Tech Thursday Live!

Thursday Media

Tech Thursday Live! is your home for conversations that took place at in-person events hosted by Tech Thursday.

Episodes

  1. MAR 25

    The Tech Behind Data Centres: Cooling, Power, and Scale

    This podcast is a live recording from a Tech Thursday that took place in Calgary called 'The Tech Behind Data Centres'. Our speakers were: Thomas Farran, VP at Longbow Capital. Longbow is an investor in VoltaGrid, a company that just signed a 2.3GW deal with Oracle.Benjamin Sutton, Product Marketing Manager at CoolIT. CoolIT was acquired last week for $4.75B, the city’s largest tech deal ever. Joe Gentile, Account Executive at eStruxtures Data Centre. eStruxtures is Canada’s largest data center provider.Moderated by: Vlad Oujegov, Founder of Western Canada Data Centre Alliance. We discussed: Massive Scale: The scale of data centers is changing significantly; for example, a proposed 2.3-gigawatt facility would be the largest capital expenditure project in Canadian history.Bring Your Own Power (BYOP): Because local grids often cannot support gigawatt-level demands without 5–7 years of upgrades, developers are increasingly building on-site natural gas generation to meet immediate power needs.Grid Benefits: While some projects are "behind the meter," experts suggest grid-connected facilities can benefit the community by providing flexible loads that can be managed during peak demand or storms.The End of Air Cooling: Modern AI chips from Nvidia have reached a thermal limit where they can no longer be cooled by air alone.Liquid Cooling: New data centers are adopting 100% liquid cooling, which is far more efficient than air. This technology reduces Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) from a historical 1.6 down toward 1.1.Free Cooling: In regions like Alberta, operators can utilize "free air" cooling for hundreds of days a year when the ambient temperature is below 10°C, significantly reducing water and power consumption.Sovereign Compute: There is a growing focus on "sovereign compute" to ensure Canadian data remains under Canadian jurisdiction and brand, free from the reach of the U.S. Patriot Act.Market Growth: Alberta is currently viewed as a "frontier market" with over 1.2 gigawatts of approved grid-connected projects, surpassing the status of global hubs like Northern Virginia in 2018. Follow Ben Sutton on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminsutton95/Follow Thomas Farran on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasfarran/Follow Joe Gentile on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-gentile-20082429/Follow Vlad Oujegov on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladoujegov/Follow Western Canada Data Centre Alliance on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wcdca/Follow Tech Thursday on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/company/tech-thursday/

    1h 3m

  2. MAR 18

    The $800B Problem Hiding in Plain Sight: The SecondShop Story

    Adam Froese has had one of the more unusual journeys in Canadian tech. He was a former Olympic field hockey player, ex-Deloitte investment banker, Venture Capitalist at Harvest Ventures, and co-founder of SecondShop, a company that provides the strategic operating layer for retailers like Costco and HomeDepot. In 24 months, the company has sold over $100M worth of retail goods, through it's integrated logistics and recommerce marketplace. The business started with a Wayfair couch that came in the wrong colour. What followed that thread revealed an $800B gap in the global retail supply chain that nobody was seriously solving. In this conversation we get into why the real moat isn't the marketplace, it's the truck. Why Canadian VC is broken and what the incentive misalignment actually looks like from the inside. Why government R&D grants are distorting the companies that receive them. And why Adam says he is not building this company to make money. One of the more honest conversations we've had on the show.

    49 min

  3. FEB 26

    CTO vs. CTO - February 19th, 2026

    On this Episode, we take you live to our panel CTO vs. CTO. We had Saba El-Hilo, the CTO at Certn, and Cullen Jennings, the CTO for Audio Visual and AI at Cisco. These two went head to head on AI in the Workforce, how cybersecurity is changing, and new requires for data sovereignty around the globe.

    55 min

  4. FEB 12

    Innovation in Insurance: Next-Gen InsureTech - February 5th

    Get ready to dive deep into the world of insurance innovation with the latest InsurTech trends and solutions! We were thrilled to co-host this event with Flora Fertility to explore what the future of insurance actually look like. We break down the biggest innovations in InsurTech and what they mean for the industry moving forward.The panel featured: Christy Lane, Co-Founder & President at Flora Fertility Finn Magee, CEO at Insurtech Canada Diane Horsfield, VP Client Success at Trufla Moderated by: Philippe Burns, Co-Founder at Tech Thursday

    47 min

  5. FEB 5

    From Service to Scale: Turning Real Problems into Productized Solutions - January 29th

    On January 29th, Tech Thursday partnered with the DMZ and TDIP to bring together some of the most exciting early stage Tech companies in Calgary. The conversation focused on taking a service, and bringing it to scale through productized solutions. Our speakers were: Amanda Julian, Chief Science Officer & Co-founder at Monark Addy Graves, CEO and Co-Founder at Cashew Lourdes Juan, CEO and Co-Founder at Knead Tech Moderated by: Justine Clark, Strategic Partnerships Lead at DMZ

    36 min

  6. JAN 27

    Hot Takes in 2026 - January 22nd

    Welcome to Tech Thursday Live. A live recording from the first Tech Thursday event in Calgary in 2026. The topic of this conversation was 'Hot Takes for 2026'. This is a panel featuring: Kelly Schmidt, the CEO at Headversity Mark Le dain, CRO at Fueled Graeme Harrison, the CEO at Augur VC We talked about everything from whether or not there's gonna be Robot Olympics, if there's an AI bubble or not, and what the future of the human is gonna be in the workforce. We had this event in front of a sold out audience in Calgary, and it was a ton of fun. We hope you enjoyed this live recording. Every week we're gonna be releasing live recordings from our events, whether they take place in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Ottawa. So be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcast. Enjoy Tech Thursday Live.

    52 min
  • 6 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Tech Thursday Live! is your home for conversations that took place at in-person events hosted by Tech Thursday.

Information

  • Creator
    Thursday Media
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Thursday Media
  • Show Website
    Tech Thursday Live!

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