It's always good to get grounded by students.

• Date: 01 May 2019
• Author: Atkins, Michael

An old friend asked me to speak about our business to his creative industries class at Ryerson University a few weeks ago. He's been teaching business students about the digital economy there for years. Some of you may know him. Daniel Hawes is a Sudbury boy most famous for his CBC animation series Chilly Beach. It appeared on the Comedy Network in Australia and also made it to the streaming network Hulu in the U.S. along with three years on CBC. Chilly Beach was the precursor to what has turned into a robust and energetic television and moviemaking scene in Northern Ontario, which has seen the likes of TV series Letterkenny and Hallmark Studios employ hundreds of Northerners to create TV and films at a scale one could not have imagined 20 years ago.

I talked to Dan's students about attacking the digital economy with gusto but also trying to reclaim their humanity from the detritus...