About
[hs_action id="1500"]CommerceLab is an interactive place to share cutting-edge digital media research and commercialization in Canada. We connect the business and academic worlds with the information they need to be competitive, to grow, and to compete on a global scale.
CommerceLab is about collaboration and sharing advancements in digital technology. We want to spark conversations. We want to illuminate opportunities and encourage participation and knowledge sharing. We want to help power the development of new and creative digital innovations.
Get involved in the conversation. Find out what’s new in Gamification, Interactive Display, and User Experience.
You can also join the conversation by sharing your feedback or submitting ideas of your own.
Our Goals
- Share news about the quality of digital media innovation in Canada
- Help Canadian businesses under competitive pressure to pursue new digital opportunities
- Share cutting-edge academic research in easy-to-digest formats to help businesses reach actual commercialization opportunities
- Foster open, engaged discussion between researchers, businesses, and entrepreneurs on research, trends and the future of digital media
CommerceLab Advisory Board
Catherine M. Burns
Professor in Systems Design, University of Waterloo
Catherine M. Burns is a Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She directs the Advanced Interface Design Lab, studying user interface design, visualization and cognitive work. Catherine’s work has been applied to user interfaces as diverse as the control room monitoring displays at Syncrude Canada, to the one button interface for the Allerta digital watch. Her research aims to understand cognitive work in new and emerging contexts and build a better experience for users. She is the co-author of over 200 publications including two books on Ecological Interface Design and Cognitive Work Analysis. She has received both Teaching and Research Excellence awards from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
George Tsintzouras
Sr. Director, New Business Initiatives, Christie Digital Systems Inc.
George Tsintzouras is responsible for identifying and growing new customer-enabling products and relationships as Senior Director, New Business Initiatives, for Christie worldwide. Accountable to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Christie, he plays a key role in expanding Christie’s businesses and employs a wide range of strategic and analytical skills to track and adapt to market trends and identify key issues that will drive Christie’s multiple business lines.
In addition to holding a bachelor of Physics from the University of Waterloo, George is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and also holds an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University, with a specialization in marketing strategy.
Jess McMullin
Founder, Centre for Citizen Experience
Jess is the founder of the Centre for Citizen Experience, a startup strategic design consultancy dedicated to the public sector. He has worked in design and user experience since 1996, and realized early on that success requires looking at entire experience ecosystems. Jess works with Canadian clients on research, strategy, and capability for service transformation and policy. Based in Edmonton, he speaks and teaches worldwide.
Mitchell Osak
Managing Director, Quanta Consulting
Mitchell Osak is the Managing Director of Quanta Consulting Inc., a leading Canadian management consultancy focusing on strategy and organizational transformation. He is recognized as a North American thought leader in the areas of Big Data, and Gamification. He publishes a weekly column in the Financial Post and is an instructor at the Schulich School of Business at York University. Mitchell has 25 years of senior leadership and consulting experience with companies like P&G, Rogers, Sickkids, HP, CIBC Mellon and Maple Leaf Foods. Mitchell received his MBA from the University of Toronto.
Morag Johnston
Director of User Experience Design, Rogers Communications
Morag started creating Web pages backed by a CMS in 1995, and has been building and managing teams since well before that as a land use economist.
Her career experience spans both client side and agency side, as an independent contractor and as a five-years plus dedicated employee at both small and large organizations. Like many senior members of the Toronto community, she was an Information Architect and Internet Business Analyst well before there was formal training for it, living the adage “fake it ‘til you make it”.
She has delivered user experience designs across the telecomm, financial, online training, travel, publishing, and broadcast industries for marketing, media and ecommerce sites and apps; working with Thomson Carswell Publishing, TD Wealth Management, AOL, RadioShack, Royal Bank, Nissan, and most recently Rogers Media brands and Rogers Communications digital products to name a few.
In every organization she has joined, she has created a central User Experience team for the organization, sometimes bringing together professionals already on staff and sometimes starting from scratch. She lives to bring together diverse individuals to create outstanding results.
Rob Hyndman
Founder, Hyndman Law
Rob Hyndman is a Toronto business lawyer whose practice is devoted to technology businesses. He represents a wide variety of early- and later-stage technology clients and regularly advises on matters ranging from formation to exits. Rob is an avid supporter of and regular speaker in the Toronto startup community, and is a co-founder of the mesh group, which created mesh, Canada���s Web Conference, and its sister events, meshU, meshmarketing and meshwest. He’s also a co-founder of #hohoto, a semi-annual fundraiser for the Toronto technology and media communities that benefits the Daily Bread Food Bank. He blogs at www.robhyndman.com and at http://hyndmanlaw.com/blog/, and is on twitter at @rhh. His firm’s site hosts a variety of resources for use by startups.
Sean Stanleigh
Product Manager, the Globe and Mail
Sean Stanleigh is product manager of the Drive and Report on Small Business properties at The Globe and Mail, and he has an extensive background in journalism in a variety of disciplines, including national, foreign and local news. Sean is co-founder of The Entrepreneurship Society, a networking group for high-growth business owners, and he volunteers his time as a mentor and adviser for several non-profit organizations.
Key Supporters
Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research
This site is made possible by a grant from the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program.
The Government of Canada has established Centres of Excellence For Commercialization and Research to focus research capacity on social and economic challenges, commercialize and apply Canadian research breakthroughs, increase private-sector R&D, and train highly qualified people. Each centre shares knowledge, expertise and resources to bring new technologies to market faster. The centres stimulate new commercialization activities that would likely have never taken place without the CECR program.
Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN)
The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) is a federal Centre of Excellence in Commercialization and Research established in 2009. CDMN is dedicated to establishing Canada as a world leader in digital media (ICT + mobile) by creating and enabling connections and collaboration between entrepreneurs, companies, research institutes, government and intermediary organizations across the country. CDMN helps bring more digital media solutions to market to create more companies, jobs and wealth in Canada.
Major initiatives include an exclusive online national collaboration platform; an online Research Portal that provides one-stop access to important information about key digital media issues; the CDMN Soft-Landing Program to drive Canadian success globally; National Tour events enable companies to go global; and CDMN Canada 3.0, Canada’s only national digital media conference focused on the commercialization of innovation.
University of Waterloo Stratford Campus
The University of Waterloo Stratford Campus drives innovation. It is a founding node of the Canadian Digital Media Network. The campus was founded through a strategic partnership between the University of Waterloo and the City of Stratford to support economic development in the region. The campus brings students, leading researchers, businesses and entrepreneurs together to create, examine and commercialize opportunities in the digital media space. The Stratford Campus is the publisher of this resource website.
