Transcript - Ontario’s Innovation Agenda: Direct Engagement

Ken Coates
Dean of Arts, University of Waterloo

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Thank you very much; it’s a tremendous delight to be here and to be part of this discussion about nationalinnovation. 

For the last ten years I’ve actually been working on, this is the academic part of me, working on a study of innovation in Japan and watching a country that has been spending almost twice as much as almost all other leading industrial nations on research and innovation and following the path in which they’ve taken some of their scientific developments and actually expand them into commercial opportunities. 

The last month I’ve had an opportunity to visit two countries in Europe and three in Asia and one of the things that comes back very strongly from that experience is discovering how intense the global change is.  We can talk all the time about globalization but it’s not just globalization: it’s globalization at a break-neck pace.  It’s a world that is changing very, very rapidly; of certainties that were so safe only two or three years ago absolutely turned on their head as new opportunities were created and new economies open up and old ones sort of slow down.  We’re not ready, quite frankly, for a world in which the largest mobile media market in the world is actually China, and by the way, the fastest growing areas are actually in Africa and the questions of how we, as Ontario, sort of grab onto those realities and figure out how we create business opportunities, technical opportunities and scientific opportunities for ourselves in a world that is just changing literally right in front of our eyes. 

As we’ve taken the time, when I was actually in Croatiaa short while ago and spent the better part of two days with all the major government agencies working on innovation.  This is a country that’s a transitional economy, just making a change away from a communist rule, recovering from all of the civil war and strife that they had there, and they have identified innovation as their primary national target.  Right now we don’t think of Croatia as a competitor, five years from now Croatia will be a competitor.  We’ve go to move fast, we’ve got to move strong, we’ve got to be very, very consistent about all of this.  So the issue that I would raise front and centre is one around urgency.  I very much appreciate what Ontario is doing.  Ontario has grabbed on to the innovation theme better than any other jurisdiction in the country and other provinces; the federal government is making targeting investments.  Ontario, I think, has recognized that it is basically about a change of lifestyle, it’s a change of economic focus, it’s a change of priority that basically reaches across the theme but the issue here is really urgency.  That the innovation economy is not one that stands still, that in fact, last year’s great idea is actually yesterday’s business and you have to then constantly reinvent and constantly change and be aware of what’s going on around the world. 

The Minister has mentioned very quickly about the diversity of Ontario’s population.  That should be one of our most profound strengths; that we have people who come here from all corners of the world, that we should be listening to them about what’s happening in their countries, countries they moved from, so we can figure out exactly how this world is changing.  The Minister has also mentioned the importance of collaboration.  I guess I’ll just use one example, I think I’m here because I’m the digital media person.  I’m a huge fan of digital media, that’s growing very, very, very rapidly and we have excellence in spots, and the challenge for Ontario in the next little while is actually to bring those pieces together. 

We always talk in context of Stratford – I’ll mention in a minute – of what we call “The Creative Triangle”.  We have wonderful technology firms.  We have some very innovative businesses and actually one of our world-leading areas is actually content, the creative sector.  People who are writing, making plays, making films and things of that sort.  What we actually need to find a way to do is to bring these things together.  The next economy, the new economy, the digital economy is not just about pipelines it’s about finding something to put in the pipelines.  It’s not just about devices, it’s actually to have something to look at when you turn your BlackBerry on, and one of the huge challenges for us is actually to pick-up on exactly what the Minister said about collaboration, and to figure out how to do this not within sectors but between sectors.  Yes, the tech people can talk to each other, but the tech people have to talk to the content people whether it’s the broadcasters, the newspaper folks and what have you, and help create a very different economy than the one we’re used to. 

The example that I would draw forward here because it’s such a wonderful one; we’re in the process of setting up a new campus in Stratford and the idea here is actually to draw on some great strengths.  The City of Stratford is known all across North America as one of the cultural centres, the Stratford Festival, it’s full of artistic richness and depth, it’s a fantastic sort of place.  Waterloo, of course, is very; very well known for its digital economy, digital technology, Open Text and Christie Digital and what have you.  We have the opportunity here to bring these three pieces together, the technology acumen from the academy at the University of Waterloo and our other academic partners.  The cultural richness that comes with Stratford is automatically associated with that city but also the commercial intelligence and the commercial ability of the Research in Motions, the Christie Digitals and what have you.  So what we are proposing is a new campus that’s unlike anything else that we’ve created ever as a new campus.  This is a place that will focus on third and fourth year in graduate programming.  It will actually focus only on two things: digital media and global business, and particularly on the interweaving of these two things and bringing all of those partners together in sort of a constant synergy, talking about where the future is.  The best part of it though, about Stratford, is that Stratford’s initiative is not just about the City of Stratford or about the Stratford campus, it’s about being a part of a province-wide program of sort of digital engagement.  So: Ontario College of Art and Design, we’re having conversations with them, with Ryerson, conversations with them, with a whole bunch of other universities and partners to make sure that, this in fact, does become a provincial initiative.  So my contribution would be: this is not an option.  Innovation is not an option it’s a requirement and, in fact, if we have to learn anything, we have to learn how to do two things: one is to move faster, and move more intelligently by understanding what’s going on in the rest of the world. 

Thank you.