Mayor Gregor: ‘Vancouver’s Tech Ecosystem is Breaking Through and Turning Heads’

Last night Techvibes hosted the Tech Fest, a hiring fair for technology startups in Vancouver.

The sold-out crowd filled the venue with high energy throughout the night as hundreds of eager job seekers learned about more than 200 available positions from 10 of the city’s best employers in tech.

“Vancouver is loaded with talent,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson during his Tech Fest kickoff speech. “Vancouver has got serious buzz right now and we’re getting a lot of attention as a centre of innovation and for our incredible tech community. We’re breaking through and turning a lot of heads.”

Robertson pointed out that here are over 80,000 jobs in technology, more than oil and gas, forestry, and mining combined. He added that there are about 4,000 jobs being added per year right now.

According to the mayor, Vancouver has more entrepreneurs per capita than any city in North America. “It’s a super exciting time for our city,” Robertson affirmed.

Boris Mann, an entrepreneur and the managing director of Full Stack, agreed with Robertson in his follow-up speech, though acknowledged that there is still plenty of room for improvement. Still, Vancouver has one key advantage according to him: it’s an extremely livable city.

“What’s the answer to the question: if I could live anywhere in the world, where would I live?” Mann asked. “For me, that answer actually is Vancouver. People like living here. Now it’s our job to build a tech ecosystem around that.”

Learn about future Tech Fest events here.