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Pictures taken at CUTC in Toronto.

CUTC finally came to an end. I really enjoyed it. The best part for me was going to sucha great event that I didn’t have to organize! Although I did have a minor role and got some gifts for being a leading ambassador. That was a nice surprise (along with my free ticket!) Go Concordia! Hopefully next year we will be able to get a much larger delegation. I still don’t believe that something like 20 people took the plane all the way from B.C.!

As graduation approaches I am sure I will appreciate the very commercial aspects of the conference a lot more and hopefully will help me get a job after I graduate. For all those complaining that their low marks or whatever make it hard to find a job, well they should have been there. In my opinion, this is really a place where only students who have a real interest in their fields go and the employers treat them as such.

Highlights from the last day include a Think Tank discussion where a group of about 10 students gets together with a professional to discuss an issue. My group talked about Entrepreneurship with John Hantoumakos, an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the industry. The banquet was also very nice and yummy.

I would like to say thanks to the organizers for such a great conference!

Yesterday, I forgot to mention the incredibly obvious recruiting campaign that took place during a keynote presentation by someone from Bell. I don’t think I learned anything in that presentation except for the presenter selling the idea of Bell being a great place to work for. More proof of this is the abundant documentation from the company found in the Welcome package and their large set-up during the Career Fair type event. It was just too much in my face.

Moving on, I also got to see Joel Spolsky again. I was excited about this because last year at CUSEC I was just too tired at his presentation and preferred sleep. Once again, excitement has lead to disappointment because it was 90% of the same presentation that I saw one year ago. Sure I was entertained, Spolsky does have fun material, but I would think he would have at least a different idea to present. I also found out from Skrud, that he didn’t show up to the breakfast with delegates who won a contest. (Skrud was a lucky winner!)

Another speaker who “pulled a Spolsky” is Lee Smolin a physicist who I was supposed to listen to this morning. Fortunately, the organizers didn’t waste their time to tell us so, and now I’m listening to Larry Rodricks who is talking about Brownfields, a more environmental topic .

So, I’ve been in Toronto since Wednesday night at CUTC. This has been pretty cool up to date, the hotel is very nice and the organization has been very professional. They have just so much more manpower than CUSEC.

Yesterday had some good speakers and an entertaining TechShow. My favorite was from Sheueling Chang Shantz who spoke about Elliptic Curve Cryptography. The TechShow featured many tech gadgets such as a GPS system you can plug into the USB of your laptop. It typically comes with MS Streets & Trips and sells for 100$. If you’re a traveler with a laptop, I think that thing would be super cool and useful. During the TechShow there was also a speaker called Micheal Furdyk who in a very young entrepreneur and provides a website: http://www.takingitglobal.org.

The Joel Spolsky is about to start so that’s all for now.

While at CUSEC, I was keeping busy taking pictures of the speakers and delegates. For those who didn’t come, I bring CUSEC to you (but that’s not a reason to not come next year!)