When I moved to Saskatoon in 2004, I was newly married, and just starting to embrace my inner geek. Since I couldn’t legally work anywhere but the church I was serving at part time, I had a lot of free time on my hands, and decided to do something productive once my lessons were done. Because our church website was terrible, I volunteered to redo it, and I did. It wasn’t great, and is no longer active, but I did it, and I was hooked! Shortly thereafter, I really started focusing on learning as much as I could, and my geekiness grew exponentially from that day forward.

That said, I didn’t know anyone else in the city, and new nothing of the tech industry in Saskatoon. I never thought much of it until I got my work permit and started looking for a job, and tried loking for a job with a design firm, or at least in the creative industry. That is when I found zu.com, I applied there, but didn’t hear back from them, and looking back I’m not that surprised, I was new to the industry, and my work wasn’t that great. But, eventually they were advertising for more positions, and I did get an interview, I didn’t get the job, but I learned A LOT about several tech companies in town, and have since joined the staff at Point2. I can’t go into any detail, but there are some pretty amazing things coming in the future at Point2! That said, if the other tech companies have plans as big as we do at Point2, Saskatoon will get a lot of attention in the coming months.

Since starting at Point2, I have learned of quite a few tech companies either based in Saskatoon, or with offices in Saskatoon. The more I learn, the more it seems like the tech sector in Saskatoon is growing, and with companies like zu.com and Point2 leading the way, things are really looking good for more and more technical innovations to come out of Saskatoon!

ALSO - BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.