- by Martin Cash, Winnipeg Free Press (as published Sunday, May 3, 2009)

Two of the smartest, most leading-edge technology companies in Winnipeg -- Pro­tegra and Online Business Systems -- were recently named among the 25 best workplaces in Canada.

Another Winnipeg company, EISI (Emerging Information Systems Inc.), has developed the leading financial planning software tool in North America and recently played the role of the shark, buying up its largest competitor based in Southern California.

The Exchange District is home to the likes of Frantic Films, a visual effects house that services major Hollywood studios as well as the only video game business incubator on the continent, Fortune Cat Studios.

Subway riders around the world from Rio de Janeiro to London, Los Angeles and Boston watch motion-pic­ture advertisements outside subway car windows in otherwise darkened tunnels. The display is made possible by technol­ogy created by the Winnipeg company Sidetrack Technologies Inc.

The Canadian Space Agency chose Project Whitecard, a small Winnipeg "serious gaming" firm, to develop an interactive educational vir­tual reality space environment game.

Winnipeg may not be the Silicon Valley of the north, but there are enough activity and building blocks in place to have created a growing group of innovative companies that are exerting their presence all over the world.

(To read the whole article, click here.)