BC Open Textbook Project’s Clint Lalonde

Our Tectorian of the Week is the Tectoria-based BC Open Textbook Project.

The BC Open Textbook Project champions practical innovations in learning such as open-source textbooks, which reduce the cost of postsecondary education. Improving affordability makes education more accessible for everyone. More highly-educated people means more folks to fill the jobs being pumped out by the booming advanced technology industry.

Victoria is the hub of a massive BC initiative that has received relatively little press until BCcampus director Mary Burgess was recently interviewed by CBC’s Michael Enright on Canada’s most popular radio program.

Enright, who has two sons in university, has remarked how astoundingly expensive university textbooks are. Compounding the problem, frequent updates to information and citations mean textbooks are revised and reissued from year to year, making it difficult to recycle them.

And expensive textbooks can be a major barrier to education for cash-strapped students.

So Enright was happy to learn the project has developed 40 openly-licensed textbooks that are available to everyone – the textbooks will be free of charge to students (check out the OpenEd website to see what textbooks are available so far).

As the BC Open Textbook project’s Clint Lalonde notes on his personal blog (and this is a man who still keeps an actual web log of his daily activities):

Spent a morning doing some research on cost of textbooks for students taking introductory mining courses at various institutions in BC – suggested retail price:$108.55 for one of 9 first term courses in this mining program. Add in the $212 Chem book you need in this course and the $165.80 Math book for this one, and your first term costs for textbooks is already close to $500…for 1/3 of the 9 courses you need for your first term…of a four term program. You only have 33 more courses to buy books for (I didn’t go any further).

The solution? Open-source textbooks.

Other key players in the Victoria-based, provincially funded project include Amanda Coolidge and Laurie Aesoph, who both work directly with faculty managing the development side of textbook production.

Brad Payne, the team’s technical analyst, has done some absolutely incredible work on the project including a lot of custom development on Pressbooks and APIs to feed several different applications into what appears as our open textbook site in a seamless way.

Making sure students have access to textbooks is a big deal, since textbooks in college and university typically cost students thousands of dollars.

And by improving access to postsecondary education in BC, Clint and the BCcampus team are helping make sure there will be skilled workers available to fill all of the technology jobs created by Tectoria’s rapidly growing sector.

Ho Kim, President and CEO of local tech company CAMACC and volunteer chair of VIATeC’s board of directors, has has been named Ernst and Young’s 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year in the Information Technology category for Canada’s Pacific region.

Receiving the award is something to celebrate indeed.

The EY Entrepreneur of the Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement.

Ho’s award was announced at a gala ceremony in Vancouver on September 30. Other contenders for the award included Stephane Bourque of Vancouver’s Incognito Software and Jack Newton of Burnaby’s Themis Solutions.

The top award of the night went to the chief executive of Langley’s Leavitt Machinery, Thomas Leavitt, who was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

What Makes Ho Kim and CAMACC So Successful?

What is the secret of Ho’s success?

A lifelong athlete, Ho brings the same dedication that brought him success in basketball, volleyball and other sports to building a successful technology company from the ground up.

Ho believes that creating results on any level comes from developing a culture that motivates and empowers each of its members to succeed.

“At CAMACC we hire for attitude, and train for position,” says Ho.

Ho’s family moved to Victoria when he was a toddler. Four decades later Ho is still here, acting as a Tectoria ambassador to the world.

At CAMACC we hire for attitude, and train for position

Ho says he loves Victoria for the lifestyle and the spectacular natural environment – the same things have attracted tech entrepreneurs and business talent from around the world to make Victoria one of Canada’s fastest-growing tech hubs.

“I can’t think of a better place to operate a technology business,” says Ho.

CAMACC Part of an Elite Class of Companies Transforming Canada’s Economy

Under Ho’s leadership, CAMACC itself is playing a leading role in Canada’s rapidly evolving community of tech companies.

For example, like many other leading technology companies in Canada CAMACC has cultivated a truly international presence. While providing strategic vision and executive direction from Victoria, Ho regularly travels to satellite offices across North America and to CAMACC’s software engineering lab in China.

Just like CAMACC, other EY finalists operate globally and often consistently generate higher revenues from year to year.

EY found that Canada’s 2013 program finalists recorded average revenue growth of 37% year over year in 2012. That’s above the global average of 29% for developed countries. Seventy-four percent operate internationally, compared to 41% of businesses in Australia, a country similar in size to Canada.

A Year of Successes for Ho Kim and CAMACC

CAMACC is indeed recording growing revenues – earlier in September CAMACC was once again included in the VIATeC 25, the annual list of the largest technology companies headquartered or founded in Greater Victoria based on reported calendar revenues.

It’s been a great year so far for CAMACC. Under Ho’s leadership CAMACC won the 2014 VIATeC Technology Company of the Year Award (Ho was also a Finalist for the 2014 VIATeC Executive of the Year).

Congratulations to Ho Kim and his team in Tectoria. We’re looking forward to seeing where CAMACC goes next.

What makes Insight, Design, Sustainability, Innovation, and Sociability so critical, and why should your brand harness these key guiding principles?

According to Tectoria’s own Marc Stoiber, these questions form the five pillars esssential for “future proofing” brands keen on seizing the future.

Marc’s book on future-proofing brands is due to launch this fall. To start things off, Marc is going to help us launch Fort Tectoria by speaking at Experience Tectoria next week:

A familiar face at Royal Roads University, Marc writes on brand innovation for Huffington Post, Fast Company, GreenBiz and Sustainable Life Media. He also speaks on the subject from coast to coast, and has been featured at TED.

His work on Mr. Clean earned his team the Procter & Gamble Worldwide Turnaround of the Year Award in 2005.

A Royal Roads instructor, Marc consults for clients including British Columbia Government health care and BC Hydro. Before embarking on consulting, he was vice-president of green innovation at Maddock Douglas, founder of Change Advertising, National creative director of Grey Canada and creative director of DDB Canada.

These days, Marc Stoiber works with our friend Jude Brown as a creative strategist, entrepreneur, green brand specialist and writer, building resilient, future-proof brands.

“I don’t deal with accomplished creative directors of national agencies on a daily basis,” says Jude Brown. “The best thing about Marc is he likes to share. He has a wealth of experience in marketing and business, connections all over the place and sound advice – he hands them all over freely.”

This is important, because Marc advocates building a “global expert network.”

According to Marc, a global expert network is, as the name implies, a network of smart, specialized idea people you can call upon to guide your thinking. In Marc’s case, his global expert network is at the C-suite level, generally entrepreneurial, with strong brand experience.

In short, Marc helps people all over the world forge a more enlightened path forward and helps them guarantee the continued viability of their business.

And he does it all from right here in Tectoria.

We’re so excited to hear him speak next week!

Hootsuite’s VP of Beards & Business Development Greg Gunn is our Tectorian of the Week.

Why Greg Gunn, and why now?

For one thing, Tectoria veteran Gregg Gunn will be returning home to speak at our brand-new space on Fort Street at the upcoming Experience Tectoria extravaganza on September 11th, 12th and 13th:

The topic of Greg’s speech? “Finding The Next Whale.” Greg will be discussing how Hootsuite is searching for “the next Hootsuite” from within the very walls of their Mount Pleasant offices over in Vancouver.

And what a whale it is: Hootsuite has been speculated to have a value of anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion following its record-breaking $165 millon Series B funding round last year. The company is also looking to fill 100 positions by the end of this year at its new 27,000 sq ft HQ2, an awe-inspiring building located in Mount Pleasant in East Van.

While just a ferry ride away, Hootsuite is a long way from Greg’s beginnings working with early stage, high-growth companies at Vancouver Island Tech Park in Saanich.

A passion for people, technology and data

Now “Chief Harpoonist” and VP of Business Development, Greg Gunn launched the sales team that has made Hootsuite the key tool that major enterprise-level companies such as Coca-Cola, H&M, Tifffany & Co., IBM and more use to manage and measure social media engagement.

It’s all part of what Greg calls his passion: people, technology and data.

“Greg is an energetic and talented leader,” says Anthony Sukow. “He has a great business mind and a pragmatic approach to making money.”

Sukow is well-known in Victoria as one of the founders of Terapeak, like Hootsuite, itself another indispensable software tool used by millions of people all over the world. And Greg Gunn was one of the first employees

“Greg worked with us on developing our business relationships with eBay, growing key enterprise customers, and working on high value projects, services and initiatives,” says Sukow. “We hired Greg right out of UVic and he stuck with us in the early days.”

Today Terapeak has moved to the foot of Fort Street (with offices in the Bay area and Toronto) is the leader in ecommerce market analytics, helping online merchants grow their business and become more profitable.

There’s a bit of Greg Gunn in TeamPages, another technology story that got its start in Tectoria.

And along they way Greg has travelled far himself. He worked for Idea Builders, a Nigerian based NGO focused on poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship and agriculture.

During his time in Nigeria, the UVic Commerce grad forged local and international partnerships to expand programs including micro-credit programs, primary agriculture education, and an award winning “Women Mentoring Women” program.

Coming back to Tectoria

And now Greg Gunn returns to his roots in Tectoria. We’re happy Greg will join us to celebrate the launch of our beautiful new HQ at 777 Fort Street in mid-September.

We hope you come out to welcome Greg back, too!

Our Tectorian of the Week is the AXYS Group, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7f-8RHlo3c]

In many ways, the AXYS Group represents where Greater Victoria’s tech sector has been, and where it’s going. Forty years ago, a tight-knit group of visionaries saw an opportunity and then worked like crazy to take advantage of it.

Along the way, the companies of the AXYS Group have created a whole bunch of new technologies that are helping change the world, have produced a ton of high-paying jobs, and have put Victoria on the map as the location of Canada’s top ocean technology cluster.

Besides attracting talent, the AXYS companies also nurture and produce talent, adding knowledge, wisdom and experience to the Tectoria gene pool.

Privately-held AXYS Group was founded in 1974 and has played a leading role both in the economy of Saanich Peninsula and Greater Victoria.

The founding members of the AXYS Group all had graduate degrees in marine analytical chemistry. Their background and interest in marine science is responsible for the direction the AXYS Group has taken.

Paul Erickson played a key role within the AXYS Group with Seastar Chemicals. Since stepping back from day-to-day operations just over a decade ago, Erickson has turned a personal interest in type 1 diabetes into an active role as a philanthropist involved in funding research to for the hereditary condition. He has been an early stage investor in numerous biotech and technology companies.

David Thomas still serves as the president and chairman of the AXYS Group of companies, while Peter Berrang was the founder and President of Seastar Optics Inc. for 10 years.

Seastar, which manufactured semiconductor laser devices for the telecommunications industry world-wide was sold to SDL Inc. of San Jose, CA., a public company, in Dec. 1995. SDL was subsequently acquired by JDS Uniphase.

AXYS Group company Seastar Chemicals is still a major employer on the Saanich Peninsula, while AXYS Analytical is a world leader in ultra trace analysis of Persistent Organic Pollutants and emerging organic contaminants.

AXYS Technologies, which designs and builds its distinctive yellow marine hardware, is the most recognizable of the companies sharing the local DNA.

The AXYS Technologies legacy began with marine consulting contracts to Environment Canada for wave studies in 1974. This was followed by the design of several marine technology devices in the 1980’s that lead to an opportunity to design, manufacture, install and service Canada’s Marine Weather Buoy Network. Enhancements and improvements to these technologies has been an ongoing mandate in close collaboration with Environment Canada.

In the early 1990’s, AXYS began inventing additional marine technologies in collaboration with the National Research Council (NRC), including the industry-leading TRIAXYS directional wave monitoring buoy. The NRC also assisted financially with development of the next generation WatchMan500™ controller processor.

Over the last twenty years, AXYS Technologies has continued to grow its marine product portfolio and increase market share with major buoy network sales in Italy, Colombia, Spain, Portugal, the United States, and Brazil. AXYS has built and tested over 200 meteorological and oceanographic data buoys of various types.

In the last five years, AXYS Technologies further diversified with the creation of the first commercially-deployed offshore wind resource assessment buoy, as well as hydrological products for freshwater monitoring, and automated weather stations for aviation data.

Other companies in the AXYS Group have also developed a strong reputation for innovation.

In 2005, Atlantic Canada’s Jacques Whitford acquired AXYS Environmental Consulting Ltd. to become one of Canada’s largest environmental and engineering consulting firms. In 2008, engineering services giant Stantec went on to acquire Jacques Whitford – a lot of people all over Canada and the rest of the world are looking at what innovative companies are doing in Tectoria.

With special thanks to ASL’s David Fissel who himself has not only watched the local ocean cluster thrive and grow, but has also played a key role in the process.

Our Tectorian of the Week for August 8th is Erin Athene.

As an Executive in Residence at Accelerate Tectoria, Erin is a well-known wise and friendly face in Victoria’s community of technology startups.

Erin has been there, and has done it all, which helps her guide, coach and grow ambitious early-stage technology entrepreneurs to continue the ongoing astounding growth of Victoria’s tech sector.

Erin brings nearly two decades of experience in a variety of roles, from management consulting to business development, communications, entrepreneurship, investor relations, and launching start-ups.

Erin’s Twitter feed is a great place to catch bite-sized portions of her vast knowledge and ask her any questions about entrepreneurialism you might have.

But what makes Erin our Tectorian of the Week?

A fellow mentor has this to say about Erin:

• She’s busy, but always available to help.
• She possesses a wealth of life experience allowing her to see things from multiple perspectives, with a sense of compassion and empathy.
• She’s passionate and committed to making a difference in her community.

A prime example of Erin’s community-building attributes is her role as a champion of the Victoria chapter of Ladies Learning Code, aka “LLC.”

LLC is a Canada-wide not-for-profit group that is working to empower everyone to feel comfortable learning beginner-friendly technical skills in a social, collaborative way.

The Victoria chapter will hold an “Introduction to HTML & CSS Workshop” on September 27 at MediaCore and is designed for absolute beginners.

Says Erin: “We need to raise $1000 to show that there is enough community interest to support offering workshops in Victoria. All proceeds will be used for direct expenses required for the workshops, and extra funds will go towards scholarships for women who cannot afford the $50 workshop fee. ”

The Tilt campaign has so far raised $600, with 15 days left to go.

Update from Erin:

We’ve already hit our $1000 target, so our stretch goal is to raise $5000, because every donation is doubled thanks to VIATeC’s generous offer to match $5000!

To hit our stretch goal, we’re looking for 7 tech companies to donate $500 each, or 70 individual supporters to donate $50 (the cost of 1 workshop participant)! We’ve already raised $1100 with 14 more days to go!  We can do this Victoria!

Contribute to LLC Victoria’s Tilt Campaign here.

The end goal? Helping create new technology entrepreneurs; high-growth businesses – Erin’s passion.

In 2007, Erin co-founded Topaz Bridge Corporation, an enterprise software company providing HR applications connecting SAP to Microsoft Sharepoint, to save Fortune 500 companies millions of dollars in SAP customization costs.

Topaz grew from conception to first multi-million dollar customer acquisition, to a valuation of over $20M after only 17 months in business. Erin was primarily responsible for fundraising and investor relations, raising $1.4M in Seed and Series A financing rounds, closing by Q4 2008.

Erin has gone on to found business development startup MarketplaceREV Partners and, most recently Purpose Social Media, a coaching resource to support social enterprises, faith-based initiatives, and causes of global and local significance who want support with their online messaging, visibility and digital marketing strategy.

So, Erin is a high-energy individual with a strong community focus and a laser-focus on helping fledgling entrepreneurs cross the chasm and take their game to the next level.

Which is exactly what every Tectorian really ought to be.