Promoting technology in Manitoba an important task

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/09/2023 (1056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are now countless studies that show that investment in technology is beneficial to the companies making the investments.

Those studies are unanimous in illustrating that the greater the investment in digital adoption the more favorable the business outcomes.

But Manitoba consistently ranks at or near the bottom when it comes to investments made in technology adoption.

That’s the sad reality in Manitoba these days.

Some might point to the fact that the province ranks near the top of the list of Canadian provinces in recent economic growth forecasts and near the bottom in unemployment. So the lagging tech investment can’t be all that bad.

But no responsible person would discount the importance of technology both in business and in society in general.

So, if Manitobans are engaged to a lesser degree than the rest of the country, that cannot bode well for our future.

It is a reality that Kelly Fournel, the CEO of Tech Manitoba, does not hide from.

The organization has been around for many years and like all such industry associations or sector councils, it is always a challenge to secure enough resources to be able to provide the services required.

The past couple of years were not bountiful times for such groups.

Tech MB had a $62,000 shortfall in its last fiscal year and had to stop delivering a key digital literacy program for about a year as it scrambled to find funding to re-start it, which it was recently successful in doing.

It’s also taken steps like partnering with New Media Manitoba in certain roles and recently made an arrangement with North Forge Technology Exchange to share their in-house finance professional.

While it advocates for its members and for the wider business community to embrace digital technology tools, it has to be more collaborative and resourceful in its own operations.

The organization does things like provide meaningful connections for industry participants and connect talent with businesses looking for those resources.

While no one would argue that digital technology is the platform that will allow for modern, functioning and sustainable communities, one of the organization’s main functions remains advocacy and promotion.

During the organization’s annual meeting on Wednesday — held online, naturally — Fournel announced that the province’s first MB Tech Week will take place the last week of February 2024.

“One of the things we continue to hear is that promotion is vital to our sector,” Fournel said. “I think there is tremendous opportunities to be strategic in promoting what is happening here.”

She encouraged her 185 members to start thinking about hosting their own events.

“The idea is to build awareness of what you do for a wider audience,” she said.

Fournel, a self-described science enthusiast, made the analogy between digital technology and the keystone species concept.

A keystone species is an organism that helps hold an ecosystem together. Without bees or wolves or beaver, for example, ecosystems would look very different. Some ecosystems might not be able to adapt to environmental changes if their keystone species disappeared.

The idea is that digital technology is like a keystone species.

“Our current and foreseeable world is one of high interest rates, slower growth, labour shortages, higher risk and faster change cycles,” she said. “If we harness this keynote species concept in our economic ecosystem, technology is really the conduit for companies to become more adaptable.”

To take the analogy one step further, it is a way forward to achieve more favourable results and become more resilient as a province.

Obviously there is no way to mandate that sort of dynamic.

Unfortunately, Manitobans seem to take some kind of perverse pride in being late adapters along with being hard working and loyal.

In addition to promotion and advocacy, another role Tech MB has assumed is to try to disseminate digital literacy to communities that might need the assistance.

Among other things, its goal is to have Manitoba known as having the most inclusive tech sector in the country. That means attracting more women, newcomers and Indigenous people to the space.

Fournel acknowledged there is work to be done.

But luckily for the rest of us, those efforts are being made.

Who would have thought that there was an imperative to promote technology.

Welcome to Manitoba.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca