Cross-Coastal Collaboration in the Blue Economy 

With the rapid rise of the blue economy, Canada has the potential to emerge as a leader in the development of solutions that support greater ocean health and productivity.

To do this, we must build innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that can enable this growth. Join Don Grant, Executive Director of the Ocean Startup Project, for a conversation about the work underway to build these ecosystems coast to coast to coast and what’s needed for Canada to rise to the opportunity. 

• Eric Siegel, Executive in Residence at the Ocean Startup Project, works with early-stage ocean innovators to inspire, initiate, and grow better ocean tech companies.  Eric will be speaking about the ocean startup ecosystem in Canada and how entrepreneurs are improving ocean sustainability through science commercialization. 
• Derek Puzzuoli, Co-Founder and CEO of Seahawk Robotics (Vancouver, BC), partners with academic and industry leaders to develop marine drones that maximize access to ocean data while minimizing impact to the environment.  Derek will provide an overview of the applications for multi-domain drones and the critical role entrepreneurial accelerators play in scaling ideas into thriving companies.
• Melody Pardoe, Chief Engagement Officer of Canada's Ocean Supercluster, supports an industry-led, national ocean cluster that’s growing the ocean economy in a digital, sustainable, and inclusive way. She will share how they are bringing together startups, scaleups, and mature organizations from coast-to-coast-to-coast to foster new partnerships and innovative projects built on collaboration between industry, research, not-for-profits, investors, and government. 

Each speaker will provide a presentation of their innovative work followed by a moderated discussion.