Best in Show in B.C. Tech

High tech is all about the next big thing. And here in B.C., we play the game as enthusiastically as anyone else. It was once all about satellites and wireless, then it was biotech and fuel cells, and now we’re all over digital media and cleantech. Each new technology promises to revolutionize the economy, attract foreign capital and create high-paying jobs.

So, of course, the government gets involved. In the past decade, the B.C. government has invested millions to create industry-­supporting institutions such as Genome B.C., the Centre for Drug Research and Development and, more recently, the Centre for Digital Media. But these kinds of projects don’t always go as planned (Hydrogen Highway, anyone?). The government wants to boost the tech sector to diversify B.C.’s resource-based economy, but it’s hard to pick winners in such a fast-moving game or to know which brilliant minds will build the companies that add jobs and inject dollars into our GDP.   

We invited three industry experts to help us understand what it takes to foster a healthy high-tech sector. Michael Brown, a 40-year veteran of the venture capital business, is currently executive director of Chrysalix Energy, a Vancouver-based VC firm focused on clean energy. Gerri Sinclair is CEO of the Centre for Digital Media, the executive director of the school’s masters of digital media program and was the first president of the Premier’s Technology Council. Pascal Spothelfer is president and CEO of the B.C. Technology Industry Association.