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Greater Victoria’s technology sector aims for an even bigger economic bang in the region
APITAL POSED FIVE QUESTIONS TO DAN GUNN, the head of the Victoria Innovation Advanced Technology and Entrepreneurship Council, about the health and future of the sector in the city. It looks very good ...
1: Greater Victoria’s tech industry has evolved into the region’s biggest economic generator. What is the value of technology to the region — and how is that beneficial to the people who live here? Greater Victoria’s technology sector is a $4-billion industry now, making it the largest industry [by combined company revenues] in our region. In fact, it’s been the largest industry since 2007 when it quietly moved up the ranks and hit $1.67 billion. Flash forward to today and our community now knows more than ever about those second-floor downtown offices and where that new, youthful vibe of the city might have come from. We’re now in the midst of conducting our next economic impact study, which will give us access to the most up-to-date statistics of our tech sector. At this point, we estimate there to be more than 15,000 employees working directly for local tech companies and 23,000 total tech employees in the region. According to recent studies, for every new high-tech job, four other jobs are created. VIATEC’s job board recently surpassed 130 job postings, indicating significant growth, and we’re developing new programs and retooling old ones to support our members through that growth. We’re now making sure VIATEC’s programs and services are specifically directed at helping to triple the technology industry’s economic impact to $10 billion by 2030. We think this is an achievable goal and as it grows, it’s going to attract more senior talent, which will then further accelerate the growth. 2: As an umbrella organization for the industry, VIATEC contains hundreds of companies. Tell us about the variety of firms who do business here. VIATEC currently has 555 members. The variety in sectors among our members is surprisingly broad. From gaming to ocean sciences, aerospace to virtual reality, advanced manufacturing to clean tech — it’s a very wide range. This couldn’t be more obvious than when thousands of attendees walked through Discover Tectoria in February. There
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were companies exhibiting such as StarFish Medical that have been around a very long time and design the most advanced medical devices, and newer companies like LlamaZOO Interactive, who are making waves with their AR, VR and MR solutions for mining, oil & gas and more. Our members are in the business of semiconductor crystals (Redlen Technologies), boat security and monitoring (BRNKL), global energy management and automation (Schneider Electric) and even the analysis of biological tissues (TrichAnalytics). The ground that’s covered by all our members is mindblowing and they keep making it easier for us to brag about them. 3: The workforce is large and varied. Who is working in tech in the region and what attracts them to Victoria? The workforce for a tech company is, in many ways, similar to any other company in that you not only need the technical skills, but also the administrative, business, leadership, marketing and sales skills. So, there’s a variety of jobs in the sector for people of all kinds of education and background. Typically, the tech sector employs a younger group of talent compared to workforces such as government, but it’s very diverse. Tech workers are also well educated, but it’s not required that you have a degree or diploma. The average tech worker is earning more than the average worker in other industries, too. Estimates in British Columbia are $85,000 a year for the average tech worker, which is higher than the median household income for our region. There are many ingredients as to why tech workers are drawn to Greater Victoria. Some of these include two universities and a college (students make up