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We are recruiting an Acceleration Program Manager

The Acceleration Program Manager will act as the point of entry and coordinator for all of ORIC’s business and entrepreneur acceleration programs. The current programs include business incubation, mentorship and entrepreneurial training; and are planned to expand once the planned merger with OSTEC is completed. This position is part of the joint initiative between ORIC and OSTEC.

The Acceleration Program Manager will undertake the initial needs assessment with each company and entrepreneur, matching them with the available resources and acting as their “champion” as they continue their growth and development.

The Acceleration Program Manager will also create and implement process and procedures to manage the program activities and work closely with the marketing team to help design and promote future programs to help grow and develop technology companies in the Okanagan.

More about this job can be found at ORIC

ORIC celebrates its 5th anniversary

ORIC (at that time Okanagan Valley Research & Innovation Centre) was born on August 15, 2005.

Jack, Kathleen, Tom, Bob, Peter and Diana.
Andrew is missing in this picture.

The founding Board members were: Dr. Tom Landecker (NRC-DRAO), Kathleen Wallace (SkyTrac), Bob Bissell (Industry Canada), Andrew Hay (Okanagan College), Jack Van Der Star (WaveTeq) and Diana Groffen (OSTEC).

We celebrated with the current Board and staff members, spouses and a cake with 5 candles.

ORIC's current staff: Peter, Anna, Martin, Kathryn and Wilfred.

The birth of an incubator

The Okanagan College Centre of Excellence building in Penticton is progressing rapidly.

On the picture the 3,000 square feet ORIC Cleantech incubator (on the 2nd floor) is taking shape. Hopefully we can move in around April 2011.

Here is the link to a webcam (on the other site of the campus) that shows the progress.

ORIC received a $200,000 grant to support technology SME's

On Friday June 25th, 2010 Hon. Ron Cannan announced a $200,000 grant from NRC-IRAP for ORIC to support technology SME in the Okanagan Valley. 

Dr. Tony Rahilly (right in the picture), Director General of NRC-IRAP from Ottawa joined the annoucement. The grant will enable us to support the mentorship program, help start-ups with access to capital, improve training support for entrepreneurs and install benchmarking software.

Successful 2nd High-Tech Round Table in the South Okanagan

On Thursday March 18th we had over 30 visitors at ORIC Penticton Innovation Centre for our second High-Tech Round Table. A very divers attendancy: start-up CEO's, consultants, media, education (Okanagan College and UBC-O), service providers and support organisations (Community Futures, NRC-IRAP, BDC). There was an energetic discussion on the needs for the South Okanagan and how ORIC could support creating a stronger high-tech community.

We celebrated our first sponsor: SOS LINK. The Penticton high-tech start-up delivers security solutions for people, placs and things ~ on the move. CEO Raymond Sobol and I named the SOS-LINK Innovation Plaza. This is a drop in place for entrepreneurs, angel investors and supporters. We will also have events and presentations at the Plaza.

We are still actively looking for start-ups and anchor tenants to become clients of ORIC Penticton Innovation Centre. Drop me an email if you like to know more.

We received furniture for ORIC Penticton

This week we received furniture for all the offices in our downtown incubator in Penticton. We have one, two and three person offices.

We are still looking for a bigger board room table, but this will do for the moment. Watch the big hole in the middle of the table. 

We also got our reception desk

Please contact us if you want to know more about technology business incubation and find out if you qualify for the (pre-) incubation program.