Elevated My Inspiration

As a 14-year-old TKS innovator, Elevate was my first ever tech festival to attend and it definitely left me inspired! Although I missed two days of my 9th-grade school, it was worth every minute and it definitely unlocked my networking ability and taught me so much more than I would ever learn in a traditional classroom.

This year’s theme was Moonshots, celebrating 50 years since the lunar landing. The first moonshot launched us into a new horizon of human potential; it created Silicon Valley and gave birth to the tech industry as we know it. Now it’s time to set our sights on a new horizon. This year, Elevate challenged us to think without limits and explore the moonshots that will transform humanity forever.

I would like to share with you some of the super inspirational moments that blew my mind!

Day 1

This was the Elevate main stage and I got to hear from some inspirational speakers such as Chris Hadfield (Canadian Astronaut) Jodi Kovitz (CEO of #MoveTheDial), Garrick Tiplady (Managing Director of Facebook and Instagram Canada) Mary Ann Yule (CEO of HP Canada), and so many more inspirational speakers! Here are some key learnings that I want to share with you —

• Chris Hadfield is a retired Canadian astronaut, engineer and former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot. He was the first Canadian to walk in space, has flown two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station. It really resonated with me when in his keynote he said that when he used looked up at the stars as a little boy, he wanted to be one of those white men who were astronauts and never thought for a second that he can’t do what they did before him. But now he sees that if there were a girl or a person of colour who were astronauts, then we would definitely now see more girls and people of colour feeling the same and becoming whatever they want to become. I love that because just last week two women astronauts (Jessica Meir and Kritina Koch) became the first all-women to complete a spacewalk and NASA had to develop a new spacesuit for women who come in different sizes than men!
• “Solutions start with understanding the problems” — Jodi Kovitz

I personally love this quote from her because it taught me how to problem solve by identifying the issues which are essentially all about being clearer around what the root of the problem really is and understanding everyone’s interest level in the discussion. Interests are the needs that you want to be satisfied with any given solution. We often ignore our true interests as we become too attached to one particular solution. This is normally the time for your active listening to kick in. Try and put down your differences for a while and listen to everyone else and their opinions with the intention to understand their point of view. It’s called listening to understand and NOT listening to speak. Another learning for me was how important it is to have a boss mentality and being passionate about what you are talking about. Another thing Jodi talked about was how men need to play their role to get more women into STEM roles in the workplace, because we need to raise the percentage of women working in this field. I am proud to be Armughan Ahmad’s daughter, as he has been supporting and highlighting this imbalance for decades by sponsoring and mentoring women and girls to participate in roles within the STEM fields to pave a path for other young girls like me. We need more men to partner with women to improve the ratio!

• Garrick from Facebook and Instagram taught me how learning from failures to do better in protecting our democracy and society with mental health focus areas such as Canada being one of the very few countries where Instagram has removed the number of likes you get on your posts to test various mental health and anxiety models.

I also found out that HP has recycled 4000 bottles from the ocean and turned it not only into a printer, but also recycled ink and toner cartridges! Meaning that those items are 100% made from recyclable materials which is great for our planet!

I also got the great opportunity to meet Vala Afshar who happens to be my dad’s old friend and colleague when they worked together in Boston at Enterasys. Small world eh! — Vala is now the Chief Digital Evangelist for Salesforce a global SaaS company delivering amazing new customer experiences to help various industries become Uber-like in unique and new models. I started following Vala on social media and he is a great thought leader helping us all understand what the world economic forum calls the 4th industrial revolution. His inspirational posts cover the latest digital business and innovation market trends and he has a really cool way of explaining how our world is changing due to AI and automation. But most importantly he talks about the importance of being a good decent human being and leading with integrity to drive any change in your business or in the world!

Key Takeaways:

• Have an approachable vibe: It is crucial to be/look approachable because it is important for us to enable the people we are talking to do their best in your presence.
• Be authentic: Authenticity is about being there, living in the moment with confidence and staying true to yourself. An authentic person puts the people around them at ease, being comfortable, and owning it.

Day 2

This day was definitely my favourite because I was able to confidently talk to some very senior people and they took the time to answer my questions. I got to meet with Claudette McGowan (CIO of BMO) who interviewed Michelle Obama on stage, Sabrina Geremia (VP of Google), Yung Wu (CEO of MaRS), and so many more amazing accomplished people!

• What Yung Wu said during his presentation was, “the only thing that’s permanent is impermanence.”

He said that the entrepreneurial mindset is something that should be embraced. It is less about the specifics (STEM) and more about the resilience and being a learning machine.

• Sabrina Geremia said, “the career ladder is too outdated and now we need to build/make our own.”

With the continued exponential technologies coming in, a lot of jobs will be replaced by automation, so we really need to make an updated “ladder”, one that will fit in with all the old jobs that will not be replaced, and the new jobs that will be arriving due to the exponential technologies like AI and Quantum computing as this tech continues to mature.

Key Takeaways:

• Stick with one person or by yourself: If you stay in a big blob with other TKS innovators, it is not helpful especially when you’re trying to network and build connections! It isn’t fun when you have a whole group of 13–17-year-olds moving all in one direction to network with the same person. You need to learn from people by asking them through thought-provoking questions especially related to my passions of single-use plastic and negative effects of agriculture by creating climate change solving solutions.
• Smile more!: When you’re talking to people, you don’t want to sound boring and monotone, you want to sound passionate and happy about what you’re talking about! Smile when you’re talking about anything. But most importantly find a topic in the conversation that relates to their passions and your passions and that is when the real magic happens and you learn so much more! Plus they may let you scan their Linked In to make a connection and set up a brain date for a future learning opportunity :)

My best line from the Elevate festival was when I read about Michelle Obama who always says, “when they go low, you go high” — This is such an important reminder for me and for so many of us to practice every day in our lives to become a compassionate human being!