With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1313659
8 BCBUSINESS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 PORTRAIT: ADAM BLASBERG D oes anyone else want 2020 to be over? I'm writing this from the desk of my basement office, f lanked by gadgets I didn't think I'd ever need: a softball-sized condenser microphone that might once have belonged to Darth Vader, and an LED halo whose job is to make me look less ghoulish on Zoom. (As the Bible says, all is vanity.) Upstairs, in what used to be just our den, my wife is Zooming through a lecture with some of her college students. On the second floor, my daughter has gotten used to the fact that her bedroom doubles as a classroom for second-year university. Thanks to her part-time retail job, she's also a front- line worker now. And my son? An apprentice electrician who usually heads out at dawn, he's home nursing a sore throat—and awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test. That's where our family is at in early November, when it looks like B.C. could be heading back into government-ordered lockdown as new COVID cases spike. It's enough to make you nostalgic for the early days of the pandemic, the subject of Guy Saddy's "Adults in the Room" (p.38). Saddy makes the case that with their initial handling of the outbreak, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and her colleagues got plenty of things right from a leadership as well as a public safety point of view. Their efforts hold lessons for any busi- ness navigating a crisis. As you'll see in our cover story starting on page 25, the pandemic hasn't slowed the pace of innova- tion in this province. In Part 1 of "The Innovators," we profile 15 B.C. companies in a wide variety of indus- tries, from cleantech to construction to food and drink, that are pushing ahead with game-changing technol- ogies and products. Some of them have been busier than ever thanks to COVID; others are pitching in to help defeat the virus that causes it. Thanks to Innovate BC, Michael Wee and Kate Wilson for their sugges- tions, and stay tuned for Part 2 of "The Innova- tors" in our January/February issue. On that note, here's hoping the new year brings better days. As tough as 2020 has been for businesses and families, we should all be grateful to live in B.C., a province that is just starting to realize its potential. On behalf of the BCBusiness team, I wish you and your loved ones good health and happiness in 2021. Nick Rockel, Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com / @BCBusiness ( editor's desk ) Meet 15 more innovative local companies. Plus: The Best Cities for Work in B.C. N E X T I S S U E Better Things C ON T R I B U T OR S "Although we knew for years that another serious global pandemic was a real possibility, it was shocking to see that so many communities were caught almost completely off guard," says Vancouver writer Guy Saddy, our Shift Happens columnist and author of an upcoming book on what makes successful people tick. His feature story "Adults in the Room" (p.38) shows how, compared to leaders elsewhere, B.C.'s public health team performed admirably, at least during the first wave. While working as a doula, Vancouver-based Jackie Dives began photographing women giving birth, which led to her interest in documenting social justice issues through the lens of the female gaze. Her portrait of public health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on page 39 also appears in Bonnie Says, a self-published 'zine and digital exhibition hosted by the Burrard Arts Foundation.