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15 small cities that have become tech hubs

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Think Silicon Valley is the only tech hub? Calgary.com used data from commercial real estate firm CBRE Group to reveal emerging small tech cities.
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Some small North American cities are punching far above their weight when it comes to nurturing startups, innovative talent, and emerging tech businesses. These small cities’ low cost of living, proximity to major research universities, and investment from city officials push them to the forefront of the tech scene.

Calgary.com examined data compiled by commercial real estate firm CBRE Group to find small cities and metro areas that have become tech hubs in recent years. Each city or metro area had to have 1 million or fewer workers to be included. To be considered a tech hub in the study, markets had to have a high number of college graduates, a large millennial population, and be home to major universities with strong technology programs. Rankings are based on the concentration of tech workers in that location.​​

Tech talent concentration is defined as the share of all workers in that city employed by the tech industry. There are about 5.4 million tech workers in the U.S. and 1 million in Canada, according to CBRE analysis. In the U.S., tech talent employment grew 0.8% in 2020, compared to a drop of 5.5% for nontech jobs.

The Milwaukee skyline

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#15. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

– Concentration of tech workers: 3.7%
– Total tech workers: 29,810
– Change from 2015 to 2020: -4.2%

Milwaukee has developed a thriving tech scene. Regional partners like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Northwestern Mutual, and Concordia University have collaborated to develop tech opportunities in the region further. Milwaukee Tech Week draws entrepreneurs and innovators from the area, and it is estimated that there are now more than 2,000 technology companies across industries in Milwaukee.

The Cleveland skyline

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#14. Cleveland, Ohio

– Concentration of tech workers: 3.7%
– Total tech workers: 36,320
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 14.6%

Cleveland has embraced technology throughout the private and public sectors. In July 2022, Cleveland-based startups raised $500 million in venture capital across companies such as Felux, a steel supply digital marketplace, and Splash Financial, a lending platform. The city also invested $2.4 million in innovative technology for the Cleveland Division of Police, including an alert system that notifies officers of a location with gunfire activity without waiting for someone to report a shooting.

Downtown Richmond, Virginia

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#13. Richmond, Virginia

– Concentration of tech workers: 3.9%
– Total tech workers: 24,520
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 7.9%

Richmond has the benefit of Growth and Opportunity Virginia, an organization dedicated to advancing and investing in the local tech scene; this includes $1.2 million in grants recently issued to four tech projects in the region. Among the initiatives is a technology competition at a local university, a tech talent retention program for local graduates, and a computer science-based entrepreneurship program.

The Virginia Beach skyline as viewed from the coast

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#12. Virginia Beach, Virginia

– Concentration of tech workers: 4.1%
– Total tech workers: 29,420
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 2.8%

Virginia Beach, which has long been a popular vacation destination, is now emerging as a hotspot for tech. The city’s economic development team touts its location near several colleges, including the College of William & Mary, Old Dominion University, and Norfolk State University, as well as a 5,706-square-foot accelerator lab for biotech startups. The city is home to new and established tech companies, including DroneUp, a drone developer; ServiceNow, a cloud-based productivity platform; and SimIS, an information technology company.

The Sacramento skyline

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#11. Sacramento, California

– Concentration of tech workers: 4.1%
– Total tech workers: 40,160
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 10.7%

Some are calling Sacramento the next Silicon Valley for tech companies; this is due to many people in information technology relocating from Silicon Valley to Sacramento. In 2018 alone, there were an estimated 27,000 such workers. One reason for the departure may be the high quality of life Sacramento offers without the high costs of living in Silicon Valley.

A view of Rochester, New York

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#10. Rochester, New York

– Concentration of tech workers: 4.4%
– Total tech workers: 20,840
– Change from 2015 to 2020: -0.8%

A strong accelerator program has benefited Rochester’s emergence as a tech hub. Luminate NY provides funding and support to optics, photonics, and imaging startups. Some companies that have earned funding from the accelerator have moved from more established tech cities like Boston, including one incubated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A view of Hartford, Connecticut, at night

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#9. Hartford, Connecticut

– Concentration of tech workers: 4.8%
– Total tech workers: 26,440
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 11.9%

Hartford is becoming known throughout New England as a technology and innovation hub. There are numerous initiatives in the city, such as the Connecticut Small Business Development Center and Connecticut Innovations, which help businesses flourish at every stage, from startup to scaling nationally or internationally. More tailored programs also exist in the city, such as MakerspaceCT, which provides innovators and potential startups with equipment and programs to help them test their business ideas.

Salt Lake City with mountains in the background

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#8. Salt Lake City, Utah

– Concentration of tech workers: 5.1%
– Total tech workers: 50,070
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 33.9%

There’s a reason Salt Lake City is nicknamed Silicon Slopes. A major resource of tech talent comes from nearby Brigham Young University, and two graduates of the school are considered the godfathers of Silicon Slopes. Josh James and Ryan Smith are the founders of companies worth well over $4 billion, and they have reinvested some of that capital back in the region’s tech scene.

The Walterdale Bridge in Edmonton, Alberta

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#7. Edmonton, Alberta

– Concentration of tech workers: 5.7%
– Total tech workers: 34,500
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 53.3%

Employment growth in the technology sector is driving Alberta’s economy forward. Edmonton has tech companies of all sizes, drawing many Canadians to work in the city. Four tech sub-sectors are expected to drive this growth in the coming years: health care technology, financial technology, clean tech, and ag-tech.

Madison, Wisconsin

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#6. Madison, Wisconsin

– Concentration of tech workers: 6.4%
– Total tech workers: 24,580
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 31.9%

Madison has a low cost of living and plenty of biotech startups. Many of these companies come from the city’s University of Madison-Wisconsin. It is also becoming increasingly common for many alums to stick around after graduation for work in the technology sector.

Peace Bridge in front of the skyline of Calgary, Alberta

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#5. Calgary, Alberta

– Concentration of tech workers: 7.1%
– Total tech workers: 46,700
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 17.9%

Many Calgary-based tech companies are investing heavily in expansion. In just six months alone, in 2022, tech investment grew by almost $500 million. Some companies in the area report 400% growth year over year, and venture funding is flowing into others to help them scale beyond the region.

Raleigh, North Carolina

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#4. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina

– Concentration of tech workers: 7.2%
– Total tech workers: 67,050
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 20.2%

Raleigh-Durham is benefitting from several factors. Research Triangle Park has been a longtime anchor. Formed in 1959, it is the largest research center in the country, where companies from IBM to Cisco draw heavily from nearby universities like Duke for innovation and talent. Technology giants like Apple and Google have also announced plans to build campuses in the area.

Québec City, Québec

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#3. Quebec City, Quebec

– Concentration of tech workers: 7.8%
– Total tech workers: 29,400
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 18.1%

Quebec City has grown exponentially as a tech hub in recent years. A partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers has explained the surge in tech workers and investment as being driven by “second-generation and third-generation” entrepreneurs who had been very successful in the early 2000s and decided to re-invest their money and time to assist startups in Quebec.

Waterloo Bridge

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#2. Waterloo Region, Ontario

– Concentration of tech workers: 9.6%
– Total tech workers: 25,900
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 47.2%

Waterloo benefits from having a heavy concentration of tech talent. Part of this may be due to the University of Waterloo’s engineering and computer science programs. Almost every graduate from the program finishes with several years of on-the-job experience. Google and Amazon are among the companies that recruit grads.

Ottawa, Ontario

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#1. Ottawa, Ontario

– Concentration of tech workers: 11.6%
– Total tech workers: 74,000
– Change from 2015 to 2020: 22.5%

Ottawa is one of the most diverse tech hubs in North America. The city serves as a base for companies specializing in software as a service, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, 5G, cybersecurity, and digital media. Ottawa’s Kanata North Technology Park is also Canada’s largest, with more than 540 companies and 23,000 employees and businesses contributing $13 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product in 2018.

This story originally appeared on Calgary.com and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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How businesses can protect themselves from the rising threat of deepfakes

Dive into the world of deepfakes and explore the risks, strategies and insights to fortify your organization’s defences

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In Billy Joel’s latest video for the just-released song Turn the Lights Back On, it features him in several deepfakes, singing the tune as himself, but decades younger. The technology has advanced to the extent that it’s difficult to distinguish between that of a fake 30-year-old Joel, and the real 75-year-old today.

This is where tech is being used for good. But when it’s used with bad intent, it can spell disaster. In mid-February, a report showed a clerk at a Hong Kong multinational who was hoodwinked by a deepfake impersonating senior executives in a video, resulting in a $35 million theft.

Deepfake technology, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), is capable of creating highly realistic fake videos, images, or audio recordings. In just a few years, these digital manipulations have become so sophisticated that they can convincingly depict people saying or doing things that they never actually did. In little time, the tech will become readily available to the layperson, who’ll require few programming skills.

Legislators are taking note

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a ban on those who impersonate others using deepfakes — the greatest concern being how it can be used to fool consumers. The Feb. 16 ban further noted that an increasing number of complaints have been filed from “impersonation-based fraud.”

A Financial Post article outlined that Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, Patricia Kosseim, says she feels “a sense of urgency” to act on artificial intelligence as the technology improves. “Malicious actors have found ways to synthetically mimic executive’s voices down to their exact tone and accent, duping employees into thinking their boss is asking them to transfer funds to a perpetrator’s account,” the report said. Ontario’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Framework, for which she consults, aims to set guides on the public sector use of AI.

In a recent Microsoft blog, the company stated their plan is to work with the tech industry and government to foster a safer digital ecosystem and tackle the challenges posed by AI abuse collectively. The company also said it’s already taking preventative steps, such as “ongoing red team analysis, preemptive classifiers, the blocking of abusive prompts, automated testing, and rapid bans of users who abuse the system” as well as using watermarks and metadata.

That prevention will also include enhancing public understanding of the risks associated with deepfakes and how to distinguish between legitimate and manipulated content.

Cybercriminals are also using deepfakes to apply for remote jobs. The scam starts by posting fake job listings to collect information from the candidates, then uses deepfake video technology during remote interviews to steal data or unleash ransomware. More than 16,000 people reported that they were victims of this scam to the FBI in 2020. In the US, this kind of fraud has resulted in a loss of more than $3 billion USD. Where possible, they recommend job interviews should be in person to avoid these threats.

Catching fakes in the workplace

There are detector programs, but they’re not flawless. 

When engineers at the Canadian company Dessa first tested a deepfake detector that was built using Google’s synthetic videos, they found it failed more than 40% of the time. The Seattle Times noted that the problem in question was eventually fixed, and it comes down to the fact that “a detector is only as good as the data used to train it.” But, because the tech is advancing so rapidly, detection will require constant reinvention.

There are other detection services, often tracing blood flow in the face, or errant eye movements, but these might lose steam once the hackers figure out what sends up red flags.

“As deepfake technology becomes more widespread and accessible, it will become increasingly difficult to trust the authenticity of digital content,” noted Javed Khan, owner of Ontario-based marketing firm EMpression. He said a focus of the business is to monitor upcoming trends in tech and share the ideas in a simple way to entrepreneurs and small business owners.

To preempt deepfake problems in the workplace, he recommended regular training sessions for employees. A good starting point, he said, would be to test them on MIT’s eight ways the layperson can try to discern a deepfake on their own, ranging from unusual blinking, smooth skin, and lighting.

Businesses should proactively communicate through newsletters, social media posts, industry forums, and workshops, about the risks associated with deepfake manipulation, he told DX Journal, to “stay updated on emerging threats and best practices.”

To keep ahead of any possible attacks, he said companies should establish protocols for “responding swiftly” to potential deepfake attacks, including issuing public statements or corrective actions.

How can a deepfake attack impact business?

The potential to malign a company’s reputation with a single deepfake should not be underestimated.

“Deepfakes could be racist. It could be sexist. It doesn’t matter — by the time it gets known that it’s fake, the damage could be already done. And this is the problem,” said Alan Smithson, co-founder of Mississauga-based MetaVRse and investor at Your Director AI.

“Building a brand is hard, and then it can be destroyed in a second,” Smithson told DX Journal. “The technology is getting so good, so cheap, so fast, that the power of this is in everybody’s hands now.”

One of the possible solutions is for businesses to have a code word when communicating over video as a way to determine who’s real and who’s not. But Smithson cautioned that the word shouldn’t be shared around cell phones or computers because “we don’t know what devices are listening to us.”

He said governments and companies will need to employ blockchain or watermarks to identify fraudulent messages. “Otherwise, this is gonna get crazy,” he added, noting that Sora — the new AI text to video program — is “mind-blowingly good” and in another two years could be “indistinguishable from anything we create as humans.”

“Maybe the governments will step in and punish them harshly enough that it will just be so unreasonable to use these technologies for bad,” he continued. And yet, he lamented that many foreign actors in enemy countries would not be deterred by one country’s law. It’s one downside he said will always be a sticking point.

It would appear that for now, two defence mechanisms are the saving grace to the growing threat posed by deepfakes: legal and regulatory responses, and continuous vigilance and adaptation to mitigate risks. The question remains, however, whether safety will keep up with the speed of innovation.

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Small banks emerge as the top source for small business financing

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Findbusinesses4sale used the Fed's Small Business Credit Survey data to compare approval rates among small business financing options.
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When it comes to borrowing money, small businesses are most likely to apply at large banks. But they often find success with their counterparts in the finance world: small banks.

Small banks—or those with less than $10 billion in total assets—comprise most of the banks in the U.S., much like small businesses account for nearly all U.S. businesses. More than 80% of small businesses that applied for financing at small banks were at least partially approved in 2022, according to data from the Fed’s most recent survey of small business employers. However, only 30% of small businesses applied at small banks when they sought financing.

About 2 in 5 small business employers applied for some traditional financing in 2022. Most needed the money to meet operating expenses, while a little over half sought cash to expand their operations.

Findbusinesses4sale used the Fed’s Small Business Credit Survey data to compare approval rates among small business financing sources, taking a closer look at their differences. Approval rates are based on applications for loans, credit, and cash advances at the various institution types. The Fed report was released in March 2023 based on a 2022 survey of nearly 8,000 small businesses with employees.


A bar chart shows the share of small business applicants at least partially approved for loan requests, separated by the type of source applied to.

Findbusinesses4sale

Small banks surpass online lenders, finance companies in approval rates for small business applicants

Also known as community banks, small banks are well-equipped to lend to small businesses because of their intimate knowledge of local economies. Small businesses are often young, with short histories, small operations, little collateral, and unproven financial success. These factors can make it difficult for founders to qualify for credit and loans—they’re simply a riskier investment for a funder to take on.

Small banks’ decision-makers live within the same areas where they grant loans, and they have insight into how certain businesses could fare within their neighborhoods. That makes it easier for them to analyze the risk of lending to small businesses and, in turn, decide whether to approve their applications. At least 3 in 5 (61%) applicants considered to be a medium or high credit risk were approved for financing at small banks; at large banks, not even half (45%) of these riskier applicants were approved.

By operating across smaller locales, community bank operators also have the opportunity to forge stronger relationships with business founders. The Fed survey shows that about 2 in 3 small businesses that applied for financing with these banks did so because of an existing relationship. Many of these relationships were forged in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, when community banks came through for small businesses with relief funds, including more intensive support in understanding and completing complex applications.

Small firms applying to other sources, such as online lenders and finance companies, are most often motivated by making quick decisions and perceiving that they have a higher chance of being approved. That was the case five years ago, but approval rates for both sources lagged behind small banks in 2022. Indeed, approval rates at both have fallen significantly since 2019, while approvals at small banks have grown.

Both online lenders and finance companies still approve slightly higher shares of applicants with medium to high credit risks compared to small banks, but only by a few percentage points. At the same time, many more borrowers reported dissatisfaction and challenges working with these lenders, including high interest rates and unfavorable repayment terms.

On the other hand, the vast majority of borrowers from small banks were happy with their experience—much more than those who borrowed from any other type of lender.

Story editing by Ashleigh Graf. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Ania Antecka.

This story originally appeared on Findbusinesses4sale and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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The new reality of how VR can change how we work

It’s not just for gaming — from saving lives to training remote staff, here’s how virtual reality is changing the game for businesses

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Until a few weeks ago, you might have thought that “virtual reality” and its cousin “augmented reality” were fads that had come and gone. At the peak of the last frenzy around the technology, the company formerly known as Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021, as a sign of how determined founder Mark Zuckerberg was to create a VR “metaverse,” complete with cartoon avatars (who for some reason had no legs — they’ve got legs now, but there are some restrictions on how they work).

Meta has since spent more than $36 billion on metaverse research and development, but so far has relatively little to show for it. Meta has sold about 20 million of its Quest VR headsets so far, but according to some reports, not many people are spending a lot of time in the metaverse. And a lack of legs for your avatar probably isn’t the main reason. No doubt many were wondering: What are we supposed to be doing in here?

The evolution of virtual reality

Things changed fairly dramatically in June, however, when Apple demoed its Vision Pro headset, and then in early February when they were finally available for sale. At $3,499 US, the device is definitely not for the average consumer, but using it has changed the way some think about virtual reality, or the “metaverse,” or whatever we choose to call it.

Some of the enhancements that Apple has come up with for the VR headset experience have convinced Vision Pro true believers that we are either at or close to the same kind of inflection point that we saw after the release of the original iPhone in 2007.Others, however, aren’t so sure we are there yet.

The metaverse sounds like a place where you bump into giant dinosaur avatars or play virtual tennis, but ‘spatial computing’ puts the focus on using a VR headset to enhance what users already do on their computers. Some users generate multiple virtual screens that hang in the air in front of them, allowing them to walk around their homes or offices and always have their virtual desktop in front of them.

VR fans are excited about the prospect of watching a movie on what looks like a 100-foot-wide TV screen hanging in the air in front of them, or playing a video game. But what about work-related uses of a headset like the Vision Pro? 

Innovating health care with VR technology

One of the most obvious applications is in medicine, where doctors are already using remote viewing software to perform checkups or even operations. At Cambridge University, game designers and cancer researchers have teamed up to make it easier to see cancer cells and distinguish between different kinds.

Heads-up displays and other similar kinds of technology are already in use in aerospace engineering and other fields, because they allow workers to see a wiring diagram or schematic while working to repair it. VR headsets could make such tasks even easier, by making those diagrams or schematics even larger, and superimposing them on the real thing. The same kind of process could work for digital scans of a patient during an operation.

Using virtual reality, patients and doctors could also do remote consultations more easily, allowing patients to describe visually what is happening with them, and giving health professionals the ability to offer tips and direct recommendations in a visual way. 

This would not only help with providing care to people who live in remote areas, but could also help when there is a language barrier between doctor and patient. 

Impacting industry worldwide

One technology consulting firm writes that using a Vision Pro or other VR headset to streamline assembly and quality control in maintenance tasks. Overlaying diagrams, 3D models, and other digital information onto an object in real time could enable “more efficient and error-free assembly processes,” by providing visual cues, step-by-step guidance, and real-time feedback. 

In addition to these kinds of uses, virtual reality could also be used for remote onboarding for new staff in a variety of different roles, by allowing them to move around and practice training tasks in a virtual environment.

Some technology watchers believe that the retail industry could be transformed by virtual reality as well. Millions of consumers have become used to buying online, but some categories such as clothing and furniture have lagged, in part because it is difficult to tell what a piece of clothing might look like once you are wearing it, or what that chair will look like in your home. But VR promises the kind of immersive experience where that becomes possible.

While many consumers may see this technology only as an avenue for gaming and entertainment, it’s already being leveraged by businesses in manufacturing, health care and workforce development. Even in 2020, 91 per cent of businesses surveyed by TechRepublic either used or planned to adopt VR or AR technology — and as these technological advances continue, adoption is likely to keep ramping up.

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