Our Story
Serving British Columbia
Conveniently located in beautiful Nanaimo, British Columbia, Mindspan delivers technology solutions designed to empower west-coast businesses with tools to reach their clients and prospects with effective messaging and creative content.
History
Founded in 1998, Mindspan has undergone significant changes over the years — morphing from a public sector consultancy on matters pertaining to enterprise IT, to serving private sector concerns predominately in the software development and marketing arenas.
At its inception, Mindspan's founder, Ray Richards, rallied a pool of independent consultants and single-discipline firms to respond to requests for proposals from federal governmental departments — garnering contracts with the National Research Council, Statistics Canada, and DND's Vice Chief of Defence Staff.
In subsequent years, Mindspan shifted its attention to the private sector, working with firms such as California's Reunion.com, delivering and tracking over 13 million user-specific impressions every week — accounting for over 80% of the company's revenues.
Now situated on the harbour in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island — 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver and under an hour to Seattle — Mindspan is poised to capitalize on opportunities presented within this bustling region.
Leadership
Ray Richards
Mindspan founder and consultant Ray Richards has worked in the technology field for over 25 years, leading an extraordinary variety of projects — from enterprise scale planning and implementation, to coordinating small business marketing efforts. Primarily contracted in product management and marketing roles of late, Ray brings a wealth of experience and a variety of skills whose breadth proves a great asset to the organizations with whom he works.
Additionally a tech columnist for over 15 years, Ray has written for a wide variety of national, international, and regional publications including Government Computer Magazine, The Computer Paper, PhotoLife Magazine, Monitor Magazine, TechKnow Mag, and many others. As a result of his journalistic endeavours in print, Ray was also invited to host a two-hour weekly broadcast on Ottawa's top talk radio station, CFRA.
As an avid photographer and developer, Ray launched DarkroomPro Magazine for the iPad platform. Formerly distributed in 155 countries, this publication consistently received excellent reviews and celebrated 10 consecutive weeks on the 'What's Hot' list on Apple's iTunes.
While maintaining relationships with many consultants whose expertise Mindspan may bring to bear on any endeavour, Ray is both the lead and primary resource on many of the projects the company now undertakes.
Client Voices
What Clients Say
"The great thing about working with Ray is that his technical, IT, web and market knowledge is so vast and in-depth that he is a great source of information for many facets of a business."
"Why write a lengthy testimonial when I can simply quote what the CEO & Founder of OneBigPlanet would always say… 'Ask Ray — he'll know'"
"He brings humour to his work without undermining the subject matter. Always delivers on time and to the spec discussed. A real pleasure to work with."
Mindspan Clients
