‘Extremely valuable’: Richmond Hill collaborates with OCAD University, tech startups to pep up local business recovery

17 local businesses are currently piloting the CLIC program to uncover market insights and look for new opportunities

Yorkregion.com
April 4, 2022
Sheila Wang

As the local economy reels from the impact of the ongoing pandemic, the City of Richmond Hill has launched a new program to provide resources and tools to accelerate the recovery of businesses.

Partnering with OCAD University and eCampusOntario, Richmond Hill has launched the Centre of Local Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) to help businesses review their offerings and business models while eyeing for new product and service opportunities.

“It’s extremely valuable because it gives you something that you would have to pay a lot of money to hire somebody that has those skill sets in order to actually help you,” said Walid Mowaswes, CEO of PharmaGuide, a Richmond Hill-based tech startup that offers software solutions to health-care providers and tools for pharmacist to increase efficiency.

PharmaGuide is among 17 local businesses currently piloting the CLIC program where entrepreneurs like Mowaswes work with researchers from OCAD University to uncover market insights and look for new opportunities.

The software company, founded in 2018, has benefited a great deal from the meetings with the researchers as well as collaborating with other businesses, Mowaswes said.

“It allowed us to interact with people that really know design and design is so important, not just how things work, but in terms of the actual experience that people have with your product or with your company,” the CEO said.

Matt Foran, president of KnowMeQ, said he also had a productive time piloting the program alongside his fellow entrepreneurs.

KnowMeQ is an online skills assessment platform, which identifies skill gaps to make predictive decisions to improve workforce and performance for employers.

“I was very, very impressed from very early on with the vision, and I think that it's so needed to be able to have some actual strategies that can bring local businesses into places where they can activate some ideas,” Foran said.

The collaboration brings together expertise from Richmond Hill’s existing small business enterprise centre -- a one-stop source of resources for entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow -- and researchers from OCAD University’s acclaimed Strategic Foresight and Innovation program.

The small business enterprise centre offers individuals who intend to start or grow their businesses a series of services such as business consultation and assistance, training seminars as well as access to provincial funding.

Businesses can leverage the proposals that come out of the collaboration to tap into research and development project funding available through other government partners.

Foran said he’s excited to have applied for research-and-development seed funding through the program, which, if approved, would help KnowMeQ validate one of its tools that’s designed to help local employers as well as across Canada and abroad.

“By partnering with a well-known educator like OCAD University, we are providing businesses with an opportunity to tap into new expertise and creative thinking that can help accelerate business recovery and prosperity,” Mayor David West said.

Meanwhile, CLIC is expected to expand its service offerings such as specialized training and continuing education, community workshops as well as the human-centred design program where interested businesses are welcome to join.

More information is available at www.richmondhill.ca/SBEC.