Montreal Tech Watch

Samuel Bouchard is a blogger from Quebec City, where he writes about technology, robotics and environment. He wrote a significant post on the province’s future place on the web, from his experience at the Mesh Conference last week.

The post is in french, so I will sum it up here. Cons for Quebec:

• so far, lots of clones from companies like canoe or from monavis or digg nuouz, and not enough breakthrough innovation
• small market in Quebec

I also think that there are not enough “role models” in Quebec, i.e. web entrepreneurs who succeeded so that more young people get inspired too.

Pros:

• french and lots of bilingual people. Instead of targeting the US market, which is a huge challenge, it is actually easier and faster to have french-speaking customers.
• affordable cost of living
• education
• a link between Europe and North America, so it might be easier to gain market shares in Europe
• expertise in video games and in telecom hardware

I also see another advantage from Quebec, which the creativity we see here in Quebec, like in Le cirque du soleil or in video games. This creativity can also be used to imagine hugely innovative products or services.

Like in Montreal, there seems to be a growing community of web entrepreneurs in Quebec city right now. I hope they go to the next BarcampCanada which is scheduled in Montreal this summer.