Our Growth: 1997-2007
It can be lonely at the top
As Waterloo Region’s tech cluster started to flourish in the 1980s, local executives began to meet informally, forming the nucleus of what would later be called The Atlas Group.
The “Waterloo and Area Technology Association” came to life in 1997 with the support of forty founding companies. Communitech, a portmanteau of “Community” and “Technology” spoke to both the approach and goals of the organization, so the name stuck –– as did an enduring focus on the one-to-one relationships and human networks that so often make success possible.
1997 – 2007: Going boldly where no handshake had gone before
From ad hoc meetings to week-long conferences and North America’s largest peer-oriented network, Communitech grew by leaps and bounds. We could not, however, keep up with the success of the region as a whole. Membership grew from 40 in 1997 to over 400 in 2007 as area companies like RIM, MKS, Descartes and Sandvine went public and global blue-chips like Google and Intel opened offices here.
This period also saw the Waterloo Angel (investor) Group form, along with groundbreaking ceremonies for the University of Waterloo Research + Technology Park, which now hosts our Waterloo office at the Accelerator Centre, OpenText, Agfa, Sybase, and the university’s Institute for Quantum Computing, Nanotechnology Engineering, and QuantumWorks.
2007 – Today: a classroom, boardroom and podium for regional technology interests — and beyond
Our efforts to connect professionals and grow technology companies in Waterloo Region coincided with the emergence of the area as a nationally and even internationally recognized technology cluster. We recognized the need for hands-on work with companies at a grassroots level and enabling leadership on a provincial and national level.
The formation of the Canadian Digital Media Network in 2009 and opening of the Communitech Hub in September, 2010 are watersheds in our history and showcase our commitment to innovation and commercialization across the country.
We gladly share our knowledge and lessons learned with individual technology companies and regional technology ecosystems. And we strive to stay loyal to the idea that created us – that it’s not the speed of your silicon networks that matters, but the strength of your human ones.
“Waterloo has become one of North America’s leading concentrations of technology players, academic and industrial research and development, innovation, commercialization expertise, venture and early stage capital. We have an extraordinary entrepreneurial track record that is the envy of communities many times our size and leaders here give freely of their time and their talent. They share success points, cautionary tales, and outright failures. This is a community that “self-consults,” with one generation mentoring the next.”
Iain Klugman, 2007, 10 Years of Technology in Waterloo Region