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The 100 Mile Guelph Tech Diet

December 22nd, 2009
[ General ]

A few weeks back, our mayor here in Guelph wrote on her blog about IT in the downtown. There are several interesting thoughts in her post but I want to focus in on “Perhaps an IT Accelerator Centre right in the downtown is what we need to achieve two important goals – downtown revitaliztion and job creation”

I realize the mayor wasn’t being literal here, however, it’s the ‘outside saviour’ mentality that scares me. You can sense some of this in the comments as well, “Provide major incentives to IT corporations (Oracle, CISCO, Microsoft, google, Adobe) to open R&D centres here. I would say make a plan and go to them directly with incentives.”

Waiting on AC or some tech ‘knight in shining armour’ to ride into town with jobs and bags of gold coins is the wrong solution. Not to mention it’s disempowering, bordering on disrespectful, to us kids slogging it out in Guelph tech today. As someone who’s created jobs in Guelph tech, including recruiting people to move here to work, most outsiders don’t get Guelph. That’s not elitist as I assume the same applies to any city. My point is let’s at least start with the people already at the table. People who have already bought homes here, built companies here and made a long term commitment to Guelph. I once read a quote that character is formed by what you commit to. If that holds water then let’s start with the people who form the character of Guelph today.

We aren’t Toronto, we aren’t San Fran and we are not Waterloo. What worked in those cities may not work here. Does that mean AC, Microsoft, google etc should be kept out or not play a role? Hell no, they just aren’t a saviour we need to wait around for.

Instead of chasing outsiders, let’s go directly to existing local companies who have a track record of building tech in Guelph. Let’s go to companies like Innosphere, well.ca, RKD, Barking Dog, etc and provide them incentives and tools to take the next step on their journeys. What do those companies actually need? My guesses…

Be A Customer
These companies need projects. I’m not suggesting protectionism but local companies can help by taking a longer, harder look locally when it comes to spending their IT dollars. I’m looking at you City of Guelph. I have a hunch you’re spending something on IT next year. How much of that is going to local companies instead of choices that ‘no one can get fired for’?

You want strong, diverse, innovative tech in Guelph? Excellent, then put your exciting projects in the hands of local companies. Take a few risks on some companies that may not be the lowest bidder or strongest contender on paper. Give a company a project that may be out of their comfort zone. Help them add to their portfolio and their bottom line. Be the first customer. Think of it as the 100 mile tech diet, well maybe not 100 miles but you get the point.

Participate
I’ve long felt that we’ll eventually realize commuting doesn’t work. The problem is most individuals don’t feel they have any choice but to drive into Waterloo or Toronto to work in tech. We have the minds already in this town. The problem is most of them get into their cars and drive to another city to use those minds. Not to mention, buy their lunches, do their shopping, etc.

If you’re commuting, start looking into companies and the scene in Guelph. It may not happen overnight but there’s a job in town for you here. Or talk to me and I’ll help find you one or help you create one. Come out to events like DemoCampGuelph, Coffee and Code and participate. Find a way to contribute. This goes for companies as well. Find ways you can contribute and grow the Guelph tech ecosystem.

Grow Talent
If you’re running a company, start explicitly mentoring people in your company to build their skills up to running their own show someday. Put yourself out of a job by building your team up to take over your company so you can start your next company. Growing the next generation of tech talent is a race that changes daily and is far from won. I guarantee you that even the rockstar tech cities are worried about this one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 10:22 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://www.johnrockefeller.net/ John Rockefeller

    Fantastic post. As a freelance PHP web developer and CTO of Synn Studios Inc. here in Guelph, I couldn’t agree more. Thanks so much for the shout out to the Coffee and Code group, as well. Members of the tech community are more than welcome to join us weekly starting up again early next year.

  • http://www.royalcityscene.com Chris Bitton

    Great write up. As someone who has been both self employed & an employee in Guelph tech, it is so great to see the things you (and others) are trying to do here! As someone who used to commute out of the city in to Waterloo to work (and subsequently shop) it excites me to think that others may soon be able to do the same.
    If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself “i really should stop commuting and stay local — but i can’t.” I urge you to just do it! There are many tech events going on throughout the year in Guelph. Come out and meet those that are doing it now. Most even commuted in the past just like you. You will thank yourself. I will thank you.

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  • Matt Shacklady

    Well said.

  • Greg

    Just a note on the City using local IT companies – when a project is put out to tender the City is not allowed to base their decision on location, provincial legislation prohibits it. They have to choose the lowest bidder.

  • brydon

    I would assume that’s the case Greg which is the point of starting to talk about this. If people agree with parts of what’s written above then we can start the conversations about how to change, or work around, those policies. I’m assuming that’s part of local government’s value and mandate? It may also be a differentiator for us in Guelph in that other communities may not go through the effort required to do that.

  • Jasper Harlaar

    Right on the mark! Nurture what we have in place already. The City could allocate a greater portion of its IT budget locally and also use non-financial means to promote existing tech companies.

    For instance when Linamar developed a Centre of Excellence here in Guelph did it receive financial backing or incentives from our local municipal government? If so why not tie to that a requirement for local tech utilization. Linamar may have done this on their own accord of course – they are a great company and very focused on Guelph’s continued success!

  • http://blog.syntaxc4.net Cory Fowler

    Thanks for the shout out to Coffee and Code. We’d love to see more people out that are passionate about development and learning new technologies. See you in the New Year

  • Greg

    It’s actually a provincial policy that determines the rules for municipal tenders. The City has to follow it. However it is beneficial to Guelph IT companies as it gives them a fair chance when bidding on projects in other cities.

  • http://www.growthroute.com Greg Boutin

    Great post, Brydon.

    Having been in Guelph for a bit over 16 months without getting any local client here (or in Waterloo for that matter), I am moving back to Toronto where I did (it’s not the only reason I am moving back though, to be fair), so I must first agree with the mayor that something should be done about the local tech scene and especially the limited focus on commercialization. I guess no one needs an experienced commercialization consultant here, and I leave with the feeling that having an MBA from stanford was a handicap in this region, when clients in other regions – all the way to Florida and South Africa – all found great use for my time. I know this will sound arrogant, but I had to say it.

    Having said that, I think that adding more so-called “nonprofit” commercialization hubs (where a large proportion of the staff gets $100K+ salaries…) is certainly not the solution. The existing ones are good when they limit their roles at connecting people, organizing events, and lobbying the government for start-up friendly policies. But they have received so much money that they are now expanding into private sector territory, and doing so with no public reporting requirement and poor performance management. They have legions of good people moving lots of air and giving an impression of activity, but delivering very little results for start-ups (and only for handpicked ones on top)

    It is clear to me that the ROI is not there, and their increasing expansion in the delivery of services is worrying. Adding one in Guelph won’t do anything, and in fact there already is the GPI at http://www.guelphinnovation.com/, they could simply beef up the IT pole of that one (interested recommendation: use private consultants, at least there is a clear performance management framework in place when you do)

  • http://speakfeel.ca Kelly Brooks

    Thanks for the shout out to RKD in your post. I manage SpeakFeel, the mobile division start-up of RKD Web Studios.

    I agree, that local tech companies deserve a shot. But at the same time, those companies have to support the momentum by becoming involved with the community tech initiatives. We can’t sit and wait for opportunities to come to us, whether they are clients or employees or venture capitalists. We have to prove we are worthy :) .

    RKD Web Studios Inc. has always worked with local clientele, but we have been guilty of not mingling within the local tech community. Perhaps we were too busy, or maybe unaware (not real excuses – I know). That is all changing with the local connections that social media has allowed many of us to develop, along with the amazing Demo Camp and other networking sessions.

    So I agree, orgs should support local tech, but at the same time, local tech has to make an effort to prove their abilities by becoming a presence in the community. We have to support local talent (ie. hiring a co-op student, attending networking events and by providing mentoring resources when it is required). RKD has made that a key initiative in 2009 and moving forward. It think all local tech should do the same if they aren’t yet.

    Thanks and see you at next Demo Camp.

    Kelly Brooks
    Managing Director, SpeakFeel Mobile
    (a Div of RKD Web Studios Inc.)

  • Craig Hyatt

    Don’t forget the University! There are many ways in which the University of Guelph could work with the city and with local companies for mutual benefit: Through commercialization of research or as a research partner, as a customer, or by linking on-campus tech folks with folks like you.

  • Greg C

    Well said. As someone who lived and worked in Waterloo all those years, I had a front row seat for the shining knight syndrome. Google, etc. coming in was great but, yes, there were plenty of other companies doing hard work for years. Even the ones that failed helped plenty of people to pay their mortgages or employed co-op students or, as I think you alluded, trained people who went on to later and great successes.

    I think newspapers might have an excuse because names like Google will still mean something to people who work outside of hi-tech. But, anyone blogging about the IT sector should keep in mind the players at different levels.

  • http://www.thecodefactory.ca Ian Graham

    TheCodeFactory is a business incubator and start-up co-working space in Ottawa http://www.thecodefactory.ca If anyone reading this blog is interested in setting up something similar in guelph please feel free to ping me.

    best,

    Ian