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.

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Since the start of the Canada’s Top 10™ Competition, winners from across ICT, Life Science and Cleantech have raised more than $600 Million in investment to really take their companies to the next level and become global players. Have a look at some past winners like Bel Air Networks, I Love Rewards, Variation Bioscience, Bioniche, and Paradigm Technologies or Menova Energy and you’ll know what I mean. These companies all had similar traits that made them catch the eye of investors, strategic partners, and customers – the Competition, its partners and sponsors, and its jury members including angels, venture capital and private equity investors from around the world, was just the catalyst to help get them in front of the right people at the right time.

What do winners receive for this prestigious honour of being named a winner? I’ve already mentioned that winners are chosen by investors that may have a direct interest in digging deeper into the companies they chose. Even more important than that however are the targeted road shows and events that winners will have a chance to participate in. In addition to a one day dedicated coaching session with partners and sponsors to get them ready to raise capital, other events where we will showcase the Canada’s Top 10™ winners of 2010 will include the Banff Venture Forum, the National Angel Capital Organization Summit, and a host of targeted investment and partnering events in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Washington and locations in Europe. All for winners and alumni of the Canada’s Top 10™.

So what are we looking for in this year’s competition? First of all, applicants need to be raising funds in the next 12 months of $1M or more and must fall in to the broad categories of ICT, Life Sciences and Clean Technology. Technologies should be validated and there should be a defined market opportunity and path to market. A sales plan and a strong management team round out the high level categories. Keep in mind that an independent jury of investors makes the final decision based on their collective agreement on investing in an applicant. Think syndication in its simplest form with investors at least agreeing on the best investments.

I am looking forward to the road ahead and to seeing all of the applicants over the next two months. The competition is open now and will remain open until August 20, 2010. Winners will be announced in early September. You can find more information at www.topcanadiancompanies.com .

See you on the road.

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The awards celebrate excellence in the areas of research, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, strategic partnerships and student accomplishments. New categories this year include the Research Award, Health Innovation Award and Student Entrepreneur of the Year. Nominations for the 11 categories were solicited from Ottawa’s business and education community last December. A record number of nominations were reviewed by the Society of Collaborative Opportunities and Advancement of Professionals (SCOAP). In addition, Exploriem’s Fastest Growing Bootstrap Startup Award was presented early in the evening.

“The award finalists represent key executives, business leaders, thinkers and strategists,” said Claude Haw, President and CEO, OCRI. “Again this year the quality and caliber of the nominations was excellent and the numbers have increased. The impressive accomplishments of this evening’s winners demonstrate a city that fosters world-class talent, innovative products and successful companies.”

After a stellar year for his team and technology, Iain Christie, President of Neptec, explains why the company is so pleased to be recognized as a 2010 OCRI Award winner. “As recipient of the Product of the Year award, Neptec’s team of scientists and engineers are honoured to be recognized by OCRI and the prestige it brings to our company, locally and internationally. The work OCRI does for the Ottawa technology and research industry is critical to ensuring that Ottawa remains competitive. We congratulate all finalists in the 2010 OCRI Awards.”

The 2010 OCRI Awards recipients are:

OCRI Company of the Year presented to DragonWave
In recognition of DragonWave’s leadership position in the high capacity packet microwave sector, exponential growth and continued global expansion combined with their commitment to Ottawa which raises the profile of local innovation and talent.

Next Generation Executive of the Year presented to Jason Flick, You i Labs
In recognition of his impressive track record and current involvement in the development of one of the Canadian Innovation Exchange’s top 20 innovative companies.

Strategic Partnership of the Year presented to QNX and Alcatel-Lucent
In recognition of their combined efforts and success transforming a car into a first-class citizen of the Cloud which garnered immediate and overwhelming international media coverage in 2009.

Most Promising Startup of the Year presented to Telepin
In recognition of the success and impact of Telepin’s Cayman mobile transaction infrastructure software and the company’s ability to raise funds to support their growth.

Product of the Year presented to Neptec, TriDAR
In recognition of Neptec’s latest space hardware, TriDAR, designed and manufactured in Ottawa and used in space on the Shuttle Discovery.

Service of the Year presented to UBM TechInsights
In recognition for the company’s holistic approach to intellectual property management and its services that bridge the legal and technology worlds on more than 1,800 projects for over 200 clients.

Research Award presented to:
Dr. Robert Korneluk
In recognition for his leadership and contribution to the ApoptoGen team and their work in the field of programmed cell death and cancer research.
Dr. Duncan J. Stewart
In recognition of his many discoveries in vascular biology and genetic engineering as well as his pioneering new therapies that enhance the repair functionality of cells.

Health Innovation Award presented to Dr. Pierre Cardinal, CRI Critical Care Education Network
In recognition for the revolutionary impact of CRI on the delivery of critical care education resulting in measurable improvements in critical care including reductions in incidents, including deaths, in Ottawa and elsewhere in the country.

Student Researcher presented to Razib Iqbal, University of Ottawa
In recognition of his research in P2P adaptive video distribution and his compressed-domain adaptive video streaming system, called Dag-Stream, which allows for adaption, authentication and encryption of video on the fly.

Student Entrepreneur presented to Muhammad Arsalan and Atif Shamim
In recognition of taking their award-winning research to the next level, now in the early stages of commercialization with industry giants lining up as possible suitors.

High School Innovation presented to John McCrae Secondary School – Web 2.0 Site
In recognition of three teachers’ development of a user-friendly website with a wiki front page that improves efficiency for administration and staff, but also serves parents and students.

Exploriem’s Fastest Growing Bootstrap Startup presented to Telepin
In recognition for their rapid success and significant top line growth.

-30-

About OCRI:

Leading the way for Ottawa, OCRI is the city’s economic development agency. OCRI is the rallying point to bring business, education, research and talent together to create the winning economic conditions that allow Ottawa’s knowledge-based 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. In 2010, Ottawa was named one of the world’s top seven intelligent communities by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).

For information contact:

Kim Cunningham
Manager, External Communications
OCRI
Office: (613) 828-6274 ext. 256
Cell: (613) 851-0768
kcunningham@ocri.ca

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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!

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IPeak is a great Ottawa example of a company that started with a good technical idea and a desire to learn how to turn that idea into a successful enterprise.  Not only did Matt Williams, founder of IPeak, help develop the company’s core technology but Matt was very open to learning from others who had built companies before.  He was able to gather the best people around him early on to move the business forward.

IPeak was a two-man operation when OCRI’s Investment and Commercialization team began working with them three years ago. When they graduated from the OCRI Business Accelerator they had expanded to seven employees, had secured their first sale, and raised over $1M in angel financing. They also were selected as a winner of the Canada’s Top 10 Competition which gave them exposure to a broad range of investors in Canada and the U.S. at an early stage.

Pulling together the right team has been one of Matt’s key strengths as a founder. He was not afraid to let go of the reigns as CEO and focus on his strengths on the technology side of the business as CTO. Couple that with his passion for the IPeak product and validation from key markets that his company met a market need and he was able to attract a high caliber CEO in Martin Horne to help grow the company to the next stage.

IPeak is just one example of how founders in our portfolio are working to build success in their own verticles and businesses through working with our team. It is an approach we think will result in the growth of more leaders like Matt and more growing, competitive companies like IPeak.

That’s the type of development that OCRI is working towards for Ottawa companies and entrepreneurs.

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A few other questions were also on point such as “what are the top 2 things a start-up needs to know to really succeed” and “what’s more critical – getting a product out that may have a few glitches or waiting and polishing it to near perfection before you take it to your client.” Pat addressed all these and more in his 45 minute presentation at OCRI’s Technology Executive Breakfast (TEB) this morning.  With eight start-ups in as many years under his belt and dozens more in his repretoire, it was sure to be a very informative and entertaining morning.

There are five things that must happen for any company– start-up or not — to be successful. 

First of all, you must become a “category of one” in the mind of your customers. This entails effective marketing, value positioning, and doing everything you can to win the crucial “bake-off” – especially if you know you deserve to win.  Pat used a great variety of examples that we could all relate to when he explained value positioning and the case of present mode of ops vs future mode of ops (PMO vs FMO). Citing his favourite business book and the evolution of the cable excavator to the back hoe as well as the FIDO phone that makes calls and sends texts to the I-Phone with 9,500 apps he demonstrated that the value of your product must meet and exceed the expectations of the target customer base.   Winning the ever critical technology “bake-off” is a make or break it opportunity for your company. Pat’s experience with BelAir clearly showed how important it is to know your value and position it correctly and then how to rally the team to go back and fight to win.

Adapt and adapt again. Be prepared to fine tune and adjust your approach to make your interface work and increase the impact in order to produce a real solution for your customers.

Simplify the confusing functionality of your technology. Very few people need to know all the bells and whistles that make it work. The black box does more than you think – it can simplify the way you operate, simplify the installation of the application,  present the solution to your customers in simple way, and transform into what everyone likes and appreciates – an easy button.

Scalability is key.  Being a small company, a start-up or a company with a product but no scale inhibits your ability to compete on a global scale.  There are ways around this.  Find a strategic partner or a number of them that can increase your output in order to meet client demands or entice a big brother to take you on. It may takes some coaxing  and baiting with evidence of business and significant returns because big brothers (or companies with scale but no product) don’t typically search out little brothers but the results can be big. Just ask BTI who teamed up with Fujistu in order to deploy massive quantities of product.

Execute.  All great plans must be executed well if they are going to make a difference.  First, the team must be in total alignment and then all efforts must be focussed.  If the team can’t work together – they can never be aligned. You need agreement to align at all stages of the process which has three parts 1) Vision (where are we going), 2) Current Reality (where are we now) and 3) The Plan (how do we get there). It’s a tough job, but it is the CEO’s responsibility to get  everyone to buy-into the alignment concept including the board, the team, the investors and the partners. Once you’ve established that everyone is on the same path, all your efforts, tactics, approaches must be in clear focus to be effective and efficient.  Pat recalled his SiGe experience which showed how important it can be to have a leader with excellent technological skills coupled with fantastic people skills in order to rally the team and align the efforts.  Product lines may need to change, approaches may be tweaked but when the alignment and focus is bang on and the chemistry among the players is solid you can pretty much count on improved performance. Just look at SiGe whose revenues  increased from around $67 M in 2007 to almost $100 M in 2008.

As Pat wrapped up, he explained that he’s learned many more lessons than he could ever cover in a short presentation and that there is always more learning to do.  No matter what business you’re in or what customer you are after, his five key pointers can always apply but admitted there could be more that work.  Teamwork, alignment, chemistry, flexibility, he certainly covered all the bases and in direct response to Mary’s question he added that sometimes you just need to fire someone. 

Great presentation! Looking forward to the next TEB.

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We are getting so many phone calls about the event – but I think folks are already in vacation mode and believe that September 24 is far enough away.  Well, in some aspects it is – it is after summer vacation – it is another school year…. but it is only 3 months away and 2 of those are July and August!  This is a great event with an amazing lineup and Donald Trump will actually be here in Ottawa talking to the business community.  Those that have booked are calling us to ask how they should set themselves up, what is the most strategic place to be on the floor etc!  They are very keen and have jump-started their organization to be ready for September 24!

One connection made between you and another exhibitor at the “water cooler” on the tradeshow floor can transform a business.  Just like this story….

Earlier this year, a potential development partner backed out of a deal because of the economic downturn (they didn’t understand the unprecedented and continued growth happening in the Kemptville area).   Westerra Homes approached a local business lawyer earlier this year to see if he had any contacts that would assist with the land development.  He was referred to a contractor in Embrun who was a recent acquaintance of the lawyer. The contact knew of Kemptville and believed in the project. A partnership was formed which allowed the infrastructure and servicing to begin for Phase I.  The municipality required security worth several hundred thousand dollars to support the land servicing work. Westerra’s commercial banker referred them to an existing developer located just 30 minutes west of Kemptville to assist in this regard. A partnership was formed and the project is now underway.

The power of multi-jurisdictional networking within the region resulted in two separate partnerships that enabled the start of a development that will generate more than $20 million in economic activity for Eastern Ontario and recurring property tax revenue of ~$200,000/year for the municipality of North Grenville.

Remember – just one new contact or one new piece of information can make a difference for a business and its community.

See you in September!

©2010 ocriblogs.com. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 ocriblogs.com. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 ocriblogs.com. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 ocriblogs.com. All Rights Reserved.