Insights with Don Mills and David Campbell- An Acadia Broadcasting Podcast

In this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell continue their series on innovative emerging companies in our region with a conversation with CEO Mike Kelland and Chief Chemist Will Burt of the Nova Scotia-based Planetary Technologies.The company has developed a unique ocean-based carbon removal technology that recently won a $1-million Xprize from the Elon Musk Foundation. Its mission is to remove one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2035.At the same time, the company's process will help de-acidify the oceans and generate green hydrogen and battery metals to replace fossil fuels. The company's technologies are in a demonstration phase now; if successful, they will be game changers for climate change.You can listen to their conversation in the player above or download the show on your preferred podcast platform.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Sustainable Marine has just connected its turbines to the Nova Scotia power grid in a real-life demonstration project to prove its surface-based technology can harness the power of the Bay of Fundy. Our conversation with their CEO Jason Hayman is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with tidal power. After numerous failed attempts by others to generate power from the world's highest and most powerful tides, Sustainable Marine has taken a different approach to the task of tapping into the tidal power of the Bay of Fundy that has the potential to power two million homes and help provide green renewable energy to Nova Scotia to replace coal-generated electricity.

Atlantic Canada has a growing workforce problem. There are not nearly enough young people to take the place of those who are retiring. Rick Emberley, the founder of SeasonedPros, thinks he has one part of the solution.His company matches older workers with companies in need of short-term talent in technical, management and mentorship roles.On the latest Huddle "Insights" podcast, he joins Don Mills and David Campbell to talk about how older workers could be mobilized to help ensure workforce demand can be filled in the years ahead.SeasonedPros already has 10,000 older workers for hire in its database."Sometimes, my elevator speech is we're e-harmony for employers," laughs Emberley. "It's fundamentally an online service driven from a database we've developed and a technology platform that allows employers of any description...looking to fill gigs, you know, the gig economy, the idea that they have an emerging or immediate gap in their workforce and they're looking to fill it."The opportunity is significant. If Atlantic Canada’s 60+ workforce had the same labour market participation rate as the workforce in Alberta, there would be 54,000 more people working across Atlantic Canada.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Over the summer, Don Mills and David Campbell will be interviewing the founders of high-growth potential companies across the region. The series starts with David Shipley, the CEO of Fredericton-based Beauceron Security.The company has an interesting product and service meant to help companies and their employees take better control over their own cybersecurity. David talks about his personal road to entrepreneurship and the company’s plan to carve off its share of the $75-billion cybersecurity industry from Atlantic Canada.David has ambitious plans for the company. In just five years, it's grown from around $100,000 in annual revenue to nearly $3 million. David wants to grow that yearly total to $10 million and ultimately $100 million in a competitive but lucrative global market. He wants Beauceron to have the same impact as Q1 Labs and Radian6, which created jobs and other entrepreneurial opportunities in the province."The dream for me is to chase ... the Q1 Labs legend and to try and follow that same trajectory," he says."How do we create hundreds of jobs in New Brunswick and then tie them to something even larger, and create even more opportunities and fuel that cluster, that expertise, that virtuous cycle that includes not just the good payday to your early investors and the angels that believed in you, but you're also creating the next generation of entrepreneurs."The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

This episode of the "Insights" podcast features a fascinating conversation with Steve Matier, the CEO of Maritime Launch Services, the company behind the Spaceport to be built near Canso, Nova Scotia.With most regulatory approvals now in place, the company is nearing its construction phase which will see an investment of $150 million to build Canada's first commercial spaceport. Find out about the company's plans, its decision to locate in Canso and the economic benefits to the community.Matier, who is from New Mexico, says there will be many spinoff opportunities, including tourism because people will travel to the province for launch events."I'm from the Albuquerque area and every episode of 'Breaking Bad' generated well over a million dollars in tourism opportunities, just from each episode being filmed there over multiple years," he says. "If you look at it from a launch perspective...which will be a tourism draw, not just an economic impact of the event itself, it is going to be quite significant."The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

Michelle Simms, the president and CEO of the Genesis Centre at Memorial University, joins Don Mills and David Campbell on the latest episode of the "Insights" podcast. The Genesis Centre has been supporting startup companies in Newfoundland and Labrador for 25 years.Many of the province’s top tech startups - most notably Verafin, which sold for nearly $3-billion U.S. - were incubated through the centre’s Enterprise program, which has an innovative royalty-based financing model. Newfoundland and Labradors’ tech sector is getting noticed and still growing."Our tech sector is still relatively new. It's probably only 15 to 20 years of real snowballing growth and maybe even less than that," says Simms."[We have] the exit from Verafin and a number of other really exciting things that have happened in this province recently. There are probably six or seven other acquisitions that have happened in the last two years. We're going to see a lot more re-investment of that money into our local startup ecosystem and I really do see that snowball getting bigger and bigger and bigger as it rolls down the hill."A CBC documentary Silicon Island also came out last fall and highlights some of the most promising firms. Simms tells Don and David about the importance of immigrant and female founders to the province’s recent startup boom.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

On this week's "Insights" podcast, David Campbell speaks with Entrevestor Peter Moreira, who has tracked and accumulated data for more than 770 technology-based Atlantic Canadian companies, including investment, revenue and employment trends.Entrevestor, the leading chronicler on startup companies in the region, has a new report coming out on June 14 but he gives us a sneak peek. Want to know how much investment the 771 firms received in 2021? Want to know the percentage of the 2019 startup cohort that didn't survive the pandemic? Interested in his insights into clean tech, ocean tech, fintech and cybersecurity?Peter muses about what would be different now if he was to update his 2009 book, Backwater, a stern indictment of the state of the economy and politics in the region.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.

In the latest "Insights" podcast, Jean-Paul Boudreau, the President of Mount Allison University and "CEO of Optimism," underscores the many roles that the post-secondary institutions play in the communities where they are located, especially smaller ones like Sackville.Beyond the role of educator, universities are important economic enablers as an employer and consumers of goods and services; as innovators and researchers; as incubators for entrepreneurs; and as community partners."It's the largest employer in Sackville, the majority of our faculty and staff living in the local area that includes, of course, Amherst, Moncton, Memramcook, Port Elgin," says Boudreau."Twenty-three hundred students, local landlords, services, grocery, retail, and restaurants. If you want across campus you'll see a number of renovation projects going on. You'll see building projects, the delivery of goods and services...These bring people and dollars to this community."The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.This episode of Insights is brought to you by MNP Digital – a firm that guides, protects, and empowers organizations along their digital journey. See how at mnpdigital.ca/atlantic-canada-is-home/

It is hard to overestimate the impact and importance of the contribution of the Nova Scotia Community College to Nova Scotia's economy and the communities where the College has campuses.In this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell talk to CEO Don Bureaux about the transformation of the institution over the past 20 years, its role as an employer and economic enabler, and its success adapting to changing labour market needs."We exist ... to produce the human capital for the economy," says Bureaux. "Approximately 90 per cent of our students are working within six months of graduation within their field of study. About 90 per cent of those graduates are working in the province of Nova Scotia. Even more impressive, a large percentage are working within the county or the next county in which they studied.""So we tend to have students who live in their community, study in their community and work in their community."We also talk about the increasing collaboration between the College and the universities in the province and the work of the College directly with the private supply to train workers to meet increasing job demand.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.This episode of Insights is brought to you by MNP Digital – a firm that guides, protects, and empowers organizations along their digital journey. See how at mnpdigital.ca/atlantic-canada-is-home/

On the latest episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell are continuing their series of conversations with organizations helping to foster innovation in Atlantic Canada. Don and David talk with Dr. Beth Mason, the Chief Executive Officer of the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment located in Cape Breton.Listeners may be surprised to hear the organization is one of the larger research and development organizations in the region with 40 staff. The Centre is working with 40+ companies to develop innovative new bio-economy and green energy ideas.Dr. Mason has big plans for the bio-economy and clean technologies in Nova Scotia. Could Cape Breton develop a model and the results we have seen with the PEI bio-economy?"When I came here what I saw was Cape Breton when I left it more than 30 years ago - dying primary industry and a hotbed for future innovation," says Dr. Mason."The challenge was we just weren't recognizing that. The longer you don't recognize it the longer you stagnate. But if you think globally about what the world needs today, there is absolutely no reason you can't do that in Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia, in Atlantic Canada, in Canada as a whole."Up next we will be talking to Michelle Simms, the President and CEO of the Genesis Centre at Memorial University.  Lots of great things happening in Newfoundland and Labrador these days.  Subscribe to the Insights podcast wherever you get your podcasts and never miss an episode.The “Insights” podcast combines the experiences of an economist, David Campbell, and a social scientist, Don Mills, to explore the challenges and opportunities facing Atlantic Canada, promote data-driven decision-making among policymakers, and encourage a wider dialogue and debate leading to greater prosperity for the region.Search for “Huddle Insights” on podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen to past conversations there.This episode of Insights is brought to you by MNP Digital – a firm that guides, protects, and empowers organizations along their digital journey. See how at mnpdigital.ca/atlantic-canada-is-home/