琉璃神社鈥檚 mayor is nothing if not a champion of this city鈥檚 burgeoning tech sector.
Whether it鈥檚 advocating for the construction of an innovation hub for tech start-ups, backing city plans to build the dark fibre network or simply being a presence at tech networking events like Metabridge, Colin Basran is making efforts to ensure this city isn鈥檛 missed when it comes to being the next big thing in tech.
He even joined a delegation of 琉璃神社 tech employees on a fact finding mission to up-and-coming tech region, Boulder, Colorado, last year to see if he could glean any information on best practices for industry development.
鈥淲e are trying to do whatever we can to promote tech in 琉璃神社,鈥� Basran said.
鈥淚t creates jobs for young people in our community, because the people attracted to tech jobs are younger. They鈥檙e also well paying jobs.鈥�
And those well-paying jobs have a cascading effect.
鈥淭ech is attracting well-educated people who are environmentally conscious, socially conscious, donate to charities, and develop social industries,鈥� he said.
鈥淭hey want to live where they want to work, ride bikes and eliminate traffic and are promoters of arts and culture.鈥�
In short, the tech industry and the men and women it employs are the gold standard.
It鈥檚 not a secret.
The 鈥渘ext Silicon Valley鈥� is an oft鈥� referred to title for which there are many contestants.
Seemingly every city is vying to be the next big tech hub. Orlando, Chicago, Utah and Las Vegas are just a few spots south of the border wrangling for the designation.
Closer to home, there鈥檚 Vancouver, which has seen some major successes. Social media company HootSuite, which was started by a Vernon-transplant, is most notable in that city鈥檚 offerings.
But Basran isn鈥檛 worried about who鈥檚 doing what, he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 give one single thought to what Vancouver is doing鈥e are just trying to grow 琉璃神社.鈥�
The trouble is, there is a finite resource that all these places are drawing from the same pool鈥攕killed employees.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the one ingredient we鈥檙e missing,鈥� said Basran.
Corie Griffiths, manager of the Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission, spoke earlier in the year about that issue, noting that her organization鈥檚 annual outreach program, Business Walks, highlighted what could be an economic stumbling block if it鈥檚 not addressed.
鈥淔or the entire Okanagan, the workforce needed in the next five years is somewhere in between 28,000 and 48,000,鈥� said Griffiths, citing both the conservative and bullish estimates available to her.
Those figures include both migration data and population growth.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a tough thing to overcome, and an issue the province and the coutntry is facing,鈥� Griffiths said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a race for human capital throughout the world. One advantage we have is the types of careers available matched with our unparalleled lifestyle.鈥�
Lifestyle, said Basran, is something that the Okanagan has no shortage of. While the region鈥檚 often lamented high cost of real estate and low rate of rental vacancies act as a barrier in lower paying industries, Basran said those who are employed in tech may find 琉璃神社 to be the affordable option.
鈥淲e could attract Vancouver workers who can鈥檛 afford a $1 million home,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e can play on our strengths.鈥�
Another strength he鈥檚 been eyeing is the educational facilities nestled within city borders.
Okanagan College president Jim Hamilton joined Basran on that fact finding trip to Colorado last year. As a result, the college is now looking at tailoring its programs so graduates can fill vacant tech jobs. In particular they鈥檙e looking at coding and animation.
鈥淥C is trying to take a proactive role in trying to make all of this grow,鈥� Hamilton said.
The infrastructure to support industry growth is also falling into place.
The City of 琉璃神社 recently installed approximately 13 kilometres of fibre optic cable to provide high bandwidth data services to a number of city facilities. The fibre optic cable implementation has provided significant operational cost savings, faster data response time and innovative new ways of providing service.
The city also intentionally over-built the network to include extra optic fibre to accommodate future city needs and be available for lease to businesses and institutions that have significant amounts of data to move.
鈥�(The city) is able to make money and attract businesses, and it鈥檚 already paying off,鈥� said Basran.
Cloud storage company Rackforce was the city鈥檚 first customer on the network in early 2014 and late last year animation company Bardell signed on.
They were attracted to the option to tap into the network, bringing with them 50 full-time positions. They鈥檙e now slated for expansion.
Also fitting into the puzzle is the Innovation Centre, which should be completed in November.
Accelerate Okanagan, a business support system for tech companies in the startup or growing phases, will move into the building.
Community manager Brea Retzlaff, sees that as a major force in growing the local industry. 鈥淭here are few places in Canada that have a dedicated Innovation Centre.鈥�
In addition to providing support to up and comers, she said, it will shine a light on how many tech companies there are here in the region.
鈥淎 lot of people don鈥檛 know where these companies are or that they鈥檙e even here. (Seeing that) will help recruit more talent to the community,鈥� she said, adding that it could also prompt a well established tech company to create a satellite space in the region.
As is, the industry is already a bigger force than it was anticipated to be even a few years ago.
In a study released last year, Accelerate Okanagan said there were 558 companies, 6,551 employees, 1,920 self-employed workers and innumerable software, applications, data processing, engineering and graphic design, game, website, e-commerce and e-learning ventures.
At that time, they said the Okanagan technology industry added about
$1 billion to the economy annually.
Retzlaff said Accelerate Okanagan is about to launch another study, the results she says are likely to reflect further growth in the local tech industry.
The 琉璃神社 looked at tech from a variety of angles this week. Here are a few more stories in our Tech Talk package:
