High Road Communications

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research in Motion and, until a couple of hours ago, its Chair, is speaking in Ottawa on Wednesday as the keynote for the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation’s (OCRI) Tech Showcase. The Waterloo-based BlackBerry maker has said it expects to restate earnings by about $250-million (U.S.) going back to 2004.

The Tech Showcase is an annual event that always does a good job of attracting local interest and media to Scotiabank Place. I don’t know what the exact media turnout expected for the Tech Showcase was before today, but I’m sure the number has shot up. And in one way that’s really too bad for OCRI. Until today there may have been fewer media attending, but at least they were looking for emerging success stories. Now the circus is coming to town and everyone will be focusing on the elephant in the room.

I’ll be at the event on Wednesday and am interested to gauge journalists’ attitude toward Balsillie. The overall media response to RIM’s announcement today has been milder than I first expected, but it appears RIM has gone to great lengths to maintain its integrity and get its message out to the analysts and media. It’s really too bad RIM will be the dominant story on Wednesday. I’m sure they would be happy to have the spotlight shine elsewhere.