Clean Energy Zone companies give us their take on Collision 2019

Collision (external link) , one of North America’s largest tech conferences, was hosted in Toronto for the first time this year. The event dominated the city over four days from May 20 to 23, welcoming over 25,000 attendees from around the world. Among those lucky enough to attend, were two of our very own Clean Energy Zone startups.

Shortly after the conference wrapped up, Bolis Ibrahim, founder of Argentum Electronics (external link)  and Denis Tokarev, founder of Silk Way, sat down with us to reflect on their experience. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: First up, what did you get up to at Collision Conference?

Bolis: [We] were showcasing, exhibiting, making connections, talking to investors. We got a lot of solid leads for future sales, a lot of solid connections, platinum seats for partnerships and spoke to a lot of investors. It was awesome.

Denis: We had a booth there in the startup section. We did networking, presented our products, talked to other startups and were looking for some people to hire. I [had time] to see a couple of panels — maybe two or three for the entire event. I found that talking to actual companies was more beneficial for me than listening to the keynote speakers.

Q: For people that weren’t able to attend, can you describe what the atmosphere was like?

Bolis: Magical! I’ve been to so many conferences but Collision was probably tied for the largest. The only time I went to an event like Collision was in Korea. But this was the first time that I have attended a conference in North America on such a large scale. It was massive and crazy. It was good for our team to get this kind of exposure.

Denis: Everyone was very motivated. There was huge support from the city. There was a lot of publicity beforehand. When people came [they] were energized and engaged and open to exploring new ideas. Everyone was positive and you really felt that when people came to your booth or you interacted with another company. It was a very easy going, positive atmosphere.

Q: What are some things that you learned from attending?

Bolis: Most of what I learned was how investment for venture capital (VC) works, when their money comes in and when it’s useful. So we learned a lot about the VC ecosystem, built a lot of connections and got on their radar.

Denis: I think one of the biggest learnings was what Collision is: How to get ready for next year, how to book some appointments in advance and schedule your days so there are no wasted opportunities. I also think it’s important for us to do some sort of publicity prior to Collision so people coming know about Silk Way before they arrive.

Q: What was your most memorable moment?

Bolis: The most memorable day was the day we were exhibiting (Wednesday). It was amazing, people already knew that we were going to be there. They knew in advance that we were going to be there, came and found us, knew exactly where we were and a lot of people wanted to partner with us, which was awesome. It was great to get the validation that there is a need for what we’re doing. It gives us this push. We need to hurry up our process to be able to partner with these people, to go into pilots and to enter the market.

Denis: All three days were unique. On the first day we had lots of traffic coming to our booth and answered lots of questions. On the second day I tried to listen to some speakers and because there were so many stages, there was a lot of walking and surfing down the hall to understand where the speakers were. We had a mentorship session on the third day and there was a lot of networking with startups. Each day I was thinking of what I could do better the next day.

Q: Did you receive any reactions that stood out?

Bolis: [My favourite] reaction was from a home builder who came and said “We’re looking for this exact thing, we’ve been trying to build it and we want to partner with you.” Right away that was market validation from a real customer who wanted to work with us and give us resources. So, he asked us right away, “Is it money you want? What are you looking for? I want to partner with you.” That was really great to get attention like that. And that wasn’t just one person, it wasn’t isolated, there were several interactions like that.

Denis: The product that we presented is a technology for the agricultural sector and it was interesting to find out that so many people were somehow connected to agriculture. They saw our brand name [Cattle Scan] and were so curious and started coming up to share their experiences. [For example], “I grew up on a farm,” “My uncle has a farm in Michigan.” There were so many different stories.

Q: How did attending benefit your company?

Bolis: It benefited our team by being so immersed in tech culture and becoming familiar with the investment community in particular. I’m already quite familiar with the community in Ontario but it was good for us to meet people from around the world. It was a fun time for us.

Denis: It’s too early to say how it will benefit my company. In terms of connections, we made lots of them, got some new ideas, some new resources and information on how to achieve our goals. So we have a lot of work to do!

Q: Who was your favourite speaker?

Bolis: My favourite speaker was Alexander Britkin the co-founder and CEO of NFWare. Alex discussed why network infrastructure is not yet ready to welcome smart cities and connected cars. He talked about the future of networking, and what's needed to support the increase in digital connectivity for smart cities and buildings. It was great for me to get some perspective on enabling technologies in the backend for products like the smart building automation systems we've developed at Argentum. 

Denis: Notwithstanding the fact that I only had time to listen to a limited number of talks, Mayor John Tory's charisma and sense of reality made him my favourite speaker at the event.

Q: What are your biggest takeaways?

Bolis: My biggest takeaway is that Toronto is going to be — or already is — a world leader in terms of tech and building technologies like ours. The tech community in Toronto is so massive and it has attracted so many people nationally and internationally.

Denis: I thought initially it would be a technical [only] conference but it appeared to include every type of industry imaginable. There was some sadness when the whole event was over because there was such a strong feeling of community.