November Newsletter

In this month's newsletter:

• Networking event for Peterborough area’s creative class gains momentum

• Small Eastern Ontario town has big plans and big projects on the go

• Hastings County business building program celebrates third anniversary

• Cornwall featured in two big construction news publications

• McGuinty government introduces plan to attract skilled immigrants

• Peterborough-area innovation group helps facilitate business expansion

• Rural community building creative economy through networking events

• Kingston he​althcare software developer celebrates huge hospitals contract

Networking event for Peterborough area’s creative class gains momentum

For young creative types in the Peterborough area, it’s becoming the hippest, most happening hangout in town—and it’s not the newest nightclub, coffee house, or pub.

It’s Creative Cocktail, a once-every-two-months networking event run by the Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corp. that showcases innovative entrepreneurs and provides a venue for local creative-class professionals to connect.

“The best kinds of innovation happen when people bump heads together and they start talking and sharing ideas,” said Dan Taylor, the event’s creator and GPAEDC president and CEO.

Operating for just over a year, the event is modeled after a similar initiative that Taylor created in Prince Edward County when he was in charge of economic development there.

The concept addresses the advice of Toronto creative economy guru Kevin Stolarick, who says creative economies thrive when creative workers are made more capable by the existence of a digital network, social networking, and business networking.

Taylor recognized that creative workers in the Peterborough area didn’t have a way to network because they work across many sectors and, thus, don’t connect through local sectoral clubs or organizations. Indeed, creative class workers aren’t just artists and entertainers. They are lawyers and healthcare workers, web designers and educators, computer programmers and entrepreneurs.

The first Creative Cocktail took place in the fall of 2011 at a warehouse space that had been converted into a graphic arts studio. It attracted about 60 people.

The last event, which was co-hosted by the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough to build bridges between the non-profit and creative thinkers in the business community, attracted about 300 guests at a new downtown nightclub. The event usually attracts 100 to 130 people.

“We are not trying to market it as a young, hip crowd, but by default these events are attracting those people because they are the creative workers,” Taylor said.

The Creative Cocktail events are held at a different venue in the Greater Peterborough Area each month. They feature three-minute speeches by eight innovative people followed by a free-flowing networking and mingling event.
 
The speakers are asked to answer three questions: who they are, what they do for a living, and why they do it in Peterborough. All speeches are videotaped and the videos are uploaded to the Creative Cocktail website—gpaedc.on.ca/newsroom/creative-cocktail.

The videos then serve as a powerful marketing tool to showcase the innovative people who live in the community and the benefits of doing business there.

All advertising is done through social media and word of mouth and the event’s popularity appears to be a result of its success.

“There’s the old adage: if you build it, they will come,” said Taylor. “And clearly there’s a need here.”

Small Eastern Ontario town has big plans and big projects on the go

It may be a small town, but really big things are happening in the scenic Thousand Islands community of Gananoque.

Only a few years ago, Gananoque was suffering from closures at several large manufacturers and dwindling tourist numbers, but four big revitalization projects are establishing the St. Lawrence Seaway town’s prominence as a scenic cultural destination.

“We are already internationally renown for our Thousand Islands and now we are aiming to become the destination in Eastern Ontario,” said Shelley Hirstwood, Gananoque’s Economic Development Manager.

When times were tougher, Gananoque hired economic development consultancy Millier Dickinson Blais to conduct a situational analysis and to recommend projects that would likely create jobs.

Since then, the downtown has received a major facelift. Two developments to gentrify the town’s waterfront are in their RFP response stages. A proposal for a first-ever industrial park is about to be reviewed by council. And a cultural plan that would harness the community’s existing and growing heritage and cultural assets has been penned.

Gananoque has invested in significant new downtown streetscape features and heritage amenities. The town has funded the erection of new antique-style street lampposts as well as a store façade program that helps shopkeepers to beautify their storefronts. And a grant from the Ontario Government’s Rural Economic Development Program has paid for new benches, street signage, banners and more.

Hirstwood said the improvements are getting noticed and are helping to bring new business to the downtown.

“There are definitely fewer vacancies,” she said.

Among the new businesses are two art galleries, which have brought the number of galleries in this town to three—a relatively large number for a community of only 5,200 people.

The $1.5-million industrial park proposal, which will go before town council sometime this fall, is to build a park for small niche manufacturers.

The other big project is the gentrification of two Lowertown waterfront properties.
Two residential-commercial buildings, surrounded by public-use parkland, would replace a parking lot and derelict building.

Once they are built, Gananoque will be transformed, says an article on the Millier Dickinson Blais website.

“Lowertown’s gentrification represents an unparalleled opportunity for the Town of Gananoque to drive tourism investment, commercial growth and waterfront development,” says the website. “[It) will reaffirm the community’s place as one of the country’s pre-eminent heritage and recreation destinations.”

Hastings County business building program celebrates third anniversary

While much of Canada is still struggling to recover from the recession, a grassroots-style business-building initiative in rural Hastings County that is celebrating its third anniversary has ensured that jobs and new business numbers are growing.

Economic Development Manager Andrew Redden said the county has seen an 8% increase in new businesses since 2008 and he credits the county's Enterprise Facilitation Program for much of that growth.

"For a small rural community, that's a pretty good statistic," said Redden.

In 2009, Hastings County implemented the Sirolli model and hired a full-time Enterprise Facilitator, Darcelle Runciman, to run the Sirolli Institute's patented Enterprise Facilitation Program.  The program has been so successful that it gained national attention last year when it was nominated as a finalist in the RBC Economic Development Awards.

Developed by non-profit Sirolli Institute founder Ernesto Sirolli, this economic development model follows a person-centered approach to economic development. Instead of providing consulting services out of an office, the Sirolli model sees a Sirolli-trained Enterprise Facilitator visiting existing and would-be entrepreneurs in their homes and businesses.

Instead of providing consultant-style advice, the Enterprise Facilitator acts more like a coach, with the aim of harnessing entrepreneurs' passion, intelligence, and resourcefulness.

"Darcelle listens to them and hears what their passions are and then she coaches them," said Redden. "She might ask questions like, 'So you are thinking of opening a microbrewery. What does your spouse think about that?"

The Sirolli model provides guidance and support, but it has the entrepreneur do the footwork, such as calls to local building officials and finding funding.

The model also recognizes that no entrepreneur has the time or the ability to become effective at all business-building skills, so Runciman recommends that entrepreneurs seek out friends and family who can provide the missing ones.  If the entrepreneur doesn't have the necessary connections, Runciman works with the community to find those people.

The program was a hit right from the start.

In her first three months in the job, Runciman met with as many as 500 people.

"It has worked so well that more than 100 businesses have expanded or opened and at least 122 jobs have been retained or created," said Redden.  "I think the Enterprise Facilitation Program is one of the best things we've implemented."

Cornwall featured in two big construction news publications

Development activity in Cornwall is so hot that the city has been profiled in a 16-page feature in the Ontario Construction Report and Ottawa Construction News.  

“There is a lot of interest in Cornwall and the amount of construction activity in the city over the past few years,” said Bob Peters, Cornwall’s Senior Development Officer.  “The Ontario Construction Report is read by many of the province’s developers, architects and engineers and this report may generate interest that leads to future investment in the City.”

Construction activity continues at a record pace in Cornwall, highlighted by major projects such as the recent completion of a 1.3-million sq.ft. distribution centre for Target, the $79-million construction of a new bridge across the St. Lawrence River, and a $55-million expansion of the Cornwall Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Residential development activity is also strong, with new condominiums breaking ground at the Historic Cotton Mills and the recent opening of the 95-unit Riverdale Terrace retirement residence.

One of the key articles in the November feature featuring Cornwall focuses on recent work at the NAV CENTRE, which included renovations to the interior of the large conference centre, a new fitness centre, spa and restaurant.

“We're pleased that the editors have highlighted the good work that has been performed here at the NAV CENTRE, much of it by local contractors such as Bourgon Construction, Perras Distefano Construction and Genivar,” said Kim Coe-Turner, General Manager of NAV CENTRE. “The investment in this property will help us attract new business and clients.”

The 16-page feature comes only a few weeks after the $120-million redevelopment of the Cornwall Community Hospital was featured in a four-page article in the September edition of the Ontario Construction Report.

Copies of the November edition of the Ontario Construction Report are available online at www.ontarioconstructionreport.com

McGuinty government introduces plan to attract skilled immigrants

Ontario is launching its first immigration strategy to help build a strong, globally-connected economy.

The strategy sets a new direction for how Ontario selects, welcomes, and assists immigrants to the province. It emphasizes the critical role skilled immigrants play in Ontario’s economic development, as workers and job creators, in addressing labour market gaps due to the province’s aging population and low birth rate. The strategy also highlights how to better support immigrants and their families so they can succeed and contribute fully to Ontario’s prosperity.

“This is a bold new direction for immigration in Ontario,” said Charles Sousa, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. “It sets a path so we can attract the highly skilled immigrants and investors that we need to fuel economic growth and help build stronger communities.”

Recommendations from Ontario’s Expert Roundtable on Immigration and consultations across the province helped shape the strategy.

With this new direction for immigration, the McGuinty government is focused on attracting highly skilled workers and their families, supporting diverse communities and growing a globally connected economy.

The plan is particularly important now because federal government decisions over the last 10 years have reduced the proportion of economic immigrants coming to Ontario to 52 per cent, while the average for other provinces is 70 per cent, says a release from the province.

Without continued immigration, Ontario’s working age population will begin to decline by 2014.

Newcomers make up 30 per cent of Ontario’s labour force.

Peterborough-area innovation group helps facilitate business expansion

The Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster hosted its third annual Power of Innovation Speaker Series earlier this month.

The event, called A Pathway to Business Expansion, sponsored by Bell and a number of community sponsors and partners, provided attendees with an opportunity to learn about running and growing successful, innovative businesses from a panel of creative and accomplished individuals.

“The insightful speakers joining us for this session’s topic … offered knowledge and experience that proved inspirational in the development and pursuit of a company growth strategy,” said John Desbiens, GPIC Board member.

The event also provided superb networking and educational opportunities to the region’s diverse business leaders, Desbiens said.

A panel discussion explored the process of taking new technologies to the marketplace, use of government resources to expand one’s business, and innovative methods for expanding one’s business.

GPIC is a not-for-profit organization with a mandate to support research and development resulting in commercialization of new technologies and processes. It works with small- and medium-sized enterprises and academia to help facilitate growth in the regional economy from within.

Rural community building creative economy through networking events

Hastings County is helping to build its rural creative economy by connecting local businesses people and sharing success stories at quarterly networking events.

These Creative Hastings events are free to attend and open to everyone in the community.

According to recent statistics, at least one third of businesses in Hastings County fall within the creative economy and jobs within the creative economy are set to grow by 40% over the next decade. 

Creative workers on average make $20,000 more in salary, and they contribute to most of the spending within our local economy, said Redden.

The creative economy is driven by knowledge, innovation and people who use analytical, creative thinking and social skills.  Its members are varied and can include lawyers, artists, managers, designers, entertainers, and brokers. 

The creative economy employs creative workers across all industries and sectors, including manufacturing and agriculture.

Kingston healthcare software developer celebrates huge hospitals contract

A Kingston, Ontario healthcare software developer will be sharing one of its biggest victories with attendees at a national healthcare information technology conference in Vancouver this month.

Novari Health will announce at the Canada Health Infoway Fall Partnership Conference that its Novari Access to Care system, which reduces hospital wait times, has been adopted by the Central East Local Health Integration Network.

With a population of 1.4 million, the Central East LHIN is the largest health authority in Canada to implement such a system and deploy wait list management, eBooking, pre-op integration and automated wait times reporting to the provincial wait list registry, says a release from Novari.

The news will be presented Nov. 29 by Novari vice president John Sinclair and Karol Eskedjian from the Central East LHIN.

Their presentation will highlight the CE LHIN's successful implementation of the web-based system across all eleven hospital sites.

Approximately 380 CE LHIN surgical and specialist offices are now integrated with the various hospital scheduling systems.  Today there are more than 21,000 active cases in the system.  The secure internal messaging feature is eliminating the time and expense of 36,000-plus annual telephone calls and faxes between the physician offices, hospital booking staff, registration department and pre-op staff.

The Novari Access to Care system is the only off-the-shelf system of its kind.  It integrates with all major scheduling systems and is deployed at 25 hospital sites in three provinces and more than 1,500 physician offices.  From individual hospitals, clusters of hospitals, LHINs, health authorities or provinces, the system is proven, scalable and customizable to meet the variety and complexity of user needs.

Additional information on the conference is available at www.infoway-inforoute.ca

Novari has posted two short animated videos—one for Ontario and a second for the rest of Canada—that illustrate the burden of the workflow before Novari and the dramatic impact after Novari is deployed.  Both videos are available at www.novarihealth.com