Vancouver Island Technology Park

Valentine’s Day this past week was an especially happy time for ocean technology companies in Victoria as it marked the start of the first concrete step in a federal plan to make the most of shipbuilding in the west. Lynne Yelich, minister of state for the Western Economic Diversification Department came to Victoria to officially hand over $1 million to help construct a dedicated marine training centre (the province and industry are also contributing a further $15. million, for a total of $2.5 million for the project) . This is a follow-up to Seaspan Marine’s $8-billion federal contract to produce noncombat vessels as part of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. TC Business writer Andrew Duffy did a great overview of the story here.

While shipbuilding and trades may seem like a far cry from what goes on in Victoria’s booming, $2 billion tech sector, the announcement – and the funding – is big news for our industry. For one thing, it shows that the federal government is continuing to pay attention to the needs of western Canadians, both by providing much needed infrastructure, as well as resources for training. Victoria is on the radar.

As well, the $8 billion shipbuilding project itself will provide likely provide benefits for local technology companies. Victoria’s marine technology cluster is part of a larger provincial sector (driven by the port of Vancouver) that is said to generate at least $12 billion of revenue every year, and there will undoubtedly be opportunities for Victoria ocean technology companies to work on Seaspan-related projects.

In other good news, it’s expected up to 4,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created in B.C. as a result of the shipbuilding strategy. While the new training centre will help fill the funnel to make sure there will be workers to actually build the ships, there will be other jobs created in Victoria in the fields of software development, procurement, project management, accounting, business development, design, quality assurance… The list of possible jobs is endless, and luckily post-secondary institutions such as UVic are here to make sure there is a continued supplied of knowledge workers.

However, enrollment in math and science streams continues to decline, which means there just won’t be enough workers to fill Victoria’s growing technology industry (it employs 15,000 people!), even before the Seaspan project comes online. So local tech companies need to continue to be creative, and make sure students – and parents – understand what opportunities there are in the industry, and how to get to them.

VITP and its sister-facility MTC are home to a variety of ocean technology companies in Victoria.

Photo courtesy NEPTUNE Canada

Underwater robotic devices will be happy: UVic’s own Marine Technology Center (MTC) on the Saanich Peninsula is busily constructing a new state-of-the art building that will house the new North Saanich test tank facility.

Until now, submersible testing has been carried out in a repurposed dumpster in the parking lot. Excavation for the new building has already started, and the new building should be ready for to open by the spring.

The new test tank facility at the Marine Technology Centre is one of just a few in Canada. Although the ocean is close by, testing of instruments and platforms needs to be completed in a smaller, more easily accessed volume, and so far NEPTUNE  have been using a large dumpster filled with salt water.

Says NEPTUNE:

With our new facility, the dumpster is being replaced by a 5m x 5m, 3m deep tank and equipped with a chiller to keep the salt water within it cool. This tank will allow onsite testing of instrument platforms, nodes and most instruments. A small crane will be permanently installed next to our new tank permanently in order to lift and move smaller instruments. For very large instruments like nodes or our Veritcal Profiler System, a larger crane will be brought in to lift these heave delicate and very expensive instruments.

MTC is a University of Victoria initiative that is located at the heart of a growing marine cluster at Patricia Bay, in North Saanich. Neighbours include the federal government’s Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS), and, including other nearby properties, to the Marine Technology Centre, the area offers nearly 80 acres of businesses and institutions devoted to developing and commercializing marine technology.

The Marine Technology Centre itself is home to the VENUS project and the NEPTUNE project; VENUS is the coastal network of the Ocean Networks Canada Observatory, and is a cabled undersea laboratory for ocean researchers and explorers. VENUS delivers real time information from seafloor instruments via fibre optic cables to the University of Victoria, and operations are located at the Marine Technology Center in North Saanich.

NEPTUNE is  the world’s first regional-scale underwater ocean observatory network that plugs directly into the Internet. People everywhere can ‘surf the seafloor,’ while ocean scientists run deep-water experiments from labs and universities anywhere around the world.

The new space at MTC is going to be shared with VENUS and the University of Victoria’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Research Vessel Operations and Ocean Technology Test Bed (OTTB). The Marine Technology Centre as a whole is being developed to support and nurture the growth of the ocean and marine sector regionally.

Not only will this new test tank facility expand UVic’s current research and operational capabilities, but this infrastructure investment (including the North Saanich test tank facility) will help create the critical mass necessary for the Marine Technology Centre to become the regional hub for ocean and marine activity.

A company of innovation and strong technological aptitude, cebas aims to provide opportunities for new talent to share their ideas in such surroundings is what, we believe, makes them stand out and stay on top. cebas has called the Vancouver Technology Park home for nearly two years.

The cebas / UVic collaboration helps both achieve just that through its continuous strive to explore and grow local talent.

Cebas is working tirelessly with University of Victoria’s Department of Computer Sciences – Graphics lab – on one of the company’s major projects to further enhance their products adding unique features and ensuring impeccable outcomes.

The project focuses on the science of developing methods to simulate water through cebas’ thinkingParticles tool; a rule-based particle systems offering unlimited combination of conditions and operators that define the behavior of each single particle in a particle system.

Computer Sciences Master degree candidate, Jonathan Cobb, is an example of such great talent. The post-graduate student has been providing input, hard work and research material of high quality under the guidance of his direct supervisor Professor Brian Wyvill and internship program supervisor Professor Bruce Gooch.

Results, so far, have been of great significance indicating promising and timely progress. Cebas is certain that the project, once completed, will add immense value to thinkingParticles, with its already powerful and unique capabilities, and -in turn- the industry as a whole.

Company also announces promotion of President Greg Bobolo to CEO

Victoria, B.C., December 6, 2011 – Cloud-based news platform SendtoNews.com is pleased to announce that it has closed a $1 million financing round from angel investors led by Elton, Adrian and Myron Pereira & Don Wharton, all Co-Founders at ParetoLogic Inc. The funds are targeted to accelerate North American expansion out of its offices in Victoria, San Francisco and New York.

“This round of angel financing will allow us to grow our team, aggressively increase our sales and marketing efforts into the sports event marketing and advertising industries, and continue to innovate and scale our technology to keep pace with the rapid adoption of our cloud-based news distribution platform,” said new CEO Greg Bobolo.

SendtoNews launched its platform at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics where more than 1,450 reporters used the SendtoNews platform to send video to their home networks in over 200 different countries. The platform has since been used for high-profile sporting events worldwide and adopted by North America’s largest news organizations.

The ability of SendtoNews to distribute sporting event highlights for large-scale exposure on web and television presents revenue opportunities in one of the fastest growing segments of a $475 billion global advertising market. Spending on sports marketing and advertising by the top 50 North American companies was up 27% last year, and global sports spending is projected to increase from $114 billion in 2009 to $133 billion by 2013. In the U.S., advertisers spent an estimated $7.6 billion on sports programming in 2009. An average of 81 million people visit sports websites in the U.S. every month.

SendtoNews’s service of packaging and distributing video coverage has unique revenue potential in the sports sponsorship market, which was identified by PricewaterhouseCoopers as the fastest-growing sector of global sports spending, with a forecast increase of 20%, from 29.4 billion in 2009 to $35.2 billion in 2013.

SendtoNews was recently shortlisted for Forbes’ list of “America’s Most Promising Companies.” It was also rated top startup in Western Canada by a panel of U.S. industry experts in Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada’s October 2011 Technology Growth Initiative (TGI) competition, which identified companies with outstanding U.S. market launch potential.

The company’s success drew the attention of Elton Pereira, a Victoria-based entrepreneur who co-founded the security and utility software company ParetoLogic and helped transform it into one of North America’s fastest growing technology companies.

“I recognized this as an exceptional investment opportunity,” said Pereira. “SendtoNews.com is well positioned in the high-growth space of cloud-based news distribution and has paired a transformational technology with a management team that has an exceptional knowledge of the news industry.”

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The Vancouver Island Technology Park would like to welcome another new member of our team, Gina Bugslag!

Gina is our new VITP Collaboration Centre Coordinator and you will find her smiling at the Welcome Desk when you arrive at VITP. Gina is responsible for both guest services and security within the VITP Collaboration during the daytime hours Monday to Friday. Her main goal is to raise our level of hospitality, and to ensure that everyone’s experience at VITP is exceptional. She will do this by offering services ranging from escorting your 3 year old grandson into the building, to providing restaurant suggestions, to assisting you with your meeting or conference set-up, or even offering free life advice!

Gina was previously employed at Vancouver Island University as their Event Coordinator, and has extensive experience in executing a variety of events. We are excited to have her lend her expertise with our Conference Centre, and to assist with the re-branding of the VITP Business Centre.

Gina is a home grown Island girl who was born and raised in Victoria, BC. She obtained a Bachelor of Tourism Management Degree (Recreation/ Marketing) from Thompson Rivers University in 2010. When she’s not at work, you will find her hiking with her dog, playing on her sailboat, or enjoying the snow at the ski hill.

Gina is in the process of obtaining a Basic Security Training (BST) License and holds her Bronze Medallion First Aid Certificate.  Securiguard will continue to work evenings, nights, weekends and holidays, and are excited to work in cohesion with Gina to effectively keep our facility as secure as possible.

Welcome Gina!

For all security related matters please continue to contact 250-483-3215, 250-889-4654 or security@vitp.ca 24/7. For all matters outside of security you can email Gina directly at gbugslag@vitp.ca.

Nikki de Goey is the Manager of Culture and Corporate Relations at Vancouver Island Technology Park.

Did you hear? We launched a 60-day Facebook campaign at Discover Tectoria last Thursday! As the official sponsor of Startup Alley, we wanted to reinforce to the technology community that the Vancouver Island Technology Park continues to support companies big and small from start-up to Fortune 500.

By simply ‘liking” our Facebook Page and entering our contest you could be the lucky winner of an 8gig iPod Touch! The contest closes February 8th, 2012.

VITP is not only the place where Great Ideas Happen but also the place where they can grow.  Providing an ideal business friendly environment for companies big and small, VITP is the mecca of innovation and technology commercialization in the region.  35 acres, 190,000 square feet, 33 technology companies employing 1100 of the regions brightest individuals all combined make VITP the Place to Hit the Ground Running.

VITP boasts a power of place….a physical and cultural environment that have proven to be true magic.  “Architecture facilitates relationships”, “collaboration through co-location” are just a couple of the real benefits of being located at the park.

The scope of services and expertise VITP offers is unlimited.

•       VITP creates an environment that allows companies to attract and retain high-value jobs for the community.

•       VITP assists in the identification and introduction of angels, venture capitalists and institutional bankers.

•       VITP promotes the reputation of its companies and academic institutional partners.

•       VITP partners with technology associations to attract and retain high-technology companies.

•       VITP develops lasting partnerships among regional, national and international industries, governments and academia institutions.

Thinking of locating at VITP or wanting to find out more information? We have commercial office space for lease to accommodate start-up to medium sized companies.  Contact us today!

Visit www.facebook.com/myvitp to enter!

Nikki de Goey is the Manager of Culture and Corporate Relations at Vancouver Island Technology Park.

The Vancouver Island Technology Park (VITP) is proud to support The Charity Guys and their 2011 Coats for a Cause Campaign benefiting the Victoria Cool Aid Society! Notoriously females have been the designated “clothes horses” of a family but we all have those sweaters, coats and toques that we no longer wear and have allowed them to creep into back corners of our closets.  We are asking that you dig out your retired winter articles of all colours, sizes and fashion eras and drop them in the VITP front lobby so that we can help the Charity Guys and hopefully 1000’s of kids, teens and adults in Greater Victoria stay warm this winter! Not only are we offering you the opportunity to give back during the holiday season but also the incentive to clean out your closet!

We will be accepting donations all week until end of day Friday, December 2nd, 2011.  Please drop your donations in the large bin near Security.

About the Charity Guys:

The Charity Guys are nothing more than a group of middle-aged guys looking to make a difference in the community – that’s it. Though this may sound simple or generic, it is the basic premise for our being. We seek to help others and improve the well-being of our community. We feel that, as a group, we’ve been very blessed and privileged thus far, and we’d like to give back by raising the standard of living for those around us.

About  the Victoria Cool Aid Society:

The Victoria Cool Aid Society has been building hope, lives and community in the Capital Region for over 40 years, since 1968, through a wide range of programs including supported housing, community health and dental services, emergency shelter, mental health and employment services, and the Downtown Community Centre. Cool Aid focuses its services for adults who are homeless or in need of help and provides assistance to over 10,000 individuals every year.

The Victoria Cool Aid Society traces its origins to the Cool Aid Hostel, which was established over 40 years ago, on June 10, 1968, to provide short-term, emergency shelter to transient youth travelling the country. Today, Cool Aid operates a diverse range of social and health services for those in our community who are most vulnerable.

Nikki de Goey is the Manager of Culture and Corporate Relations at Vancouver Island Technology Park.

Need one more reason besides doing good for your community? How about so your family doesn’t nominate you for Hoarders based on your closet looking like this:

Have you heard the news? VIATeC and the Greater Victoria tech community will be putting on Discover Tectoria (pdf) (the cool kids call it DiscoTec) on December 8th, and Vancouver Island Technology Park is proud to be part of it. Dozens and dozens of Victoria’s advanced technology companies will be attending DiscoTec in early December to show off all the cool things they are working on to make Victoria the fastest growing tech hub in the province.

More importantly, DiscoTec is all about fostering up-and-coming talent to continue to build a strong tech sector – and provide interesting, high-paying jobs for Victoria graduates.

That’s why Vancouver Island Technology Park will be sponsoring “Startup Alley”. Startup Alley is where Victoria’s newest companies will have the opportunity to show the Victoria community what they’re up to, to help generate interest (and perhaps even investment dollars!). It’ll be a lot like  VIATeC’s recent Launch Party, where the coolest kids in the room wowed seasoned tech folks with their latest gadgets, gizmos and products that will undoubtedly revolutionize the way we live.

We want to encourage you to attend Discover Tectoria at the Victoria Conference Centre (actually, the cool, cool Crystal Gardens across the street) on December 8th. For one thing, we hear VIATeC has arranged for more than 1200 local students to be bused in for the day. As well, it’s a great chance to learn more about what’s up in the tech sector and to show your pride in our community.

And be sure to look for us in the Startup Alley.

New DiscoTec site is live check it out to find out more event details!

Nikki de Goey is the Manager of Culture and Corporate Relations at Vancouver Island Technology Park.

Victoria Launch Party II from Dan Gunn on Vimeo.

BC Ambulance Service plans to relocate its Vancouver Island dispatch centre and Colwood ambulance station to an earthquake ready building on Leigh Road, near the Spencer interchange.

The two-storey building will house four ambulance bays and the dispatch service on City-owned land across from Spencer’s Pond. The project has a June 2013 deadline and the facility would employ about 60 people.

“The ambulance service will have great access to the highway and the core area,” said Langford fire Chief Bob Beckett, who was involved in discussions for establishing a new station in Langford. “From my perspective in emergency services, Langford will benefit greatly from having this resource in our community. We are going to have a modern, state of the art ambulance station.”

The ambulance service plans to move its Island communications centre from the Vancouver Island Technology Park in Saanich to Langford by July 2013, one of three such centres in the province. At the same time, the three-bay ambulance station on Jacklin Road would become redundant and shut down.

The ambulance service is leasing the building from Langford for 20 years, and will pay about $500,000 per year in operating costs and rent, according to lease documents.

Although the City owns the land, Keycorp Consulting in Langford is financing and constructing the building. Mayor Stew Young said Langford is acting as a “flow through” between the development company and BC Ambulance.

“It is a three-way partnership, but there is no money in it for the City,” Young said. “Langford is a flow-through. The contract is with us, and we have a contract with the person who will own the building.”

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