Ivan Long, vice president of operations at Auto-Star stands in one of the server rooms at the Medicine Hat offi ce.
Kurtis Peters and Andrew Taylor work on the Hammerhead USV-T at Meggitt Training Systems.
Walter Garrison, manager of innovation and scholarship, stands next to a 3D printer at Medicine Hat College.
Future seeds planted in TIM KALINOWSKI
ith the recent downturn in the Alberta economy, and with a lot of question marks hanging
long-standing reputation as "The Gas City” he has always seen Medicine Hat as a technology hub.
over the oil and gas sector in particular, there is a broader movement under foot seeking to push for the development of new niches of economic activity which are not as dependent on resource extraction or commodity markets to be successful.
Medicine Hat may be ideally placed to supply just that in the years ahead as it becomes a budding technology cluster. Already dozens of technology and software companies call Medicine Hat home; some with global market shares. They are not as high profile as your Methanexes, Canadian Fertilizers or Cancarbs, but play a prominent role in the Medicine Hat economy nonetheless.
One of the longest standing companies in that regard is Auto~Star Compusystems Inc. Founded in 1982, Auto~Star began as a small technology start-up which has since evolved into a North American powerhouse in Point of Sale software for retail pharmacy companies.
Ivan Long, vice-president of operations for Auto~Star, says despite Medicine Hat’s
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“We have always considered Medicine Hat a strong technology city,” says Long. “We’ve got great technical companies and really great technical people. Sometimes our clients will say where are you guys from? They assume we’re from Toronto or Calgary or Vancouver. We tell them Medicine Hat and they are bit surprised initially. It has actually served us really well being here. We find a great quality of life, a good business climate, and we’ve had success getting good, skilled people here.”
Although Medicine Hat’s technology sector is smaller than other sectors of the local economy, Long sees the potential and hopes to see more local technology start-ups setting up in the city in the years ahead.
“In terms of sheer size, it’s not the size of gas and oil and manufacturing and some of the other industries we’ve got,” explains Long. “But it is important, and it has been for a number of years. There is a sizable technology presence in Medicine Hat and it continues to grow. And many of the technology companies here are continuing to do well even if some of the other sectors are slowing down a bit.”
It is this positive outlook Sean Blewett, 2015 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA
technology W
Vincent Malley works as business development manager for Meggitt Training Systems.
General Manager of Community Futures EntreCorp, shares wholeheartedly with Long. When EntreCorp took the initiative to develop its Regional Innovation Network, it was the vision of a mutually supportive and integrated technology sector in southeast Alberta that motivated its stakeholders.
“We were working with Auto~Star and Medicine Hat College and they noticed there was a need for local support of technology companies; in particular software development companies,” says Blewett. “They had a number of people coming to them asking for support. It started out small with a software incubator housed at Auto-Star. We took it one step further and about six years ago we developed a strategy where we invited all the stakeholders in at the time.”
Blewett says the Regional Innovation Network has only grown stronger as more companies and stakeholders come on board.
“My personal belief is we need to start changing our viewpoints about what we are as a regional economy. I think we need to start thinking more about what is the next industry that is going to be in this community. I think we have to definitely look at technology, innovation and design as one step to go in that
direction.”
Blewett says there is also another factor which cannot be underestimated when it comes to having locally-based technology and software companies. They bring new money into the southeast Alberta economy.
“With these companies their clients are North American, and in a lot of cases are international. So the dollars coming into our economy are new dollars which are increasing the pie as a whole.”
That is certainly true of Don and Brone Doonan’s software company Accessible Accessories Ltd. Accessible Accessories provides software and support packages across Canada to car dealerships to help them list and create more opportunities for auto accessory sales. It’s not sexy or dramatic, but Accessible Accessories has a proven track record in helping car dealerships increase their profitability significantly in an era of declining margins.
“From our perspective,” says Don, “we are bringing in money from outside of town and spending it here. From the city’s perspective that is something absolutely needed. If your money in town is just going around and around in a circle that’s wonderful. But the cream is the company that brings the money in from out of town and pays their employees
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