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ccording to the CBRE 2020 Tech Talent Analyser report , Canada ’ s capital has the highest tech talent concentration in North America . Ottawa outperforms even San Francisco , with tech talent representing 11.3 % of total employment .
In the country ’ s capital , two technology sectors that stand out and have attracted major conferences include connected cars and autonomous vehicle ( CAV ) technology and software as a service ( SaaS ).
The city has powerful technology clusters and Blackberry QNX is one leader in the CAV field . It is collaborating with organisations including Invest Ottawa and the Kanata North Business Association , as well as academics at Algonquin College , Carleton University and the University of Ottawa .
Ottawa leads the development of safety software and sensors and its L5 Test Facility became the first integrated CAV test environment of its kind in North America . In October 2020 , Invest Ottawa announced nearly $ 17m in new investments to expand the facility . The innovation hub was rebranded to Area X . O . which now includes a 5G mobile
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command centre with drones that can deploy a standalone 5G network without external connectivity . Private-sector partners such as Accenture , BlackBerry QNX , Ericsson , Microsoft and Nokia , as well as the City of Ottawa , will contribute up to $ 10m in equipment and services .
Each year , the CAV Canada conference is held in Ottawa and has been capitalising on the CAV global market opportunity for the country . The event presented a digital event series in 2020 , while backing up the conference talk are substantial investments made into the mobility sector both in Ottawa and provincially .
Ottawa is also home to the SaaS North conference at the Shaw Centre . In 2020 , the conference was held virtually in September gathering more than 2,000 attendees , 900 companies and 100 speakers .
The Shaw Centre is also one of a key trio of Ottawa ’ s pillar economic development organisations , including Ottawa Tourism and Invest Ottawa , that are supporting local industry leaders in their international conference bids through the Think Ottawa ambassador programme .
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Above : Calgary is a well-established energy city and leading on cybersecurity
“ The city has powerful tech clusters .”
Left : Ottawa ’ s Shaw Centre holds the SaaS North
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Calgary on a tech charge ver in Alberta , Calgary counts its major technology subsector strengths in the following fields :
• Applied AI / Machine Learning
• Communications technology
• Digital media & gaming
• Geomatics and autonomous technologies
• IoT
• Software as a Service ( SaaS )
In 2018 the city hosted the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics , Speech and Signal Processing . It had stepped in just six months before the event as host destination and an anticipated 20 % decrease in attendance by the organisers due to that late change ended up being a + 3 % increase on the attendance average for recent years .
The Chemical Institute of Canada – Canadian Society for Chemistry will bring their conference & exhibition in June 2022 and the Canadian Geotechnical Society will gather in the city in September 2022 .
Being a well-established energy city , Calgary has obvious advantages in
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