The BC Innovation Council—a Crown agency of the province—is launching a regional innovation tour to showcase challenges facing a variety of companies across the province, to be potentially solved by local entrepreneurs and tech companies.
The Regional Innovation Opportunities tour brings big customers to Kelowna’s doorstep Friday, March 3 from 12:15 to 4:15 p.m. at the Coast Capri Hotel.
The initiative is intended to bring business and local tech companies together and spark further innovation and job growth in our regional economies.
The tour will also offer a platform for regional companies to showcase what they do and request innovative solutions to their challenges for growth. The solutions would help these companies grow revenue and jobs in the regions.
In addition, organizations from outside of each community will present business needs for potential solutions by a tech company in the community. This provides companies in each community with an immediate market that could be translated into a national, and ultimately, a worldwide market. Examples of organizations involved are: IBM, the Ministry of Agriculture, BC Stats, FortisBC and the Climate Action Secretariat.
“This regional tour will give local businesses an opportunity to showcase to other companies what their innovations can do to solve the particular business challenges that are being faced,” said Amrik Virk, Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services. “For hundreds of regional businesses, these are business opportunities waiting to happen, that can lead to global business deals and spin-offs for the local B.C. economy.”
“Tech is everywhere, not just in the lower mainland, and we recognize that innovative tech enabled companies will thrive throughout the regions if they are given a chance to grow,” said Carl Anderson, President and CEO, BC Innovation Council. “By providing opportunities to remove challenges to growth and new market opportunities to regional companies, this tour is a concrete building block to help create strong, vibrant communities and jobs—jobs in communities where people live.”
Challenges presented will be diverse: e.g. carbon neutral fuels to fill the demand for energy; tracking the productivity of log harvesting equipment; tracking the physical location of technicians. For more information about the challenges and the opportunities they represent, visit bcic.ca/regional-innovation-opportunities