We're trying to create that kind of environment here. I think if you looked at Newfoundland and Labrador in a traditional sense, it was heavily reliant on the natural resources that we have. Natural resources are cyclical. They come and they go, and the price points fluctuate. All we have to do is look at what's happened to the oil and gas over the last couple of years.
The great thing about the technology sector, where we're selling knowledge, is that we are not disadvantaged here. The growth for the advanced technology sector and all the things that go with it is endless. It's growing exponentially. Newfoundland, being an island, perhaps does inhibit us sometimes. It isn't easy to move things off and on here. But with technology, we don't have any of those impediments. We are no more advantaged or disadvantaged being here in Newfoundland than in Toronto or in Silicon Valley. As a matter of fact, we have a lot of our companies that are out in Silicon Valley, that are in incubators there.
In February I'm taking 16 companies that are in the gaming business to the biggest game developer show in the world. We're doing things in New York City. There they call themselves “Silicon Alley”, and are trying to position themselves as being, if you're in the technology sector, the place to go if you're on the east coast.
We're just at the beginning of it here. Every time I turn around, we've done incredible work with setting up startup ecosystems, taking innovation outside of just the major centres, working on that, and creating a place where all these young talented people can produce top work.
If you look at a lot of places, there's so much talent on the ground there, but then they don't know where to start. It's about creating those ecosystems, those innovation systems, where if you have an idea, then you know somewhere you can go and you can talk to someone tomorrow. Of course it will lead you into some of the federal and provincial departments that can assist you, but it's about getting it up off the ground. That's a huge part of what we do. We're a huge player in the startup ecosystem here. I don't really care where it falls, as long as it happens.