Soaking up that K-W vibe
By Leo Valiquette
Even casual readers of this blog will likely know we are great fans of the good work done from the Kitchener-Waterloo region by Communitech. I am writing this post from the Communitech Hub and have to admit this week marks my first visit.
Our Francis Moran is of course a frequent visitor. While I have in the past had the opportunity to interview Communitech CEO Iain Klugman and Tim Jackson from the region’s Accelerator Centre, and work with the team at Communitech’s national arm, the Canadian Digital Media Network, I had not yet made the trek myself.
It also marks my first visit to a regional economic development agency outside Ottawa. Kitchener-Waterloo is not characterized by the shadow of big government as Ottawa is, but the linkages between industry, academia and government are obvious from the outset.
Walking down the street, I was struck by the profound significance of seeing on the side of the same building, alongside Communitech’s, the logos for Google, a multinational tech titan that needs no introduction, and local company Desire2Learn, which last year bagged the single largest first round of venture capital ever by a Canadian software play (largely from a U.S. investor). These two companies alone house upwards of 1,000 people in the complex.
