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Kelowna  

Supercluster has big vision

The goal of the recently created B.C. Digital Technology Supercluster is to make Canada a leader instead of a follower.

“We have become consumers of other countries’ technologies,” CEO Sue Paish said during a stop in Kelowna. “We are far more a consumer of technologies developed in Europe and the United States and soon to be Asia than we are the producer of technologies that others will buy from us.

“If you believe that the world and our societies are going to be founded on technologies, you want to be the seller, not the buyer. So that was part of the motivation around the innovation supercluster initiative.”

The $950-million program, which came out of the 2016 federal budget, consists of five superclusters across the country that focus on a regionally familiar sector or industry.

Paish, who is a former lawyer and ex-Pharmasave CEO, assumed her role with the B.C.-based supercluster in May. she spoke during the MacKay CEO Forums at the Okanagan Innovation Centre to explain what her organization’s mission is and to provide motivation for business leaders to get involved.

“We in British Columbia produce more start-ups than any other province in the country, and yet we have one of the worst records of scaling those start-ups from beyond 10 people to larger, even slightly bigger, small companies,” Paish said. “We need to turn that around.”

For more on this story visit Okanagan Edge.



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