The Information Age has revolutionized the way business is being done. In a mere 20 years, the world moved from business to business along Main Street to business to business across the Pacific, across the Atlantic and beyond. From typewriters to laptops, suits to sweatpants and office cubicles to shared workspaces.
And it continues to change. If we look at BC and the various regional economies, once considered remote and rural, where traditional industries such as mining and timber dominated for so long, there is a quiet transition taking place.
The promise of quality of lifestyle and recreation, increasingly a priority for so many, and the advancements in mobile technologies and internet connectivity have opened up communities such as Revelstoke to a brand new economic driver. With remote and telecommuting work allowing for productivity regardless the location, the New Economy makes Revelstoke and other rural communities and towns throughout the region incredibly do-able for a variety of freelancers and entrepreneurs.
As the freelance and sharing economies take hold, there has been an emergence of coworking spaces, like the Mountain CoLab in Revelstoke, providing office and conferencing space for self-employed tech workers. It caters to a diverse group: many in tech, but also communications, engineering, education, design, photography, fashion, accounting, sales, and a variety of other internet based businesses.
These spaces, cropping up all over the world, allow for travelling – nomadic – workers, who can continue to grow their clientele or businesses while also enjoying the freedom to follow the snow, follow the sun or simply follow their hearts.
The benefits to small cities like Revelstoke are significant. The increased diversity –citizens from all over the province, country and world coming for the world class recreation – as well as developing new industries serves to grow and diversify regional economies, providing new services and opportunities, actually evolving into regional hubs.
It is, without a doubt, an exciting time for technology and entrepreneurship in British Columbia, reinforced by the provincial government’s recent $100 million boost to the tech sector earmarked for investments in startup companies.
The landscape is shifting beneath us as to how business, ideas and innovation are achieved and implemented as the technology sectors in local communities around the province grow and evolve. With its Mountain CoLab and super-fast fibre, Revelstoke is positioning as a place where adventurous and innovative minds gather.