In Cambridge - a beautiful historic location

Conversations in the hallways and in the streets during my first day of meetings in Cambridge were dominated by one topic, the rather poor showing of the England Football team in the World Cup and their loss to and elimination by Germany the day before. You could not turn on a radio or TV or pass someone in the street without hearing national disgust at the game and the terrible state of football in the UK now that it had been taken over by the financial interests of club football. Sounded like the comments in North America about the NFL, NBA and NHL. Welcome to the world of professional sport.

I was meeting my colleague Terry Mughan at Anglia Ruskin University to discuss an open innovation project that we were working on with other North European cities, but our conversation got slightly sidetracked. The new coalition government in the UK had come down with its emergency budget and one item involved the cutting or elimination of funds to the Regional Development Agencies (RDA’s). The cuts would be greatest in the regions of England doing well, London, the Southeast and East England, the location of Cambridge. The project that we were working together on was likely to be affected. Terry indicated that several other projects affecting initiatives to ensure Cambridge competitiveness would also be affected.

Entrance to Robinson Hall

What turned out to be cathartic for me was being in picturesque Cambridge on a sunny day and trying to right the wrongs of the world. Terry and I got into a discussion on globalization and how public policy was still trying to desperately catch up with our post financial crisis world or even the tech crash of earlier this decade. The UK was looking to take the standard path: the areas around London were doing well, areas like the midlands and the north were doing poorly, therefore send the money to the regions not doing as well and let the prosperous regions fend for themselves. Standard redistribution of wealth. Now we were talking about one of my favourite topics. The unfortunate necessity in wealth redistribution is that you have to have wealth to redistribute.

For at last 50 years, the driving force of the modern Canadian economy has been the Toronto-Montreal-Ottawa triangle. A fact of life in Canadian public policy has been to let Southern Ontario survive, it is doing well, and see how the government can help the rest of Canada’s economy catch up, often using the tax revenue from Ontario. Obviously, the UK has some of the same issues. Since both Terry and I are involved in knowledge-based industries and how they compete and survive (albeit coming at the question from different perspectives), we got into the discussion.

Both Ottawa and Cambridge are exporting regions, dominated by knowledge-based and highly innovative and entrepreneurial companies. Both regions are examples of the new economic reality: we compete globally and the vast majority of revenue is generated from exports. We have to be constantly adjusting to retain our competitive edge. We have as many or more alliances with like regions in other countries than with regions at home. The standard national policy response in crisis periods is to throw money at the regions in need and let the less affected regions fend on their own, as is being considered in the UK now. But the UK is also looking for an export led recovery, depending on regions like Cambridge.

And here we have the dilemma. You have the high performing regions battling it out in a global economy with an ever changing competitive environment. Yet, they are not to be supported. How does public policy establish the national framework that supports their Cambridges and Ottawas to achieve those export related goals at an international level and yet not have it appear at the national level that support is being given to the haves. As I talked to other companies throughout the week, this theme kept resurfacing. Strategies were being developed to solidify Cambridge’s global reputation, and yet these could be forgotten as the national government responded to regional disparity concerns. The investment needed to keep that export engine turning is often relatively small. There is not the big dollar, ribbon cutting opportunity of new factories or hundreds of jobs.

Every once in awhile, it is great to break out of the churn of daily business, and debate the larger challenges of our business. It is also great to hear that we were not the only region facing the challenge of responding to international competitiveness in the face of old public policy concepts. It will be interesting to see what country will understand this new dimension of national policy and respond.

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On June 10^th during the Student Showcase of computer learning games developed by young, talented programmers from the High School Technology Program, we hosted over 130 guests at Earl of March Secondary School.  This year-end celebration of student teamwork and hands-on learning in software development was a resounding success with attendees sharing stories and student accomplishments including Grade 10 students programming in Java.

I was truly amazed at the enthusiasm and expertise demonstrated by the participating industry mentors during their weekly visits to the classrooms throughout this year’s High School Technology Program which involved approximately 100 students from five high schools in the Ottawa region including:  All Saints Catholic High School, Earl of March Secondary School, Ecole secondaire catholique Garneau, Mother Teresa Catholic High School, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School.

This program’s outstanding experiential learning opportunities would not be possible without the ongoing commitment and passion to this program from our industry and academic partners including:  Algonquin College, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, IBM Canada, Macadamian, RIM, Nortel, Avaya, Apption, Nakina Systems, and others.

The eyes of participating students popped when they had a chance to explore on field trips to industry and post-secondary institutions both career possibilities and post-secondary pathways toward realizing their dreams for a future in Ottawa’s ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and other sectors by visiting animation, gaming and multimedia environments, software development facilities, virtual simulation research and advanced aviation technologies and training simulation labs. 

The students’ excitement was especially evident during industry site visits. They were totally engaged in a competitive robotics exercise and unique development experience in interactive multimedia and design labs at the universities as well as tours within the College’s advanced technology and media and design schools. The chance to interact with prestigious professors and talk to senior students already pursuing studies on campus was an extremely valuable experience for all judging from the feedback from the high school students.

Want to get involved?  Contact Nancy Côté at ncote@ocri.ca or 613 828 6274 ext. 211 for more details on the awesome rewards of mentorship and student experiential learning that is planned for next year’s program in 2010-2011!

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I recall the comment by Mark Twain, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”. This phrase definitely applies to Hong Kong. When Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, many, including me, thought that the glory days of Hong Kong were over. Its importance as a global business centre would slowly fade. Hong Kong’s manufacturing base has certainly moved to China, but it has been replaced by an even stronger service sector. It serves as not only as a market in itself, but as an entry point to China and to all of Asia.

We are given talks by both Christopher Jackson of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and John Zimmerman of the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong. Both present a barrage of statistics that clearly demonstrate that the Hong Kong economy continues to grow. But the previous day, we had seen the real proof that Hong Kong is alive and well.

Exhibit at Cyberport

Exhibit at Cyberport

Ottawa has a burgeoning digital media sector with enormous potential. Our telecommunications heritage, our near 50 year history in animation and the growing number of gaming companies put Ottawa in an excellent position in the new multi-platform world. We have learned from our photonics experience, a common infrastructure platform like the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre can provide an enormous competitive advantage to our SME’s. We visit Cyberport in Hong Kong, an investment by the Hong Kong government to encourage the growth of digital media in the region. The facilities and capabilities are impressive. The digital backbone, the studios, the 3D capability all allow the companies to concentrate on the market and their development of intellectual property rather than struggling to afford capability. We are developing a concept for similar infrastructure and this visit gives us plenty of ideas. But we also learn about the continuing Hong Kong reality. Cyberport is both a business and residential development, and located on waterfront. From one of the studio areas, we can look out onto the residential development. We naively ask what the three storey townhouses cost, thinking maybe close to a million dollars, given that it is Hong Kong. Our hosts calmly tell us, try 20 times that! One single family unit is under negotiation for around 35 million U.S. dollars. Hong Kong is alive and well.

We have seen success in mainland China by our experienced companies in both ICT and cleantech. But these are the exceptions not the rule in Ottawa. It has been evident that the Chinese are looking for total solutions. Unfortunately, the success of our SME’s in the U.S. market has been by supplying innovative technology at lower levels in the supply chain. Hong Kong is building a solid reputation in China as a solution provider, putting together the technology from around the world that meets the Chinese need.

Hong Kong has a definite role to play in our China strategy. The reports of Hong Kong’s death are exaggerated. We have come looking to find paths to success in China for our growing cleantech sector. We have left Hong Kong and China with confirmation that this is a market that cannot be ignored and with a better knowledge of the tools that will bring us success.

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On April 6th, I embarked on a 10-day economic development mission to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The mission, coordinated by OCRI, aims to strengthen existing relationships between our cities and to further establish Ottawa as one of China’s strategic partners.

Friday evening marked the conclusion of our delegation’s visit to the City of Beijing. We spent two short but jam-packed days in back-to-back meetings with government officials and professionals from a number of hi tech industries.

As Mayor of the City of Ottawa, my first and most important responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of the City’s residents, which means ensuring access to clean drinking water, waste management, fire and police services. But I also recognize the role of the City in ensuring the prosperity of our citizens, which means creating the kind of environment in which our citizens and companies can prosper. With that focus in mind, I am pleased to report that our mission to Beijing to promote investment and partnership opportunities was extremely successful.

On Thursday of last week I announced that Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong and I had signed a Memorandum of Understanding re-committing to the principles of our original 1999 sister-city agreement.  That was just the beginning of a waterfall of successes stemming from this mission.  OCRI has now signed a new agreement with the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau, and the Ottawa companies who are participating in this mission have had a number of successful meetings with potential customers, investors and partners. I was very pleased to see Tourism Ottawa sign a collaboration agreement with Badaling Special Zone Administration, the managers of the Great Wall of China.

The goal of our visit to Beijing was to promote partnerships in the areas of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Cleantech. For that reason, we were delighted to hear about Beijing’s commitment to building a world-class environmentally sustainable city when we visited the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition. We met with the Beijing Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Center where we were introduced to their impressive plans and programs for meeting the goals of the city.  During that meeting, we received confirmation that a delegation from Beijing will be traveling to Ottawa to meet with a broad range of our Cleantech companies.  This is important given the ongoing negotiations between the City of Beijing and Plasco regarding the  implementation of a waste-to-electricity facility in Beijing based on the leading-edge solution which has been developed and demonstrated in Ottawa.

Our delegation also had the privilege of attending and participating in the ICT and Cleantech Cross-Investment Seminar at Z-Park which included presentations by Canadian investment groups like Wesley Clover and Cleantech Capital. It was there that we learned of Huawei’s plans to significantly increase the number of people in their Ottawa R&D centre.

While the focus of our mission is clearly business development, it was a pleasure last evening to be hosted by Mayor Guo at a banquet where we were able to talk frankly about the role of Mayors in our two cultures and the tremendous opportunities of our bilateral relationship. As we begin to emerge from the global economic recession and move forward in a new economy, China has emerged as the key global market- 1.3 billion people, an impressive education system and strong economic growth.  Business partnerships with China will continue to become a more integral part of our economic progress both here in Ottawa and across the country.

My hope is that this mission will continue to provide opportunities to strengthen relationships, and that by working together we can further grow the prosperity of the people of both Ottawa and Beijing.

-30-

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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!

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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….

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In the city’s first broadband plan, access to the internet and addressing the digital divide were key issues to overcome in order to become successful in the new global economy.  Programs such as Smart Capital and National Capital FreeNet helped to establish Ottawa as the most connected city in the world.  Not only was technology and access to the technology provided to Ottawa residents, training was also available for those who needed help to develop a level of comfort with the new technology.  Smart Capital was funded by the federal and provincial governments to push forward Ottawa’s broadband connectivity plan. A variety of programs provided the framework for Smart Capital including: Digital Ottawa, Altogether Ottawa, FreeNet, E-Government, Smart Libraries, E-College, E-Democracy and Smart Sites. Today, a number of those programs no longer exist due to the fact that their mission was completed but some continue to serve the community to this day. Their range of services has evolved and changed to reflect the current needs and interests of the local community. 

In addition to technology-based inclusion, Ottawa is a firm believer in providing today’s students and our future leaders with the proper tools they need in order to learn effectively while in school. For that reason, we support learning and skill development for students at all levels through partnerships with the community, government and businesses to develop the talent Ottawa needs to support a globally competitive knowledge-based sector. Some of the community’s most valuable programs in this regard include OttawaReads – a literacy program, JUMP Math – numeracy program, Winning Innovations in Schools (WINS) – joint projects with local cleantech and life science companies for high school students, the High School Technology Program – hands on tech and programming experiences and the School Breakfast Program which provides a nutritious breakfast to 11,000 children in 145 schools each day.   

Did you know? The Ottawa Public Library (OPL) provides services free of charge to increase digital inclusion and the everyday use of technology. The Library works with many local, provincial and national partners to extend and enrich service. Free Internet access has been available at the Ottawa Public Library since 1996 and free high-speed Internet access has been available at all 33 branches of the Ottawa Public Library (OPL) since 2001.  High-speed wireless Internet access was first piloted at the Ottawa Public Library in 2007 and was installed in every branch of the OPL in 2008.  The Ottawa Public Library has 373 public access workstation that provide high speed internet access and a variety of software applications. Wheelchair-accessible computer workstations are available at all wheelchair accessible libraries. All courses at the Ottawa Public Library are offered free of charge. In 2008, 947,499 people used a public Internet access workstation at the OPL. In 2008, the Ottawa Public Library held 376 computer training sessions aimed at teaching older adults and newcomers how to use a personal computer, 1,512 people attended these sessions.

OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre Satellite Kiosks - As entrepreneurial activity spread across the vast Ottawa region it became evident that the one stop shopping approach taken by OCRI’s Entrepreneurship Centre was not adequate for the growing demand for its services. The concept of satellite offices was explored and pilot tested in Orleans with great success. Subsequently, two additional satellite kiosks in Kanata and Barrhaven have been opened.  The impact on the community has been significant while helping minimize costs for staff, travel and overhead and maximizing the use of digital technology to provide easy access services and business advice to constituents.  In 2009 alone, over 1000 people attended networking events hosted at the kiosk centres.

Ottawa Carleton District School Board – Special Education Allocation of laptops to students with Learning Difficulties. Each year, hundreds of laptops are loaned out to students with special needs through this ministry led initiative.  Hundreds of students, teachers and families benefit from this digital inclusion initiative. In the last five months, technical training has been provided to over 600 teachers, on a wide variety of subjects:  wikis, Google Apps, Photoshop Elements, Gizmos, ComicLife, Podcasting, PhotoStory. This year, the school board is introducing a new Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) training for elementary teachers. 

These are just a few of the great examples in Ottawa of programs and initiatives that really do make a difference. By bridging the gap between education and employment and providing access to technology Ottawa is definitely an intelligent city and Canada’s creative economy capital!

More grandstanding to come….

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Tomorrow, Claude Haw, President and CEO of OCRI, will speak about Ottawa’s Innovation Strategy in greater detail at the Mayor’s Breakfast at Ottawa City Hall.  Facts are… Ottawa has changed, we’ve got good news, positive momentum and diversity on our side which positions the city well for success in the new creative economy.

Over the next three months, the plan will be rolled out including objectives, targets and action items. Essentially, the Innovation Strategy will provide a road map to ensure that Ottawa’s creative class continues to build wealth and successful new companies.   

Key action items of the innovation strategy will address talent, cluster and ecosystem development, investment attraction and marketing the entire region to the world.

Check out Claude Haw’s article which appeared in this week’s Ottawa Business Journal.  He clearly outlines why and how well Ottawa is on track to becoming a leader in the creative economy.  Just like the article says – Ottawa has changed – and the new reality here includes new companies, new sectors, new success stories, renewed growth, revitalized energy and enormous potential.
 
So the next time someone asks you, “What’s Ottawa like?”, what will you say?  Tell them the real story – that Ottawa is Canada’s creative economy capital.

UPDATE: Claude Haw’s presentation is now available online http://www.ocri.ca/about/publications.asp

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I was asked by the federation to speak at their yearly conference, held this year in Tallinn amidst unbelievably well preserved 13th century buildings. It is quite the setting!

The topic was the model that the OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre uses in the delivery of SME services to our client groups. An interesting fact is that while Small Business Centres in Ontario total 57, and serve an overall population base exceeding 12 million, in Finland they have over 417 local associations, 21 regional based centres and 49 trade centres serving a total membership base- country wide of approximately 90,000 businesses. 98% of these have less then 10 employees.

Finland’s total population sits at around 5.2 million

Our strength and strategic alliances within the youth sector, as well as the ability of the EC to work quickly and effectively with private sponsors to support not only some of our funding requirements but also to act as key strategic partners in industry- is a novel concept for many of these centres. Being state-run limits, at times, their overall ability to act in an entrepreneurial manner- the hands-are-tied approach does not often instill confidence in the aspiring entrepreneur simply looking for help and advice.

A nugget of learning taken from the conference, and from my new Finnish friends- is their focus on the selling, and succession planning of and within SMEs. Where we have a “youth, starting and growing” focus, they include ’selling’ to the mix as more and more businesses are requiring help in succession.

Our web site -and the strength of our domain- was a hit and was our forthcoming model for growth -iProfit (using a web 2.0 platform as a complement to face-to-face mentoring).

Some contacts outside the realm of the EC were developed and passed along to the appropriate OCRI personnel-..

Great trip- experience- people!

Kittos,

Micheal Burnatowski

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How often does one see or hear of a brilliant and creative business idea and say “why didn’t I think of that?” Much too often for most and yet for many- it is a trigger that begins a journey as an entrepreneur.

As a founder of a small start-up, I have often required a helping hand from someone who has ‘been there, done that’.  And being a start-up there was always a bit of baggage – minimal cash on hand! What I needed was a mentor – a volunteer mentor.

Mentors are the unsung heroes of many a fledgling business as they provide guidance, advice, networks, and in many instance the most important need that a lone entrepreneur requires to make it through another day- a sounding board. (the back and forth conversations over how to get your product to market – at no cost yet with Frank your pet dog- just doesn’t cut it, …… after a few weeks).

To be frank (intended), each day that goes by without any bit of progress in the lonesome world of many a start-up entrepreneur, often creates a circle of doubt and leaves the drive, creativity and positive thought process to the dogs. (enough!)

The role of a mentor is to offer expertise in the development and growth of a business by helping prioritize plans, strategies, and if needed- hard hitting realities of the situation at hand. All should be captured and relished by the ‘protégé’.

 We are in the midst of launching a new version of the typical mentor-protégé relationship at the OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre in Ottawa. With the soon to be launch of a new web site offering clients ease of use and more interactivity in their small business research, the iProfit model of mentoring and advisory services will integrate Web 2.0  into an effective, time is of the essence, portal privy only to mentor, protégé and the OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre business advisor.

Crucial to the success of a small business is the ability to draw on expertise today and not tomorrow. iProfit provides the mentoring parties to immediately connect and respond to time sensitive issues which arise in the development and growth of any business. If required and convenient, online can take the place of face to face;  iProfit is also a model of e-mentoring built around the needs and concerns of the business.

But a blended approach to this mentoring service is what we believe will work best. You cannot replace the nuances gained by sitting down and sharing experiences –face to face.

September will see the launch of iProfit. Back to you then to share first experiences…..

Michael Burnatowski

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