South Georgian Bay Success Stories
Stories

The Evolution of the Power Grid
EPCOR Collingwood is ramping up tech innovation to meet new challenges Electricity transmission is simple. Power the grid and quickly fix outages, right? Not quite that simple, according to Darren McCrank, Director of Ontario Operations…

Urban exodus a boon for hybrid communications agency
Interkom finds a new home and new potential in Collingwood, Ontario Ontario, and indeed Canada, are seeing record numbers of people move out of cities. That’s great news for Interkom, a hybrid marketing agency looking to expand into some…

From Toys to Masks
Irwin Toycoon’s COVID illness leads to Collingwood PPE factory What do you do when COVID-19 makes you terribly sick? You figure out a way to reduce the chance of that happening to others. That’s the case with George…

Lifestyle + Tech Talent
Why Deke expanded from Colorado to Collingwood
For Dave Maney, the decision to trade Colorado for Collingwood was a highly calculated and successful one. He is a Stanford GSB graduate, business journalist and former economic commentator at Forbes, the…

Distilling Tech
Georgian Bay Spirit Company combines tech and craft at new Collingwood distillery Q: What do Wayne Gretzky and the Georgian Bay Spirit Company have in common? A: Joshua Beach, Head Distiller & Blender.

COVID Collaboration
Collingwood brewers team up on a fresh & zippy beer to stimulate flagging sales. On March 17th, the coronavirus pandemic shuttered bars and restaurants, including Black Bellows, a newly opened brewpub…

A pandemic-proof micro-multinational
Collingwood firm WordJack points to local tech community for ongoing success With two years on The Globe and Mail’s Top Growing Companies in Canada list (#379 this year) and four years running on the…

Local Meets International in Collingwood
VOC Canada, the world’s largest safety supplier, taps Collingwood firm ARO Technologies for robotics solution Inspecting and packing rolls of webbing is backbreaking work. Just ask the people at Collingwood-based…

Local Manufacturer MEDATech Scores World 1st
Heavy equipment engineering firm MEDATech builds first hybrid drilling rig With thousands of embankment dams aging rapidly across eastern North America, utilities and governmental organizations have some work…

Tech Business Acceleration
Rappid design getting more local interest, forging ahead with Collingwood Business Accelerator Collingwood’s Rappid Software Design came into being incidentally. Its founder David Reynolds already had a budding tech business, Oak…

Collingwood Businesses’ Ingenious Covid Adaptations
The coronavirus epidemic has changed our working lives. Like businesses everywhere, many in the Collingwood / South Georgian Bay area have suffered, but others have found opportunity. Here are some of…

Pace of Business is Brisk at Collingwood Tech Firms
As the coronavirus pandemic moves into its third month in Ontario, tech businesses are finding surprising resilience. Not only have they adapted to changing conditions, but business impacts have been low….

Dave Mottola: Smash Reality
At the end of October, a gala event was held at the Blue Mountain Village Conference Centre to celebrate the 2019 Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence. One of the winners was Collingwood firm Smash Reality, recognized for their…

Collingwood’s Tech Hub North profiled in The Voice Magazine
Collingwood’s reputation as a growing hub for progressive technology companies continues to attract media attention. A recent article in The Voice – a leading publication for professional…

Sarah O’Neill
‘How I quit Toronto and found small-town balance.... without tanking my career. Gritty old neighbourhoods have been reinvigorated with soaring condos. Gentrification—lauded by some, derided by others—has transformed streets such as Roncesvalles, Ossington and Queen...

Patrick Marshall: MacLean Engineering
A Collingwood Technology Company

Tech 5×5: Nicholas Keast
Nicholas Keast, Greenland Engineering Tech 5x5 Collingwood: Nicholas Keast, Project Manager at Greenland Engineering

Tech 5×5: Jon Gillham
Jon Gillham, adbank Tech 5x5 Collingwood: Jon Gillham, CEO of adbank

Tech 5×5: Niru Somayajula
Niru Somayajula, Sensor Technology Tech 5x5 Collingwood: Niru Somayajula, CEO of Sensor Technology

Greenland Engineering
Most CEOs are obsessed with progress. But Mark Palmer has long been focused on the lack of it, at least when it comes to efforts in Canada to adapt faster to climate change and address the many issues of concern that are beginning to emerge as…

Josh Maitland, Greenland Engineering
Josh Maitland of Greenland Engineering moved to Collingwood with his young family to take advantage of the region’s many lifestyle opportunities. Now he balances his time between working at Greenland Engineering and heading up his…

Aprile Morwood: Smash Reality
A Collingwood technology company

Madeleine Lambert, Content Refined
A Collingwood technology company

MacLean Engineering
‘Tesla of underground mining’ digs deep to drive innovation. Living up to lofty corporate comparisons can be a daunting prospect when you’re known as the ‘Tesla of underground mining.’ But the team at MacLean Engineering has never been one to shy away from a...

Crozier Engineering
Engineering Meets Entrepreneurialism. Crozier and Associates has built a thriving business by catering to employees’ desire for culture, balance and ownership over their work. When Chris Crozier walks into the office he’s faced with a company full of employees who...

Shail Joshi, Isowater
Chemical engineer is heavy on water. Shail Joshi has a thing for the water in Collingwood. As a chemical engineer, he should know. “The water filtration system here is better than in the city,” he explains. “We have some of the best water in the whole world.” Joshi is...

Darren Mueller, Medatech
Back Home Again. Before he joined Medatech, Darren Mueller was a vehicle dynamics/ride handling expert with Ford. When the Oakville-based engineer was casting about for his next career move, he never dreamed that he would end up back in the part of Ontario that he...

Holly Clayton, Tatham Engineering
From Alberta, With Love. When Holly Clayton graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc in Environmental Engineering, she knew she wanted to make a career choice that played to her lifestyle. “I’m from Calgary, but I’ve been coming to the Collingwood area ever...

Tech 5×5: Mark Yaraskavitch
Mark Yaraskavitch, SmashReality Tech 5x5 Collingwood: Mark Yaraskavitch, Lead Developer at SmashReality

Tech 5×5: Kai Hulshof
Kai Hulshof, Jentu Tech 5x5 Collingwood: Kai Hulshof, COO of Jentu

Tatham Engineering
Tatham Engineering - Of ownership, community and the outdoors.Years ago Charlie Tatham, founder of C.C. Tatham & Associates Ltd., told his staff: “Mark my words: every time you leave Collingwood and come back, a little light will go off in your head and you’ll know...

Switch Video
Switch Video - A Life More Animated. When entrepreneur and digital industry veteran Brandon Houston relocated to Collingwood in 2015, he was looking for a new professional challenge. He found it when he was hired on as a digital marketing consultant at...

Sensortech
Sensor Technologies Not many companies can claim that their products have been launched into deep space and plunged to the depths of the ocean floor. But then there really aren’t many companies quite like Sensor Technology Ltd.—at least not in Canada. The...

Tyler Pratt, Adbank
Tyler Pratt, Adbank World Class Mountain Biker Works Locally in UX/UI Tyler Pratt, an Enduro World Series-qualified racer, traded a job with IBM in Markham for a blockchain startup in Collingwood. When it comes to serious mountain biking in Ontario, Collingwood is the...