October 2009

Through the 1960’s, 1970’s and into the early 1980’s, Canada leveraged many of its best minds to develop technology solutions that span the great distances and empty spaces in our vast country to position Canada as a world leader in Telecommunications. Today, numerous examples from world leading companies like Blackberry to startups like Viigo or Iotum continue to show world leadership.

Notwithstanding these points of strength,  in the early 21st Century, there are surprising gaps in our global ability to compete, given our early leadership. The causes are many from regulation, standards, finance and even investment decisions of major carrier players. While there are individual success stories, like the Blackberry, there are also numerous structural issues that dampen our natural competitive position in this all important industry.

We’ve assembled a diverse team of some of the top players shaping our mobile futureo help us understand Canada’s position in the global mobile industry, where the opportunities lie and changes in policy and investment that might allow us to maximize our footprint in the future mobile industry:

• Bob Ferchat – a Canadian mobile pioneer at the epicentre of the aforementioned world class Canadian telecom and mobile industry. Bob was  CEO of Nortel Networks and later of Bell Mobility. Now retired, he has maintained a passion to continue Canadian mobile leadership. Most notably, a few months ago, he led a group of investors that tried to buy back Nortel to keep that treasure trove of technology intellectual property in Canadian hands Ottawa Citizen – Fight for Nortel Wireless in Full Swing.
• Karna Gupta – From an early career in various senior executive positions at Bell Canada, Karna has held numerous and diverse C-level positions in global mobile and enterprise software companies, including Comverse, Sitraka Mobile and OSS Solutions. Most recently, he was CEO of Certicom through their recent acquisition by RIM, that also included fighting a hostile takeover bid. Karna brings a great international perspective from a diverse set of predominantly software-based initiatives.
• Steven Woods – Currently heading up Google’s Waterloo site, which has a significant mobile product mandate including search and GMail, Steve recently returned to Canada from a decade in the Silicon Valley. He was founder of NeoEdge Networks and co-founder of Quack.com (acquired by AOL), both Silicon Valley-Ontario operations. It would appear that Steve and his team are in the centre of the new web-based mobile world that Google is helping to shape.

There is a huge opportunity for Canadian companies, and our entire economy, but to seize that opportunity good policy and well informed decision makers is important. To  that end, we’ll answer questions about the mobile tech company ecosystem like:

• How did we get where we we are today?
• How do we compare with the world?
• What policies and initiatives might improve our competitive position?
• What are some of the major gaps that Canada might be well positioned to fill?

Although, with the generous assistance of sponsors, this is a free event, you’ll need to register and it may well sell out. More information and the registration can be found here: Mobile Monday Toronto @ MaRS – Cnadian Leadership in Mobile and Communications.

I’d be very interested if people would comment on any topics or issues you wish to have raised. Even better, come out and ask those questions yourself. It promises to be an insightful evening.