Topic: People
Adam Conner
Adam is a teacher at Northeast Kings Education Centre in Canning, NS. He teaches math, technology, and computer programming. Adam been experimenting with the world of Making and 3D Printing for the past 18 months. Working with students at NKEC, he has been helping them create, print, and selling products designed and 3D printed.
Alex Sanford
Alex is a software developer, musician, coffee enthusiast, and space geek. He was born and raised here in the Valley, and has a long time passion for science, technology, and lifelong learning.
Currently, Alex is a Code Wrangler for Automattic, the creators of WordPress.com. Automattic has close ties with the WordPress open source project, which powers 33% of the websites on the internet. Automattic’s mission is to make the web a better place by advocating openness, freedom, diversity, and inclusivity.
Alexander Petkov
Alexander Petkov is a high school student who attends Horton High School and is one of the co-founders of Spark West Network, a non-profit organization that aims to pull together the diverse organizations, events, and opportunities present in the Annapolis Valley. He is also the Chief Marketing Officer for Refresh Annapolis Valley.
Andrew Button
After a 15 year career with various businesses and economic development organizations, Andrew felt it was about time to move from being a ‘cheerleader’ and ‘curator’ of entrepreneurship to doing something that actually produced more entrepreneurs in rural communities.
In 2014 he founded Mashup Lab; a for-more-than-profit company that activates rural ideas. That same year he launched a chapter of the Awesome Foundation in his community. Andrew has since gone on to launch another social enterprise - CO3 , a fresh new coworking space for Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and Independents located in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
Anita Kirkbride
She’s on a mission to help small businesses understand how to use social media to serve their clients and grow sales.
Trying to keep up with ever-changing social media trends is exhausting, even for the most caffeinated among us. But Twirp Communications founder Anita Kirkbride is here to help you save all that coffee money.
Anita’s social media experience extends all the way back to the 90s, when she joined the first generation of bloggers, launching a crafting blog in a flurry of cardstock, buttons, and fabric swatches. She promoted it using new-at-the-time marketing tactics like blog circles, link parties, and roundups.
Anne Stieger
Anne is a process geek, facilitator and trainer with a knack for creative, collaborative processes and deep play. She is trained and experienced in a diverse range of facilitation practices including the Art of Hosting, Design Thinking, Dynamic Governance and Appreciative Inquiry. Anne was first introduced to Design Thinking when she was a teacher at Duisburg-Essen University in Germany through a project that connects High School & University students to solve local sustainability challenges through Design Thinking, and she has been hooked ever since by the power of the approach. Anne has facilitated for organizations in Canada and abroad, including Slow Food in Canada, Farmer’s Markets of Nova Scotia, and Heartwood Center for Community Youth Development. Anne teaches Facilitation and Community Development through the Arts & Theatre at Acadia. Most recently she has launched facilitation trainings for organizations and an ideation lab, which has regular meetups and will be hosting a training at Digital Nova Scotia in May. Anne grew up in Germany but calls Wolfville, Nova Scotia home.
Aristides Milios
Aristides is a highly motivated university student passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, and web development.
CTO MicroCent Technologies and Co-Founder of Hoist Halifax, Aristides is full stack web developer who loves public speaking and is a natural leader. Smokin.
Ashley Greene
Ashley Greene, J.D., is the Founder & CEO of Instratify, a growth-focused customer research firm for software and e-commerce businesses. Ashley is known for using her legal training to help companies get inside their customers’ heads, so they can achieve and maintain sustainable hypergrowth.
Ashley’s advised dozens of tech companies and has worked on projects with businesses from Fortune 500 companies to tech startups. Ashley writes and speaks on growth / customer insight, and has served as an advisor/trainer for leading startup organizations including Ryerson, Volta, and Communitech. She also contributes to publications such as the Huffington Post, Foundr, and Entrevestor.
Avery Schrader
Whoop Whoop! You found me.
I have been starting businesses since I was 12, When I hijacked my moms old laptop to entertain myself while we lived in a barn. A few months later I accidentally started a business connecting people online playing a game that I loved. As a kid I sold Christmas trees, made maple syrup, started volunteer groups, and played in the woods.
Now I have an amazing team and a real vision.
Barry Gander
For 25 years Barry Gander has helped jump-start the development of advanced technology organizations in Canada and abroad. Working with companies, associations, the public sector and academia, Barry has established a network of leaders who thrive on leading-edge initiatives. As EVP of Canada’s largest high-tech association, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) Barry has helped showcase the best of Canadian innovation to global markets. The i-CANADA program, which he co-founded, aims to create an “Intelligent Nation” by establishing a grass-roots movement of communities that network at ultra-fast speed. Through this program, Barry works in some 50 cities, having established a Governors Council that is headed by a Premier who is assisted by Mayors and CEOs of large companies.