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Moose Hunting Open season on Canadian high tech workers By JULIE IRETON - CBC Radio. Broadcast nationally and internationally |
| Tonight (Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000), a group of Canadian high-tech workers
in Silicon Valley will get together for a conference at a San Jose hotel. The Digital Moose Lounge is made up of a few hundred Canadians...transplanted techies living in Northern California...Every now and then they like to rub antlers with their own kind. CBC Radio's Technology reporter, Julie Ireton recently attended one of the Digital Moose Lounge events in San Jose. But so did some hunters from north of the border. SFX ...crowd at reception... A crowd gathers around the cash bar...They order imported beer...the kind with labels like Molsons and Labatts. Sharply dressed men and women mingle around the large table of cheese, pate and fruit...But one guest stands off to the side...He's keenly watching everyone...listening to their conversations...Then he starts working the room. CLIP 1: Part of what I do is work on behalf of Canadian corporations looking to attract and bring back Canadians who are situated in the Valley and San Francisco, for opportunities back home. (So you're doing a little bit of head hunting here?) That's exactly what I do. Richard Wajs picks good hunting grounds. About a hundred and fifty Canadians are at this dinner. This is the Digital Moose Lounge. And it's made up of people who have a lot in common. They all work for high-tech firms...They all live in <> and they're all Canadian. CLIP 2: My name is Susan Chung and I'm the Prime Moose of the Digital Moose Lounge, it's a pun on Prime Minister. Chung lives in the San Jose area with her husband. He works in a tech firm. She says there was no Canadian social club in Silicon Valley until earlier this year...And since Canadians make up the largest ex-patriot community, a group of Canucks decided to get one going. CLIP 3: They approached me and asked me if I'd like to take the Moose by the antlers so to speak, and we grew from 42 to over 600 in 9 short months, it's been incredible. ... I'm Asian, I'm from Saskatoon, there are lot of people from western Canada, central Canada, we have francophones, we have families we have singles, some people have been in the bay area for 30 years, some people just arrived in the bay area last week. So it's quite a diverse...(Ireton: even have a head hunter here tonight?!) Yes ....I'm glad he's here, I'm sure his job is very easy here, trying to find qualified high-tech Canadians.(Ireton: And draw them back home?) Yes. Richard Wajs...the headhunter...is vice president at the Toronto firm, A-T Kearney Executive Search. Susan Chung introduces Wajs to Silicon Valley executives...His eyes dart across the room...pin pointing his next target. CLIP 4: ...the key is to identify the Canadians in senior positions within corporations in the valley, there's so many you have to come to things like digital moose lounge to help you identify these people. The number one key is opportunity. People down here want to go for opportunities where they'll quote...change the world. So you have to have a very good story to tell... Wajs insists some of these people need to be told just how much the technology sector in Canada has grown in the past few years. Wajs points out there are now thousands of innovative companies to work for. SFX...Crowd moving... The digital moose are coraled into the dining room for supper. It's a beautiful spread ...squash soup, salads, turkey and all the fixings. It's an influencial group...So it's no surprise when former Prime Minister, and former Consul General to California, Kim Campbell steps up to give the key note speech. CLIP 5: applause...I'm really tickled to be here, it's fun to be in a place where PM stands for Prime Moose.//Laughs... I feel I spent the last four years explaining that a Canadian is not just an unarmed American with health insurance. (laughs) It may be a joke...But gun control, health care and quality of life are among the hot button issues Canadian head hunters hope to capitalize on. Ken Faulkner is in California on behalf of the Alberta government. He's Executive Assistant to the Minister of Innovation and Science for Alberta. He's a head hunter too...looking for former Albertans at events like the Digital Moose Lounge. CLIP 6: We're trying to reverse the brain drain...we call it the great brain gain...have people who say, "I miss it...now it's time to come back to what I know and love"...our job is to make sure we come back to Alberta. But the biggest thing we've noticed is a lot of people have said: I want to come back to Canada because the quality of life is a big issue for them. They're tired of sitting in traffic for 2 hours each way to work. They're tired of paying $500,000 US, for a small 2 bedroom, 800 sq ft place that was built in 1940. SFX...RECEPTION... But not everyone in this crowd will be easily seduced back north. Two, 30 something men chat as they devour their apple pie. They're single, they live in apartments close to work...They came to the high-tech mecca to get experience, have fun and enjoy the weather. CLIP 7: The quality of life in California, in a word is almost like paradise, Dean Prelazzi actually works for in Ottawa company, but he's based in San Jose. CLIP 8: I like the outdoors, I like mountain biking, big skier, Tahoe is so close...whistler...quick flight. CLIP 9: Rob Chadwick, I work at a company called, Asara...It's a B to B pre-IPO start-up, E-commerce, all the big words...it's great, there's 300 people now...going global, offices in Europe and Japan, great financing... These techies may not be fair game... But there <> couples here that are much easier prey...People like the Prime Moose...Susan Chung who wants to move back to Canada before her child starts school... People who are recognizing that opportunities that at one time were only available in Silicon Valley California...are now happening in tech towns north of the border. This may be Richard Wajs first visit to the Digital Moose Lounge, but it won't be his last. He says it's been a fruitful evening... CLIP 10: I think the interesting thing you hear in a room like this is that really about half the people here would consider coming back to Canada for the right opportunity. So they have that in their mindset already, this is sort of a temporary situation, where either they'll gain outstanding experience or a lot of money and then come back to Canada where they'll be the big fish in the small pond. The Moose should beware of the hunters... I'm Julie Ireton in Silicon Valley. |