{"id":57682,"date":"2014-08-19T02:08:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T10:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=57682"},"modified":"2014-08-22T02:08:55","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T10:08:55","slug":"squareone-tech-nanaimo","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/magazine\/squareone-tech-nanaimo","title":{"rendered":"SquareOne Tech Incubator Launches in Nanaimo to Boost Innovation on Vancouver Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right; margin: 11px 33px;\" src=\"https:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3926\/14784860130_8acaa2377b_b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"252\" \/>The big news at the second Summer Tech Party was the launch of the SquareOne tech incubator and co-working space in Nanaimo&#8217;s downtown.<\/p>\n<p><!-- pagebreak --><\/p>\n<p>A recent study shows tech is already contributing $200 million to the region&#8217;s economy. Square One is expected to boost that impact.<\/p>\n<p>Tech is high-value, says Sasha Angus CEO at NEDC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every job represents a household buying goods and services in our community,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>For the downtown area it means direct economic stimulation for neighbouring businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It makes perfect sense for us to be involved in this project,&#8221; he believes.<\/p>\n<p>Who else was at the Square One launch? Conan Reis, cofounder of SkookumScript, was buoyant over a recent announcement regarding Epic&#8217;s game industry-leading Unreal Engine 4. Reis estimates the Epic changes will mean doubling or quadrupling of SkookumScript staffing on the Island before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Plant of Recce Robotics International (Victoria) has been involved with Nanaimo&#8217;s Inuktun since before 9\/11. That&#8217;s when Recce and Inuktun robots were used for search and rescue missions after the attacks. Recce plans to open up manufacturing in the Nanaimo region.<\/p>\n<p>Jared Shaw is getting QB Digital Media Studio up and running in Qualicum. The Town, inspired by the &#8220;Boulder Effect,&#8221; did its research and is focused on attracting young technologists and startups as part of it&#8217;s economic development strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Keenoy is a partner at Medium Rare Interactive (Courtenay, New York, Austin). He moved to the Comox Valley from New York, and his company is currently working on a hush-hush project related to internet security.<\/p>\n<p>Allan Wiekenkamp is a director with the newly-formed Vancouver Island Venture Acceleration Fund. VIVA is a dedicated investment fund &#8220;targeting early-stage, high-growth technology companies on Vancouver Island.&#8221; Wiekenkamp says the &#8220;tech industry is growing rapidly on Vancouver Island. It&#8217;s creating high-paying jobs and attracting top talent. We&#8217;re see a bright future for this sector.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The big news at the second Summer Tech Party was the launch of the SquareOne tech incubator and co-working space in Nanaimo&#8217;s downtown. A recent study shows tech is already contributing $200 million to the region&#8217;s economy. Square One is expected to boost that impact. Tech is high-value, says Sasha Angus CEO at NEDC. &#8220;Every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67435,"featured_media":57684,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"magazine-region":[],"magazine-series":[],"magazine-topic":[],"class_list":["post-57682","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/57682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazine"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/67435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/57682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/57684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57682"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-region?post=57682"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-series?post=57682"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/wp\/api\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=57682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}