Ottawa, ON, January 24, 2007 – Earlier this week the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) announced record employment numbers for the region’s technology sector. But rather than rest on its laurels, OCRI’s CEO Jeffrey Dale believes that 81,910 is a foundation number, not the sign of another tech boom that will bust. He cites:
- At 1,819 strong, tech Ottawa has a record number of companies spread out over a record number of sectors8
- The resulting “portfolio diversification” did not exist in the 90s when the region was largely telecom focused
- A fire-hardened entrepreneurial class. 80% of high tech Ottawa is populated by companies with 50 people or less
- These smaller, more nimble companies are more able to adjust to global competition, and consistently growing despite a VC financing drought
“I see that the groundwork we’re laying right now in terms of the companies we have here, the success that they’re driving … is only going to bode well for the future,” says Dale on the OCRIRadio.com podcast. And in response to local pundits who are still cautious about the city’s tech sector after the boom-bust of the late 90s, Dale states: “We have to make ourselves what we want to be. Nobody else is going to do it for us. And we have to ignore the naysayers and we have to look at the industry’s ups and downs and realize that there’s never a straight line.”
As well as Dale, OCRIRadio.com co-host Nathan Rudyk also interviews Richard Meadows, Managing Partner from the CTI Life Sciences Fund Limited Partnership – Canada’s newest venture capital firm specializing in life sciences investments; Ken Newport, the former co-founder and President of CroMedica Global Inc., and a local investor in life sciences companies; Jeff Westeinde, CEO of Ottawa’s Quantum Environmental Group, a waste management company; and Niall Wallace, CEO of Infonaut Inc., a map-based solutions company inspired by solving hospital logistics problems brought to light by the SARS crisis in Toronto. The interviews are the second of a two-part series recorded at the BioNorth Biotechnology and Life Sciences Conference.
OCRIRadio.com is hosted by Jeffrey Dale, President and CEO, OCRI, and Nathan Rudyk, President of market2world communications inc. The podcast is produced by market2world. Past guests on OCRIRadio.com include Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft; Andrew Waitman, Managing Partner, Celtic House Venture Partners; and John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems Inc.
* Ottawa-Gatineau has the second largest concentration of science and engineering employment out of 316 North American cities, surpassed only by Silicon Valley. One in nine employees is a scientist or engineer. Source: Statistics Canada, May 2006.
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About market2world communications inc.
market2world is one of Canada’s most innovative PR and product launch agencies, where markets are conversations - dynamic global conversations occurring every minute of every day inside and outside organizations. market2world puts Web 2.0 tools like blogs, podcasts, wikis, and vcasts to work so companies and institutions can tap in, participate, and grow business with social media. For more information visit www.market2world.com.
About OCRI
OCRI (Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation), the city's economic development corporation, is leading the way for Ottawa. OCRI is the rallying point to bring business, education and research together to create the winning economic conditions that allow Ottawa's technology companies to thrive locally and compete globally. At OCRI we promote sustainable economic development to maintain our high quality of life. For more information on OCRI visit our website at www.ocri.ca and for more information on the Ottawa Region please visit www.ottawaregion.com.
For media inquiries, please contact:
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Kim Cunningham
Manager, External Communications
kcunningham@ocri.ca
Phone: 1 613 828-6274 x 256
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Nathan Rudyk
President and CEO
market2world communications inc.
nathan@market2world.com
Phone: 1 613 256-3939
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