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This article was published 17/1/2015 (2072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Friday afternoon, Mayor Brian Bowman officially re-named a portion of Adelaide Street in the West Exchange District, Innovation Alley, further galvanizing his reputation as a champion of the start-up community.

The unveiling of the street signage was timed to coincide with a number of other initiatives connected to Winnipeg’s thriving tech community, including the release of a 52-minute documentary about the scene, also called Innovation Alley, produced by Dirty T-Shirt Productions in conjunction with MTS Stories from Home.

A few weeks before Bowman was elected mayor, Michael Legary was sworn in as chairman of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

Legary is the founder and chief strategy officer of Seccuris, now one of North America’s leading cyber-security firms. He’s also one of the founders of Start-Up Winnipeg (formerly AssentWorks).

As the self-proclaimed social-media junkie, Bowman has made it clear he is keen to foster growth in Winnipeg’s tech start-up community. One of his very first public appearances as mayor was at the Start-Up Winnipeg space in an Adelaide Street warehouse building.

In addition to the street name and movie, it was also announced on Friday the mostly young entrepreneurial community will now be eligible for special rates and services to become members of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

"Being a member of the chamber gets you in front of the VIPs and increases awareness," said Legary.

He said he joined the chamber when Seccuris was still a young company, but in hindsight he thinks it was earlier than he should have.

"It was great for credibility and networking but it took a lot to get integrated," he said.

Along with the lower rates, the chamber will offer mentorships and other programming.

At a price of less than $20 per month — about half the cost of a standard membership — the new rates are a proactive way for the chamber to embrace this energetic sector.

"You’d have to be living in a cave not to notice the entrepreneurial energy that is happening here in this city," the chamber’s longtime president, Dave Angus, said recently.

Red River College anchors the stretch of Adelaide Street from William Avenue to Bannatyne Avenue, now called Innovation Alley, where Start-up Winnipeg is located. Manitoba Technology Accelerator and Seccuris’s own offices are in the next block south of Bannatyne.

Start-up Winnipeg is in the process of finalizing the lease of an additional 20,000 square feet of space in the Richlu building located on the same block.

David Rich, the owner of Richlu, one of the city’s oldest garment companies, also owns a number of buildings in the neighbourhood.

"It is unbelievably exciting," Rich said. "I think it is brilliant. Michael Legary is a brilliant, terrific guy and I’m happy to be involved with him and the whole idea."

Chris Johnson, a co-founder of Start-Up Winnipeg and the CEO of Permission Click, one of the fastest growing of the new crop of start-ups, hopes his new company will be able to move in to the new space once it’s developed.

"We’re now six people and we were taking up almost half of the Start-Up Winnipeg space so we voted ourselves out," Johnson said.

The idea is the new space, which will be leased by Start-Up Winnipeg, will provide flexible arrangements for companies to avoid them having to commit to lengthy three-to-five year leases and expensive leasehold improvements.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca