Recognized as a thought leader, champion of the Greater Victoria technology sector and the man with limitless passion, it was no surprise when Dale Gann, President of the Vancouver Island Technology Park, was asked to give the keynote address at the BC Association of Former MLAs dinner at the Government House in Victoria on June 8th, 2012.  In the presence of  the Honourable Steven L. Point Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, Dale gave a candid presentation explaining his vision on how to better grow Canada’s knowledge-based economy.

He begins his presentation discussing how technological innovations have changed the way we live, compete in business, educate ourselves, communicate, etc.  He then links technology’s impact on the global economy with the countries that are currently leading today.  Anyone that has met Dale quickly realizes that he can be categorized as a “people-person” and his main theme of the presentation “Canada’s Greatest Natural Resource is our People” naturally fits.  You can imagine the shock and confusion displayed by guests at this point as he explained how, natural resources may be extremely important to the Canadian economy but what we really need to invest in are the bright minds required to help raise our level of competitiveness. Dale quickly regained their confidence by demonstrating how Canada isn’t doing that bad at investing in the knowledge economy, in fact we’re doing OK. Take for example, the Region of Waterloo.  Voted the worlds most intelligent city and recognized as the technology mecca in Canada, they’ve successfully reinvented themselves from an industrial town and have attracted Fortune 500′s including Google, RIM and Sybase.

So what is Waterloo’s secret? How does Victoria compare? What can we do going forward to put Victoria on the radar and raise Canada’s global competitiveness overall?

You’re going to have to set some time aside from all your emails and “busy tasks” to watch Dale’s 45 minute presentation featured below to find out.

Dale Speech LT Gov June 2012 from Vancouver Island Tech Park on Vimeo.

We’d like to thank Eclipse Creative for helping us translate Dale’s vision into a graphically pleasing Prezi.