We’ve been winding down from Scale YYJ, Victoria’s first-ever week of tech events. The five days of activities brought something for everyone — from a PhD in Sales from the School of Hard Knocks to a Non-Cocktail Networking spin class hosted by Panache Ventures. Here are a few events that stood out to us.

Feel the Burn, Not the Burnout: Over beers and bites at Whistle Buoy Brewing, panelists reflected on the all-too-common symptoms of fatigue, helplessness, and detachment — A.K.A burnout. Speakers Chris McGuire, CTO of Thinkific; Rebecca Kirstein Resch, co-founder and CEO of Inqli; Nicole Smith, founder and CEO of Flytographer; Patricia Galaczy, founder of The Art of Dialogue and associate faculty at Royal Roads University; and moderator Nadia Tatlow, CEO of Shift, all agreed: you don’t have to burn out to build a successful company. The panelists cited key practices for healing from those periods of prolonged stress and exhaustion. This included finding mindfulness in a range of activities, be it yoga or golf; exercising leadership in one’s company by setting boundaries to spend time recharging; and demonstrating how teams can still perform at a high level, even when they have freedom to work remotely or pursue a four-day work week.

ProductTank Victoria Fireside Chat with Tobyn Sowden, CEO of Redbrick: The monthly ProductTank Victoria series organized by Steph Thiel, senior mobile product manager at Workday, and Mike Foucher, vice president of product and technology at Shift, welcomed a candid conversation with Victoria tech leader Tobyn Sowden, CEO of Redbrick. While he did discuss his love of product and his talent for scope-cutting, Sowden was largely frank about his journey as an entrepreneur. From his early days of flipping garage sale finds to paying off his student loans through affiliate marketing, the founder has spent a lifetime building businesses. Perhaps most candid was his sharing of his biggest failure as an entrepreneur — a story you’ll have to ask Sowden for the next time you see him.

Victoria Tech Journal Presents: We first had the opportunity to dive into Victoria’s Blue Economy at Discover Tectoria, where audience members gathered to learn about one of Victoria’s most valuable assets — the ocean. Panelists Callum Campbell, founder and CEO of Greenline Marine; Jason Goldsworthy, executive director at COAST; and Kate Moran, president of Ocean Networks Canada spoke about topics such as the future of electric ferries across the Strait of Georgia and decarbonizing our oceans. The panel was swiftly followed by familiar faces of Victoria’s women in tech: Elizabeth Dutton, founding partner of Women’s Equity Lab; Kate Fagan Taylor, board member at iWIST; and Nancy Norris, senior director at the ministry of energy, mines, and low carbon innovation.