Planting TKSeeds in Calgary
The early stages of launching a new city program
I could barely sleep on Friday night.
I was too excited and maybe a little nervous. While all the other TKS directors and students were at our second Global Session on Saturday, I was setting up for our first TKSummit of the year at Platform Calgary. We’re on the road to expansion so this is the first of many events we’ll be hosting across multiple cities.
As a virtual director, I spend 99% of my time interacting with students through a screen. We have regular Zoom calls or Slack huddles, discussing goals, providing coaching, or running through a session. This was my first time running something in-person with students and it was AWESOME! I still love the power of connection that the virtual program offers (coaching students in >50 countries!) but the energy in-person is just different.
We brought out guest speakers, local startups, and over 100 high school students for a day filled with presentations and interesting conversations. As we set intentions for the event, Navid said it best:
"These people are here, we are here on a Saturday because we care. We believe there is a greater than zero chance that today will be an inflection point in your life and put one of you on a path to end up on stage in the future. We might believe in you more than you believe in yourself right now."
Early bird gets the coaching
A handful of students showed up nearly 30 minutes early and Navid didn't waste any time coaching them. They were given roles to help out, coached on boss mentality, and encouraged to talk with each other more. This time was for them!! Some of them acted as our informal greeters in the event space, welcoming new students. They had only been there just 15-minutes before and were already saying hello first as if they were hosts!
Navid gave students two key pieces of advice:
Use today for you, not us. You're not here to impress us. Do what you need to so you can meet who you want to meet and learn what you want to learn today.
Embrace your boss mentality. When you ask questions today, don't half-ass it. Put your hand all the way up. OWN IT. Students got a chance to practice this energy and presence before our speaker panel. This is an easy way to stand out in an audience that’s usually on their phone.
If students were paying close attention, they learned a third lesson: by showing up early (or staying until the end), you might get extra access to interesting people. This is one of the first times students got exposed to this reality.
Big big energy
There is such a different energy in-person.
It's as simple as that.
Starting my day with over 100 students was a great energizer and had me in go-mode. Yes, there were lots of awkward kids who struggled to get out of their shells. I did my best to pull in as many of them as possible by introducing them to others or asking them questions.
To start the day, we had them do a selfie challenge where they got to meet lots of other students and were running around the stage area trying to take various selfies to get them interacting and excited.
I think I was in 30 different selfies that morning.
Lessons in failure and discomfort
As part of the event, we brought in different guest speakers to share their experiences and answer questions from the crowd.
Crystal Phillips - VP @ Thin Air Labs Fund
Patrick Lor - Managing Partner @ Panache Ventures
Bhushan Ivaturi - SVP and CIO @ Enbridge
Though each came from a different background, there were recurring themes in their stories and advice. They spent time talking about the importance of curiosity, commitment, and courage. Sound familiar?
One of the important messages that I hope students came away with was that the fear of failure never really goes away. You learn to deal with it. You get courageous and overcome it. Part of that is with “rejection therapy” – getting rejected over and over until it hurts less. Patrick suggested students make ridiculous requests to random people outside as practice, “such as asking someone for $100”.
Students then got a first-hand lesson in learning to ask for things they want when a student took Patrick’s advice and asked him for $100 😂.
And it worked.
You really don't get what you don't ask for.
The future of Calgary is heating up
I'm personally excited about all Calgary has to offer. It feels like over the past 2-3 years there has been some significant growth and momentum behind the tech sector. We had the opportunity to showcase some of the cool things going on in the city. We hosted both small discussions (Brainpods) about interesting topics and Innovate Alley during lunch — a showcase of innovative local companies. The sheer volume of cool companies popping up in the city is setting Calgary up to be an explosive city in the next few years.
We were lucky to have amazing people from the community come out to run discussions and showcases on:
The metaverse and advanced uses of AR and VR (Meta, University of Calgary)
Wearable fitness tech (Garmin)
Better pitching and storytelling (Bow Valley College)
Starting your next company (League of Innovators)
The future of climate tech (Enbridge)
Using tech for social impact (Centre for Social Impact Technology)
How robotics is taking over different industries (AC Robotics)
Each of the conversations was engaging and students got to ask interesting questions and imagine the impacts of technology in different areas of the world. It was a ton of fun and I wish I had more time to check out each of the discussions!
I can’t wait for TKS Calgary in the fall.
✌🏼
PS: If you're in Vancouver, Seattle, or Toronto, we have summits coming your way. If you’re a student, come join! If you want to help out as a company, hit me up as well.
The energy in this edition is palpable. And contagious. And it is loaded with lessons as pertinant for those of us further along, as for those who just starting this journey of life! Thank you Steven.