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Edmonton Companies News & Discussion

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More YEG Bio-Hub domination
 
Visiting the island with a buddy from Vancouver who is the CFO of a former Edmonton company that started out of the Nanotechnology Centre at U of A . Company moved to Vancouver 2 years ago. I asked if anybody from Edmonton Global or other economic development groups contacted the company to perform an exit interview on why he company left Edmonton. He said no contact at all from anybody. You would think this would be a priority to get information on why companies are leaving so as to try to fix issues if that is the problem for future companies. This young company makes fibre optic switches for communications and their 27 employees and $30 million in sales are a boon for Burnaby. Many of the staff moved from Edmonton too.
 
YEG imagineer said:
Visiting the island with a buddy from Vancouver who is the CFO of a former Edmonton company that started out of the Nanotechnology Centre at U of A . Company moved to Vancouver 2 years ago. I asked if anybody from Edmonton Global or other economic development groups contacted the company to perform an exit interview on why he company left Edmonton. He said no contact at all from anybody. You would think this would be a priority to get information on why companies are leaving so as to try to fix issues if that is the problem for future companies. This young company makes fibre optic switches for communications and their 27 employees and $30 million in sales are a boon for Burnaby. Many of the staff moved from Edmonton too.
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Sad to hear an up and coming business left YEG.

I'm not sure if Edmonton Global really is supposed to be doing exit interviews. Isn't their role FDI? Presumably, someone should be doing exit interviews but maybe it would be better done by someone like Edmonton Unlimited? And of course that assumes your friend's company was known to the agencies and the agencies had the chance to speak to the business before it left.
 
YEG imagineer said:
Visiting the island with a buddy from Vancouver who is the CFO of a former Edmonton company that started out of the Nanotechnology Centre at U of A . Company moved to Vancouver 2 years ago. I asked if anybody from Edmonton Global or other economic development groups contacted the company to perform an exit interview on why he company left Edmonton. He said no contact at all from anybody. You would think this would be a priority to get information on why companies are leaving so as to try to fix issues if that is the problem for future companies. This young company makes fibre optic switches for communications and their 27 employees and $30 million in sales are a boon for Burnaby. Many of the staff moved from Edmonton too.
Click to expand...

So since you brought it up, what was the reason they left?
 
I asked this morning. Company started by a U of A prof and are now the only company in Canada that designs and makes optical switches. A couple of companies stateside and about a dozen worldwide. For leaving Edmonton, little concentration of expertise other than Micralyne in Edmonton. Difficulty in attracting the specific types of engineers they required. Lack of expertise in the Edmonton area. He said Edmonton put their focus on AI and somewhat health technology leaving them kind of isolated even though their year to year growth is high double to triple digits and their technology is needed for the 5G rollout which will really expand their size. In Vancouver, easier to attract talent due to being known worldwide, a bigger semiconductor industry (Vancouver, Seattle) and a more advanced high tech environment. Side benefits are direct flights to their Asian markets.
 
YEG imagineer said:
I asked this morning. Company started by a U of A prof and are now the only company in Canada that designs and makes optical switches. A couple of companies stateside and about a dozen worldwide. For leaving Edmonton, little concentration of expertise other than Micralyne in Edmonton. Difficulty in attracting the specific types of engineers they required. Lack of expertise in the Edmonton area. He said Edmonton put their focus on AI and somewhat health technology leaving them kind of isolated even though their year to year growth is high double to triple digits and their technology is needed for the 5G rollout which will really expand their size. In Vancouver, easier to attract talent due to being known worldwide, a bigger semiconductor industry (Vancouver, Seattle) and a more advanced high tech environment. Side benefits are direct flights to their Asian markets.
Click to expand...
Typical, this is exactly how economic development works in this city and has for decades. Focus on things that are currently trendy or popular and totally ignore businesses that quietly go about things and are successful.

Then occasionally wonder why successful businesses leave and why we are no further ahead.
 
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