Funky facility says small is best in setting technology incubator – Clarification
I wanted to start by thanking Mark Anderson for taking the time to drop by earlier this week to interview me. He did a great job in capturing the essence of what we discussed. There was one small area, however, where my recollection of our discussion is somewhat different.
Mark had asked what I thought of the Innovation hub, a $125M initiative aimed at building a large innovation centre here in Ottawa (the money will be used for the building $100M and operating cost $25M). I am not a supporter of this idea for all of the reasons he quoted in the article, but when asked what I thought my recollection of the response was I said it was a “bad” idea rather than a dumb idea, which was quoted in the article. I will stand by the bad idea sentiment. We can use $125M far more effectively by indirectly supporting entrepreneurs thorugh an Ottawa based regional pre-seed and seed fund.
Ian Graham
Yeah, no kidding Ian…it is a bad idea…
$100M on a building? I bet some of the 1100+ people who were laid off at Dell could use a (pre)seed fund to start their own ventures. Plus, with the way the economy is looking, we should be looking to diversify funds…that way the money will cascade across many local businesses and help many; not just a few massive companies.
…But then again, maybe we should just give up and start up a big construction company…seems like they’re the real beneficiaries of that kind of project…
Hi there. It looks as though you lost your WordPress header include — no CSS, no RSS, etc.
Hi Anne, yes not sure what happened to the theme. A couple of other little issues as well. Sibername my VWS provider seems to do something about once a week that messes up my SQL database and stuff. Have a call in with them (Sibername) and Trevor my web designer. Certainly very frustrating.
Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Ian
Don’t worry Ian, I sympathize with your distinction and it is frustrating when carefully chosen words go awry via reporters and editors. At least in this case the truth is that it is both bad and dumb.