When I first started my education-journey at UOIT* (now, Ontario Tech University), admittedly, I was a bit incredulous. I thought, “well, how good could this newly established university be in relation to other schools that have been around for so many years, prior?”

Behind the new glass, bricks and mortar, and fresh paint, hid a futurist understanding of the upcoming world that we would all soon be in. I graduated from Marketing at UOIT in 2012, infused with lots of knowledge and know-how in regard to seamlessly integrating technology with business. From CRM systems, to marketing analytics programs, to white and black-hat hackers, to corporate espionage, to basic social media usage, UOIT provided a deep-dive into the world of business alongside new and emergent technologies—into a brave new world.

Though these systems seemed highly futuristic and potentially improbable at the time, I realize now, as we embark on 2020, that UOIT was simply ahead of its time.

Despite shifting technologies, as time and highly competitive marketplaces often reveal, the fundamental principles of business-infused-with-technology remain the same.

Business is about commerce; it’s about trade; it’s about connections; and technology is simply the medium from which to help get you there. It is a platform all businesses can use to grow and build, and to stand out against the noisy world around them. What I was once taught to be probable, has now made its way to be possible in 2019—and who knows what the coming years will hold!

In sum, learn to code; or, rather, learn about technology. Not so much in the direct sense of actual coding or how to build new technologies, but in the idea that all code (and technology, for that matter) is a language. When you’re well-versed in it, everything comes out smooth; but when you’re not, you can really show yourself to be a novice whose choices and decisions come out clunky and unrefined.

The future is digital.

-code on.