Welcome to “Trade Heroes”, a new series, where we highlight Edmonton region companies who have ‘exportitude’ – the mindset and commitment to think globally. Exporting is never easy, but the impacts it brings in terms of economic growth and job creation are worth the effort. We’re proud to highlight these business leaders as heroes to acknowledge their hard work and the positive impact they bring to our regional economy.
Today we are featuring RUNWITHIT Synthetics, a company that provides synthetic modelling solutions across the industry and an alumnus of the Trade Accelerator Program (TAP). TAP is a 4-day hands-on program designed to accelerate the strategic development of businesses and to better them for expansion into international markets. The TAP Alberta Cohorts of TAP Canada was created by the Toronto Region Board of Trade, and it is supported by the Mobilizing SMEs to Export initiative to assist in delivering Canada’s Export Diversification Strategy. The program is supported by national partners including Calgary Economic Development, the TAP Alberts stewards in partnership with Edmonton Global.
Myrna and Dean Bittner, RWI Synthetics founders
Export journey
Myrna Bittner, CEO and Founder of RUNWITHIT Synthetics, shares that their exporting journey started quickly after they began creating their platform nine and a half years ago. While they had some early adopters in Canada, they quickly realized the need to expand outside Canada if they wanted to grow. They were encouraged and supported with this through Canadian trade acceleration programs, as well as specific trade missions. Myrna says that trade missions in particular were critical in the early stages of their growth as they helped RWI to learn about challenges they might face.
Now, the company is doing business in the EU and Switzerland, with plans for more growth in the Caribbean, UK and SE Asia. They are also building their knowledge and context in South America.
Mapping risks of COVID-19 within a city using synthetic modelling
Myrna says that it was extremely exciting for their team to be able to get an in-depth understanding of how other places in the world work, their advances, and share in this cross-border knowledge sharing. COVID was a great accelerator for them internationally as they didn’t have to travel and there was a level playing field with doing business virtually. It gave them a chance to do everything in the Edmonton region and from the Edmonton region.
The Trade Accelerator Program (TAP)
RWI credits the TAP program with providing them an opportunity to connect with other professionals in the industry. “One of the biggest things that I find in many programs is that they are pulling entrepreneurs together. I learned so much from the other people, our peers in our sector and what they have experienced and found opportunities and shortcuts for.”
The program provided an opportunity to connect with other professionals in the industry. “One of the biggest things that I find in many programs is that they are putting entrepreneurs together. I learned so much from the other people, our peers in our sector and what they have experienced and found opportunities and shortcuts for.”
Learn more or suggest a Trade Hero feature
If you’re looking to go global, TAP is your key to exploring new markets. To apply for the next cohort, please visit this link. Don’t miss this opportunity to accelerate your business to new heights!
Additionally, if you’d like to suggest a business to be featured in Trade Heros, please use this form.
About RUNWITHIT Synthetics
The company builds what is commonly known as digital twins, digital models of cities and their infrastructure and their built environments. These models remind a “SimCity”, except for real. One of their main focuses is on being able to add a living population to dial forward scenarios of value and strategic interest. People want to be able to see and generate synthetic data from scenarios that are unprecedented and use that to assess the impact of their investments today, and RUNWITHIT Synthetics helps their clients to do so.
