Victoria's high-tech sector dolled itself up last night, trading in circuit boards for champagne flutes and BlackBerrys for polite dinner conversation -- at least for one night -- as VIATeC handed out its annual awards at the Victoria Conference Centre.
And for the second straight year, the awards ceremony was more than a simple tip-of-the-hat to the best and brightest in the $1.7-billion industry, as the industry used the event to unveil a new video campaign to attract skilled workers to the Island.
Following on the success of last year's offerings, which are still being watched occasionally on YouTube, four companies -- Atomic Crayon, Abebooks, Genologics and Caorda Solutions -- filmed clever and irreverent videos extolling the virtues of working and living in Victoria.
"We wanted to do videos that were kind of fun and designed to promote the region to tech workers around the world," said Dan Gunn, executive director of VIATeC. "It's a way to get the Victoria tech sector on the map by being fun and raising awareness at the same time."
This year's submissions, along with VIATeC's own comic promotional video, which followed the exploits of a giant foam finger intent on promoting the sector, will also be posted on YouTube.
Gunn says they do have an impact, noting one of the sector's videos has been viewed 12,000 times since it was posted.
And while they tend to be comic in nature, there is a serious purpose behind them as the tech sector in Victoria, like many other destinations, is starving for talent.
"The need remains very high; our barometer is our job board, and right now there are 162 vacant positions that we know of," said Gunn, who noted growth can be slowed when companies' resources are stretched thin.
"We are still looking at double-digit growth in the 15-20 per cent range as predicted by our CEOs, but we are of the opinion that the number is influenced by the ability to find people," he said. "Growth is slowing not by lack of opportunity but by lack of capacity, and that's not a Victoria-specific problem."
Hence the video campaign as well as VIATeC tours of Ontario, where they hit career fairs, and San Francisco, where the intent was to meet with expatriates who may be looking at returning to Canada because of expired visas or the downturn in the U.S. economy.
"We're doing everything we can to raise awareness, because when people find out they can have an exciting opportunity in Victoria, they become very interested. Victoria is famous for a great lifestyle, and when they find out they can have a great job as well, they get very excited," Gunn said.
aduffy@tc.canwest.com
VIATEC AWARD WINNERS
Technology Company of the Year: ParetoLogic
Emerging Technology Company of the Year: Backstage Technologies
Product of the Year: Genologics Life Sciences Software
Innovative Excellence, Process or Product: STR-SpeechTech
Newsmaker of the Year: Flock
HR Excellence: EDS Advanced Solutions
Online Strategy of the Year: Flock
Environmental Excellence: Hydroxyl Systems
Executive of the Year: Judy Hamza, Abebooks
Employee of the Year: Andy Conrad, Contech Electronics
Innovative Excellence, Software or Electronic Service Delivery: ParetoLogic
VIATeC Member of the Year: Smart Dolphins
Colin Lennox Award for Technology Champion: Garry Sedun