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Opinion: Building a Hive

The Baylor Hive is an idea, not a place.
20160430 wasps walton

Even without seeing the details or reading the final document, I like Baylor’s idea of a Hive. It sounds like a practical idea for a city of our size that is trying to build a sustainable economic base. The ‘Hive’ analogy is appropriate because we expect the people involved would be as busy as bees and they would build their home or hive in North Bay. They would produce results, both honey and money for themselves and the beekeepers, the City. A win-win situation.

The first thing you need for a ‘hive’ is the know-how to build a nest, hive, home, product – whatever  term you wish to use. People have many different ideas of how they can do something better or in a new innovative way, but often they don’t have the wherewithal to get started and more importantly, sell their idea or product to others. Enter our Economic Development team.

I watched the wasps build the nest in the accompanying photo one fall and although leery that it was too close to my balcony, the wasps were no threat – they were too busy with their project. I never saw who was in charge but assumed it was the Queen wasp. There were likely some drones wearing white hats around but it was the busy workers I saw every day.

I wondered at the location of the hive – just above the driveway and near the busy street, but I suppose it was close to the materials and food sources.  It had a pleasant view (the Lake is in the distance) and southern exposure, something that might have been a consideration to the owners. It was not downtown. I know the DIA people would love to have the hive in their area but maybe that is not necessary or even advisable. It is, after all, an idea.

The downtown core is old in infrastructure and perhaps even in ideas – not necessarily the place for young, new ideas and ever-advancing computer technology. It certainly may not be the place for construction and noises that come from many manufacturing and assembly activities. Some new ideas will be quiet ones with more mental work than physical but even those might find it more conducive in more modern environs than the downtown core.

There is no question that once the hive is underway and operating, the bees, wasps, hornets will be downtown using the services of lawyers, accountants, human resource people and City Hall resources. They may even rent meeting and conference rooms, visit restaurants to entertain clients or find a bed for visitors. But the actual hive(s) may be at the airport business centre, in the West Ferris industrial park or in a strip mall.

Just as I wondered what kind of wasp was building the nest outside my window, I wondered who would be the Hive tenants here in North Bay. No doubt we would like to see some local entrepreneurs setting up shop, but I was thinking it would be nice to attract some new people too. Where do you find the hive builders?  I knew of one place they showed up every week: The Dragon’s Den.  If you visit the Den website and look under the ‘Pitches’ section you’ll see the kind of people and ideas we need to attract. Our Economic Development people could be contacting these people before or after they visit the Dragon’s Den. In fact, maybe the Dragons could point them to our soon to be revised website and say  . . .

Without advancing them money for their ideas what do we have to offer? Besides all the attractive natural attributes of life in a small northern city, we have location, location, location.  We have physical access to air transport, road service and even train freight services. And I’m certain there is a ‘Cloud’ just over our heads for internet service. We also have experienced people to assist them in contributing to the hive building. Those wasps knew what they were doing that fall but somehow they also had the experience needed to take mud, water, cellulose and spit to build that weatherproof nest.

We have resources to offer as well. The University and College is supposedly chock full of resources and people who know how to think and turn dreams into ideas and then real-life items. We have businesses that for some kind of recognition, maybe financial or shareholding, could help with the initial work. Welding and machine shops could work on prototypes. Computing people could offer advice and guidance. Forestry and mining people could offer assistance and knowledge.  We have experienced sales and purchasing people. There might even be people in town that could help with setting up the actual hive buildings.

Watching those wasps build their nest was fascinating and educational – although I don’t know as I can apply any of their knowledge to my personal nest. Maybe some new entrepreneurs can use the analogy of the hive in their start-up. Certainly our Mayor and Council seem to be on board. We can only hope for good results from our city ‘hive’.

Oh, and those wasps over my driveway? When it turned cold and the wasps went into their winter dormancy the squirrels attacked the nest and ate them.  C`est la vie. 





Bill Walton

About the Author: Bill Walton

Retired from City of North Bay in 2000. Writer, poet, columnist
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