Canadian tech park wants to catalyze local recovery through ambitious job attraction plan

The Kanata North Business Association, the business development wing of Canada’s largest technology park, is unveiling a new three-part plan to invigorate the local economy during the pandemic. Through the Discover Technata 2.0 platform that includes virtual career fairs, talent roadshows and a new job board, the business association looks to bring global talent to the Ottawa tech park.

“Kanata North is a globally significant technology innovation cluster and a major contributor to Ontario’s and Ottawa’s respective economies.”

President at Kanata North Business Association Jamie Petten

A number of exciting opportunities are available in sectors like software-as-a-service, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, and cybersecurity. The park has also become notable for its research and development of 5G networking with a number of telecommunications companies based in Kanata North, as the telecoms sub-sector remains the park’s largest in terms of revenues and employment. 

President at Kanata North Business Association Jamie Petten said, “Kanata North is a globally significant technology innovation cluster and a major contributor to Ontario’s and Ottawa’s respective economies.” She went on to say that KNBA remains focused on fostering innovation in Ottawa as well as driving business growth. The association aims to provide talented professionals from around the globe with the ability to innovate and thrive within the tech hub as well. 

In October, the Discover Technata’s Virtual Career Fair hosted more than 17,000 interested job seekers. The KNBA virtual roadshow will build off of that momentum to highlight all the park’s job opportunities to people in Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal and Vancouver.

As the third prong of the KNBA’s extensive recovery plan, the job board connects thousands of job seekers with the more than 540 companies at the park, becoming a one-stop-shop for those seeking opportunities in the area that’s undergone impressive growth and employment activity in the past few years.

Ottawa was named Canada’s best tech hub to live and work in 2017, and has become notable for its concentration of research and development jobs, as well as opportunities for scientists and engineers. The tech park is also home to two universities and an autonomous vehicles public test track, which made Ottawa the first city in Canada to start testing self-driving vehicles within live city infrastructure. 

The city is also home to Canadian unicorn Shopify and other strong startups including Klipfolio, You.i TV, and Pagecloud.

According to You.i TV’s CEO Jason Flick, “KNBA has been essential to help companies like ours extend our recruiting reach by attracting tech talent, and seasoned business leaders to help us scale and grow our business.”

Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.