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OCRI’s Take – Refresh of Ottawa’s economic development strategy

chaw — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:00:55 +0000

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to present OCRI’s response to the city’s proposed economic development strategy. The strategy sees Ottawa recognized as a competitive global hub for innovative, knowledge-based talent, businesses and organizations. OCRI is committed to the economic development of the city and overall, we agree with the strategic objectives as outlined in the document and look forward to working with the City to achieve the stated objectives.

OCRI has been supportive of and involved with the economic refresh activity by City staff although not directly involved with the steering committee. The organization fulfills a leading role in economic development for the region including the entrepreneurship centre, global marketing (investment and trade activities in Ottawa and abroad) and regional innovation activities in addition to other OCRI activities for members.

Leading the way for Ottawa, OCRI fully supports the bolstering of key economic development activities in the region. Investment has decreased over the past few years and fallen far behind investment by other cities and regions. More investment will result in a more diversified local economy with strong international success.

Key economic development initiatives include the creation of strong ecosystems in the areas of: international trade and investment, entrepreneurship, and clusters (including cleantech, life sciences, wireless/mobile applications and digital media). (See our KBI white paper response for more detail.)

Talent is a key focus area for Ottawa. While we have high quality, local talent with many students graduating every year from our universities and colleges, we need to increase STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) participation to meet the demands. Strategies must be implemented to attract, engage and retain talent in Ottawa. Leadership and early entrepreneurship education are also key focus areas. (See our Talent white paper response for more detail.)

OCRI is a leader in providing a full range of commercialization and investment resources to companies across knowledge-based industries to accelerate their growth in the global marketplace. This includes support for startup company creation through Entrepreneur’s Edge, Lead-to-Win, Exploriem and other programs. OCRI works to bring capital to the region through investment in high potential emerging technology leaders in Ottawa.

OCRI programs and services touch many business people and youth in our community. Because of the broad range of services, it is difficult to fully understand the value that OCRI brings to the community. OCRI partners with the City of Ottawa to deliver a number of services to the community which I have outlined below. Key OCRI services that support Ottawa’s economic development include:

Entrepreneurship Centre

Helps entrepreneurs make informed business decisions while starting or growing their businesses (seminars and workshops on management, legal and accounting)
Youth focus via programs like Ottawa Innovation Challenge, Junior Achievement, Canada Youth Business Foundation, Summer Company and others;
Operates resource centre at City Hall, kiosks in Orleans, Barrhaven and Kanata.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Delivers Entrepreneur’s Edge series for entrepreneurship training;
Delivers TalentBridge which engages entrepreneurial engineering students in work terms that develop marketing, sales and business management skills and connects students with supportive mentors from the local knowledge-based sector.

Global Marketing

Provides assistance for export-oriented businesses seeking to market products and services internationally;
Provides support for in-bound and out-bound trade missions with emphasis on Asia, Europe, U.S. and Latin America;
Active founding member of the Ontario Technology Corridor (Ottawa, Toronto, Waterloo, London and Niagara) which was established for joint marketing abroad;
Supports Ottawa’s established and emerging knowledge-based clusters (Photonics, Wireless, Software, eBusiness, Contact Centres, Life Sciences, Cleantech, Security and Digital Media.)

Investment and Commercialization

Provides business advisory services, business acceleration, market intelligence and mentoring to build the next wave of knowledge-based companies;
Hosts the annual Ontario Venture Summit (OVS) to showcase companies to qualified investors;
Actively supports community-based initiatives including: Lead to Win, Exploriem, TiE, and The Ottawa Network.

Community Leadership

OCRI hosts and chairs the Innovation Leadership Team;
OCRI chairs the Ottawa Technology Round Table for industry, academic and research institutions, and federal, provincial and city governments;
OCRI CEO is a member of the Tourism Leadership Team;
OCRI contributes to the Digital Strategy Round Tables at Industry Canada.

OCRI is a diverse and dynamic organization that aims to be responsive to the needs of our local business community. If you are interested in learning more about OCRI and the many ways that our programs, services and individuals contribute to the economic well being of the city visit our website www.ocri.ca, stop by the Entrepreneurship Centre at Ottawa City Hall or get in touch with one of our program managers.

Hello from 36,000 feet!

chaw — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:59:08 +0000

Day 1: Tuesday, April 6th -

Ottawa Hello from 36,000 feet over the Canadian Rockies!

We were up bright and early before dawn and arrived at the airport just at daybreak, weather looking good for a flight to the other side of the world. It’s very exciting to be going to China, if only we had the Enterprise transporter working by now. Five plus hours to Vancouver, three hour wait and then another 11 hours to Beijing is the pain before the gain on a typical trade and investment mission. This brings back memories of long flights to distant lands to meet important customers back in the heady days of the telecom boom during the 90s.

Waiting at the airport on my just in time arrival (I don’t like to spend extra time at airports), is our mission team including the Mayor of Ottawa and his advisor. At the request of OCRI, Mayor Larry O’Brien has agreed to lead a trade and investment mission to four cities in China over the next 10 days. Travelling to Asia is old-hat for the Mayor, having visited many times in his business persona, but this is his first time to China as the Mayor of the capital city of a G8 country.

So far, we have been treated very well by the Chinese with letters of invitation, visas and itineraries produced efficiently and as requested. Thankfully, we have the tireless Joan Sun as our coordinator for the mission. She not only took care of many of the protocol and logistics items but was willing and able to call Beijing at all times of the day and night to get everything ready for our trip.

The trade and investment mission includes: Mayor Larry O’Brien and Robert Thompson, the mayor’s advisor; OCRI; Ottawa Tourism; and eleven companies from the investment, Cleantech and ICT sectors. Representing OCRI is Mike Darch, Executive Director, Global Marketing, OCRI who is on his fifth mission to China over the past five years; Joan Sun, OCRI China Program Manager; and myself, Claude Haw, President and CEO, OCRI on my first trade mission since joining OCRI last year. Representing Ottawa Tourism is Noel Buckley, President, a frequent traveler to Asia and other areas of the world whose tourism perspective is very valuable.

While in China we hope to secure a number of new agreements and reaffirm others including the Sister City Cooperation agreement between Ottawa and Beijing. We will be meeting with groups of investors looking for bilateral investment opportunities, municipal officials considering alternatives for water, energy and waste infrastructure projects and companies looking for the latest innovation in information and communications technologies.

This is the first of many blogs from the mission to China. Look for insight from a number of participants on the trip. Everyone will have their own stories to tell!

In Beijing – still awake after 12,000 km and 24 hours

chaw — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:59:55 +0000

Day 2: Wednesday, April 7th – Beijing

Nihao from Beijing (and that covers the full range of my Mandarin vocabulary). Air Canada treated us very well over the 20 hours between arriving at the Ottawa airport, transiting through Vancouver and finally landing in Beijing. Leaving early morning from Ottawa was easy enough and the planes for both legs were not completely full. Travelling in economy was quite comfortable when the seat beside was available to spread out papers and such.

It seemed strange to leave Ottawa in sunny early morning, travel almost around the clock in sunlight to arrive in Beijing mid-afternoon of the next day. We were well received in China with the coordinator from the Beijing Foreign Office coming to the airport to meet us. After traveling nearly 12,000 km, this was a wonderful personal touch.

First impressions of Beijing from a sleep-deprived state of mind was …. well a fog actually, not the crystal clear air of the Rockies at least. The route from the airport downtown was very much that of a modern city with many tall buildings, both commercial office towers and residential, a few older apartment buildings and much more English writing on buildings than I expected. Mid-afternoon traffic from the airport to our hotel in central Beijing was moderate to heavy but moved well. There were bicycles and motorbikes on the road but not a huge number. The block around the hotel holds dealerships for Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin, shops for Gucci, etc. and even a Starbucks.

People at the airport, on roads, streets and hotel seem courteous and friendly. The Regent Hotel people were very helpful and fast on check-in. There was whole contingent at the door to welcome the Mayor including the hotel manager. Our home for the next five days and four nights looks to be excellent.

Lucky for us the itinerary for our first short day was to get settled in our hotel, get a briefing from the Vice Counsel from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing followed by a light dinner and then off to bed to attempt to synchronize our body clock with the local time. Asking my body to stay awake for more than 24 hours was so much easier a couple of decades ago – oh to be 30 again!

More to come after a very full day tomorrow….

The City is looking for your input

chaw — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:32:33 +0000

The City of Ottawa is conducting consultations that will lead to a new Economic Development Policy which will be presented to Council this spring. OCRI executives participate regularly in ongoing discussions with the City on their role and leadership. Last Friday, we attended a stakeholder’s forum to voice our views and have since met with them specifically on the innovation strategy.

The approach the City chooses to economic development is key to all of our success. The consensus now is that we can no longer simply default to expansion of the Federal Public Service as our engine of prosperity. Your voice in this discussion is important. I would like to encourage you to participate as well by logging on to OPINIONOTTAWA.CA where you will be able to review position papers on subjects including the role of knowledge-based industries, talent and more and comment on them in the discussion forum.

Please take the time to make your opinion heard as an actively involved member of our community and business leader. Ottawa has a great economic future filled with potential across so many industries.

Let’s do what we can to ensure that the City has significant and sincere input that they can use to define an approach to economic development that reflects the realities of our great city!