Group hopes to create tech cluster in BC’s Kootenay region

Two technology intiatives have combined forces to create a new organization aimed at turning a remote region of British Columbia into a go-to destination for new media and IT software development. The Tech Village project brings together two separate initiatives servicing different business segments in the region. New Media West, which received backing from a local entrepreneur support organization, Community Futures of Greater Trail, was an e-business portal aimed at building links between interactive technology businesses in the Kootenays. At the same time, the Kootenay Association for Science and Technology (KAST) was promoting the region’s IT software industry. The merger will entail a bit of work to gauge the size and make-up of both types of businesses in the region, says Jill Boland, Tech Village’s executive director. "We’re really wanting to find out who our members are and what we can do for them," she says, adding the organization has already compiled a database of approximately 250 local businesses operating within the two clusters. Community Futures and KAST will continue to be key partners in Tech Village, but the organization will also draw on funding from the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification Canada program and municipal initiatives such as the Greater Trail Community Skills Centre. "Typically, the urban centres tend to get more pieces of the government pie, so we’re being more proactive in trying to advocate for this region and to access those dollars," Boland says. Businesses in the Kootenays’ high-tech sector have already started to develop specific competencies, Boland notes, such as multimedia and interactive projects around extreme outdoor sports. "We’re supplying content to all sorts of outdoor-oriented businesses. I think that’s a real niche for this area because...we live the lifestyle," she says. On the IT side, the Kootenays are home to "one of the largest hosting companies in Canada," Boland says. "They do all their sales out of Rossland and it’s a Rossland owner." In other facets of high-technology, however, the geography of the region presents a challenge – specifically wireless communications. Despite that, Boland isn’t ruling wireless out as something Tech Village might examine. "I think we’re going to look at pioneering some interesting wireless systems to try to accommodate the mountain region, because that last mile to the business and the home isn’t really ," she says. There are actually two Kootenays, West and East, the former including the communities of Rossland, Trail, Nelson and Castlegar, while the latter encompasses Cranbrook, Fernie and Kimberley. Travel is a hallmark of life in the Kootenays. The town of Rossland, where Tech Village is headquartered, lies an equidistant drive to Calgary and Vancouver, at nine hours one-way for each. Air transportation is often inconvenient – and always expensive. "It’s sometimes $300 to get from Vancouver to here," Boland says, adding that courier shipments take a day longer to arrive than they would if they originated from a less remote location. "It takes about three days...to get something from here to New York," she says. While the two closest Canadian metropolitan areas are the better part of a day’s drive away, the city of Spokane in eastern Washington state is closer at two-and-a-half hours by car. Spokane is home to the "Terabyte Triangle," an IT cluster in its own right, as well as an international airport. Other regions of BC also beckon local businesses, such as Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley, which are a four-hour drive away. "They have this Silicon Vineyard in Okanagan – that’s what they’ve coined their little IT cluster group," she says. Even within the Kootenays, an hour’s drive between towns is average. Despite that, Boland says face-to-face meetings are still common. "It is quite a far distance, but people find that once or twice a year it’s well worth the drive," she says. In the near-term, Boland plans to stage more educational events and networking opportunities. She also hopes to persuade those 250 IT and new media firms to join Tech Village. "Hopefully we’ll get out a large majority of them, but even getting groups of 50 or 60 in this region is a real coup," she says. "The main thing is to increase the number of outside contracts that come into the area, and then to retain the talent that we’ve got here."

Group hopes to create tech cluster in BC’s Kootenay region

News | 12/22/2005 5:00 am EST

To keep reading, get a free trial.

Already a Subscriber?

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us