Venture Kamloops' Manager of Economic Development, Anita Grover, takes notes during a rountable with Kamloops Technology Industry, in conjunction with the Interior Tech Insdustry Association.
Venture Kamloops is the economic development agency for the City of Kamloops. Although it is an arm of City Hall, it is managed at arms length from the rest of City Hall operations. Venture Kamloops' CEO reports to an independently appointed board of directors (City Hall does have some representation on this board). City taxpayers pick up $465 000 of the Venture Kamloops budget.
I follow Venture Kamloops with some interest. I see a positive role for such an economic development agency in Kamloops. Entrepreneurship is a huge part of the lifeblood of any community. We should be trying to assist the business community grow and prosper. I've struggled, however, to figure out what results Venture Kamloops has brought to our community. I know Venture Kamloops has generated a lot of activity in the past years, and I may be missing something, but when I have heard past presentations or read past reports, measuring success has been a challenge.
Venture Kamloops has new leadership, both at the staff and at the board level, and this undoubtedly can be an exciting time for the organization. In this spirit, here are three things I would watch for in the next months:
1) Setting out some really measurable targets and sticking to them:
Initiatives Prince George, Venture Kamloops' counterpart in PG, sets out some really tangible targets in it's annual report. An example:
leverage the value of our budget by partnerships five times as measured through new capital investment in transportation, logistics, manufacturing and heavy industrial development
2) Focusing on a small set of key industries in which Kamloops could have a real niche:
We can't be all things to all people, especially with limited economic development resources. What kind of businesses work the best with the priorities and characteristics of our community? There is some evidence that Venture Kamloops is starting to ask this question. I attended a round table with the technology sector a month or so ago, for example. Maybe, we have to pass on assisting certain types of businesses based on community prioirities. Perhaps, pass the businesses Venture Kamloops is unable to assist on to other organizations who are able to help.
3) Focusing on the knowledge based, clean, green businesses of the future.
The world is going through quite an economic transition. Many jurisdictions are looking to what are economies might look like in the future and building towards that. We have an amazing resource in Thompson Rivers University. The Kamloops Energy Fair showcases as growing green industry sector. Kamloops has a large and growing number of green buildings. What if we had a green building construcution material industry? If Venture Kamloops is to help build a long term viable economy for Kamloops, perhaps we need to make strategic bets on the future.
