On April 11, trailblazing entrepreneurs and business leaders convened for the second annual CB Innovation Awards Luncheon at the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s contemporary office and event space on the waterfront. Presented by signature partner BMO Financial Group and thought leadership partner Paralucent, the awards luncheon brought attendees together to honour some of Canada’s most innovative companies.

The luncheon’s patron table sponsors included Air Canada, Canadian Western Bank, Café William, Moderna Canada, Parvis Investments, Qohash, 369 Global, Mastercard Canada, Flygreen and Tricon Residential. The event also coincided with the launch of Canadian Business’s Spring 2024 issue.

In an intimate fireside chat, Fatima Zaidi, co-founder and CEO of award-winning podcast agency Quill, and Katie Green, co-founder of &Or Collective, a clothing brand working to reduce textile waste in the retail industry, joined Charlotte Herrold, editor-in-chief at Canadian Business, to discuss some of the challenges Canadian entrepreneurs face in growing their companies, from securing funding to a need for more mentorship opportunities.

On top of the existing hurdles business owners face, turbulent market conditions over the past few years have created a difficult fundraising environment for entrepreneurs, particularly those who are women and visible minorities, Zaidi and Green pointed out. “I never want to be at a point in my life where I’m complacent as a CEO or founder,” said Zaidi. “Take the risk, invest in PR…and do whatever you think you don’t necessarily deserve because of that imposter syndrome.”

In his keynote address, Robin Stewart, head of Canadian business banking headquarters operations at BMO, applauded the unique qualities founders must possess to build an innovative business from the ground up: agility, focus, perseverance and drive. “There may be shooting stars like overnight successes, but this is not the reality for 99.9 per cent of small business owners,” said Stewart. “Add to that the complexity of technology, the demand to be heard in an already crowded space and the overwhelming amount of competition—the path to success is not always clear and definitely is not easy.”

Following the lunch provided by Oliver & Bonacini, speakers Jeff Miller, CEO at Paralucent; Bindhu Alvar Thiruvenkadathan, CIO at BMO Wealth Management; Fardeen Khan, CIO at RBC Wealth Management; and Sladjana Jovanovic, CIO of personal & business banking technology and B2C data transformation at BMO, joined Jason Maghanoy, group publisher at SJC, for a marquee panel. Together, they discussed innovation in the financial sector and how technological advances in quantum computing, cybersecurity and generative AI will impact how entrepreneurs run their businesses.

“Our top strategy is digital-first, which is to modernize and make our technology more flexible in order to meet the needs of our customers, and that goes for our entire technology stack,” said Jovanovic. “Then, when we think about AI, that is our position as well: How can we use AI to project that?” Miller, who has been at the helm of Paralucent for over 20 years, pointed out that companies tend to put too much focus on shiny new technology, instead of focusing on the impact of their products.

To cap off the luncheon, Herrold presented the awards to the winners of the 2024 CB Innovation Awards. Together, with judges Krista Jones, interim CEO of MaRS Discovery District, and Takara Small, award-winning tech reporter and podcaster, Canadian Business selected 25 finalists from a pool of applicants. From there, the judges further narrowed down the finalists to 10 companies that are redefining what it means to innovate. Here, the recipients of the 2024 CB Innovation Awards:

• Café William
• Flygreen
• Rebelstork
• Lightspeed
• Pontosense
• Quill
• Spring
• Jelly Academy 
• &OR
• Moderna Canada

Click here to read more about the recipients of the 2024 CB Innovation Awards.