Reading the thoughts of Geeks on Ice co-founder in the paper last week got me thinking about the IT industry in our province. It’s a safe bet that if we extrapolated on MacAusland’s research of last year and surveyed all the companies in the province, 90% of us would support the creation of an association. How could we be against a virtuous idea right?
But at the same time, one could argue that today many of the various needs that a provincial association could fill are already being met;
- The KIRA awards fill the need to recognize the achievements of the industry.
- The Rising Stars awards fill the need to recognize and celebrate the contributions of individuals that work in our industry.
- We have strong initiatives in Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John that fill the need to promote regional advantages/strengths and lobby government from the economic development side of things.
- Geeks on Ice is a great networking activity, some Cybersocial’s are still active, new networking events like Third Tuesdays have emerged, new associations and new conferences are slowly taking their place to fill needs in specific segments of the industry (not an exhaustive list for course).
So what true needs would a provincial association fill? Industry promotion, Government lobbying, what? And more importantly what would we do with all the regional initiatives that are already well established?
In a perfect world we would be exploring ways of pulling the KIRA and Rising Stars awards and other provincial based initiatives under one umbrella organization at this time. We would find ways to fold the non for profit regional economic development initiatives specific to our industry (promotion, lobbying, labor, etc..) into the association in the form of sub-comities to maintain regional relevance and participation. We would ensure that no activities are duplicated, that a singular focus with regional consideration exists and that everyone pulls in the same direction… for the good of the industry and the province.
Ok… the likelihood of all of this happening rate’s just slightly above my chances of winning the next 6-49 draw this week. And yet, these steps should all be discussed before starting to talk about a viable provincial association. Collectively, we are no bigger than a small city in our province after all.
The collapse of the NBITA many years ago was not the force that pushed regional interests to take precedence over provincial considerations; filling specific needs and leadership did that.
So a simple question, can the amazing local leadership that’s been demonstrated over the last ten years be focused towards provincial goals? Would everyone be ready to give some to possibly gain more?
3 comments ↓
I love that you’re actively weighing the pro’s and con’s, that was my desired reaction! You are right that many of the pieces of an association puzzle exist today with the examples mentioned, but I have 2 things that I can’t seem to find an answer with our existing ecosystem:
1) Why is it that NB is the only province without an association?
2) Is our current many(Sector Programs) to one(Govt) ecosystem really working to advocate on to incresing student recruitment, improve our education policy, promote economic development and contribute to overall policy creation/improvements?
From what I hear, many people think it is a good idea to get together to debate the idea, however; there is an air of cynacism about being able to overcome the complacency within the sector by key stakeholders.
My goal is to get people to ask “why not?” form an association and I have to say, you should be hearing some refreshing news in the near future.
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Just because everyone else has an IT association doesn’t mean we need one. I was involved with NBITA and have worked for and with LearnNB, which was focused on e-learning at one time. These types of organisations have always had difficulty operating without some kind of government subsidies. If someone wants to create another organisation I think that’s fine. However, public money should not be used to finance it.
You’ve done a good job showing that there are already several organisations that play in the same space that an IT association would. I also wonder what constitutes an IT association today, when almost every organisation and business uses IT. Linking with existing structures seems to make the most sense. Some others that you didn’t mention are CIPS; the various Linux User Groups; the Miramichi Chapter of SIGGRAPH; Silicon East; APTICA; etc.
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