Digital Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia has a thriving technology industry with the potential to boost the economy in the same way oil and gas did for Alberta.
That’s the vision of Digital Nova Scotia, an organization that represents professionals working in technology and fields related to the digital economy.
Digital Nova Scotia president and chair Jason Powell says Nova Scotians have enormous talent and potential when it comes to developing technology applications that will improve business on a global scale.
Powell is a seasoned veteran in the technology sector, having worked for many years as managing director of Keane, and now as president of Professional Quality Assurance (PQA), a company that tests software for clients and develops e-learning material and custom courses for organizations. Most of his clients are out of province and some are international, giving him a feel for global trends in the technology industry.
Digital Nova Scotia started as the Software Industry Association of Nova Scotia in 1987 and became incorporated in 1989. In the 1990s, it evolved into the Information Technology Association of Nova Scotia, with the goal of covering the entire IT industry.
The organization recently re-invented itself as Digital Nova Scotia to capture the reality of technology work in Nova Scotia and beyond.
“Digital economy encapsulates more than just IT. It encompasses the emerging $3.5 trillion annual piece of the economy that includes new media and video games. As a province, we participate in a bit over $1 billion of this enormous part of the economy, so there’s room to grow.”
Powell adds Digital Nova Scotia has four main pillars that include digital content, applications, services and infrastructure. Its members work in a range of technology occupations, ranging from web developers to internet marketing consultants to software developers and programmers. Digital Nova Scotia has 75 members and hopes to grow its membership to 150 by the end of 2010.
“Digital content brings in a new type of technology worker – a more creative function to create special effects and digital art, but there are still the purists that do programming.”
Digital Nova Scotia has been working with the technology and business departments at Nova Scotia’s post-secondary educational institutions to address enrollment issues. While the industry is asking for employees, the rate of enrollment in technology-related post-secondary programs is not growing.
Powell believes people are still connecting the sector with the dot com bust, and are stuck on the image of IT workers as programmers and support staff.
“Employment in the sector is the highest it’s ever been. There is a great deal of demand for video game developers, flash animation for websites, web content,” he explains enthusiastically. “There are so many neat aspects of the information technology industry. But people hear IT and they don’t think of the creative side. That’s why digital is a stronger, more inclusive term.”
Powell is helping post-secondary institutions package their programs to appeal to a broader audience with the new reality of technology.
“We’re saying if you’re creative and want to develop content, then the digital economy is for you. It’s important to communicate to the new folks that jobs in technology are not about being glued to your computer.”
Digital Nova Scotia is focused on helping its members export their unique technologies, as well as promoting and adopting digital services and products here in Nova Scotia.
“We need to focus on our strengths as a province. In Nova Scotia we literally sit on top of 25 per cent of the world’s GDP from the United States. We have connections to the biggest businesses and we have the potential to become the thought leaders,” Powell says. “We have to be more creative within the industry. We need people with more business acumen, in addition to the pure technologists.”
Powell believes the niche for Nova Scotia’s technology sector lies in solving customers’ problems - finding technology solutions to business challenges.
“We have an advantage over offshore technology providers. We are our customers’ customers. We have a business-cultural affinity,” he explains. ”In essence, we operate in the same economy. We’re dealing with the same companies and the same markets, and this applies across North America and into the United Kingdom.
Powell says it’s also important that we support local technology businesses.
“We need to really encourage the growth of indigenous industries. We need to look at how we can get better at helping local businesses prepare to take their offerings to the outside world. Instead of waiting for technologies to be tested elsewhere, Digital Nova Scotia is pushing for regional businesses and organizations to adopt our own products and services.”
Digital Nova Scotia is moving to encourage technology professionals and businesses to work as a team to promote the province’s products and capabilities.
“There is tremendous opportunity out there if we partner with each other and agree to compete as a region,” he explains. “We believe it would be effective to hire a salesperson and promote the strengths of the region to try and get a larger piece of that opportunity.
Powell says the end goal is to see the digital industry grow from four per cent to 10 per cent of Nova Scotia’s GDP by 2020.
“We’d like to see the digital economy be the same for Nova Scotia as the energy sector has been for Alberta. We want to make technology a growth industry for the province.”
And he believes the province is up to the challenge.
“In Nova Scotia, we’ve always been more innovative. We’ve been forced to do more with less. Whenever I’ve brought clients to this region, they leave very impressed with the caliber of people. I believe deeply in the region and the talent living here.”
