After roughly one year on the job, Tom Viinikka, the CEO of Edmonton Unlimited, joined the co-hosts of Episode 312 of Speaking Municipally to talk about building what he calls a "critical mass" of entrepreneurial horsepower for Edmonton's tech industry. Here's a quick glimpse:
1. Towards tech's critical mass
"There's a couple of ways you can increase the economic activity of Edmonton," Viinikka told co-hosts Mack Male and Troy Pavlek. "You can either bring it in or you can build it here. We're all about the building it here."
Viinikka said a good analogy for his critical mass point is Alberta's oil and gas industry. At some point, undefined as it may be, the industry attained a status where big things were possible due to Alberta's latent talent, resources, and expertise, he said. So, rather than measure the critical mass that Edmonton Unlimited is trying to build in the city's tech industry by, say, the number of people, he said it should instead be a measure of the confidence level of those people.
"That they feel confident that they can get the thing started and go," Viinikka said.
2. Understanding entrepreneurs
Upon taking the role a year ago, Viinikka embarked on a listening tour, speaking to members of Edmonton's tech community to understand where the organization needed to make changes. He told Male and Pavlek that he expected more variety in what the community wanted, but instead heard consistent messages about its wants and needs.
Male interjected: "What are those logical and sensible things ... are there three things that stood out, that you kept hearing over and over?"
Viinikka said the feedback was the organization needed to understand the nature of an entrepreneur, and to listen more. "Hopefully are feeling that more now," he said.
3. Storytelling needed
Before his time at Edmonton Unlimited, Viinikka — born and raised in Edmonton — was CEO at Edmonton Screen. His time there included participating in work on The Last of Us, which shot in Edmonton between 2021 and 2022. He said the buzz drove other projects in film and TV here, and this taught him something about tech in Edmonton.
"I think that's really applicable to technology," he said. "If we're better storytellers about what's going on in our city, people will be more interested and try it out and try to be part of it."
The June 13 episode of Taproot's civic affairs podcast delved further into tech with Viinikka, and included an update from our newsroom. Speaking Municipally is released on Fridays. Listening and subscription options are all right here.