BCIC Town Hall with CEO Danny Robinson
How are we going to make BC the best place in the world to start and grow technology companies? Well, BC Innovation Council's CEO, Danny Robinson, has a plan. And we all have to help.
Yesterday at the BCIC Town Hall, to a packed room at SFU Segal Graduate School of Business, Danny shared BCIC's mission, strategies and guiding principles that will help to fortify BC's technology ecosystem, and support the creation of thousands of new technology jobs in BC.
Prior to the Town Hall meeting, Danny wrote a blog post outlining these strategies and principles. At the meeting, which was also viewable via webcast, Danny explained BCIC's plan in further detail, ensuring us that are to be no holes whatsoever in the technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. Danny further stated that this new mission can not be completed by one person, or one organization alone – that in order for BC to become be THE technology hub of North America, the startup community has to work together.
BCIC's intention is to actively monitor the quality and availability of the support programs available to BC entrepreneurs, and ensure that there is always somewhere, in every region, for entrepreneurs to go for help in every stage or technology sector. Whether companies anchor, exit, or fail, BC will still benefit from the knowledge and experience gained. As Danny stated, "Never believe anyone that says they did it right the first time." Those failures mean that they might get it right the next time. Or even the next time.
BCIC is also currently developing software to be able to track and help entrepreneurs as they progress through the stages with their startup companies.
An important item to mention, is that everything BCIC does, or plans to do, is going to be fully transparent. All of their plans will go up on their VOTE site, for the public to give feedback on, before they happen. And every year, program ideas available to entrepreneurs will go back up on VOTE, to re-evaluate them, and see if anyone has any suggestions to improve on them.
Entrepreneurs have already been pitching program ideas on the site, and voting and commenting on them. BCIC is reviewing all suggestions and will be responding to each of them. An entrepreneur added Bootup Garage to the list of Programs on Vote.BCIC.ca and it is the top Voted suggestion on the site. Thanks so much to everyone who voted and commented.
Lastly, Danny reminded the crowd that we, the entrepreneurs in BC, need to start telling our stories "loudly and proudly." Not enough people know that major startups like Flickr and HootSuite were started in Vancouver, BC.
At the end of the presentation, Danny opened up the floor to questions, and those watching via webcast could also contribute via twitter throught the hashtag: #BCICTownHall.
The webcast and Danny's presentation slides are now available online, or below, for those that missed the first Town Hall, but if you already have ideas or suggestions on how to improve BC's entrepreneurial ecosystem, make sure to drop by http://vote.bcic.ca/ to contribute them.
May 6, 2011 Danny Robinson	BC Innovation Council, BCICTownHall, Danny Robinson, startups
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