While the region’s top entrepreneurs and engineers can frequently be found hard at work inside their individual offices and labs, an Ottawa expert recently urged the Kanata North community to get out and talk to one another about their work.
In a recent TechTuesday presentation, Jonathan Calof – a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management – stressed that businesses should be turning to their networks to share ideas and updates in order to foster innovation.
It was a fitting theme for November’s TechTuesday, a monthly meetup and keynote organized by local tech titan Terry Matthews that aims to foster relationships and partnerships among entrepreneurs and members of the Kanata business community.
Calof said that information-sharing among firms is mutually beneficial and can lead to improved business outcomes.
This idea encapsulates the term “open innovation,” wherein a firm relies on external company research, patents or data.
Additionally, Calof says companies should be regularly meeting with other industry members such as government and academic institutions.
This alignment is crucial as it provides a venue in which to discuss potentially “profound policy implications” and also leads to discussion regarding ways to measure innovation output and fund new initiatives.
In addition to his role as a professor, Calof is also a consultant who helps private companies uncover avenues for collaboration.
“We want to build upon the purpose of TechTuesday to enhance innovation in our region,” said Calof.