Nikki Wong

Date: October 22, 2015

Name: CTRL ALT DELETE – Young leaders Reboot the Conversation

Presenters: Melody Ma, Amie Rotherham, Natalie Cartwright, Sarah Goodman, and Nikki Wong

Many thought young leaders and experts come from various intersections of many different industries. Moreover, young leaders will recognize various of disruptions when they reboot their conversations. SFU Woodward presents “CTRL ALT DELETE” presentation to educate and motivate young leaders in Vancouver to revisit the experience and lessons from successful young leaders. The presentation invites Melody Ma, the Developer at MEC & Kids Code Advocate, and Amie Rotherham, the Account Executive at Rsquared Communication. Furthermore, the presentation will include a panel discussion. The panelists include Natalie Cartwright, the Co-Founder & COO of Payso, Sarah Goodman, the CEO of VitalSines, and Nikki Wong, the Program Director at Spring.is. This presentation will focus on technology sector and young leaders will learn the experiences and valuable insights from all presenters.

Melody Ma

Before Melody Ma stepped into the world of web developer, she was a Product Manager. While working as a Product Manager, she was trapped but she could feel there was a black box she wanted to pursue. Ma quitted her job and took the risk to join the coding camp. She developed a simple mini game and realized she enjoys coding. It took her 10 years to realize her true passion.

Ma believes she did not have any access of technology when she was young. In high school, Ma never thought technology sector would ever across her career path. Later that year, she made a New Year resolution to help kids to realize their options of learning. She decided to find a way to help students from kindergarten to grade 12 in British Columbia to learn how to code at school.

Many countries have already introduced coding as mandatory courses in their education system. This will help students to maximize the exposure of technology advancement. British Columbia is not in the list, so Ma wrote a letter to the Ministry to attach coding program framework as education criteria of digital literacy. However, her idea was rejected. Even though the idea was rejected, the ministry realized there was a need in digital literacy component.

Ma will not allow this response to stop her passion. She continues to help students by hosting workshops to create awareness for Ministry. In last December, currently there were over 400 students in age 8 to 18 in 4 BC cities to code for free. Ma believes this is just the start of the awareness. The team is in the transition to reboot this conversation for the new society.

Amie Rotherham

Amie Rotherham started her journey in the passion of journalism. However, the media was not an easy path for Rotherham. In university, Rotherham transformed her passion into something deeper, which is public relation.

While working in a local newspaper company in her town, she experienced a whole new opportunity. She refocused her passion even deeper, which is lifestyle public relation. While she worked in Rsquared Communication, she learned to love her career. Technology can change people’s lives and simplify people’s work.

Rotherham explains that there is a dirty “D” word in her industry that many people are trying to avoid. The word is “Disrupt”. Many people encourage her not to use this word, but she feels the word, “Disrupt” can change behaviour. It is difficult to perform, but it can be very effective. Telling stories with technology is a new way to expose coverage for daily news. Rotherham believes young leaders have limitless room to tell stories by using the right technology. It is interesting to see the shift of traditional approach of journalism career to new digital century of journalism career.

Many media companies are covering more serious news. Local newspaper companies are aware of losing customers due to selections from other online media companies. The growth increases due to engagement and media. Media impression has increased significantly. The technology cycle changes significantly and the future of work is important to notice. Nevertheless, technology companies are now holding high standard due to media coverage.

Rotherham suggests young leaders to go beyond what they are and what they know.

The panel 

Many young leaders believe all founders are considered themselves as the alone wolf. The panellists disagree. Natalie Cartwright believes in her entrepreneur journey, she receives many peer supports. When she was blindsided by someone who she trusted, she was depressed. However, that moment made her realized she has many supporters in her company that she was grateful for. The emotional support is equally important as any tangible support. Sarah Goodman mentions people will introduce her to other great young leaders. The connections set her up for more opportunities and peer support keeps her going in the direction she wants to go. Nikki Wong also believes alone wolf is a myth. There is always peer support around young leaders if they look hard enough. In community, building strong network is essential. People know the tides and people are there to motivate their peers. This happens not just in professional network, yet they become their personal network.

There are many things the panelists believe things should change in Canada. Cartwright emphasizes payment method is something Canada needs to look into. United States is way further ahead than Canada. Sweden is the next country to be cashless. Based on statistic, many countries are doing better than Canada. Canada is currently copying other countries and they are not really ahead. Goodman believes showing positive impact is important. This brings new matric to attention. Wong believes young leaders are creating things to be innovative. They should think reverse innovation. This means instead of taking exiting solution from other country and meet the needs, they should identify the fundamental problem and start there.

Many young leaders will need to take a stand from what they believe. Cartwright provides an example that many financial technology companies own most customer relationship. This hurts the traditional banks. What they should have done is to be collaborative. Goodman mentions Health Canada and Fraser Health Authority have different standards. They are very sensitive towards the response of diagnostic. Perhaps, young leaders should seek health professionals for further assistance. Wong mentions there is a misconception of being profitable and successful. Success will not be together in social entrepreneurs, so it is a learning curve for social communities to create impact to society.

The panelists provide some suggestions for young leaders. Wong suggests young leaders need to have peers support. Young leaders should initiate the conversation and peers should have the responsibly to council young leaders. Cartwright suggests young leaders to believe confidence is always there for them. In entrepreneurship, failure is not real failure. Goodman suggests young leaders need to figure out what is working and not working. They should make the mistake quickly and ensure they do not do it again next time.

Questions and Answers

Goodman met her co-founder 32 years ago. Her business partner is her father. Cartwright met her co-founders from passion and ideas. She indicates co-founders relationship feel like marriage.

Goodman believes public usually hear the financial announcement, but they never follow through. It is interesting to hear the process, but many people in public never have interest to look deeper.

In her journey, Cartwright learns to adapt the jobs that do not exist, which is the meaning of evolution in business. Goodman learns it is important to overcome obstacle as quick as possible. Wong learns she has the confidence to become a founder in the future. Ma learns skills can be transferrable in any business industries. Rotherham learns that in order to develop relationship, young leaders need to see values in other people’s stories.

“Develop relationship by seeing values in stories”