Forum for business leaders at summit.

• Author: Merchant, Gwen
• Position: Canada's Innovation Strategy summit meeting, North Bay, Ontario - Brief Article

The voice of the natural resource industry is slowly being drowned out by the noise of innovation, and people are listening.

Canada's Innovation Strategy, the eighth summit of 35 to be held across Canada, took place in Thunder Bay on June 5.

About 165 people registered for the summit, 20 per cent of them represented businesses. The participants were divided into different groups to discuss various topics. Information was then taken to the whole group and combined. The idea is to come up with a blueprint after all the summits are finished.

While the summit provided a forum for key players in the region, geography is bound to pose some challenges when collaborating ideas, said Scott Dougall, director of software development and marketing at SkyStream Networks.Com, a Thunder Bay-based software and hardware developer.

"Our region is very diverse, which is one of the reasons we love it so much, but with such diversity, it will be a monumental challenge to get us in agreement," Dougall said.

The regional participants discussed strategies for retaining and improving the skills base in local communities, attracting private capital for smaller innovation-driven businesses...