industries

A Cascadian Creative Corridor

If interactive industries in Vancouver and Seattle can link up, we may be able to emerge from the shadow of Silicon Valley. It's no secret that Vancouver has become a powerhouse in the world's games and interactive industry. The flow of companies like EA, Disney, Pixar and others to here indicates that.

By Tony Wanless /

If interactive industries in Vancouver and Seattle can link up, we may be able to emerge from the shadow of Silicon Valley.

It’s no secret that Vancouver has become a powerhouse in the world’s games and interactive industry. The flow of companies like EA, Disney, Pixar and others to here indicates that.

But power is always tenuous in this kind of industry. It can shift elsewhere at a moment’s notice if it’s perceived that it doesn’t have a critical mass that attracts top talent and the big-buck movie and games makers.  

But there may be a quick-start to that critical mass happening from Seattle, which has ambitions to be an interactive centre as well.

Since they’re only three hours apart, the two cities are linking  to explore how they can leverage the region into a kind of supercluster of games and interactive entertainment companies.

Tomorrow, DigiBC, the Digital Media and Wireless Association of BC, will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Washington Interactive Network (WIN)Enterprise Seattle, the agency that promotes investment and industry development in Washington State.
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There are many reasons why this link is a good idea for BC

  • –It brings Vancouver farther into the US orbit, and helps nullify the negative thinking about “foreign work” that sometimes exists down there.
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  • –It further cements the concept of Cascadia, the high-performance creative corridor predicted by economist Richard Florida in the book Who’s Your City, which highlighted several economic spike zones in North America that were driven by the creative class.
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  • –It would bring some of that American gung-ho, let’s-do-it, attitude to the more conservative BC business scene.
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  • –It could provide another outlet for talent in both countries: BC gamemakers could fill out their skill sets by working in the US, while Seattle area interactive designers could learn something from our world-class games companies.

Correspondingly, it would help Seattle considerably.

The city is trying to expand from its traditional software industries, i.e. Microsoft, into newer, next-generation businesses such as gaming and interactive entertainment. But it hasn’t been able to match the strength of its northern neighbour in that area. it’s also trying to establish an identity different from the California tech powerhouses.

So instead of fighting those powers, why not join up and end run them?

I think this Cascadian interactive supercluster has many things going for it and should be more than just talk. For example, it would balance the gravitational pull of San Francisco and neighbouring Silicon  Valley farther to the south.

Sure, we’re not going to match the Valley anytime soon. But we don’t have to play their game to be successful.

We can grow out of the Valley’s shadow by walking around it and forming our own specialized creative corridor.

There are challenges to this concept, I’m sure. But every idea has to start somewhere.

So why not start with the Cascadian Creative Corridor?