Program Item Details
TITLE: John Masters, President and CEO, Calgary Technologies Inc.
SUBJECT: #180 CTI 2005 Technology Showcase
SYNOPSIS: ..Intro: You might say Calgary Technologies Inc. plays the role of den mother to start-up technology companies. And CTI’s latest Open House and Technology Showcase proves yet again that Alberta’s southern city is a hotbed of new activity in software, wireless technology and even product design.
AUDIO: Download Audio (mp3 format)
TRANSCRIPT:
#180 November 8, 2005
Interview starts at 1:00
Intro: Calgary Technologies Inc. is housed in the Alastair Ross Technology Centre just north of the University of Calgary. And if the crowd at the recent CTI showcase was any indication, CTI is doing a great job of supporting and promoting Calgary’s growing technology sector. John Masters is the President and CEO of Calgary Technologies Inc.
John Masters
JM: Well, this is our Sixth Annual Anniversary of the Alastair Ross Technology Centre. We opened the facility in the year 2000 and today is the ultimate celebration. We’ve had over 500 people attend, forty companies and organizations showcasing their technologies. We have the launching of and planting of our green roof project. We have our Wireless City unveiling and we have other organizations who are profiling their technologies.
CC: WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE GREEN ROOF PROJECT?
JM: Well, we were actually looking for some demonstration projects and whether that was in information communication technologies or whether it was in environmental technologies and so to put a challenge out to the staff to say, we could utilize this site to profile emerging technologies and use it as a demonstration environment to create greater awareness in the community. And that was basically the only instructions I gave to my group and from there they cobblestoned this together, brought the private sector in and a whole bunch of passionate people. Today we see the project raised over $200,000 of in-kind in cash and launched the project.
CC: HOW DID YOU FEEL GOING UP IN THAT CRANE?
JM: It was lots of fun. I’ve been in a hot air balloon before so the fellow was saying to us, ‘well, you know, if it starts rotating, just hang on’. Well it’s only fifteen-twenty feet. It was a lot of fun.
CC: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS FOR CTI THIS YEAR?
JM: The growth of the technology sector in Calgary. I mean, that’s our raison d’ętre in terms of seeing a vibrant, diversified sector. Second, would be the launching of our masterplanning phase for redevelopment of University of Research Park and then, today. This is a pretty simple to put together now because we’ve built so much momentum and we just see the output coming from the community to be interested in coming and participating.
CC: WITH THIS REDEVELOPMENT OF THE RESEARCH PARK AT THE UNIVERSITY, WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN THERE?
JM: Well, we’re looking at trying to increase densification, so this is just...when we look at research science parks throughout the world, the number one critical success factor is its proximity to the university. So, I guess you really can’t have a university research park without be adjacent to the university. But there are many communities in the world who do not have the land available adjacent to the university. The foresight of the individuals who created the location for the university, simultaneously with the park. But the park is a very under utilized asset. For example, on our site we have six acres of land, estimate would be maybe 700-800 people would work in this. We have done some sizing on sites that are half this size and we can triple the density in a user friendly sustainable building environment. So we can put more people on this site which will put less demand on the infrastructure because we’re adjacent to the infrastructure and we get greater synergies between ourselves and the university.
CC: THANK YOU VERY MUCH JOHN.
JM: Thank you.
John Masters, President and CEO of Calgary Technologies Inc.
FEATURED LINK: Calgary Technologies Inc.