british columbia

 by Brendon J. Wilson

That’s With a Capital “E”

I was talking with Gordon Bird from the Advanced System Institute earlier today after his presentation to our MBA class. We got to talking about a number of thoughts that had been rattling around my head about the needs of technology entrepreneurs and how to promote entrepreneurship in Vancouver.

One of the popular ideas I’ve heard proposed by a number of business leaders: universities need to create programs that bring together students from business and science faculties. The hope is that would break down the traditional separation that exists between science and business both inside and outside academia, and poses a barrier to innovation. Collaboration would not only expose each group to each other’s expertise and vocabulary, it would also build mutual respect between the two parties, thus enabling students to build relationships they could leverage once they complete their degrees. In addition, bringing students together would also promote mingling between researchers from the different faculties (and their respective connections in the community), thereby further promoting a healthy environment for innovation.

Another idea in the theme of promoting collaboration: a service to match ideas with entrepreneurs with the capabilities to execute/deliver on those ideas. Ideas are dime a dozen, but the people who usually have the ideas are also the least likely to be able to act on them due their lack of access to the resources, expertise, or relationships required to transform the basic idea into a product or sustainable business. Think of the loss to our economy this represents – all because we haven’t created a system to “harvest” ideas and put them in the hands of those with the greatest chance of capturing the value in those ideas.

The question is: which organization should be responsible for developing such programs and services? Academia? Industry associations? Private companies? Again, the answer appears to lie in collaboration. Though individual organizations are already addressing some of these needs in their own way (for example: Zerendipity is attempting to provide entrepreneurs with the tools to find the expertise they need) no one organization in Vancouver has all of the requisite resources or expertise to pull off these types of programs. Sounds to me like what we really need is one of the big players in the local tech community to step up and coordinate a focused effort to “create” local entrepreneurs.

in Business / Entrepreneurship 1 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

IT: The Electric Car

I stumbled across a neat electric car outside Urban Fare on the way to grab some dinner this evening. It is called, uh, IT, and it’s a sporty four-door Low Speed Vehicle made right here in BC by Dynasty Car Corporation.

I took some time to talk to the Sales and Marketing Manager, Richard Clarke, to get an idea of the car’s capabilities. In particular, the car:

  • Is built from glass-fibre
  • Has a top legal speed of 40kph, although it was unclear if this was the car’s top speed or the top speed the car is legally allowed to drive due to its classification as a Low Speed Vehicle
  • Sells for $20K

All in all, it looks like a nice unit but it still suffers from a few minor drawbacks:

  • Despite a fairly roomy area for cargo, a removable/foldable back row and front passenger seat would enable IT to carry a lot more cargo
  • The car is restricted to a maximum speed of 40kph on roads with a posted maximum of 60kph – and must have its hazard lights on, as well as a hazard triangle on the rear bumper. Additional crash testing is required to certify the car – something which is costly to obtain and might require something other than a glass-fibre body to guarantee certification.

What surprised me most: I’d never heard of these guys. On further consideration, I realized I had seen them in use around UBC by Plant Operations but didn’t realize it was a local company. Isn’t this the kind of thing that BC should be touting both domestically and internationally? Sometimes our desire to be polite seems to get in the way of us recognizing our own strengths – this kind of entrepreneurial company shows that BC kicks butt, and we should be giving companies like this the encouragement and support they need.

in Technology 4 comments