Locating for potential

The greater Vancouver, B.C. region has long been seen as an outpost to a staples economy (Innis 1999; Hutton 1997; Barnes 1996) and a gateway to the Asia Pacific for over one hundred years (Edgington and Goldberg 1992; Hutton 1998). However, over the past two years a leading US based high technology firm, referred to as "Company X", established a key innovation centre in Vancouver. Clearly, it is a very exciting time for the Vancouver region as it makes this transition from being a "timber town" towards becoming a creative hotbed of global talent (the international creative class) and being seen as a possible leader in new ideas that propels the global software industry forward. Thus, at this time, it is important to take a closer and more in-depth look at the reason for Company X's initial reasons for choosing Vancouver over other comparable locations, whether regionally, nationally, and/or globally when it came to selecting a site that would allow it to gain access to potential pools of highly skilled labour not living in the immediate vicinity of the Vancouver region. Geographers have paid considerable attention to firm location decisions when it comes to access to human capital over the past 80 years. These approaches range from neoclassical location theory, to the works of Jane Jacobs and Ullman (1958) who both stress the importance of existing talent contributing to regional development.