09-13-2019, 04:40 PM
(09-13-2019, 12:00 PM)robdrimmie Wrote:(09-13-2019, 10:44 AM)Spokes Wrote: Wouldn't there be appeal to being so close to Google? Similar to when Google was in the Tannery?
Google's presence in the Tannery was super important for sure, but other than (considerable!) financial support and engagement with Communitech at fairly high levels (Steven Woods who runs the local office is on their board), Google as an entity is not an especially active presence in the community - the broad Waterloo Region one or the narrower tech ecosystem. They have considerable impact on high level strategy, but minimal direct influence on day-to-day lives.
I'm absolutely biased as a result of working for Communitech, but I believe it was their move to the Tannery that focused so much tech community attention on downtown Kitchener. From 2008 to 2010 it was extremely difficult to attract a group to a DTK venue for tech community events. Uptown Waterloo and the Accelerator Centre (where Communitech's offices were before they moved) were the primary places where the community hung out. My recollection (as faulty as any other humans) is that it was like everyone's focus shifted to DTK from late 2010 through 2011 but it's probably a lot more accurate to say that my focus shifted during that period, and I believe that is the result of Communitech's efforts, and I believe a lot of others were impacted in a similar way.
Because Google provides so much for its employees, getting people to leave their offices and engage regularly with the sorts of businesses that typically target the daytime workforce is very difficult. For any business that isn't open to the public on a day to day basis (like, a tech or insurance company as opposed to a cafe or boutique clothing store) being located proximate to Google offers nothing. If anything, I suspect that having their employees see what Google gets every day would be very off-putting to many employers.
Your recollections seems fairly accurate. It seemed to be a while before DTK started to take off. I can't say that I know where or what the turning point was, but I always believed that Google played a huge role in that, and Kaufmann condo's before that helped. That being said, DTK always had a lot of potential, due to its size and everything.
It still has a ways to go, IMHO, but as I said, it's turned the corner for the good. The only thing that will hold it back is imagination or certain councillors.