Tech training to spread
Accelerate Okanagan gets $473,000 to expand programs to help entrepreneurs and tech companies around province
Developed-in-Kelowna tech training is going provincewide.
On Thursday, a glitzy announcement event in the new downtown Okanagan Centre for Innovation saw the federal government give Accelerate Okanagan $473,000 to expand its Start Up Basics and Rev Up programs to help entrepreneurs and tech companies in Kamloops, the Kootenays, Nanaimo and Prince George.
Accelerate Okanagan will pick local groups in each community to deliver the training, but the programs will follow the tried-andtrue curriculum that’s been working in Kelowna for years.
“These initiatives grow the economy,” said Accelerate Okanagan CEO Raghwa Gopal.
“Technology plays an important role in a diverse economic ecosystem.”
Accelerate Okanagan helps entrepreneurs start tech companies and existing tech companies to grow and hire with a variety of programs.
Its offices are located in the seven-storey innovation centre at the corner of Doyle Avenue and Ellis Street, which has become a symbol of the city’s tech prowess.
Numerous tech companies have offices in the building.
Gopal also pointed out tech is one of the biggest economic engines in the Valley, with 630 companies with 7,600 employees doing $1.3 billion worth of business annually.
The growth rate of the local tech sector is 15 per cent a year, the fastest in Canada.
Start Up and Rev Up will be offered in the Thompson by Kamloops Innovation.
“This builds on the already winwin history we have of working with Accelerate Okanagan,” said Lincoln Smith of Kamloops Innovation, who came to town for the announcement.
“It’s important technology and innovation be built outside of urban centres too. It’s part of the regional and rural ecosystem.”
Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr made the funding announcement on behalf of federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains and Western Economic Diversification.
Fuhr also referred to the innovation centre as a “cool space” and reminisced about how Liberal MPs, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attended a rooftop reception there last September, when the party’s caucus was in Kelowna for meetings.
“The federal government and Ottawa understands what we’re doing in the Okanagan when it comes to innovation and technology,” said Fuhr.
Start Up Basics is a seven-week course with classroom and homework sessions for tech entrepreneurs looking to launch an innovation or company.
Accelerate Okanagan offers it several times a year for up to 25 entrepreneurs at a time.
Rev Up is an ongoing six-month program for owners and managers of tech companies to develop a plan for growth through training, mentorship and coaching with Accelerate Okanagan’s experienced entrepreneurs-in-residence.
Both programs currently have a push to help clean technology companies and Indigenous entrepreneurs.