Toronto tech sector booming but spelling is a problem

Toronto's ambitious new diversity-focused tech festival kicked off on Tuesday with a series of rousing, TED talk-style speeches at the Sony Centre.

About 3,000 people attended the all-day event, but everyone else could get the play-by-play via Twitter.

#Toronto with 212,500 tech workers is already the 3rd biggest tech hub in North America surpassing #Boston #Chicago #Seattle #ElevateTO pic.twitter.com/LWwrr87JCI

— Kasra Zokaei (@kasra_z) September 12, 2017

Toronto Mayor John Tory's Tuesday afternoon speech was one of the most-anticipated and celebrated events of the day.

Unfortunately for the person who prepared his slides, it was also one of the most-photographed.

Toronto's tech sector grew by 22,500 jobs in 2015/16. At this rate, TO's tech sector will be bigger than Silicon Valley in 2 yrs! #ElevateTO pic.twitter.com/8kg3SUtm9R

— Sue Holland (@suesthegrl) September 12, 2017

Is it petty to point out the glaring, boldly underlined spelling mistake behind our mayor's head?

Most definitely – especially in light of how impressive that statistic is. But hey, this is what I do. And I'm not alone.

However, our spelling is slipping behind.

— Barry Stevens (@BarryKStevens) September 12, 2017

The Elevate Toronto Festival, which runs until Sept. 14th, continues today with panels and sessions on artificial intelligence, biometrics, genomics, VR, AR, FinTech, Blockchain, and a whole bunch of other smart things that are thrusting our city forward.

Our spelling industry may not be thriving, but our tech industry certainly is – and that's a good thing, economically speaking.

Spelling skills don't pay the bills like innovation does.