A few weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Capital One Digital For Good Summit. The Summit is a free event designed to empower non-profit organizations and charities to use technology as a force for good. It also enables them to thrive in a digital future by providing them access to tech leaders and facilitating collaboration among like-minded peers.
I started my first blog almost ten years ago – Something that most people had never heard of before. If I am honest, I had no clue about what I was doing; I just wanted an outlet to express myself. Everything was going well until blogs and just about every other aspect of the Internet started to change. The introduction of social media, the realization that our voices do matter, the production of breathtaking photos and so forth. All of a sudden, hundreds of blogs were created daily and competition began to be fierce. It came to a point where if we didn’t start keeping up with all the changes, we would be left behind.
How to Use Digital for Good
I am simply trying to say that rapid changes in the digital space are bound to happen. While it might be favorable to many for-profit organizations, a lot of charities struggle to digitally transform themselves. Capital One Canada conducted a survey that revealed 50% of Canadian charities aren’t able to keep up with an evolving, tech-driven society – hence the creation of the Digital For Good Summit.
I was thrilled to be part of the summit not only because I wanted to lend my voice to this great cause but also because I knew I was going to learn a lot of things that could eventually help me as an online personality. The summit featured a series of panels with various Canadian tech and charity figures.
We kicked off the day with an inspirational speech from keynote speaker Shiza Shahid, the founder of NOW Ventures and co-founder of the Malala Fund. She shared a moving story about her childhood and how she has made it her mission to build an organization capable of steering a global movement to get girls into schools. Shiza stressed how technology can be a force for transformative social impact and how charities can begin to get comfortable with technology to thrive. Many interesting topics were discussed including using bitcoins for safe transactions, gene sequencing, clean energy, and mobile technologies.
” Data is becoming our new Currency”
I was equally impressed with the panel discussion on how any organization can quickly leverage new technologies like AI or cloud-native applications to engage their supporters/donors. The discussion hits a nerve because to this day I am reluctant to use any kind of cloud to store my family photos and documents even after losing my data twice before. One of the quotes that did stick with me from the discussion came from Gladstone Grant, National Director of Solution Sales at Microsoft Canada who said the following ” Data is becoming our new Currency”. This statement could not be further from the truth.
During the summit, I also met with a few representatives from World Vision Canada who were nice enough to extend an invitation to come to visit their headquarters. I invite you to check out the video I made during my visit there on my Instagram. The Capital One Digital For Good Summit was a great conversation starter for participating charities and tech leaders. We must make sure to keep the conversation going by lending our voices and technical knowledge to our favorite charities and non-profit organizations
This post was made in partnership with Capital One Canada. Thank you for supporting brands that make this blog possible.
