Ottawa Wireless Industry Message to Cambridge UK – Today’s Economic Challenges Overcome with Steadfast Commitment to Tomorrow’s Knowledge-based Economy
Cambridge, UK – The Future of Wireless International Conference 2010 – June 29-30, 2010 – Ottawa, “Canada’s Creative Economy Capital”, is attending The Future of Wireless conference in Cambridge, UK, to present what it believes is one of the world’s most desirable wireless ecosystems. Four of the globe’s top five wireless companies – Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson and Huawei – all have significant R&D facilities in Ottawa. They are part of a 367-company, 27,000-employee strong talent bank that spans the breadth of wireless infrastructure and services.
Ottawa’s home-grown wireless stars include DragonWave and Bridgewater Systems. Regional powerhouses Research In Motion (RIM), Rogers Communications, and SiGe Semiconductor also have significant campuses in the city. Wesley Clover, the Ottawa-based venture capital firm headed by Ottawa technology billionaire Sir Terence Matthews, currently directs 60 per cent of its funding at new wireless startups. Ottawa is also home to two nationally funded laboratories – Communications Research Centre and the National Research Centre – and two universities (Carleton University and University of Ottawa) that continually fuel new wireless innovations.
In an era where wireless applications are growing exponentially, Ottawa’s diverse and deep software development cluster is a major plus. Currently, the city is home to some 600 software development companies focused on mobile gaming, engineering services, data security and other applications that help drive wireless growth. This makes for a complete Ottawa wireless ecosystem that has its roots in hardware but its branches reaching up to the new horizons being offered in software.
The backdrop of Canada’s prudent fiscal management is another plus for Ottawa’s wireless businesses. Canada was the last member of the Group of Seven industrialized nations to enter the global recession, and was the first to recover, thanks partially to having the G-7’s lowest debt-to-GDP ratio and the world’s most sound financial system, according to the World Economic Forum. The nation’s economy expanded at a 6.1 per cent annual pace in the first quarter of 2010.
“Ottawa wireless companies are building the next generation of wireless equipment, devices, components, sub-systems, middleware, apps and services, content, enablers, and professional services,” says Michael Darch, OCRI’s Executive Director of Global Marketing. “Ottawa has the critical mass of brainpower, education institutions, government R&D labs and entrepreneurial dynamism that makes it an ideal home for knowledge-based enterprises, particularly in the wireless industry.”
Darch also points out that Ottawa’s knowledge-based infrastructure has allowed it to withstand recent economic storms: “When the global economy presents us with lemons we make knowledge-based lemon-aid.”
In 2001, the city’s technology sector took a 15,000-employee hit that culminated with Nortel’s bankruptcy in 2009. Federal Government employment expansion helped take up the slack along with a flourishing of entrepreneurial companies in 13 dynamic knowledge-based clusters including wireless, digital gaming/entertainment and clean technology.
The Ottawa economy has also successfully weathered the 2008 global financial crisis. Between 2008 and 2010, the unemployment rate has never risen above 6.3 per cent. The city’s knowledge economy has also recently garnered praise from Professor Richard Florida, the best-selling “Who’s Your City?” author who moved from Washington D.C. to Toronto as director of the Martin Prosperity Institute to continue his pioneering work on the role of the creative class.
In a June 17th interview with the Ottawa Business Journal, Florida stated that the city is “well-positioned to host the new, knowledge-based and creative jobs the next economy will run on.” He also said that he sees the city “moving into not only technology, but also a wider range of knowledge, creative and professional work.”
Earlier in 2010, Florida rated Ottawa as the “Best Overall” city in Canada on a “Creative Class Index” based on the 3Ts of economic development – Technology, Talent and Tolerance – higher than American cities such as New York, Boston, Washington and San Jose and also higher than international cities like London, England. In turn, Ottawa has dubbed itself “Canada’s Creative Economy Capital”. Journalists can learn about Ottawa’s success and find an extensive series of company profiles at www.CreativeEconomyCapital.com.
