City mayors pitch Waterloo region to San Francisco, L.A. tech companies

As the snow was falling in Waterloo region, the mayors of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge were in California pitching their cities to tech companies.

The mayors, along with members of the Waterloo Economic Development Corporation, had meetings in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, similar to a trip local mayors took with Toronto Mayor John Tory in 2016.

They spent those meetings talking to company CEOs such as BlackBerry's John Chen, officials at Google and chief technology officers such as Carta's Japjit Tulsi.

Carta purchased Waterloo-based messaging app Kik last month and has 50 employees for research and development at the Waterloo office.

"The thing … that was top of mind for them was really about incenting, from their perspective, Carta to invest more in the region and then offering to help to make sure that there's no blockers in that way," he said.

"From our perspective, it gives us a feeling that the region … is actually quite excited about the investments."

Tulsi says it helps that Waterloo region, thanks in part to the University of Waterloo, is well-known and well-regarded in tech hubs like San Francisco.

'A relationship game'

Getting in front of tech companies face-to-face is important for areas like Waterloo region because "it's always a relationship game," says Douglas Soltys, editor-in-chief of the tech industry news website BetaKit.

"Governments change, people change, there's a cycling out," he said.

Think of it like the movie industry, he says. Everyone knows they film movies in Hollywood, but cities like Atlanta, Cambridge or Sault Ste. Marie have done a lot of work to attract film dollars, and now TV shows and movies are filmed there because of the behind-the-scenes networking that happened.

He says, though, it's good for politicians and governments to keep asking themselves after each trip: Is this working?

"I know it's always a conversation of like, 'Is this a useful spend of our tax dollars?' and that's always a fair question to ask," he said.

"Evaluating the payoff for this time spent can actually take a little bit longer than, 'We did this trip in November, and by January, we haven't seen anything,'" he said.

He said taxpayers and stakeholders should be looking at whether the teams being sent are getting any traction or intention from the people they are meeting with.

"These also can just be a week-long series of very nice meetings in hotels and some good dinners that don't amount to anything at all," said Soltys.

Assessing tech needs

Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky says the trips are a good way for the mayors to show tech companies just how much his city and the region as a whole want them to set up shop here.

Jaworsky says it's also a chance for them to find out what the companies need from them and how the city or region can help remove any hurdles.

He says Chen was able to fill them in on what Blackberry has planned as well as "additional strength and hiring that's going to be happening in Waterloo region."

He says the meetings are vital for the city and region.

"BlackBerry, Google, McAfee — they're making investment decisions that are worldwide," he said.

San Francisco has issues with a high cost of living, Jaworsky says, so companies may look at other options when it comes to growth, such as moving to Canada.

"We have the talent and what's really interesting is the fact that they're making Waterloo region the head offices for certain products," he said. "It's not a branch office with just some developers. The decisions are actually being made in Waterloo for worldwide products and that's exciting."