One night in Montréal: Community Conversation Recap

Image is of the panel in Montreal. There are five people sitting in chairs and Ali, our CEO is handing the mic to the person sitting in the middle.

The panel is answering questions.

There are four people sitting at a table looking at one another during the community conversation activities. They look to be in conversation.

There are three people sitting at a table, all of them are writing something down on pieces of paper.

By Nav Nagra

On a lovely Montréal evening, four amazing women in tech gathered to share thoughts on their industry. Moderator Emma Williams, Director of Maison Notman House, did an excellent job of directing the conversation. Panelists included Beatrice Couture, the General Manager of InnoCite MTL, Dr. Natalie Tufenkji, Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Biocolloids and Surfaces Associates at McGill; and Soodeh Farokhi, Ph.D, Founder & Tech Lead at C2RO Robotics, 

Soodeh has her doctorate in cloud computing.

The panelists offered their perspectives of the Montréal tech ecosystem - that it’s booming with incubators, small companies and resources. Unfortunately, there remain very few female founders. In spite of being an attractive ecosystem, women are reluctant to join. Panelists noted that despite the grants, bursaries and funding, the rooms are still mostly filled with men.

The question remains: what’s preventing women from founding tech in Montréal? Panelists suggested a lack of mentorship since it’s difficult to find female founders. How can women find other women with similar experiences and perspectives? Mentorship remains critical, panelists noted, even university students are wise to seek a mentor. It was worth noting that the panelists had found men willing to provide guidance. Although female mentors are needed and wanted, “We need to take it where we can get it.” Panelists encouraged using educational resources. They also spoke to cultural differences around the world. A staggering statistic was that many women (sometimes up to 70%) can be found in senior tech roles in countries such as Iran.

When asked what advice the panel had for the next generation of women in tech, they offered:  forget about perfection, have drive, be yourself, have self-confidence and embrace differences.  “Be who you want to be and go towards it,” was a poignant piece of advice that really hit home with the engaged audience. 

We’d like thank our host, CENTECH, for providing the venue and food for the Montréal Conversation. We also thank community sponsors, District 3 and XpertDoc for their support in making this event such a success.

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