Features
CTT's John Jung Joins Governor General David Johnston on State Visit to Singapore John G. Jung, CEO at Canada’s Technology Triangle joined His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada on a State visit to the Republic of Singapore, from November 19 to 22, 2011. John was fortunate to be able to join the delegation in Singapore between his missions to China and Taiwan with City of Waterloo Mayor Halloran and a Waterloo Delegation. This state visit was part of a larger itinerary that included stops in Malaysia, from November 13 to 16 and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, from November 16 to 19.
Although his visit with the Governor General in Singapore was short, John was able to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship as practiced in Waterloo Region. In addition to meeting with Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the Governor General and the delegation met with organizations and universities with the aim to develop long term relationships between these Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members and Canada.
City of Waterloo Mayor Halloran and CTT's John G. Jung Help Create New Milestone for Intelligent City Development at ICF Forum in New Taipei City John G. Jung, CEO of Canada’s Technology Triangle, and co-founder of Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) and City of Waterloo Mayor and Intelligent Community Forum Foundation (ICFF) Chairman Brenda Halloran joined experts from global intelligent cities and related academic and professional areas at the 2011 Intelligent Cities Forum in New Taipei City. The forum shared experiences on the building of intelligent cities, and interchanged ideas on creating an innovation environment for industry and ‘intelligent life’ development.
Mayor Chu remarked, "New Taipei City is honored to be invited to become an official ICFF member. New Taipei City will adhere to ICFF principles of establishment, and to collaborate with other members by sharing of intelligent cities development experiences, to promote and contribute efforts together for international economic growth and social progress, as well as cultural development.” New Taipei City is the municipality in Taiwan that makes best use of information technology. In terms of e-government, an Intelligence Integrated Center, Android-based government services, and e-kiosk services have been established. Intelligent lifestyle-wise, there is an intelligent residential complex, free wireless internet access in public areas, location-based tour guide service in three scenic towns, Android-based borough services, free computer training and mobile learning, and intelligent traffic control. New Taipei City has also been strengthening its information technology industry competitiveness by hi-tech industry, and trade zone development which fully incorporating wideband infrastructure and the most advanced cloud technologies in order to bring in new business opportunities to the city and further develop a broadband-based economy for Taiwan. Regional Economic Development News
Events3rd Annual International Reception & Dinner Feat. Former Prime Minister the Right Honourable Joe Clark
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Canada’s Technology Triangle's open house on November 2, 2011 proved to be a great experience as municipal, corporate, academic and community partners had a chance to visit our office and meet the team which has grown over the past year. New staff include David Heppler, Business Development Officer (filling in for Catharine Gerhard, currently on leave) and Ann Gray, Director of Corporate Development and Administration. Attendees also had the opportunity to bid farewell to Anne Lukin, former Manager of Strategic Partnerships. |
Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Foreign Investment VP at Proexport presented on International Business Opportunities in Colombia's Emerging Economy
Juan Carols Gonzalez, Foreign Investment VP at Proexport (Colombia's investment, trade, and tourism agency) spoke about international business opportunities in Colombia’s Emerging Economy at Canada’s Technology Triangle’s Chairmans Breakfast on November 22, 2011. According to the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2011”, Colombia is one of the top three countries to do business with in Latin America. Colombia’s steadfast economy has impressed investors and main rating agencies and making it the second largest market in South America after Brazil. With the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and Canada in full effect, Colombia’s focus is to promote growth and investment.
Says David Heppler, Business Development Officer at Canada’s Technology Triangle, “Colombia is one of the most important emerging markets in South America (second only to Brazil). Home to a population of 46 million, the area is looking for innovative products and services to support economic growth.”
Speaker Juan Carlos Gonzalez has been Foreign Investment Vice-president at Proexport since 2008. Proexport is Colombia’s national entity for the promotion of Foreign Direct Investment, non-traditional exports and international tourism. It was selected by FIAS (World Bank) as one of the top 20 Investment Promotion Agencies in the world in 2009. Close to 150 projects with estimated investments of US$3.5 billion in sectors ranging from IT/BPO, tourism infrastructure, private equity, manufacturing and agribusiness have been supported by Proexport between 2009 and 2011.
Business Development
Retailigence Opens R&D Facility in Waterloo Region
Retailigence, a location-based marketing company that assists retailers by driving foot-traffic to local stores, is pleased to announce the establishment of a R&D team in Waterloo Region. The Palo Alto, CA based company launched its service in the United States in November 2010 and is now ready to offer its location-based marketing platform to the Canadian Marketplace. The company has opened an office at 12 Dupont St. W. in Waterloo and initially plans to staff it with about five people.
Retailigence is focused on ensuring that brick-and-mortar retailers are highly visible online in the most important places such as mobile, web, social media, mobile advertising, where the majority of shoppers searches first, before entering brick-and-mortar stores. Today, nearly 50% of all retail sales start with online research and more than 90% finish with a local sale. Their technology allows local retailers to upload inventory data on a daily or weekly basis. Retailigence then centralizes it and provides it to mobile apps or websites. Shoppers can then access data through their mobile phones or favourite websites. Says spokesperson Peter Christianson, “We just make it easy for applications to go shopping to get that local inventory information because right now it’s a lot of work to go and talk to each individual retailer."
“We’ve already had significant interest in our service from the Canadian marketplace,” noted Jeremy Geiger [featured above, in photo], CEO of Retailigence. “We believe that opening a satellite office here in Waterloo Region will put us in a great position to expand our relationships with retailers, business partners and developers.”
The Waterloo Region team will be responsible for facilitating business development opportunities across Canada, as well as building out the capabilities of Retailigence’s location-based marketing platform.
“We have been in close contact with Canada’s Technology Triangle Inc., and we chose the Waterloo Region because it is one of the main IT hubs in Ontario and in Canada as a whole”, said Geiger. “The access to a talented technology workforce and education facility was also a highly influential factor in our decision to come here. We’re looking forward to a long-term presence here.”
Says Bill Elliot, VP Business Development, CTT, “With the development of closer integration in retail activities in North America, the opportunity for leading edge companies like Retailigence to locate operations in Waterloo Region is very appealing. We welcome Retailigence to the region and look forward to supporting their continued successful growth”.
With more and more international retailers entering the Canadian market with well-tuned online and mobile strategies, Retailigence is committed to assisting Canadian retailers compete in the fast-growing "online to offline" market. In parallel with this, Retailigence is offering free trials to Canadian-owned retailers signing up for the Retailigence service before December 31, 2011. Retailers interested in this can contact Retailigence at info@retailigence.com.
Partners
CTT relies on its private sector partners for financial support, advice and expertise. With their help, we have attracted over 60 new companies to Waterloo Region over the years. We wanted to give special thanks this month to our longest running partners, Melloul-Blamey Construction Inc. (supporter since 2002) and Waterloo Inn Conference Hotel (since 2003). Other partners that have renewed their CTT support for more than five years include Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Miller Thomson LLP, Bank of Montreal, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, McDonald-Green and University of Waterloo. We appreciate all our partners, and invite you to consider joining this stellar group of local leading companies. Contact Ann Gray, Director of Corporate Development at ann@techtriangle.com or 519.747.2541 ext. 102 for more information on becoming a CTT partner.
Our Municipal Partners
Our Corporate Partners
GoldEmerald
| ; |
|||
Silver
| > |
|||
Community
Canada's Technology Triangle Inc is the not-for-profit, public-private regional economic development partnership marketing Waterloo Region to the world. Its mandate is to attract new businesses, investment and talent, while promoting regional economic growth.
The organization works closely with the Economic Development Departments of its partner municipalities, member-based business organizations and the four post-secondary educational institutions. The area known as Canada’s Technology Triangle includes Waterloo Region, the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.
260 King Street West, 3rd Floor, Kitchener, ON N2G 1B6 | 519-747-2541 | info@techtriangle.com.
© 2011 Canada's Technology Triangle Inc.