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Beverley Ware South Shore Bureau Bridgewater

Jeff McKenna won't hesitate to tell you where to go - or how to get there.

The Lunenburg-based businessman helps companies and government agencies publish interactive maps to the Internet that are filled with information that they need.

Eighteen months ago, the 38-year-old Cambridge, Ont., native walked away from a high-paying job with a successful spatial information company in his home province to start up his own little company in Lunenburg called Gateway Geomatics.

"I've always wanted to come to the South Shore," he said.

His mother is from Iona, Cape Breton, and he has relatives in Dartmouth so he spent many holidays in Nova Scotia.

He fell in love with the South Shore, which is only about an hour away from the international airport - a necessity in his line of work.

Mr. McKenna opened his business in Lunenburg this past June and is still learning his way around the area. He was unsure of where a popular local coffee shop is located, but dogged in his determination not to ask for directions.

"I can find it," he said confidently over the phone.

And he does. "How can you get lost nowadays?" he asked over a cup of hot chocolate.

"We've got iPhones, maps on the Net, navigation systems. We have so many gadgets you don't need to ask for directions.

" Mr. McKenna works out of his house, from which he was recently the keynote speaker at a conference in Brazil via web conferencing.

When he decided to pack it up and move to Lunenburg, he told himself, "I can do this. I have a great idea for a product."It seems others agree. InNOVAcorp, a provincial corporation that helps new businesses get established, has named

Gateway Geomatics one of 15 finalists across Nova Scotia in its I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition, making it eligible for a first- place award worth $100,000.

Gateway Geomatics was shortlisted from a list of 133 applicants, which was whittled down to five semi-finalists from each of the five zones across the province. Mr. McKenna makes his pitch for the top prize before six judges on Jan. 15 and InNOVAcorp announces the winner for each zone on Jan. 26.

"The top 15 companies, each with their own unique and high potential offering, reflect the high level of innovation happening across Nova Scotia," InNOVAcorp president and CEO Dan MacDonald said in a recent news release.

Gateway Geomatics is up against Ocean Leader Fisheries Ltd. Of Lower Wedgeport, which uses anti-inflammatory sea cucumber extract for the pet market, and Xona Games of Yarmouth, an award-winning Xbox 360 game developer.

Mr. McKenna concedes a lot of companies post maps on the Internet - just look at Google and MapQuest - but he said his idea is different. "I'm using existing software to do it. It's free software, and I'm taking that and packaging it up and making it look pretty for clients. So far, so good."

His product is called MapServer for Windows - MS4W Suite. "It allows users to publish spatial information on the Net using a windows machine." His product gets 3,000 downloads a month.

His clients include the federal Fisheries Department and Sobeys. The grocery chain uses the system to study the demographics of an area and help decide where a new store should go.

Because the software is free, Mr. McKenna can use the money he is paid to develop his product, which is the next step for him.

Mr. McKenna has enough business to hire employees, but can't afford to do that right now. And, he said, "My product needs development, I need assistance in improving it."

He sees the InNOVAcorp prize as invaluable to new businesses because it means $50,000 in cash and another $50,000 in support and services. It allows businesses to further develop their products and get advice on marketing and promotion. There are also five second-place prices worth $40,000 each.

Mr. McKenna took his post-graduate diploma at the Nova Scotia Community College's Centre of Geographic Sciences in Lawrencetown in the Annapolis Valley. "It's the best school in the world for geographic information systems. It's harder than a masters," he said.

"If you take your diploma there, you are untouchable. I can get a job anywhere in the world in the spatial industry that I want."

And he has chosen a little town with a population of just over 2,300 people to do that.

He set out from home late one evening this week for the trip back to family in Ontario, where he will spend his holiday working on his 40-minute pitch to the judges.

As he pulled away, he wasn't the slightest bit worried that he would find his way.

© 2009 The Sunday Herald - Halifax. All rights reserved.