market2world is very proud to have conceived and promoted the Consider Canada City Alliance brand from its inception in 2011, and to have publicized its early beginnings as first the "C-9" and then "C-11".

Thanks to the leadership of the now incorporated organization's founding President Michael Darch, the global beacon of the of the "C-12" promises to shine brighter with the addition of the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), bringing collaborative innovation to an even higher level to attract more and better Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to our great nation.

Here's today's Annual General Meeting press release summarizing the Consider Canada City Alliance's successes in 2013 and outlining ambitious plans for 2014: 

Consider Canada City Alliance intent on capturing EU and Asia-related investment opportunity in 2014 with 12-city joint effort

OTTAWA, ON, FEB. 4, 2014 – It’s not your father’s economic development strategy. While many large cities in the same country fight it out for investment dollars on foreign turf, the members of the Consider Canada City Alliance that represents 59% of the country’s GDP have opted to join forces. They intend to get ahead of the curve on investment opportunities brought on by the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, and the massive potential of Asian markets.

This approach, dubbed “collaborative innovation”, coincides with Canada sweeping past the U.S., Germany and Japan in a Bloomberg ranking of The Best Countries for Business in 2014. Canada rose four places to reach second place, behind only Hong Kong, which led for a third straight year.

“The simple fact is that most investment decisions are made on a city-to-city basis,” said Michael Darch, founding President of the Consider Canada City Alliance Inc. “But Canada’s major cities realize that in global terms, we need global scale. For example, Chongqing is China’s largest city with a population in excess of 33 million – a difficult number for many Canadians to grasp. Chongqing’s population rivals the population of our entire country, and underlines why “large” Canadian cities must coordinate and collaborate together – versus attempt to compete with each other ­– to attract investment from around the world.”

Attending their Annual General Meeting in Ottawa this week, economic development agency executives from Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Québec City, Winnipeg, Waterloo Region, London and Saskatoon are planning cooperative investment missions to at least six major cities in Europe and Asia in 2014. The London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) is the newest member of the Consider Canada City Alliance.

Over two days, alliance members will receive briefings from at least one Federal Minister, foreign ambassadors, and economic development partners from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development’s Invest in Canada division.

“In the past year we’ve seen a doubling of Web traffic to our trilingual (English, French and Mandarin) Web site, www.considercanada.com,” said Darch. “And our investment missions to China and across the EU produced 375 investment meetings in European cities and 250 meetings in Chinese cities with organizations ranging from multi-billion-dollar sovereign wealth funds to owner-entrepreneurs who want to set up a division or an entirely new company in one or more Canadian cities.”

As well as hitting the road to meet investors in cities that are the world’s economic beacons  – including Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan, Hong Kong, Shēnzhèn and Beijing – the Consider Canada City Alliance approach to collaborative innovation also helped attract major investment delegations in the past year.

From Oct. 14-18, the Italian Embassy in Canada in partnership with Confidustria, Italy’s largest business organization, and the Italian Trade Commission, brought over 40 companies and 70 representatives to visit Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. They were seeking opportunities and partnerships in infrastructure, clean technology and oil and gas. In July, the Consider Canada City Alliance helped organize one of the largest-ever meetings of Chinese and Canadian business executives. For their first visit to Canada, representatives from the key Chinese government agency for outward-bound investment, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), visited Calgary on their only Canadian stop. The delegation’s visit was a direct result of the Consider Canada City Alliance’s three-city trade mission to China in April of 2013.

The Consider Canada City Alliance’s 2014 investment missions will further capitalize on opportunities in Europe and Asia. In the EU, Canada’s largest trade deal ever, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), could boost bilateral trade between Canada and the EU by 23%, or $37.7 billion. And while many Asian markets beckon, still unknown to many Canadians is the fact that China is set to eclipse the United States as the world’s largest economy within three years according to the OECD and IMF. China has already surpassed the US as the world's biggest trader in goods for the first time last year based on total imports and exports.

“China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) increased from $1.0 billion in 2000 to $88 billion in 2012, making it the world’s third largest source of OFDI,” said Darch. “The Economist has noted that Canada was the third largest recipient of OFDI from China in the period 2005-2012. In March of 2013, KPMG released a report released a report that showed Canada was the lead country in the world for Chinese outward bound direct investment.”

“But we can’t rest on our laurels,” cautioned Darch. “It was a massive $15 billion purchase by Chinese oil giant CNOOC of Nexen Inc. that propelled Canada into the number one spot for Chinese investment. While China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States, Canada is not even in China’s top ten. That’s why city-to-city interactions matter. It’s where the action is, and where large-scale investments are sparked. In 2014, we intend to get more than our fair share.”

Darch emphasized that last November the Federal government’s Global Markets Action Plan identified China as a priority market, along with a significant foreign policy shift towards economic diplomacy described by International Trade Minister Ed Fast as a “sea change in the way Canada’s diplomatic assets are deployed around the world.” That sea change is very supportive of Consider Canada City Alliance initiatives, and includes ensuring that diplomatic resources “are harnessed to support the pursuit of commercial success”.

About the Consider Canada City Alliance

Formally incorporated in 2012, the 12 member cities of the Consider Canada City Alliance represent approximately 54% of Canada’s population, 56% of Canada’s employment, 59% of its GDP, and between 2007 and 2012, 72% of GDP growth and 90% of jobs growth. As a united front, Canada’s large cities – Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Québec City, Winnipeg, Waterloo Region, London and Saskatoon – help international companies determine the best strategies for business expansion and continually improve Canada’s ability to attract new investment and trade opportunities. For more information on the Consider Canada City Alliance, please go to www.considercanada.com or www.canadaentete.com.

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and marketing agency for global innovators.)

Throughout the year, TYPS youth take part in after-school, mental health, community garden and countless other volunteer programs in a supportive, supervised environment staffed by qualified youth workers and volunteers.

Along with the great people at TYPS, we trust that you and yours enjoy a holiday with good health, family and friends, and we wish you a joyful journey in 2014!

John Jung (right) in action with Chinese investorsIf you're an economic development manager, anywhere, here's your required reading to launch 2014, as authored by John Jung.

Over several years the market2world team has had the pleasure to work with John in his roles as CEO at Canada's Technology Triangle, co-founder of the Ontario Technology Corridor, charter member of the Consider Canada City Alliance, and over the last year, as the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Intelligent Community Forum.

He is credited with initiating the concept of Intelligent Communities with his work as an urban planner and urban designer from the 1970s to 1990s. Here's John's latest thinking on collaborative innovation to advance economic development, as excerpted from EconomicDevelopment.Org.

Most cities and regions around the world are competitors. Competition has been shown to be extremely healthy for economic and social gain. These communities compete to gain trade and attract capital, jobs and talent to the community. In the process of promoting competitive advantages, each city or region independently set up competitive booths at trade shows; take delegations to targeted cities and visit companies in foreign locations (sometimes even at the same time), and develop collateral materials that would show that their city is in the unique centre of the universe. That is the way competitive economic development has been played for decades. 

But your father’s economic development and city branding is no longer valid in a world of global connectivity, open innovation and team networks. Consequently, new approaches are worth considering: collaborative innovation as a new competitive advantage.

The value of these new approaches can benefit citizens around the world, especially among like-minded communities and citizens willing to collaborate for mutual benefit. Global cities like London, New York and Tokyo are well known, but there are many cities and regions among the hundreds of thousands of known towns, cities and regions that would not be on the lips or radar screens of most people around the world.

Clearly these communities have a huge job to ever get noticed above the noise in key target regions around the world. To sustain a massive advertising campaign to gain awareness to attract foreign investments and talent is simply not possible for most communities. While some cities are more recognizable than others thanks to playing host to past World Fairs and Olympics, most cities are simply invisible at the global level. But imagine what could be done if communities banded together and took a collaborative approach to share knowledge, learn from each other, build consensus and get a consistent message out to other communities interested in collaborating for mutual benefit?

There are some examples worth considering. In Canada, we are actually considered leaders in this new collaborative innovation approach. Consider the collaboration that occurs at the local level among unique organizations such as the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA) and Canada’s Technology Triangle (CTT). Each of these organizations represents the municipalities and regional governments that make up their geopolitical areas. These non-profit Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are highly innovative and collaborative organizations that work with their PPP partners and stakeholders to attract investment, talent and jobs.

One of the innovations created by Toronto, Waterloo Region and Ottawa are multi-city collaborations, formed at the regional level, such as the Ontario Technology Corridor. The Ontario Technology Corridor formed out of the idea that together the participating communities would be able to achieve far more than as individual communities.  In this case, three communities came together in 2002 to create a new method of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

While cautious at first, each community was aware that by working together they would be able to eliminate duplication and by combining efforts and resources increase their ability to raise awareness. In their enthusiasm to work together, the three working partners have been able to create clear and consistent messages and in the process, the Ontario Technology Corridor also developed a true sense of collaboration and a trust. Today, when one of the communities is not able to participate in an investment attraction effort, the other partners ensure the missing community is equally covered. The city of London has also joined the original trio of communities.

This same spirit emerged in a unique group that covers all of Canada. Fiercely competitive economic development agencies from among Canada’s eleven large cities, calling themselves the Consider Canada City Alliance, have been working together for the past several years to build bridges and promote Canada to the world to attract FDI. The Consider Canada City Alliance recognized that Canada is not on the global investment community’s radar screen. Along with the Federal government’s Invest in Canada and Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), the Consider Canada City Alliance has created a unique collaborative innovation initiative to promote Canada through its key cities. This group represents 54% of Canada’s entire population, 59% of the nation’s GDP, and between 2007 and 2012, 72% of GDP growth and 90% of jobs growth in Canada.

Furthermore, the Consider Canada City Alliance has set out to promote international trade and investment with a new sense of collaboration and a new unified message and brand known as ConsiderCanada.com.  This collective brand gives 11 cities a consistent rallying point and a destination on the Web where foreign trade organizations and companies from around the world can seek information, success stories, and contact information about investment opportunities in these cities.

After two collaborative missions to Asia in May of 2012 and April of 2013, 815 contacts were made with Chinese companies and 208 leads qualified for follow up. In November of 2013 there was another investment mission, this time to Europe with more than 350 meetings with key groups, resulting in many more business opportunities than any of the cities would have been able to gain on their own.

At an international level, nearly all of the cities of the Consider Canada City Alliance have also been able to qualify as Intelligent Communities under the Intelligent Community Forum and are benefitting from the global association of these unique cities. The Intelligent Community Forum’s Alumni build on the collaborative innovation model sharing ideas, information and are beginning to actively work together at a global level for the betterment of our citizens around the world. For example, Waterloo Region, Eindhoven, Netherlands and Taipei, Taiwan these three Intelligent Communities have agreed to work together on sharing best practices, talent mobility and supporting each other on specific projects of mutual interest. They are just beginning their journey together it will be interesting to follow them as they evolve this new international collaborative innovation triangle.

For the complete version John Jung's article, click here to EconomicDevelopment.Org.

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and marketing agency for global innovators.)

market2world’s tradition of supporting entrepreneurs continues from regional to national levels and we couldn’t be more honoured to do this work. Industry Canada reports that 77.7% of all private jobs created in Canada between 2002 and 2012 were created by small businesses. We all have a stake in the success of entrepreneurs.

Our most recent contribution is to StartUp Canada Day on Parliament Hill Nov. 21, 2013. market2world was a founding sponsor of StartUp Canada in its first year, and now we are extending our financial contribution by working with Victoria Lennox, Co-founder and CEO and her communications team, planning what promises to be a day-long entrepreneurial invasion of Parliament Hill.

On the morning of Nov. 21 I will be MC for an event that will launch the StartUp Sparks Street campaign.  Entrepreneurs will work with the Sparks Street Development Association to build this pedestrian mall into a new hub for entrepreneurial activity.

The same afternoon, Nathan Rudyk, CEO and founder of market2world, and a serial entrepreneur in his own right, will moderate a panel discussion on entrepreneurship. Nathan has a long track record of contributions to the entrepreneurial community. For Invest Ottawa market2world planned and executed the successful launch of its new CEO Bruce Lazenby, as it rebranded the Ottawa Centre for Regional Innovation (OCRI) as Invest Ottawa. As an author, Nathan contributed a chapter to "The Entrepreneurial Effect", edited by U of O's Professor James Bown with a Forward by Terry Matthews. He also served on several committees and in many capacities for OCRI.

In 2011 Nathan spearheaded Global Entrepreneurship Week Ottawa as part of a global movement. In its second year of participation Ottawa was ranked as staging Canada's most active GEW week. (Read more in Nathan’s blog post from last year). GEWOttawa 2013 starts Monday, Nov. 18. and Nathan served on the committee that selected this year's Rising Stars.

In addition, the market2world team created 125 profiles of Rising Star companies to highlight Invest Ottawa’s most worthy startups. We also earned media coverage for many of the Rising Stars including Giatec Scientific Inc. and Foodic.us.

In market2world's hometown, Nathan served for two years on the Board of Directors at the Mississippi Mills Chamber of Commerce and last month recruited Invest Ottawa and Launch Lab of Kingston to speak at a Chamber meet-up in Almonte (part of the amalgamated Mississippi Mills) so that more local entrepreneurs could take advantage of the excellent services from these regional economic development organizations.

Taking the market2world baton from Nathan, at the end of October I moderated a panel of young entrepreneurs at the first-ever TiECON Canada event.  Panelists discussed the new breed of entrepreneur who are often a Millennial aged 18 to 34 year old and these entrepreneurs have more information and more digital tools that make it so much faster and cheaper to create a company. As one panelist noted – learning to be an entrepreneur is like learning to ride a bike. You can read all the advice you want but at some point you have to get up on the bike and that is when you really learn how to ride.

TiECon panel (left to right) Paul Brent, market2world; Aydin Mirazee, CEO Fluidwave; Haroon Mirza, EIR OMERS Ventures; Matt Lauzon, Founder Gemvara

Every month I am a guest contributor on the CFRA program, The Computer Radio Show. The program provides an opportunity to highlight Ottawa area entrepreneurs such as Blacksumac, RiskLogik and Storm Internet Services.

As well, Nathan regularly gives guest lectures to nextgen entrepreneurs at both the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College on the how-tos of product marketing, public relations and social media.

Join us on StartUp Canada Day on the Hill Nov. 21, participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week and remember – Startups aren't everything when it comes to job growth. They're the only thing.

(Paul Brent is Senior Communications Strategist with market2world communications inc. the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.)

When Ricardo Sodre, the Founding Partner and CEO of Brazil’s Project-1 accelerator, read Startup Nation, it was a bolt of entrepreneurial lightning. The best-selling book on Israel’s unprecedented startup miracle pointed the way to how he could make a difference in his innovation-starved country of Brazil. And while Israel beckoned, Canada’s advantages also attracted the interest of the CEO who currently has five startups under development in Sao Paulo.

Ricardo Sodre, Founding Partner of Brazil's Project-1 accelerator with ReadyPortal's CEO Rajiv Chatterjee, in Toronto

Sodre’s investigation into the world’s innovation hotspots revealed that satisfying Brazil’s hunger for startups, sophisticated engineering and programming talent and leading edge technology could be satisfied by the Ontario Technology Corridor – a ring of collaborative regions in Canada’s most populous province – and a market2world client since 2008.

More than 18,000 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies employ over 270,000 people, making the Ontario Technology Corridor Canada’s largest technology cluster. Its renewable talent engine is regularly recharged by Ontario's 20 universities and 24 colleges – many offering extensive internship and co-op education programs highly responsive to technology industry needs.

Sodre developed deep connections with senior executives from many of Brazil’s largest companies through his former career as an advertising executive and Chief Growth Officer with several of the country’s largest ad agencies. With an experienced team of managers and mentors, he is now busy building commercialization bridges between Ontario and Brazil to supply his contacts with innovations that help them satisfy demand in the country’s dynamic economy. Sodre’s Project-1 invested in its first Ontario success story, Readyportal from Debut Logic Inc., which is a “click-and-play” social collaboration and enterprise content management system platform. Developed in Toronto, Brazilian enterprises and others around the world use Readyportal to run their enterprise content and collaboration at a fraction of the cost of existing solutions, with 60% less implementation time.

“Many large Brazilian companies are in need of ICT technologies that simply are not available in the country,” said Sodre. “The Ontario Technology Corridor’s wealth of startup companies and technology talent can help fill that need. My research also showed me that while Ontario has talent on a par with Silicon Valley, there is 70% less funding available for Ontario startups. Enter the fast-growth, high demand Brazilian market to fill that commercialization gap.” Sodre’s plans for Project-1 include raising $10 million to commercialize 20 to 25 Ontario companies through soft landings in Brazil over the next three years.

Project-1 isn’t the only bridge to commercialization success for the bustling companies in the Ontario Technology Corridor. In Ottawa, another Ontario company called Giatec Scientific Inc. helps ensure that Brazilian transportation bridges and other concrete infrastructure is up to par in a country that is experiencing a construction boom. Giatec received Brazil’s Rio Info 2013 IT Innovation award, given to a company that offers the most novel software-based applications and technologies.

Developed by two PhDs in civil engineering from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, Giatec’s sophisticated algorithms and software analyze the test data and help with the assessment of concrete quality and evaluation of the service life of infrastructure. Brazil is a very significant market for Giatec due to the booming construction in various sectors and particularly those related to the developments for the FIFA world cup and the Olympic games. Brazil is also the largest cement producer in South America (also sixth in the world) with an annual production of 63 million tons.

“The Ontario Technology Corridor value proposition regularly attracts companies like Cisco, Google, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft and Ubisoft to expand here, and we’re also pleased to know that Project-1 and Giatec Scientific are similarly able to help large Brazilian companies develop their economic potential with Ontario-based startup innovation and talent,” said Gerald Pisarzowski, Vice-President Business Development with the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA), an Ontario Technology Corridor partner.

There are also financial reasons for the Ontario Technology Corridor’s success. In 2013 Canada’s combined federal-provincial statutory general corporate income tax rate averages 26% – 13% less than the average U.S. rate. Companies located in Canada enjoy the lowest costs in the G7 for R&D intensive sectors, with up to a 10.7% advantage over the U.S. In addition, in Ontario, a $100 R&D expenditure can be reduced to an after-tax cost of $57, or reduced further to $39 for qualifying small business.

To learn more about the Ontario Technology Corridor, please visit www.ontariotechcorridor.ca.

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and marketing agency for global innovators.)

fDi Magazine is a global leader in reporting on the business of globalization and is part of the respected Financial Times publishing family. fDi offers insight on the key issues surrounding Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). And this month we were gratified to see not one but two significant client features in this authoritative publication.

For 15 years the Intelligent Community Forum has studied and promoted the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities as they adapt to the demands and seize the opportunities presented by Information and Communications Technology (ICT). In talking to the fDi editor she said she was working on a story about smart/intelligent communities and their reporter would be interested in an interview with the Intelligent Community co-founder Lou Zacharilla. The finished article is the cover story for the August 2013 issue of the magazine and Zacharilla’s comments will reach 15,000 mostly C-class business subscribers of the magazine plus gain more exposure on the Web.

A second market2world client, the Consider Canada City Alliance held a July 30th investment forum in Calgary involving one of the largest and most senior Chinese delegations ever to come to Canada. Canada reached a milestone in 2012 when it was ranked the number one destination in the world for Chinese outward-bound FDI.

Bruce Graham (right) signs Memorandum of Understanding with Yu Ping, Vice Chair, China Council for Promotion of International Trade - July 30, 2013 Calgary

At the Calgary investment forum the Consider Canada City Alliance signed an agreement that will see Chinese investment and trade funneled through the 11 member cities of the Alliance. We are pleased to report that fDi carried that story as well.

Getting two clients with one publication within days of each other was rather unique but just one part of ongoing PR success we’ve achieved with both of these clients. For the Intelligent Community Forum we have secured nearly 100 media stories ranging from New Zealand to New York in what some PR shops might justify as “the slow summer months” of June and July. For the Consider Canada City Alliance’s July 30^th event, we have so far created 27 media stories in broadcast, print and blog media ranging from the Toronto Star to CBC TV to the China Daily news.

In the FDI realm market2world has also publicized Consider Canada City Alliance investment and trade missions to China, Ontario Clean Technology Alliance missions to the US and Germany, Ontario Technology Corridor missions to Brazil, Europe and North America and Ontario Food Cluster missions to Europe and North and South America.

On these missions we celebrate Canadian Foreign Direct Investment results including:

• Why world-leading digital media companies like Google, Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Arkadium have set up shop here, attracted by a unique Canadian blend of smart people, smart tax incentives and other smart, entrepreneurial companies
• A German pizza-making plant by Dr. Oetker that will create 120 full-time manufacturing jobs and contribute an estimated $26 million a year to the Ontario agri-food industry

FDI is a critical part of the global economic mix and Canada’s success story is one we eagerly and successfully promote on a global basis for our clients. The numbers don’t lie. In 2012 Canada saw a nine percent increase with inward-bound FDI and an eight percent increase in outward-bound investment compared to double-digit declines in major economies such as the U.S. and the European Union.

Go Canada!

Paul Brent is Senior Communications Strategist with market2world communications inc. the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.

We launched a new regional brand for Invest Ottawa in Feb. of 2012, a new global brand for the the Consider Canada City Alliance Inc. last June, and today a new national brand for the Receivables Insurance Assocation of Canada that leverages several years of marketing results we've created with the International Credit Brokers Alliance – a worldwide organization with members in 30 countries.

What can a powerful, well launched, new or revitalized brand do for an organization? Check out these amazing results from Invest Ottawa one year later, as reported in the Ottawa Business Journal:

324: Number of companies met with in 2012 (up 92 per cent over 2011)

191: Jobs created by companies to which Invest Ottawa has provided services

6,786: Number of mentoring hours by entrepreneurs-in-residence and advisers

227: Number of knowledge-based companies with which Invest Ottawa is working from its innovation department

220: Number of customized market research reports delivered to Ottawa startups

$5.5 million: Cost of those reports if the startups had acquired them on their own

$39.5 million: Investment dollars attracted by Invest Ottawa innovation clients

225: Number of workshops and seminars delivered to more than 4,800 entrepreneurs in 2012

For more results you can read the blog of Consider Canada City Alliance President Michael Darch. He documents the success of his 10-city team of economic development executives as they embarked on 250 meetings during an ambitious three-city Chinese investment mission less than a year market2world created and launched their brand.

In short, a fresh, well articulated brand that speaks to the market brings instant interest and attention that a passionate, focused organizational team can turn into massive and ongoing momentum (because marketing can't do everything :).

So how's the Receivables Insurance Association of Canada (RIAC) doing on day one? We're by no means done yet, but we can count a feature story in Canadian Underwriter.ca, Canada's Insurance and Risk Magazine, as part of our results. This publication is a key media link to our #1 broker audience that can benefit from selling far more receivables insurance to the 99% of Canadian companies currently not using it.

One of Export Development Canada's top executives now follows us on Twitter, two more senior executives from a global underwriter and Canadian broker have committed to blog about RIAC's mission to boost premiums from $200 million to $350 million in five years (while protecting what is often the largest uninsured asset on a company balance sheet), a reporter from Le Journal de l’assurance is planning an article to reach the Quebec market, and the association's YouTube channel is turning its Chairman Ian Miller into something of a viral video star. Social networking is starting to build on Facebook and LinkedIn, and you can tune into the association's News page for more PR results over coming days.

Or, if you've read enough and want some market2world brand momentum in your corner, contact us now.

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and marketing agency for global innovators.)

For 28 years the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA), this country’s largest technology association, gathers in Ottawa for the annual Innovation Awards dinner. The event is on tonight, May 29 at uOttawa. For the 12^th year in a row I am honoured that CATA CEO, John Reid has invited me to be the Master of Ceremonies.

Each year this event serves as a great opportunity to learn about some of the really creative companies and individuals in Canada. In recent years CATA has made an effort to find and recognize the often unsung heroes of the Information and Communications Technology industry and cast a spotlight on their innovations. They also have compelling guest speakers and this year it is Peter Aceto President and CEO of ING Direct Canada a social media innovator, Brenda Halloran Mayor of Waterloo, one of Canada's hotbeds of new companies, and Victoria Lennox, co-founder of Startup Canada and a champion of entrepreneurs.

At market2world communications inc. we provide PR and marketing for global innovators. We see entrepreneurs hard at work with great ideas.  

Canada’s tech sector is adding jobs, the industry is worth more than $155 billion, it was the leading sector of the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2012 and valuations are up 20 percent so far in 2013. Halogen Software Inc. of Ottawa recently launched a rare IPO on the TSX.

At the awards dinner one can look beyond all the numbers and see Canadian innovators such as DataWind Inc., Youi Labs Inc., Shopify Inc., Freshbooks Inc., In Motion Technology Inc., Habanero Consulting Group Inc. and VidYard Inc.

They are just some of the companies in the running for this year’s awards. Certainly Ottawa deserves a shout-out as each year this region comes up with more than its fair share of innovators and award winners. Good luck to all the nominees and congratulations to all the past winners.  

12 years ago I was fortunate enough to be selected by CATA as the Science and Technology Reporter of the Year. Since moving into public relations at market2world I relish the opportunity to return to the CATA Innovation Awards for a jolt of optimism from all the entrepreneurs and a fresh glimpse of what Canadian innovation is all about.

(Paul Brent is Senior Communications Strategist with market2world communications inc. the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.)

A Statistics Canada report released today, titled Foreign Direct Investment 2012, underlines why the market2world team spends a lot of time with our clients thinking about how our nation can tell a better story to attract more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Consider Canada City Alliance Inc. trilingual Web site, messaging and PR campaign by market2world communications inc.

In the past few months we've publicized a Consider Canada City Alliance investment and trade mission to China, an Ontario Clean Technology Alliance mission to Germany, an Ontario Technology Corridor mission to Brazil, and an Ontario Food Cluster mission to France.

We also get to celebrate Canadian Foreign Direct Investment results including:

• Why world-leading digital media companies like Google, Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Arkadium have set up shop here, attracted by a unique Canadian blend of smart people, smart tax incentives and other smart, entrepreneurial companies
• A German pizza-making plant by Dr. Oetker that will create 120 full-time manufacturing jobs and contribute an estimated $26 million a year to the Ontario agri-food industry
• How the right combination of talent, vision and policy has convinced more than 30 renewable energy companies from around the globe to locate or expand in Ontario's 31,000-job, $27 billion (so far) clean technology sector
• An initial $10 million investment in an Ottawa technology incubation centre by China's $11 billion Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG)

Today's Statscan report on FDI into Canada underlines two key trends:

1. "While the United States remains by far the largest foreign direct investor in Canada, the past decade has seen a gradual decline in that country's share of direct investment in Canada from 64.9% in 2002 to 51.5% in 2012."

In other words, the push to capture FDI dollars from countries beyond our powerful neighbour to the South is well placed. The megatrend is more globally diversified trade flows. For example, as we pointed out in our April 2013 press release for the Consider Canada City Alliance, with a 2012 total of $21.3 billion, Canada is now the lead country in the world for Chinese outward bound direct investment, outpacing the second place U.S. by $7 billion and more than double Chinese investment in Australia – the country widely perceived as the biggest beneficiary of Chinese investment flows. Oh Canada, not so anymore!

2. "The finance, insurance and management industries also accounted for a significant share of foreign direct investment in Canada with 32.6% of total investment in 2012. The manufacturing sector remained a significant destination of foreign direct investment in 2012 with a 28.7% share, while the mining and oil and gas extraction industry accounting for a further 19.0%."

In other words, while minerals, oil and gas, and other natural resources investments are important, it's our knowledge-based sectors, i.e. our people, not our rocks and bitumen deposits, that are attracting the lion's share of FDI into Canada. 

As one our clients blogged recently, "The question remains, how do we take full value of the potential?" One way is to relentlessly, engagingly and thoroughly tell our story. In other words, market2world!

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and marketing agency for global innovators.)

On Sept. 30th, 2011, I blogged about a new leader in the National Capital Region:

He's the most important CEO in Ottawa right now because he's committed like no one I've met to tear down the little walls and moats that have been building up for several years now to delay what is ours for the taking: To be the best place in Canada to start and grow a knowledge-based business.

That CEO was Bruce Lazenby, hired on to transform the Ottawa Centre for Regional Innovation (OCRI) from its staid focus on large ICT companies to a sector-broadened, entrepreneur-focused organization that we rebranded as Invest Ottawa in Feb. of 2012 (Check out market2world's launch video below that shows a business community eager and ready to embrace change): 

Last week the Ottawa Business Journal, a media outlet that wasn't shy about taking OCRI to task for being out of touch, published an article entitled "Invest Ottawa: One year in" by Courtney Symons. Her story noted that whereas 0 startups resided at OCRI, "40 startups reside at the Invest Ottawa offices – 26 early-stage companies with the remainder being students within the Ottawa Young Entrepreneurs program run by Carleton University – and more than 200 firms have accepted services from the agency."

The article also quotes March Networks’ president and CEO Peter Strom, who said: “Their time and resources are better spent trying to help the smaller companies.”

And the numbers in the sidebar to the OBJ's story on Invest Ottawa's progress say it all. Thanks Bruce, to you and your revitalized team. Keep going!

324: Number of companies met with in 2012 (up 92 per cent over 2011)

191: Jobs created by companies to which Invest Ottawa has provided services

6,786: Number of mentoring hours by entrepreneurs-in-residence and advisers

227: Number of knowledge-based companies with which Invest Ottawa is working from its innovation department

220: Number of customized market research reports delivered to Ottawa startups

$5.5 million: Cost of those reports if the startups had acquired them on their own

$39.5 million: Investment dollars attracted by Invest Ottawa innovation clients

225: Number of workshops and seminars delivered to more than 4,800 entrepreneurs in 2012

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.)

I don't cut a sponsorship cheque for many causes without thinking hard about whether the money will really, truly, make a difference. But when Victoria Lennox asked me to contribute some cash to Startup Canada, it was the easiest decision I've made in a long time.

You see startups aren't just a neat thing, they're the only thing.

Contrary to what debt-ridden governments in the "developed world" like to tell us, "stimulus" doesn't do anything more than smooth over economic speed-bumps. And as we're seeing in the Eurozone, without a fundamentally sound (i.e. enterpreneur-driven) economy based on revenue creation versus money-printing and distribution of depreciating fiat currency, there's no basis of real (wealth creating) stimulus. There's only a declining standard of living and the systematic crushing of hopes and dreams via financial repression.

At market2world, we do our bit by attracting investment to Canada via ConsiderCanada.com (a brand we created for Canada's large cities), the Ontario Technology Corridor, the Ontario Food Cluster and the Ontario Clean Technology Alliance. For years we've promoted the companies and products of entrepreneur-led companies across the country. And on our home turf, we created Global Enterpreurship Week Ottawa with our friends at Invest Ottawa.

But because they usually can't afford us, we don't often get the chance to work directly with freshly minted startups. And that's why Startup Canada is so important. On May 2, this national entrepreneur-led non-profit movement will launch its flagship venture, Startup Canada Communities, trailblazing a new approach to supporting entrepreneurs – from the bottom-up. 

Startup Canada Communities provides entrepreneurs with access to mentors, workspace, and funding to start and grow their businesses and to connect with other startup founders. Local networked Web sites and grassroots entrepreneur-led events and activities will unite and strengthen each startup community.

The project will initially pilot in 15 communities across Canada in 2013 to develop and refine the model. The first 15 pilot communities are St. John’s, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, York Region, London, Kingston, Winnipeg, Calgary, Lethbridge, Smithers, Prince George, and Langford.

To find out more, on May 2nd check out Startup Canada Communities. Tell em Victoria sent ya!

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.)

This week the Consider Canada City Alliance Inc. – a united front representing Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Québec City, Winnipeg, Waterloo Region and Saskatoon – is embarking on a three-city investment mission to China. This is the Asian country that the OECD predicts will surpass the U.S. to become the world’s largest economy as soon as 2016.

This investment mission, by the cities that accounted for 72% of GDP growth and 90% of job growth in Canada between 2007 and 2012, is one of several this year to help international companies determine the best strategies for business expansion and continually improve Canada’s ability to attract new investment and trade opportunities. And it's underlined by the fact that as of 2012, Canada is now the lead country in the world for Chinese outward bound direct investment.

market2world is extraordinarily proud of the progress being made by the Consider Canada City Alliance. Working closely with Michael Darch, the founding President of the Alliance, and his Chairman Bruce Graham, who is also President and CEO of Calgary Economic Development, we created the Alliance's logo, core messaging and positioning, its trilingual Web site, marketing collaterals and are handling PR on both sides of the Pacific. We are also promoting the organization's success on Facebook, Twitter and China's Weibo social media network.

Our PR effort started last week with a media alert that has already garnered positive press across Canada. This week we look forward to initiating more coverage on both sides of the Pacific.

Go Canada!

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.)

On Saturday April 13, 2013 I made my regular monthly appearance on CFRA's Computer Radio Show. Mobile apps was the theme for the program. From an industry that did not exist in 2008 mobile apps are now a global business worth $18 billion. Ottawa has more than 75 companies in the mobile app space.

We discussed the accomplishment of a British teenager who recently sold his mobile app to Yahoo for $30 million. The Computer Radio Show also featured security concerns for mobile devices and I updated the subject of wearable computers such as Google Glass and wearable devices that have been developed by eSight Corp. and Impakt Protective Inc. of Ottawa.

market2world has a history of being part of the Ottawa media and technology sector. Our CEO Nathan Rudyk started up OCRIRadio.com in 2005 and for four years OCRIRadio was heard every month. The show was the first social media channel in Ottawa devoted to the technology industry. You can listen to the OCRIRadio archives here. From 2000-2002 Nathan also served the Ottawa tech community as an Internet columnist for Ottawa's CBC Radio show Ottawa Morning and for several years in the mid-2000's Nathan served as a regular tech analyst on the program I produced and hosted on CTV Ottawa called Tech Now.

Tech Now ended a successful 10 year run in 2011. One of the last segments featured an interview with Harley Finkelstein, Chief Platform Officer for Ottawa-based Shopify Inc. You can view the interview here. I also wrote a column on technology for Metro and 24 Hours newspapers in Ottawa.

Please contact me with ideas for subjects you would like to hear about on the Computer Radio Show. Drop me an email, paul@market2world.com. Click on radioshow-April13-13 below to listen to the most recent interview segment. 

Paul Brent is Senior Communications Strategist with market2world communications inc. the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.

The market2world team loves aggressive, visionary clients that aim to make a global impact. So it doesn't get better than this announcement: The New York-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) has selected market2world as its public relations Agency Of Record (AOR).

While the press release below is dated today, we've been hard at work with the globe-trotting ICF team since last November. It just happens to be an awesome day to formally celebrate that work. 

The UK-based MailOnline, self-described as the media outlet that "reaches more users than any other newspaper site in the world" ran a feature story on ICF's Top7 Intelligent Communities, drawing on previous coverage from NBC News. Today we also have several stories in progress on ICF's pick of BlackBerry Founder and Vice Chairman Mike Lazaridis as 2013 Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year. Read on!

Intelligent Community Forum selects market2world communications as public relations agency of record

NEW YORK, NY – April 4, 2013 – market2world communications inc. today announced it has been named PR Agency of Record by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a think tank and global movement that studies and mentors the economic and social development of 21st century communities. market2world will contribute to the development and execution of ICF’s external communications strategy.

“ICF exists to re-energize communities worldwide.  We try to encourage and share best practices among communities challenged to create prosperity and social stability in a world where jobs, investments and progress increasingly depend on the proper use of broadband and related access communications,” said ICF Co-founder Louis Zacharilla. “The decision to hire an external PR group reflects our desire to build awareness of the ICF movement worldwide. market2world came highly recommended based on its work with economic development and innovation-driven organizations.”

“We are thrilled to add the Intelligent Community Forum to our client roster,” said Nathan Rudyk, President & CEO of market2world communications. “ICF deserves a larger international footprint to encourage both cities and rural communities to create innovation-driven prosperity, and we are honored to help advance the cause of this important movement.”

About Intelligent Community Forum

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) studies and promotes the best practices of the world's Intelligent Communities as they adapt to the demands and seize the opportunities presented by information and communications technology (ICT). To help communities build prosperous economies, solve social problems and enrich local cultures, ICF conducts research, hosts events, publishes newsletters and produces its high-profile international awards program. Over more than a decade, ICF has become an international movement that attracts the attention of global leaders, thinkers, and media observers.  The ICF Foundation consists of 119 cities and regions that have been designated as Intelligent Communities by ICF and which participate in an ongoing global dialogue to strengthen local economies. For more information, go to www.intelligentcommunity.org 

About market2world communications

market2world is one of North America’s most innovative independent public relations and product marketing agencies for global innovators. From initial market introductions for startups to social media-inspired PR campaigns for established companies, from corporate Web sites to sales collaterals, market2world unleashes the power of story to build winning, global brands for its clients. For more information on market2world, go to www.market2world.com.

(Nathan Rudyk is President and CEO with market2world communications inc., the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.)

Earlier this month on March 13th, the Ottawa chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) invited me to host a conversation with Desh Deshpande at the chapter’s 10th Anniversary kickoff event held at UOttawa.

Gururaj Desh Deshpande is one of the world’s most sought after speakers on entrepreneurship. A successful serial entrepreneur, he was raised in India, attended two Canadian universities and then he moved to Boston where he co-founded several firms including Sycamore Networks Inc. a firm that hit $45 billion in market cap during the tech boom of the 90's and just this February a deal closed to sell Sycamore and have it become a private firm.

Paul Brent & Desh Deshpande photo – Streamlined Spaces.com

He also invested $20 million to establish the Deshpande Foundation and its five affiliated centres in the U.S., India and Canada that all assist entrepreneurs. UOttawa President Allan Rock announced at the event that his school is now part of the Deshpande Innovation Network linking universities around the world.

“Being an entrepreneur is a career choice, you have to love the lifestyle, love creating something, solving problems and always believe that tomorrow will be better,” he said.

Deshpande went on to warn that being an entrepreneur is not about producing a get-rich-quick result. While that might happen, most often it does not. On the key question of work/life balance Deshpande urged people to think of all the things you do in life as juggling a series of crystal balls, and one rubber ball. The rubber ball is work, if you drop it invariably it bounces back but drop your family for example and that ball will shatter.

I am now a member of TiE and hope to continue the market2world tradition of helping entrepreneurs to succeed. For example, for the last two years, one of market2world’s biggest PR efforts aimed at the Ottawa entrerpreneurial community is Global Entrepreneur Week. We suggested the idea to Invest Ottawa in 2011 and again in 2012, we helped make Ottawa number one among Canadian cities for the number of activities staged. In 2012, Ottawa was named one of the top three cities in the world in marking GEW.

Paul Brent is Senior Communications Strategist with market2world communications inc. the public relations and product marketing agency for global innovators.