EH> they won’t, but how to convince the smart kid in Regina to move to Toronto, instead of Montreal,

EH> Vancouver or Waterloo.

Just some general comments on that point…

I think it’s perhaps even more important to think of how to convince the smart and career-savvy kid in Waterloo to stay in either Waterloo or Toronto or Ottawa instead of moving to Silicon Valley or Seattle. From what I’ve seen, that brain drain is bigger today than it was a decade ago. And if I can very broadly generalize for a moment, it really is from among the cream of the crop that we are losing to the “competition” south of the border (I have nothing against smart kids from Regina… I myself was a kid from the relative boonies in the Maritimes that chose to settle down in the GTA.).

I think it would be a mistake if ICT Toronto, being an initiative of the City of Toronto, focuses on Toronto only and sees other cities like Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, etc. just as competition. I’ve taken just a brief glance at the Final Report, so I don’t know exactly the scope of ICT’s work. But there’s no reason why it should not synergize with other locales to become stronger collectively. For example, a significant portion of the student population at UW calls Toronto “home” and those folks have personal incentive to return to Toronto after graduation. Some of them even happen to start companies in the GTA rather than in Waterloo — Redknee is a good example of that, and Nuvvo is a more recent micro example…I’m sure there are others as well. My point is that ICT Toronto should work together with others outside of the GTA because there can be benefits. I think nerds across the major Canadian cities are fairly tightly knit, as are the rich people; so that can work to our advantage.

But yeah, we don’t need to copy Silicon Valley exactly. And let’s build upon the studies that have already been done on the topic. Here’s another one from the gov’t of Canada that looks at clusters in several cities.

San Jose’s closest thing to a a seedy side is available in one very compact dose: a dive called “Cinnabar”. You can’t miss it — it’s the bar with all the shopping carts parked outside. My cousin Rafy loves that dump, which isn’t without its charms.

As far as comparing Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, I have an idea that I’m going to expand upon in another posting.

Also, while I’ve never lived in the Valley, I’ve been there on business often enough to completely agree with your sentiments about its negatives. I like visiting Fry’s, but it’s pretty devoid of life otherwise. SF is great, but the valley ain’t SF. And San Jose is indeed hell on earth. Though I’m not sure which circle - San Jose residents seem pretty incapable of any sort of sin, excpt for the sin of bad urban planning.

Instead of comparing Toronto to the Valley, I’d ask how Toronto can attract people versus the other Canadian tech hubs, specifically Ottawa, Vancouver Waterloo and Montreal.

Ottawa has the people, mostly from the post-Nortel flame-out. This has translated into a fair number of startups, often in hardware/semiconductors. Plus I would assume that it’s easy to get federal research funding in the centre of the beauracratic universe.

Vancouver benefits from a plesant climate and a synergy between the arts community and the tech community - thus the huge raft of game companies. Game companies also have massive turnover, which ends up spawning new game companies.

Waterloo has, well, Waterloo, which is a big deal. UW’s liberal intellectual property policy has contributed directly to the creation of a lot of companies. It also has a fair amount of capital (TechCapital is a regional VC) and angels, as well as the vast amount of wealth that’s been created by RIM. Also, Waterloo has programs like MBET, which has an explicit mandate to create entrepreneurs. (and I’m an graduate of said program - a beer to anyone who finds my CV on the CBET site)

Finally, Montreal has a couple universities and, well, it’s cool. But there have been a number of successful tech companies in the area, like SoftImage, EA has an office and there are a few other small companies I’m aware of. Like Toronto, it’s close to the border, has a major airport and is within easy reach of most of the North American market (as well as Europe).

Then there’s those outliers in Alberta, Intuit and Bioware. But they’re just strange.

Anyway, I wouldn’t ask how we can convince some kid in Toledo to move to Toronto, because they won’t, but how to convince the smart kid in Regina to move to Toronto, instead of Montreal, Vancouver or Waterloo. We know what the important factors are, you listed them, but what are Toronto’s gaps (and strengths) relative to other major Candian centres?

Definitely an interesting topic Joey! Oh, and no, I don’t eat corn chips, watch TV all day and masturbate. It does sound like fun, but I have kids to feed. And I chafe easily.