Oil may have greased the tracks in Alberta - but technology is the key to the province's future.
That's the belief driving the new Alberta Chamber of Technologies (ACT), a fledgling group that is challenging the assumption that Alberta can survive for the next 50 years on oil and gas, and agricultural revenues.
Rather than pinning the province's financial future to finite resources, the chamber says it's time to diversify and create a new economy based on innovation, knowledge and enterprise.
Located in Edmonton with offices on the University of Alberta campus, ACT hopes to play a leadership role in Alberta's economy by putting aside company and sector interests within the technology field to look at growth issues from a larger, more unified perspective.
Chamber chairman Perry Kinkaide says industry fragmentation and minimal cross-sectoral dialogue has resulted in ineffective lobbying that is leaving Alberta's tech sector behind.
"We have a problem, we have fragmentation. The government has noted that to us, asking who they're supposed to listen to," says Kinkaide.
Kinkaide says: "All of them are individually doing a fine job, but how do you get them to work together? How does the province act when there are so many voices?" The chamber will be more than just getting existing technology industry organizations to work in unison, says Kinkaide, who also foresees a more global role.
"Technology can be high risk. Technology can change the structure of families, the way communities operate, it can affect our security," he says. "The Alberta Chamber of Technologies will foster debate and discussion and not just champion technology. We have a responsibility to make sure our institutions are safe and sustainable."
Whether it's using technology to genetically modify food or to detect phone conversations, Kinkaide says technology's effects must be thought through carefully. "There needs to be debate and discussion so the public is aware. We think we can play a role," he adds.
Kinkaide sees ACT as a place for the individual citizen to get involved, as opposed to solely being a corporate-centric organization. Membership fees are purposely being kept low - expected to be $25 at the provincial level - in order to allow individuals to play a role in the chamber.
There will also be local chapters across the province, and Kinkaide envisions a large grassroots organization with at least 10,000 members.
That growth has already started with the formation of the Edmonton Chamber of Technologies, resulting from the merger of the non-profit Edmonton Council for Advanced Technology (ECAT) and Kinkaide Enterprises Inc., otherwise known as the KEI Network, a private initiative that arose out of Kinkaide's retirement plan to help small technology-oriented companies with financing and management support.
"KEI and ECAT were basically doing the same thing," says ECAT president Craig Eastman. "By merging we can expand. We're taking the strengths of ECAT and folding it in with KEI to form the Edmonton chamber."
ECAT was formed more than 20 years ago, providing networking mechanisms to bring together the research and business community at dinner meetings. "This will be taking it to another level, tying into the Alberta Chamber of Technologies, which is province-wide. Ultimately, we all want to diversify the economy," says Eastman.
But while Edmonton has its tech chamber ready to go, Calgary is lagging behind, says Chris Godwaldt, a Calgary representative on ACT's interim board.
"We're looking to basically do the same type of thing in Calgary (a local chapter for the chamber of technologies)," says Godwaldt, business development manager and a senior engineer with Waterworks Technologies Inc. "We are significantly behind Edmonton. Everyone we've talked to is excited about it. We don't want to fight with what's there, but the current needs aren't being met."
But the situation is seen a little bit differently at Calgary Technologies Inc. (CTI), a tech-oriented economic development agency in its 25th year of operation.
"I definitely see there being value in having a technology focused-industry association, but there are some existing organizations (in Calgary) that are working towards that who have a different mandate than the Alberta Chamber of Technologies," says Mark Hawkins, CTI's manager for advanced technology sector development.
He notes there already is a strong advanced technology sector in Calgary, with groups such as the Calgary Council for Advanced Technology and the Alberta ICT Council, along with CTI, which has a mandate to foster technology growth in order to diversify the province's economy.
But Hawkins adds that CTI would support ACT through its growing stage so it can become a sustainable and effective organization.
Godwaldt also agrees it's time for Alberta to move its economy to the next level.
"It's important to make people more aware of the need for technology. People will risk everything on an oil or a gas well, but when it comes to new technology, that's a risk (they don't want to take)," says Godwaldt.
"I just moved back from Dubai ... they're using today's wealth to position themselves for the future. Less than 10 per cent of the revenues for the emirate comes from oil and gas."
The emirate has positioned itself in areas that are sustainable over the long term, he adds. "Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and others have seen this, have gone 'wow' and are trying to copy it. The Middle East understands that this (oil) will end. Do we?" This and other issues will occupy ACT's agenda as it prepares for its first major event, a congress slated for the fall of 2007. In the meantime, the chamber is looking at working closely with institutions such as NAIT and SAIT and wants to create and grow its local chapters.
"We will never build a diversified economy from the top down, you build it from the bottom up and that means the rural areas participate, not just the urban centres, and you capitalize on a good idea," says Kinkaide. "You can't stand still. We're in a very dynamic world where commodities rise and fall. It would be foolish to bet the future on just one commodity, and that's carbon."
Web Watch: www.edcat.org www.ec-tech.ca
(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)
