This past Thursday April 15th, VeloCity’s very own Jesse Rodgers had the oppertunity to participate on a panel discussing the opportunities for Canadian Businesses to boost their productivity. Hosted at the Accelerator Centre a group of prestigious panel members, some of which are highlighted below, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of our local economy:
Dr. Sherry Cooper, Chief Economist,
Office 2010, BMO Capital Markets
Tom Jenkins,
Microsoft Office 2007, Executive Chair and Chief Strategy Officer, Open Text
Paul Summers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Clemmer SteelCraft Technologies Incorporated
Mike Klopchic, District Vice President,
Office 2010 Product Key, BMO Bank of Montreal
Moderator: Iain Klugman,
Office 2010 Product Key, Chief Executive Officer, Communitech
Jesse Rodgers discusses the general strengths and weaknesses that were brought up and discussed on Thursday, along with his opinions and contributions to the talk:
“My contribution: Waterloo has the talent at the University but everyone else knows it. Getting those students engaged locally is key and that is where VeloCity fits. A point I didn’t bring up is that the same talent Tom Jenkins is trying to bring to Open Text is attracted to a lot of the same things the students are: local culture, more urbanized environments, social life, etc. The other thing students and professionals are interested in is something Dr. Cooper mentioned as a strength the US has — specialized economic zones that are full of opportunity in a general professional area. The opportunity in those areas is that people can switch jobs, build expertise, and spread knowledge throughout the area without having to uproot everything.
What I think? Investment in productivity is less about the organization and more about the community. Invest in the infrastructure, build strong economic cores,
Microsoft Office 2007 Pro, and highlight diverse cultural development on the local level.”
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