Latest / Kvetch & Release / Windsor-Essex “Canada’s Automobility Capital” exhibits at one of the world’s biggest tech conferences

Transcript

Windsor-Essex “Canada’s Automobility Capital” exhibits at one of the world’s biggest tech conferences · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Setting our sites right now up the four to oh one all the way to
• 0:03
  Toronto for one of the world's biggest tech conferences and a whole coming of community
• 0:10
  take on promoting everything that we have here in the region on the global stage.
• 0:16
  Get this. The city of Windsor, the County of Essex, the
• 0:19
  University of Windsor, Saint Clair College, we Tech Alliance, Workforce Windsor Essex
• 0:25
  and Invest Windsor Essex have all partnered to showcase the region up at Collision at
• 0:31
  tech conference it's going on right now as we speak in Toronto. Joining me
• 0:37
  to talk about this is someone who is there right now. The executive director
• 0:42
  of Automobility and Innovation at Invest Windsor Essex, Ed Dawson, joins me live
• 0:47
  from the conference floor. Ed, how are you great, John? Thanks
• 0:51
  very much for having me today. Oh thanks for joining. So listen,
• 0:54
  it's a conference. If people haven't been up to Collision, what is it
• 0:58
  all about. It's an amazing conference. It's really a bringing together of anything
• 1:03
  to do with technology, whether it's automobility like we promote in the Windsor Essex
• 1:07
  region, everything from AI, augmented reality, virtual reality and all the amazing
• 1:12
  things that are happening to the next generation of vehicles, the next generation of
• 1:18
  agricultural technologies, financial technologies, and so forth. There's going to be well
• 1:23
  over forty thousand attendees over the next three days that comes through these doors.
• 1:29
  It's a huge amount of people that are going to be coming through and you
• 1:33
  know, it's showcating some of the most cutting edge and industry shaping advancements that
• 1:37
  exist. Why put together this huge partnership. Couldn't any one of these organizations
• 1:42
  that represents groups people endeavors in Windsor Essex have done it itself. Why bring
• 1:48
  together invest Windsor Essex, the City of Windsor, the County of Essex,
• 1:51
  the University of the College, we Tech Alliance and Workforce Windsor Essex. Now,
• 1:56
  excellent question, John, And it really takes an ecosystem. It takes
• 2:00
  such collaboration to really promote all the amazing things that are taking place in the
• 2:04
  Windsor Estics region. You know, we're all here at the conference to network
• 2:07
  with startup companies, SMEs, memes and really showcase all the amazing things that
• 2:14
  are happening, from the battery investments that are taking place to why windsor Estics
• 2:20
  is the region to invest, to live and to have an incredible quality of
• 2:23
  life. We all come at this from different lenses, and collectively we really
• 2:30
  look at it as this is the place where you want to, you know,
• 2:32
  raise a family, you want to come down and you want to invest
• 2:35
  in start a company. So it's amazing when you bring everybody together and we
• 2:38
  all look at it from our own lenses. Absolutely, and so we hear
• 2:42
  auto mobility capital thrown around. Often automobility thrown around as well. I think
• 2:47
  a lot of people only hear it as you know, a might I mean
• 2:52
  maybe a motto or a slogan, a buzzword, and they're still confused as
• 2:54
  to what does automobility actually mean. Yeah, so, I mean when you
• 3:00
  think about windsor Ethics as the automotive capital of Canada, you know, we
• 3:04
  think about the next generation of vehicles and what those entail, whether they be
• 3:07
  battery electric or still internal combustion engines or hybrid electric vehicles. Really it's all
• 3:13
  the technology that we'll go into the next generation of vehicles. And when you
• 3:16
  think about these new vehicles, many of them are like driving computers. They
• 3:21
  have millions of lines of code in them, and they're a very different type
• 3:24
  of system with all the advanced driver as system systems and safety features that exist.
• 3:30
  It's a completely different methodology when you're developing these vehicles, and so when
• 3:36
  we look at it, you know, we're looking at what can we do
• 3:38
  to help our region to showcase all the amazing things that take place here,
• 3:43
  all the amazing manufacturing that takes place, but then attract some of that technology
• 3:46
  and these new tech startups that work in the space that will help make these
• 3:51
  vehicles better. And that's what we're really looking at. When you think of
• 3:53
  automobility, it's just an extension of all the new technology that goes into the
• 3:57
  vehicles that are here today and coming to moral. So's the it's the forefront
• 4:01
  and the confluence of everything that is happening around us as car switch from being
• 4:08
  things that get us from A to B to computers on wheels, so to
• 4:12
  speak. One of the bigger things that we of course focus on here in
• 4:15
  the region and capitalizing off the benefit of it is the cross border aspect that
• 4:19
  we have. That's going to be a huge part of automobility as well,
• 4:23
  just that we're able to grab hold on absolutely. You know, when we
• 4:27
  think about ourselves and what's taking place in our region, it's very linked the
• 4:30
  amazing progress that's happening in Detroit and Michigan. You know, they're they're on
• 4:34
  their own journey when it comes to the mobility space, just just the same
• 4:39
  way that we are, and so we love to bring that together. We
• 4:42
  have some great relationships on the US side of the border, and when we
• 4:46
  think about like things like the Gordi holl International Bridge and all the exciting things
• 4:48
  happening and cross border technologies, it's going to take you know, working collaboratively
• 4:54
  on both sides of the borders to be able to test some of these new
• 4:57
  technologies that will be coming through. Well, it's all very interesting stuff.
• 5:00
  You're busy, You're up at the conference and I'm sure there's people around the
• 5:03
  table that have questions for you about our region. So I'm going to let
• 5:06
  you go. I want to thank you so much for your time, Ed,
• 5:09
  I appreciate it. Thanks very much. John great joining you today in
• 5:13
  a big shout out to our partners at the City of Windsor and County of
• 5:16
  Essex. We have Matt Johnson today with us and Melissa Osborne both representing economic
• 5:20
  developments, and to all the other partners. So anyone who's listening and if
• 5:25
  you're coming down to the show, please come and check us out at Booth
• 5:28
  E one sixty one. Thanks for having me again, John, thanks so
• 5:30
  much. Ed Dawson is the Executive Director Automobility and Innovation at invest Windsor Essex.
• 5:36
  Live from Collision. Our region of Windsor Essex is being showcased at North
• 5:42
  America's fastest growing tech conference,