Gord Parke

Topic

The blockchain will be one of the most impactful ideas of our century. Many people have heard of Bitcoin, but the underlying blockchain can be used for many things besides digital currencies.

Bio

Gord Parke is a technology entrepreneur from Winnipeg, Manitoba.  After graduating from Engineering Science at the University of Toronto in 2009, he immediately partnered with a few former classmates and jumped into the nascent iPhone app development world.

An interest in both hardware and software led Gord and his team to develop a swing analyzer for golf.  This product, SkyPro, is a sensor that clips onto the club shaft and feeds information wirelessly back to a golfer’s smartphone.  For his work in designing, manufacturing, and selling SkyPro, Gord was named one of “Canada’s future leaders under 25” by Maclean’s magazine in 2013. Since then, Gord has helped adapt this technology to a number of other applications, from children’s toys to baseball.  It is currently used by golfers all around the world, along with more than 15 Major League Baseball teams and 52 NCAA programs.

He and his team have also partnered with local startups, including TrapTap, which appeared on Dragon’s Den and was Winnipeg’s highest-earning Kickstarter project. Bitcoin and the blockchain caught Gord’s eye in 2013.  A passing interest grew into a full-fledged fascination, and he is now developing a couple software applications that are blockchain and cryptocurrency-based.