New realities

In the background: PELA CFDC executive director Craig Desjardins with MP Daryl Kramp at the opening of new offices for the agency in Picton in 2009.

PELA CFDC seeking to lever success achieved at PEC Innovation Centre

Entreprenuerial ecosystems. Craig Desjardins realizes he is slipping into economic- development speak as soon as he utters the words, so he steps back and attempts to explain it in simpler terms.

“Our economy is changing,” says Desjardins. “It is no longer about big machines pounding out products. It’s about jobs created through innovation and ideas. The challenge is that we have to make something different.”

Governments and big business don’t do creativity and innovation very well. Even relatively new large tech players must gobble up small businesses to stay ahead. Think Facebook, Google, Apple.

Innovation typically happens at a small scale. By entrepreneurs. Risk takers. Folks with an idea, who dream big.

“It is what David and Stacy Hatch are doing at Whistlestop in Picton,” explained Desjardins. “David describes what they do as content providers. From Picton, they export their video product around the world.”

But that’s only part of the explanation.

As Conrad Guziewicz explains, entrepreneurs don’t typically come with the full set of skills to commercialize their ideas and build a business from it.

“The great guys in the tech sector are inventors, entrepreneurs and operators,” said Guziewicz. “When you have the combination of those three things in one person you have a Bill Gates.”

Since that doesn’t happen very often it is important to surround entrepreneurs with the skills, talents and resources they need— or the idea never gets off the ground.

“More of the entrepreneurial world is moving toward shared space,” says Desjardins. “Ecosystems of business with common resources and needs.”

Entreprenuerial ecosystems are not a new concept—but until recently they were huddled around places like Silicon Valley in California, around Boston and Waterloo in Canada.

But the availability of broadband Internet has made innovative opportunities more democratic—meaning it matters very little where the innovation happens. It is now much more about the idea and the execution.

Desjardins says there remain gaps for communities such as Prince Edward County.

“My job is to look for gaps, and try to fill those gaps,” said Desjardins.

Access to capital is a significant gap—here and everwhere. But Desjardins notes that has become easier with the success and encouraging track record emerging from Guziewicz’s PEC Innovation Centre.

“The other one is physical space,” said Desjardins. “In communities like this one we have Main Street, which is mostly retail— but very little office space. More of the entrepreneurial world is moving toward shared space— ecosystems of business with common resources and needs.”

He is working with this municipality to direct development policies to encourage more office space.

“Municipalities realize that to nurture this kind of activity, they need to encourage or enable the development of office space. In addition to the industrial park, maybe we need some space or encourage space to be created to attract these types of businesses.”

He suggests that communities that are slow to adapt to the new realities of the economy risk falling behind. One of these realities is that it is entrepreneurs driving the innovation economy.

“Government is very good at nurturing and providing necessary infrastructure, but jobs are driven by investment and innovation from the private sector.

“It’s about providing that cradle where we can create new business and support existing businesses,” said Desjardins.