TechAide collective contributes with 69% growth in a challenging 2020

Today, as Centraide announces extremely positive results of its 2020 Campaign, we would like to take the opportunity to thank from the bottom of our hearts everyone who contributed time, money, ideas and often a combination of all three to help TechAide raise $647,135 – 69% more than in 2019.

TechAide was established for the tech community to get together to give back around fun events, sporting activities and learning opportunities but with no in-person events as of March, 2020 required a new level of commitment and creativity.

A remote yet active year for TechAide

The second edition of the Soccer Tournament and the Kick-off Cocktail at Notman House were both well attended and much appreciated and the only two physical events.

Amongst the virtual highlights, the TechAide Café was launched in June as an experiment to meet online and exchange knowledge, inspiration, ideas and insights. The Café hosted fabulous guests every few weeks through December. The Python online course was well-received in July.

This year the third edition of the TechAide AI Conference and the AI4GOOD Hackathon merged into one greater virtual event held in November with a world-class lineup of speakers, excellent participation and inspiring teams.

Two innovative fundraising initiatives also ramped up in the fall, namely the Corporate Campaigns and the TechAide Leaders Program laying a strong foundation for this year.

The TechAide collective increases its impact with your support

From a simple idea in 2016 that there could be some magic connecting the very different worlds of audacious tech founders with inspirational social impact agency leaders, TechAide is building momentum.

While everyone is incredibly busy already caring for themselves, their families, their business, TechAide is a simple, engaging way as a collective to learn about the issues, increase awareness and the available resources and do good by giving back whether with time or money or ideas and knowledge – there is so much that we can do together to help all Montrealers lead healthy, productive lives.

This idea has resonated and expanded as the TechAide collective continues to grow and looks forward to welcoming you and your colleagues in 2021.

In the meantime, a huge thank you to our:

Ambassadors: Alain Auclair, Pascale Audette, Philippe Beaudoin, Nabil Beitinjaneh, Marie-Eve Bernard, Richard Cohene, Annie Devriese, Nectarios Economakis, Marie-Claude Elie, Carolina Gallo, Hugo Larochelle, Sasha Luccioni, Alan MacIntosh, Laurent Maisonnave, Nicholas Morel, Shibl Mourad, François Pelland, Diana Rebmann, Marc-Antoine Ross, Gabriel Sundaram, Gregory Whiteside.

Guest Speakers:  Jordan Arshinoff Foss, Alexandre Blais, Richard Bruno, Sylvain Carle, Déborah Cherenfant, Mathieu Cote, Alistair Croll, Yuri Fattah, Abhishek Gupta, Alishba Imran, Marco Merens, Patrick Pichette, Marie-Ève Prévost, Julien Smith.

Delegates: Martin Bougie-Richer, Katharina Marzen.

Volunteers: Tony Li, Ming Xi Gu, Francis Devoy, Andrea Ramirez, Veselina Plachkova and all the great volunteers who supported us through the AI Conference and Hackathon as well as other events TechAide held over the year.

Centraide: Catherine Francken, Gabrielle B.-Gagnon, Caroline Poupart, Yannick Elliott.