New Data Platform Supports Southern Interior Communities and Regional Districts

New Data Platform Supports Southern Interior Communities and Regional Districts

November 16, 2021

November 16, 2021 – More and more, local and regional governments are seeking to grow their local economy by attracting new talent, investment and businesses to their regions. Timely and relevant economic data is paramount for those making relocation and investment decisions.

To support Southern Interior communities and Regional Districts, the Economic Trust of the Southern Interior (ETSI-BC) recently launched a new data visualization tool which features key economic data for each of the nine Regional Districts in our service area.

Regional data is an important complement to community-based information, as many developers and investors want to understand the dynamics of a business catchment area as well as a specific community.

The ETSI-BC Regional Data Platform, powered by Cityviz, currently features statistics by Regional District on demographics, labour force, businesses, agriculture operations and real estate transactions. The information on this site is continually refreshed as soon as new data comes available.

This new data platform is a custom Cityviz edition to include the entire region serviced by ETSI-BC. It is developed by Ruby Industries Inc, a data science company based in the Central Okanagan. Cityviz is an investment profile that supports communities in their economic development activities. Numerous communities in the Southern Interior are using Cityviz as their own data visualization tool, including Cranbrook, Merritt, Boundary and the Central Okanagan. ETSI-BC regional data platform will complement those and provide a new layer of insight.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Cityviz on this Regional Data Platform,” noted Laurel Douglas, CEO of the Economic Trust of the Southern Interior.

Regional data can assist elected officials and local government staff to make better decisions in other areas as well. Communities can use it for many purposes, such as:

to validate their own investments
in support of funding applications (i.e. growing population may justify a new pool)
to provide relevant data to attract developers (i.e. seniors housing)
to support private sector businesses seeking a new location with specific demographics.

“The mandate of ETSI-BC is to support the economy of the Southern Interior to grow and diversify,” said Douglas. “We hope our new Regional Data Platform is of value to you, our stakeholders, and we look forward to your feedback.”

Izabela Bogdanovic, the CEO of Ruby Industries, added, “We are excited for the opportunity to work with ETSI-BC in supporting our communities in the region. Ruby Industries developed the Cityviz regional business profile to capture the vibrancy of our region and use data visualizations to show how diverse its economy is. All visualizations are interactive, so users can see the high-level picture of the whole region, but if they click their area of interest on the map, they can drill down into more details for that area.”

For More Information, please contact:

Laurel Douglas, CEO, ETSI-BC | 236.420.3680 ext 1 | laurel@etsi-bc.ca
Sasha Bogdanovic, Chief Technical Officer, Ruby Industries Inc. | 250.317.5636 | sasha@rubyind.com

About ETSI-BC

ETSI-BC, the Economic Trust of the Southern Interior, was created in 2006 with a $50 million endowment to assist in the growth and diversification of the economy of the Southern Interior of BC. The Trust is governed by a 13-member Board of Directors and gets input from Regional Advisory Committees made up of elected officials from both the Thompson-Okanagan and Columbia-Kootenay regions. We are focused on supporting strategic investments in four key funding streams:

1) Building economic development capacity,
2) Supporting business resilience and growth,
3) Developing human capital and
4) Innovating and advancing key sectors.

For more info about ETSI-BC and our impacts, visit the Our Story page on our website www.etsi-bc.ca

About Cityviz

The Cityviz data platform is developed and maintained by Ruby Industries Inc., based in the Central Okanagan. The company was founded in 2013 and has been delivering data-related projects and services for clients in Canada and abroad. For more information about Cityviz, visit https://cityviz.ca/.

We’d love to hear from you!

201 – 460 Doyle Ave, Kelowna, BC V1Y 0C2
Phone: 236-420-3680 ext. 0
info@etsi-bc.ca

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