At Interac, innovation isn’t just one of the things we do, it’s at the core of everything we do. That’s why we’re so active at the heart of the technology sector in Canada. You’ll find the Interac team making connections and sharing ideas about new technologies wherever the best and brightest minds happen to be gathering — whether it’s Collision Conference in Toronto, True North at Communitech in Kitchener, Ont. (where the Interac Innovation Lab is located), or beyond Canada’s borders.
We played a big part in the 2019 edition of Elevate, Canada’s largest technology festival. Events kicked off over the weekend with Elevate Tech Jam, an inclusive hackathon with a social purpose.
More than 500 participants, representing all experience levels — including developers, data scientists and current students — teamed up to envision solutions to some pressing tech-related challenges of our time.
An important problem statement we sponsored was “What innovative financial technologies or capabilities can we create to enable the communities around us?” We’re watching the resulting conversation closely, because we’re already hard at work bringing new technologies to life that will empower Canadians to forge new connections in the years ahead.
Later that week, participants in the invite-only Open Banking Masterclass joined Oscar Roque, AVP, Innovation, Research & Emerging Solutions, Interac, to share their thinking on open banking, one of the hot topics in the fintech sector.
We’re excited about the potential for open banking to open up innovation in the fintech world, but know it will also require a great deal of involvement from the mature players to get it right. With that in mind, we’re gathering a roomful of senior leaders for a private discussion we hope will be fruitful in moving the open-banking conversation forward in Canada.
Next on the agenda was Elevate Money Stage. Interac led the planning, and panellists and participants investigated a theme that’s central to our purpose: How to build trust and value into the future of fintech.
I spoke about how the future of commerce requires a foundation of trust. It’s a topic I’ve been talking about on stages and at conferences a lot over the past couple of years — at the Payments Canada Summit and at True North earlier this year, for example — because I think it’s going to be important not just for the future of Interac but for the future of the entire digital economy.
Neil Butters, Director, Products and Platforms, joined a panel at the Money Stage to talk about how finance and digital identity intersect — a subject that has captured a lot of his attention recently. Earlier this year, Neil hosted a Collision Day for members of the startup community at Interac headquarters in Toronto to work in the latest ideas in digital ID.
Finally, we hosted an event at Talent Day for those who were interested in learning about our involvement at the heart of innovation.
We gathered top talent and Interac leaders to connect, network and have honest conversations about how to break into and thrive in fintech.
We’re always keen to pursue talented people who add to our diversity of ideas, perspectives and voices. If you have something to say about the future of digital interactions, we would love to hear your ideas and we’re happy to invite you to join us in taking part in these all-important conversations.
The years ahead will be exciting ones for anyone who’s interested in creating new technologies to connect people. And it’s equally exciting simply to get together with others who share a common purpose. So if you find yourself at a tech event and you think you might have something to share with Interac, I hope you’ll come over and introduce yourself to us.
