Momentum building for our Cloud Ecosystem Accelerator Program

I have read through the two reports: Enabling Canada’s Technology Future and Accelerating Crowdfunding in Canada.  Here are some important ideas that jumped out in the context of our Cloud Ecosystem Accelerator Program (CEAP) that we announced last week in a press release:

1. CEAP clusters will focus on the cloud sector exclusively. A sectorial focus spread across the country  (Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver) with strong international ties will attract a vibrant community of participating companies, start-ups, investors, international partners, larger IT companies, government bodies and others.
2. Our efforts will build buzz for participating companies, help capture sales and show velocity.  Broadly communicating success is good for individual companies and the industry as a whole.
3. Entrepreneurial companies often lack the sales and marketing resources to effectively get their message out on a sustained basis. By participating in CEAP these tasks will be admirably and economically accomplished on a scale unobtainable by an individual company.
4. It is particularly important for firms to build traction and coverage to communicate their future value and attract investors.
5. As we create our regionalized and national technology roadmaps valuable alliances will form. The resulting ecosystems will be much stronger that sum of their parts.
6. Strong international connections will be made.  A world spanning MarComm/PR campaign will get the word out that CEAP is the place to tap into the Canadian cloud computing sector.
7. The real value of building buzz in the context of a strong Canadian cloud cooperative is reducing the perceived risks in the cloud environment. This is particularly important for selling to governments and large institutions.
8. CEAP will be actively involved in lobbying the federal government on behalf of cluster participants in the areas of direct government investment, procurement strategies, and “First buyer” programs.
9. CEAP will launch “private”  crowdfunding investment within our regional networks.