Previously, we shared how we’re changing the Vancouver Startup Week events calendar this year. To help our attendees discover the events they want to participate in, we’re organizing our events calendar into five tracks: fundraising, founders, growth, technology, and networking.
In addition to organizing our event calendar under these themes, we wanted to share insights from some of Vancouver’s top experts to help our fantastic community learn more about how to fundraise and become an effective investor, how to start their own companies, how to grow and market their companies, what they should do when developing new technology, and how networking can help them build their own communities.
In Part Five, we speak to the BC Tech Association’s CEO & President, Jill Tipping, about the impact BC Tech has had on the community at large and the vital part networking plays in continuing to grow BC’s tech and startup ecosystems.
NETWORK IMPACT
What kind of impact do you think the BC Tech Association has had on building the larger BC tech community?
BC Tech is guided by our mission to make the province the best place to grow and scale a tech company. For more than 20 years we have been providing opportunities to the industry to collaborate and grow. The biggest impact we’ve had is when we bring the community together to identify ways we can build a stronger ecosystem. We are really proud of what we’ve built together here in BC but we know we can go even further together.
We know from the Tech Report card we produced in partnership with KPMG in 2018 that BC’s tech sector grew by 6% a year every year over the last 5 years – which is fantastic but less than we could have grown! The limiting factor is talent.
We need more senior experienced talent that can help startups grow and scale, we need more new graduates for companies of all sizes, we need more students to think of technology as a career path for them, and we need more women in tech.
This fall BC Tech is hosting a number of events and programs that focus on Women in Tech. I’ll be leading a negotiation workshop for women, we’ll be hosting a seminar on strategies for women interested in a career in tech and we’ll be putting the spotlight on some great women founders and CEOs to share their experiences. We’re also engaging with K-12 educators to provide teachers in-person knowledge and experience of what a career in tech looks like, so that teachers can pass this on to students, especially girls and other underrepresented groups.
How has building the network and community in BC tech changed over the years?
We’re a much bigger community today – with over 150,000 people working in tech jobs across BC. With rapid growth it makes it more important than ever that we have strong collaboration to tackle challenges together.
I touched on the talent challenge earlier but I want to touch on the scale-up challenge too. We are very lucky in BC that we have a thriving start-up scene. It is critically important that we protect and encourage that strong pipeline of startups and that we build a tech ecosystem that can support startups as they grow.
Every startup begins with a big vision. And when you start to grow you discover you have new challenges that require you to adapt. You can’t run a 100 person company the same way you ran a 10 person company. And when you scale beyond that level you need to adapt again. Making sure that companies have access not only to talent and capital but to programs like BC Tech’s HyperGrowth and HyperScale is a critical part of helping startups to thrive and realize that big vision they started with.
Right now, we hear from many startups who are struggling to grow and scale so we’re working hard to access more funding so we can offer these programs to even more companies. Our goal at BC Tech is to double the number of BC based anchor companies and we can only do that if we support startups throughout their growth journey and give them more options than an early exit.
We are very lucky to have partners like Innovate BC and an ecosystem that supports each other to succeed. We are all invested in each other’s success in BC and it makes a huge difference. Here is what some of BC’s tech leaders had to say about what it’s like to build a tech company in BC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glYgEnZMXPc.
This increase in collaboration is really noticeable with initiatives like Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster and we see it in our membership too where companies from traditional industries are joining because they are working with start-ups to tackle some of their challenges. Teck Resources won the 2018 Technology Impact Award for Excellence in Technology Adoption and Newmont Goldcorp won the award in 2019! You’ve likely heard me say this before but today, all companies are tech companies. It is a really exciting time to be here in British Columbia.
How would you develop specific networking events that target specific groups (i.e. students, mid-career professionals, consultants)? How have BC Tech events such as Talent Days, TechConnect and the Educational series helped to grow BC’s tech sector?
We host a range of events at BC Tech from sponsored events by members where thought leadership is shared such as best practices for bookkeeping or how to find talent in the market, to roundtable discussions where we learn more about a policy issue. There is a range in the types of events we facilitate. At the end of the day, the community is important and we want to bring them together to facilitate discussions, collaborate, and tackle challenges in the industry.
We are thrilled by the turnout at our events. Our events have led to so many things, from business partners coming together, ideas being shared and ideas being fostered. These events also foster honest dialogue. It’s where we can connect one on one and talk about the grit that makes up this community. All of these events help us address the challenge of talent and scaling up.
We also want to celebrate milestones which is why the Technology Impact Awards is one of my favourite events of the year. There just isn’t a better place to connect with all the leading players in the industry. For the 2020 TIAs we’ll be putting even more emphasis on connecting startups with other attendees with our ‘Tomorrow’s Titans at the TIAs program’.
Do you believe networking events are useful in fostering community?
Absolutely. We have seen the results of our events connecting businesses to each other that would otherwise not have happened. An example of this occurred at the 2019 TIAs where FreshWorks won the “Company of the Year – Growth Success” award. The room was buzzing when the dynamic duo took to the stage to accept their award and many companies have approached them to collaborate. You can hear from them here: https://youtu.be/V11KEj79X5U.
Moving forward, what kind of changes would you like to see when it comes to the BC tech community, events and educational opportunities to help foster more growth?
It is important that we grow businesses here,and most importantly, successful ones. We need more funding and a further push to draw more talent into the province itself, not just in Vancouver, but throughout BC. We see a growing sector in the Kamloops, in Kelowna, in the Kootenays, and right across Vancouver Island. Moving forward, BC Tech wants to ensure everyone knows we’re here with you, we’re here to do the heavy lifting on the challenges the sector faces from talent to scale-up. We’re here to offer programs that can boost your growth and support you as you scale. We’re here to help.