Jim Nottingham: 2018-07-01

View from SFU Campus

This was my first time attending a Can-Heit conference and the first time I had been to Canada, the long flight over to Vancouver was good (via Air Canada) & Vancouver is a wonderful, lively and diverse city.

The conference was held over two & a half days & this year hosted by Simon Fraser University which is literally on top of a mountain in a district of Vancouver called Burnaby. The other very large University in Vancouver is the University of British Columbia which is located in central Vancouver, but more on the University of British Columbia later.

I arrived a two days before the conference & took some planned annual leave (it was a far, far cheaper air fare to do this). I managed to successfully travel from the airport to the Campus and settle into my dorm room($30CAN per night)…which was just that a room, no ensuite ‘co-ed’ sets of showers & bathrooms down the hall. It took me right back to my first few weeks at University…...but a least this time I wasn’t also sharing a room. Next to the halls of residence was a student commissary which served up some perfectly fine cheap breakfast ($5CAN), lunch & dinner.

Anthropology Museum UBC

On my second day I got adventurous and went for an amazing run-down Burnaby Mountain, it was a beautiful morning and the forest was not something I’d ever seen before, huge trees towering above me, primordial type plants and just glimpses of the bay below, it was certainly an experience that I will remember for quite a while and for a flat city runner a very tiring one!

Anthropology Museum UBC

I then took the ‘sky train’ (Vancouver’s metro system, mostly above ground on a dedicated high track) to a bus interchange to the University of British Columbia Campus to visit the Museum of Anthropology which did not disappoint, it was stunning & I learnt quite a bit about the indigenous culture of this part of Canada. While there I also visited ‘wreck Beach’ just so could see the water and after climbing down several hundred step steps I found it…and then discovered it was a clothing optional beach and fairly popular.

I was quite amazed by the size of the campus at the University of British Columbia (UBC) it was huge! and incredibly neat & tidy, clearly UBC was well supported and has a great reputation for innovation, research & learning & teaching

That evening there was the first social event of the conference (nicely called ‘A Peak above The Clouds’...the pun was intended) which was held on the top of the mountain in an open area. The view across the city of Vancouver really gave you a sense the City was founded at the very beginning of the Mountain ranges and a natural port.

Onto the conference itself…a list of great (for me) highlights.

John O Brien CEO Educause; Tech Futures

Michael Berman, Chief Innovation Officer at California State University.
Women in IT.

Dual Factor Authentication at Ryerson.

Grumpy Old CIO’s (not me)
Unfunded Projects & Programs.

Ai & Machine Learning, applied to IT service functions.

Professional Development Scheme; CUCCIO.

Jennifer Moss ‘Unlocking Happiness at Work’.

And some more general observations

The Women in IT breakfast being sponsored by Microsoft albeit a bit of an early start (7am)

The guided run through the forest.

An awards ceremony.