NB Geeks Association?

I have recently began working on a new draft proposal for a NB IT association from a post I recently saw on David Campbell's blog title "It's the economy stupid". Based on David's suggestion, I decided to gauge the interest of the IT community on whether there is a grassroots movement for this type of entity to exist. I would appreciate feedback, both positive and negative, on whether you believe this is a valid idea. I have included in this blog a draft proposal of what this entity would look like based on my research of existing models elswhere.

-Trevor

New Brunswick has a thriving IT industry with several clusters spread across the province. Community initiatives like KIRA, Rising Stars and Propel SJ demonstrate an active interest by hundreds of IT employees and companies across the province to organize and provide networking opportunities. The local government as well as those of the province of NB and Canada continue to play an active role in supporting many of these initiatives, which help promote the industry within the province, the country and across the globe. Regardless of the effort by the several cluster through the province, perhaps it is time we propose the creation of a provincial IT association to give the private sector a unified voice. The association will promote public awareness of our sector, the challenges we face and promotion of peer-to-peer networking activities.

Currently, Nova Scotia, PEI, Manitoba, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ottawa, Quebec and Saskatchewan have associations that successfully work at promoting IT in their province and work at stimulating growth in their provinces. If New Brunswick is to keep progressing, the next evolution of each community’s initiatives is the creation of an association that will link all IT initiatives together.

Who would we be?

The NB IT association would be a non-profit, member-funded organization that would provide a voice to IT workers and organizations across the province. The ultimate goal is to help foster the continued growth and success of our technology industry by:

• Working as an advocate for our industry to goverment.
• Profile your organization to angel investors.
• Address the looming labour shortage by working with all levels of government and regional educational institutions.
• Helping promote and deliver industry-focused events like Geeks on Ice, KIRA, Rising Stars, etc.
• Providing peer-to-peer networking opportunities like CFO and CIO roundtables.
• Creating public awareness through positive media relations.
• Providing awareness to high school and university graduates that there are employment opportunities within the IT industry in New Brunswick.
• Provide an arena for IT organizations to foster synergy around each other for joint ventures, strategies for conducing business from NB, identifying export opportunities and potential tradeshows.

Leadership

The association will be comprised of an executive team and a board of directors representing all regions of New Brunswick. The executive would comprise of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Marketing and Communications Director and Public Relations Manager. The number of directors would be determined at the founding meeting, however; the intent is that each region of NB is represented on the board. The association will also contain sub committees that will work to fullfill the associations mandate.

Membership

The proposed membership will be modeled after the BC model, which is a categorical rate system. The executive and board of directors would set the model and pricing at the founding meeting.

Corporate Membership
This is applicable to technology-based companies in all technology sectors where 50% of their core business is the development and/or distribution of technology.

Associate Membership

This is applicable to all service-related businesses that support the technology industry, such as Financial and Legal services, Recruiting and Human Resources, Business Consultants, Marketing and Communications.

Agency Membership

Applicable to all Crown corporations, government departments or ministries, educational institutions, and other associations affiliated with the technology community.

Why Should I Join?

The New Brunswick IT sector needs a voice that will advocate to key community stakeholders the priorities and challenges that corporations identify as a hurdle to grow their client base and continue to grow. By joining, your organization will market itself to peers, which will result in an exchange of knowledge and growth of your network while also identifying potential opportunities for your firm. Promotion of our industry and creating a public support net for corporations and workers will raise local, national and international awareness. This awareness will enhance NB's IT sector with recruitment and retention to our province as well as expose our sector to foreign investors and immigrants.

Next Steps

The next steps in the process are to qualify the interest from the technology community in joining such an association. Individuals interested will be contacted for a follow up meeting to discuss the formal creation of an association and the election of an executive team and board of directors. There needs to be a minimum of 15 individuals to make this happen. If you are interested, please contact Trevor Macausland before August 15, 2006 at (tmacausland@gmail.com) or 852-8096.