IBM in Hamilton

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MPP Ted McMeekin says “Hamilton is experiencing a renaissance”. The crowd inside Hamilton General hospital cheered with excitement.

The partnership between IBM Canada and Hamilton Health Sciences will accelerate new health care innovations. It’s big news for the city as downtown Hamilton will become a hub for the latest high tech medical technology.

President of IBM Canada, Dino Trevisani  says its an investment that’s personal as it will help save lives.  They will be contributing their Watson software to transform healthcare in Hamilton and the rest of the country.

The “Collaborative Innovation Centre” will be housed in the former Stelco Tower at 100 King St West. HHS CEO Rob MacIsaac says “good news travels fast”.  While they didn’t publicly release the details of this partnership until today it was speculated that the two entities would occupy 6 floors of the 2nd highest building in the city. MacIsaac says they will work out of 4 floors inside the tower, not 6.

While the announcement lacked any hard details on job creation numbers, the president and CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences says over 300 existing administrative staff will move to the former Stelco tower this fall.

The province allocated over $22 million in the budget to IBM Canada. McMeekin spoke about the funding today. The province and IBM Canada, one of worlds largest tech companies, will assist entrepreneurs with ideas to create new businesses.

Trevisani says this new collaboration centre will allow students from McMaster and Mohawk college, local startups, and individual innovators who share the common goal of developing innovative healthcare solutions to test their ideas.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger says Hamilton is among the top cities in Canada for health research and the possibilities are endless “it will create the jobs of tomorrow”.

Watch the full press conference here:

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