BOARD PRESIDENT'S REPORT

2008 - 2009 Board of Directors - President’s Report

Over the past year we have focused on increasing SATA’s profile within our industry and within the federal and provincial government agencies responsible for sector development initiatives.  SATA has been positioning itself as an effective channel for the identification and implementation of industry support and development activities.  We have also been working to serve as a common interface point between industry, academia and government. 

One of SATA’s strategic objectives is to become the defacto source of information about Saskatchewan’s advanced technology industry.  Industry statistics are very valuable, but are often considerably out-of-date or completely unavailable.  Last fall, SATA submitted a State of the Industry Program Proposal to Enterprise Saskatchewan and the Western Economic Diversification. This Program will support the creation of a current and inclusive inventory of Saskatchewan’s advanced technology companies, including the scope of their business activities and their product and service capabilities.

I am pleased to say that the Program was approved and funding will begin to flow during this coming financial year.  The multi-year State of the Industry Program will form the base from which many other industry support initiatives will be developed. 

SATA also took steps to improve our ability to communicate with our membership and the advanced technology industry.  Most significant was the development of a new website. The new site will allow us to more prominently promote the business and technology capabilities of our membership.  The site will also include comprehensive event management capabilities to automate our membership management processes.  In conjunction with the website launch we will also implement a fresh newsletter format which is more visually appealing and feature rich.

The Marketing interactive Exchange or MiX club continues to be a very popular program and featured an engaging set of topics that generated much discussion.  SATA and various partner organizations also hosted a number of networking and educational events including; an ICT Networking Forum, an ICT trade mission to Denver and a variety of Lunch and Learn sessions.

SATA is making significant progress towards achieving our objective of being a well recognized support and advocate organization providing strong leadership to Saskatchewan's advanced technology industry.  I look forward to another rewarding year of participating in the development and growth of our association and our industry.

I would like to close by thanking our membership and our board for supporting their association and allowing us to become an effective champion of the advanced technology industry in our province.  And thank you for the opportunity to serve as your President for another year, the role continues to be a privilege and an honour. 

Respectfully submitted by: Fred Jedlic, President