business leaders, entrepreneurs and technology innovators to discuss new approaches to challenges facing Canada and the world.
The free conference will take place in the Student Union Ballroom at UNB in Fredericton. This year’s program will feature a keynote address on transformation leadership, a panel on leading-edge innovation and a discussion of developments in agricultural technology.
Keynote speaker Samantha Yarwood will address “Innovation in Transformation Leadership.” Yarwood has more than 20 years of experience in innovation and business transformation. She spent 16 years in senior leadership positions at Starbucks, working on innovation, brand growth and business transformation across Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
She is now program director and faculty member at THNK School of Creative Leadership, where she works with executives, entrepreneurs and other leaders. She holds an Executive Master’s in Change from INSEAD and is pursuing a doctorate in business administration, focusing on leadership development and its potential for societal impact.
The Leading Edge Innovation panel will include Tylor Garland, an industrial designer and managing director of product development and engineering at Frog Design from 1998 to 2001. Garland has worked on more than 500 products and now shares his product-development approach through teaching and consulting. Also participating will be Michael Buhr, executive director of C100, a network of Canadian technology founders and investors in Silicon Valley, and founder of Bridge Strategy. The third panellist is Peter Crooks, executive director of startup programs and innovation partnerships at UNB’s J. Herbert Smith Centre.
The AgTech panel will feature four New Brunswick entrepreneurs. They are Xavier Hébert-Couturier, co-founder of Fredericton-based Picketa Systems; Damilare Odumosu, founder of CropMind, which applies artificial intelligence and data analytics to crop management; Marie Dankworth, founder of SeaGreen Solutions, which develops a biochar-like product for carbon storage and soil improvement; and Ryan Whitney, chief operating officer of Chick Pick Solutions, a startup developing automated chick-sorting technology for poultry hatcheries.
