News Release
KIRA - it's all about innovation
May 2, 2009
Colleen Benson is the co-chair of this year's KIRAs (Knowledge Industry Recognition Awards) - an annual event organized by Enterprise Fredericton to recognize the top innovators in New Brunswick's knowledge industry.
With the event set for May 7, Benson has been pretty busy lately, but that didn't stop her from taking time to talk with reporter Chris Fox about the awards, the importance of innovation and how New Brunswick stacks up with other provinces when it comes to the knowledge industry.
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Q: What was the last movie you saw and the last concert you went to?
A: The last movie would have been Slumdog Millionaire and the last concert was the Eagles.
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Q: So you are the co-chair of this year's KIRAs. What kinds of things are you responsible for?
A: My job is to just make sure that I am keeping my eye on the big picture and to ensure that everything with the event comes together properly.
It is pretty crazy because obviously we are a volunteer organization and all of us have day jobs and for six months now we have been putting this together. We started by booking our emcee and our venue in December, and as we have gotten closer, we have been meeting every week to make sure everything is coming along alright.
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Q: What is your day job?
A: I am a project manager for the IT industry, so I manage large government-based projects. I have my own business as well where I do project management consulting.
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Q: How long have you been involved with the KIRAs?
A: This is my ninth year with the organizing committee. It has been a lot of fun. I have been the co-chair for three years in the past and I have also served as just a committee member, so just helping out wherever I can.
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Q: Has the event come a long way? I know Enterprise Fredericton has been putting it on for 11 years now.
A: Well, I would say pretty much everything got set in the first year and we have really had a high standard to live up to every year in trying to match that.
We try to make it a "wow" event and really special. We don't want it to be your typical meetings - we want it to be something unlike anything that goes on in the city.
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Q: How is this year's event shaping up?
A: It is shaping up great. Every year we try to do something a little different just to make it a different experience for everyone. The whole evening is really all about having fun, entertainment and obviously recognizing all of the nominees, as well as the winners, and this year will be no exception.
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Q: The whole concept of innovation is pretty abstract. How do you decide on what businesses to recognize with KIRAs?
A: The organizing committee has no idea who decides. We aren't involved in that process at all. It is a secret committee made up of industry leaders from around the province and they get together, go over the zillions of nominations that come in, then based on a set criteria, they evaluate the nominations and try to select a top three and, of course, a winner.
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Q: I know there is a list of 18 companies up for a variety of awards this year. What do you think of the nominees?
A: It is a great group. I didn't know all of the companies that were on the list, and when I saw the list come out, I did some searching on the Internet just to find out a little bit about them. It is really unique - some of the work they are doing - and that is what I enjoy about the awards.
It is always quite exciting to see what people are doing and just some of the neat things that you would never even think off.
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Q: How important is it to recognize innovation in the business community?
A: Really important. There is a lot of really good work going on out there. This is an opportunity for us to really profile these companies, let everyone see the really exciting things that are going on in this province in the knowledge industry and it really is an opportunity to bring the knowledge industry together.
We tend to be going in cycles. Right now we are in a tough economic cycle and it is really important to bring everyone together to support each other and inspire.
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Q: How is New Brunswick doing when it comes to innovation compared with the rest of the region and the country?
A: I think we are doing very well. We are a very innovative province. Just look at what is happening with these two top communities (Fredericton and Moncton) in terms of worldwide recognition.
I mean, I can remember some of my clients coming here from the U.S. and being so surprised and impressed with the fact that we had free Internet - and that was six or seven years ago - so we have been innovating for a while now.
Because of our fibre optic network and a few other things, we are quite ahead of the curve too.
That is quite surprising to a lot of people because we are such a small province, but we are quite innovative.
Freelance reporter Chris Fox is a journalism student at St. Thomas University. Q&A appears each Saturday.