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TECH ICONS
SWING INTO B.C.
Sector on track to reach $30 billion in revenues as Amazon, Microsoft and Sony Pictures Imageworks set up shop PETER MITHAM
D
uring the late 1990s, a brain drain gripped the Vancouver tech sector. A weak dollar had sent skilled workers south to wellpaying U.S. jobs in the run-up to what became known as the tech bust. The best made their fortunes, the rest gained experience, and when the party was over, many returned to B.C.
The economic fallout of what happened – the good and the bad – saw a new approach emerge to courting companies. An overhaul of the province’s prevailing tech strategy occurred. The province developed a host of new programs, not to mention incentives, tailored to attracting capital and talent. Older companies were joined by new companies, even though exchange rates had put the U.S.
02_INVEST IN BC 2015_P1-112_02.indd 17
The Amazing SpiderMan is among the film creations by Sony Pictures Imageworks, which relocates its head office from California to downtown Vancouver in 2015 | SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS
and Canadian currencies on almost equal footing. Today, approximately 84,000 people work in the tech sector, and an additional 10,000 are on track to arrive by 2018. By then, the tech sector’s revenues are projected to top $30 billion, anchored by the handful of companies that have become industry leaders, with more than 750 employees – companies such as Avigilon Corp., Vision
2015-03-05 10:38 AM