ACAITA Inaugural Meeting St. John's

Three architecturally minded technical professionals got together at the Ship Public House to share a couple of beers, tell a few technical project yarns, and enjoy some traditional music. The conversation was also very candid and at times could have been considered cynical. But... from all this emerged some optimism and some healthy and solid work we can do to support and encourage the growth of technology architecture practices in Newfoundland and the whole of Atlantic Canada.

We all agreed it's a challenging time in Newfoundland. The economy is in decline, the population is aging, the young and up-n-comers are leaving, and the current government is overly focused on the immediate need to get the provincial house in order. So when a few architects and senior software developers get together our pragmatism gets the better of us and we trend toward being pessimistic about the senior technical opportunities available in Newfoundland. We also identified a handful of activities to be optimistic about;

• St. John's has a growing startup ecosystem - this didn't exist 5 - 7 years ago and now it has a physical space (common ground), a few small and growing technology companies, and s small group of committed people who want to see technology startups thrive in Newfoundland.
• A technology industry association (NATI) which is committed, effective, and strongly resourced toward building success for the province (and Atlantic Canada as a whole).
• Strongly positioned for the digitization of two or three industry sectors (Oil and Gas, Fisheries, Arctic Environments). Newfoundland, if it put its mind too it, could be at the table in a big way for the digitization of any of these three industry sectors.
• Our current federal government is committed to encouraging innovation and in supporting collaborative initiatives that fall well within the digitization of oceans and ocean technology.

We all agreed that participating in the local technology community is important, and we get enjoyment from sharing our technical experiences and understanding other technology project current within St. John's. Having a strong and growing technology architecture community would help in building the local technology economy and opportunities.