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?