Canada’s largest technology park attracts global talent with virtual job fair

The Kanata North Business Association, the business development arm of Canada’s largest technology park, is hosting its first-ever virtual career fair on October 6 and 7 in a bid to connect talent from around the world with an estimated 4,000 job opportunities in the park.  

Kanata North is home to many of Canada’s leading technology firms including BlackBerry, Mitel, and Solace as well as a host of multinationals like NOKIA, Honeywell, CISCO and HP.

It also houses Canada’s largest integrated autonomous vehicle testing environment, which helps drive innovation in driverless and smart vehicles for companies like BlackBerry QNX, Ford Motor Company, as well as startups like as SMATS and Neptec.

The park’s ecosystem is also boosted by close relationships with leading research universities such as Algonquin College, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, as well as technology accelerators such as L-SPARK.

TechNATA 2.0 Virtual Career Fair is being held in partnership with Ottawa-based International Talent Acquisition Centre, according to a press release issued by the association.

The online gathering has in fact combined Discover TechNATA Career Fair, the flagship event of KNBA, and In-TAC National Virtual Career Expo.  

KNBA, which represents over 543 member companies located in the technology park, has organized the event to help speed up the recovery of Canada’s innovation ecosystem and revitalize the region’s economy amid the serious financial, political, and social disruptions, brought on by COVID-19.

Data from Statistics Canada, the national statistical agency, shows that employment rose by 1.4 percent in August compared with the previous month, which is on par with US figures. However, the numbers are still 1.1 million fewer than they were before the pandemic. 

During the two-day event, over 110 companies will offer jobs to an expected virtual crowd of 20,000 job seekers, providing a unique opportunity for both talents and employers.

“The Discover TechNATA brand is pivoting its product offering to a full suite of virtual talent attraction programs in order to support knowledge-based businesses in the technology park in their efforts to attract and retain global talent during this period of economic recovery,” said Jaime Petten, president and executive director of the Kanata North Business Association.

According to KNBA, the event is also targeting investors, venture capitalists, foreign ambassadors, and government officials who are keen to meet some of the top tech firms in the region.

Exhibitors, sponsors, and job seekers can expect a wide range of virtual benefits such as higher visitor attendance, smart resume search features for quick shortlisting based on selected criteria, access to talent with diverse skillsets and backgrounds, secure live chat, and measurement of performance metrics that matter, including booth visits, webinar views, and job applications received.

In addition, the fair allows employers to elevate their brand image with personalized booths that convey the look, colors, style, and feel of their branding objectives.

In each booth, different sections have been designed for sharing videos, job openings, photo galleries, FAQs, brochures, and other forms of content as the virtual platform seeks to help recruiters showcase their company’s culture in the best way possible.

Discover TechNATA is part of KNBA’s Talent Recovery Plan that includes two new initiatives, namely Discover TechNATA Job Board, a digital platform for career postings, and Discover Technata Virtual Roadshow in Fall 2020, which is aimed at bringing in talent to Ottawa from cities within Canada such as Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, and Vancouver.

It is expected that the virtual career fair will mark a milestone in the digital transformation journey of KNBA, which advocates for and strives to create an environment conducive to business success. 

Those looking to attend the online event and possibly secure their dream job at one of Canada’s largest technology companies can register here. 

Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.