Welcome to this week’s Sunday Briefing. In this issue, read about Flytographer’s new COO, a survey for companies working in the Blue Economy, funding for First Nations clean energy projects, and Google recognition for a local company.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 771 words: a three-minute read.

-Emily, [email protected]

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People Moves: Flytographer announces Paulina Cameron as new COO

Flytographer, the Victoria-based platform connecting travellers with local photographers across over 350 cities, welcomed Paulina Cameron as its new COO. Cameron is the former CEO of The Forum, a charity that supports women entrepreneurs, and the author of Canada 150 Women, which profiles inspiring female role models.

Cameron joined the company “to build on their tremendous legacy and drive our next growth goals forward,” she shared. “After a decade of leading in the ecosystem, supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs while spearheading my own ventures, I am honoured to dive into scaling a local, woman-founded business whose ethos resonates deeply with my own.”

Cameron shared that she first met Flytographer’s founder and CEO, Nicole Smith, through The Forum when Smith won its ‘Pitch for the Purse’ competition in 2018. The two continued to connect when Smith joined The Forum as a board member months later.

“[Nicole] built Flytographer with an incredible trajectory, and I feel so connected to the magic of capturing life’s most precious adventures – celebrating meaningful moments feels like the best antidote to time just flying by,” Cameron said.

Flytographer is hiring for multiple roles right now, including a Director of Growth Marketing, Fractional CFO, and Controller.

🏙️ Community catchup, powered by VIATEC

Meet a VIATEC member: Jelly Digital Marketing & PR

Roll out the red carpet because Jelly wants to make you famous. Maybe not Hollywood Walk of Fame style, but the Canada-grown digital marketing and PR agency promises you won’t be yelling into the abyss with their effective strategies backed by expertise, experience, and authentic online and offline relationships.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🌅 Deep blue sea: The Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable technologies (COAST) and the University of Victoria’s Impact Investing Hub launched the BC Blue Economy Survey to uncover opportunities, challenges, and gaps in the sector.

💨 The wind in the willows: The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce announced that three Indigenous communities on the South Island will receive $792,000 from the First Nations Clean Energy Fund.

🌤 Charlie St. Cloud: Victoria-based Premier Cloud received the Google Cloud Infrastructure Services Specialization, a recognition within the Google Cloud Partner Advantage Program that exhibits the technical expertise of a Google Cloud partner in specific cloud solutions and service domains.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Intermediate Software Developer (Software Engineer in Test [SDET]) at BC Pension Corporation

• Network Analyst at Campbell River School District 72

• Senior Full-Stack Developer at Box Labs

Hiring in Victoria? Reply to this email and let us know!

📅 Upcoming events

March 6-8 | Rising Economy Conference 2024

Join the Rising Tide Conference to gain timely, actionable insights on business and the economy, innovation and technology, and strategies for a rapidly changing world.

From small business owners to CEOs, managers, community leaders and policy makers, Rising Economy attracts people interested in shaping their organizations to meet the challenges and opportunities of Greater Victoria’s future.

March 8 | International Women's Day: Building Bridges to Belonging: Inspiring Inclusion

This International Women’s Day, Women on the Rise is hosting a collaborative event, organized by the chapter leads of Women on the Rise, Women in Leadership, WNORTH, CHIWARACo, Women’s Equity Lab, Girlboss UVic, and iWIST.

Join a day of interactive panel sessions, intentional networking, a standup comedy act, food + drink and more.

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.

🙋 I need a…

We at Victoria Tech Journal know you, our community, pretty well. Are you searching for someone in your field to have coffee with, a hiring hookup, a lead on local investors, or suggestion for a great Victoria tech tool? Whatever you’re hunting for, let us know. We’ll post it in this section and make it happen.

This week, someone is:

• Seeking Victoria-based builders of flat-packed, modularized housing with a very small footprint (100 sf). The units would be standalone, durable, and low-maintenance for long-term use. Ideally, the builders would be able to collaborate on designing the space to make the most of the very small footprint and incorporate furniture and appliances from the design stage.

Email your requests to [email protected].

Have something or someone we should know about?

Reply or email [email protected] so we can work together to spotlight the lesser-known stories of Victoria's tech ecosystem.