Creating Web-wise kids.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: News

Nevin Buconjic knows the challenges of growing a business from both sides of the ledger.

When the 32-year-old manager of the City of Sault Ste. Marie's Enterprise Centre isn't counselling fledgling entrepreneurs on starting up their own businesses, he is operating his own Internet-based consulting and training company, Digital Adventures, specializing in computer camps for kids.

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Now in its fourth year, he expects to draw 85 students to the campus of Algoma University College this summer.

"It's roughly grown about 20 per cent per year in revenues. To me it's proven itself," says the Sault Ste. Marie native who developed the idea while tutoring at a local elementary school.

After working in the mortgage and finance industry in Arizona and Toronto, Buconjic, who holds a B.Sc. in marketing and management, along with an MBA from Lake Superior State (Michigan) University, returned to his hometown to take advantage of Algoma University College's one-year accelerated computer sciences program. He had plans on someday starting his own company.

While tutoring, Buconjic realized many kids were less than enthusiastic about their computer training and created a more funoriented program around Web design.

"Right away I saw the kids change. They wanted to stay in at recess, lunch and after school, and they were finally getting something fun to do."

Today, his formalized Web design program walks kids through the basics of producing their own personal Web site and progresses through to video game design, a huge university undergraduate growth area.

Although the computer camps remain only a seasonal venture, this year represents a crossroads for Digital Adventures.

"I'm...