In Episode 4 of Bloom, hosts Emily Rendell-Watson and Faaiza Ramji talk about which Edmonton companies made it onto the top 20 list for Startup TNT's upcoming Cleantech Investment Summit.
Diesel Tech Industries, Element 4 Technologies, GrainFrac, Hydrodine Catalytics, Nanode Battery Technologies, Quantum Silicon Inc., Roshan Water Solutions, and Ruth will compete for a spot in the top five on Feb. 17.
Rendell-Watson and Ramji also cover an introduction to Plug and Play at the University of Alberta, and a strategy from the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) to draw artificial intelligence professionals to the city for AI Week, in hopes that they'll see Alberta as a potential permanent home.
"In the past, maybe the problem has been providing too many business incentives for a company and maybe once those expire, people leave," Ramji said.
"So if this strategy is focused on the people within those companies or within post-secondaries ... maybe that's something they feel will be more effective and easier to actually make those connections and have people stick around for longer."
An interview with the Edmonton International Airport's vice-president of technology and innovation, Tara Mulrooney, rounds out this episode with a look at how and why the airport has become a hub for innovation in the region.
Bloom is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.