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| TO tops in digital media, professional shared services |
July 1, 2007 |
Inaugural Toronto Technology Week tells it like it is: Toronto is the place to be for IT
Toronto is not always beloved by Canadians living in other cities. We who live here are always surprised by this: Toronto is great; everyone should love us. Simple.
It’s possible, though, that statements like these are part of the problem. If that’s the case then brace yourselves: more TO love is on the way, at least in Information and Communications Technology circles. A new study puts the Toronto region at or near the top of the world’s ICT pyramid.
The study, Toronto’s Competitive Position in the ICT Sector, was sponsored by the Toronto Region Research Alliance and conducted by IBM’s Global Locations Strategy Team.
IBM identified four critical tech sectors—digital media, professional shared services, next-generation electronics and specialist software development—and then assessed seven cities against those sectors: Bangalore, Boston, Frankfurt, Manchester, San Jose, the Toronto region (including surrounding areas such as Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Oshawa, Mississauga, etc.) and Washington, D.C.
Toronto, quite simply, shone. The region landed the top spot overall in the digital media category, ranking first in quality and coming in second only to Bangalore for low operating costs. IBM cited Toronto’s strong group of creative companies, its large pool of programmers and media talent, and its attractiveness as a place to live for international recruits.
Toronto was also named the world’s best city for professional shared services, which means we’re good at providing back-office operations—such as financial data processing—for large companies. Again, the city scored first for quality and second for costs.
Toronto landed in the number two spot on the worldwide stage for specialist software development, just edging out Manchester for the silver. Those findings are especially interesting in light of this issue’s cover story on competitiveness and productivity. It seems Canada does well at creating innovation but our companies fall down a little when it comes to actually implementing new technology.
Week-long TO fest
The survey results were released at the kick-off of Toronto Technology Week, an umbrella program of events—some already existing, some created for Tech Week—designed to showcase the city’s talent and success stories. The week included more than 20 events and did a good job of portraying Toronto as the technology engine of Canada.
At the kick-off, Toronto Mayor David Miller took the stage to talk up the city’s accomplishments—chief among them its ranking as the third largest ICT centre in North America, behind only San Francisco and New York.
But the morning’s most interesting speaker was Mia Wedgbury, the president of High Road Communications. While everyone talked about the need for TO to brand itself as an IT leader, Wedgbury showed up with concrete ideas. She suggested, for example, that Toronto build an IT Walk of Fame, similar to Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto. The existing Walk covers only entertainment and sports figures; Wedgbury’s Walk would remind Canadians of our rich and estimable innovation history.
Backbone supports the idea of an IT Walk of Fame. We think Toronto is a suitable location and we would like to nominate the following people: Alexander Graham Bell, Hugh Le Caine, James Hillier, Elizabeth MacGill, Willard Boyle, Terry Mathews, James Gosling and Michael Cowpland.
According to every speaker that morning, Toronto needs to do a better job of advertising itself and marketing its strengths, because economic success relies on tech performance. But while the event was certainly a call to action for Toronto, it should serve even more as a spur to other Canadian cities. Toronto is, demonstrably, already a tech leader, and events like Toronto Technology Week are advertising this fact. That begs the question, what actions are other Canadian cities implementing to raise their tech banners?
Peter Wolchak
Editor
pwolchak@backbonemag.com
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