Edmonton a ‘primary mover’ in growing tech sector

EDMONTON As Google paid a visit to the city Wednesday to teach digital skills to local entrepreneurs, an Edmonton “Googler” in Silicon Valley is praising his hometown’s rapidly growing technology industry.

Chris Jones, a privacy engineer technical lead for the Google Cloud platform, has been working for the tech giant since 2007.

“Any time that you have an increase in interesting, cutting edge research and development work in Edmonton, that’s great,” Jones said Wednesday. “It would be great to have more of that, to have lots of jobs available.”

After graduating from the University of Alberta with degrees in computer science and economics, Jones worked for the university for four years before landing a gig at Google. Many others he knows in the industry moved to Calgary or elsewhere with more tech opportunities, he said.

But Jones noted the industry is growing in the city at a fast rate and Google representatives at the Grow with Google event Wednesday agreed.

“Edmonton’s an obvious choice,” Google Canada communications head Aaron Brindle said ahead of the day of workshops in Rogers Place. “It’s quickly becoming a primary mover in the global tech community.”

Brindle pointed to DeepMind, Google’s artificial intelligence research company that opened its first international office in Edmonton last year.

“I think that’s a real testament to not only the great research that’s happening here, but also the great expertise and the growing ecosystem that’s clearly emerging,” he said.

More than 400 Edmontonians took part in the inaugural Grow with Google event in Edmonton with workshops, one-one-one sessions and demos throughout the day highlighting the importance of a digital presence and building a business online. Edmonton is one of six cities on the tour, the first of its kind in Canada.

Every business in the digital age is a technology company to a certain degree, said Brindle, as he told attendees the success story of Edmonton-based The Little Potato Company. What started as a small, family business in Edmonton has grown into a much larger operation with seven straight years of double-digit growth.

Mayor Don Iveson only had to look across the street at the newly opened Stantec Tower to affirm that small businesses in Edmonton can strive.

“If you’re sitting here right now as a one-person shop thinking, ‘Can I do that in Edmonton?’ There’s a 69-storey building across the street that says hell, yeah, you can do that in Edmonton.”