Thriving on convergence and disruption! – Innovation Island

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

Kudos to @Wendy Dupley and her host teams @City of Maple Ridge for an awesome 2021 ICF Smart21 Conference and @Robert Bell for such excellent moderation with the “Building an Innovation Ecosystem” session. It was an honour to present alongside Jiunn Shiow Lin from Taiwan and @Toomas Türk from Estonia.

I’m not sure if the event organizers paired these presentations on purpose but the land areas of these three places [with me speaking from Vancouver Island] are very close in size, ~ 31,000-45,000 sq.km. Albeit Taiwan has a population of over 23 million, Estonia is a little over 1.3 million and Vancouver Island is a little over 800 thousand! While our cultures and “ecosystems” are vastly different, our wonderful temperate rainforest on the West Coast of Canada is the ancestral home to 50 First Nations and almost 200 communities and settlement areas. We have a vibrant tech & innovation economy and the sector has 1,000+ companies who employ over 20,000 people ~ producing over $5B in annual revenues.

The Smart21 Conference, and ICF’s Intelligent Community Method speaks to many projects and organizations that are doing amazing things in our corner of the world!

I can’t cover everything related to this talk but here’s to @Vancouver Island Economic Alliance (VIEA) and their excellent State of the Island Economic Reports. @South Island Prosperity Partnership and the impressive Prosperity Index. @VIATEC, our hipster cousins down Island, @City of Campbell River and the CRadvantage municipal broadband initiative. @Comox Valley Economic Development Society (CVEDS) and their Innovate 2030 planning. And last but not least @Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICET) for their many Infrastructure & Innovation projects, including support for Innovation Island’s DER3 (Digital Economy Restart, Recover, Reimagine) program!

I’m happy to share my Building an Innovation Ecosystem presentation so please connect and learn more about what’s happening on Vancouver Island! Thanks also @Louis Zacharilla from ICF, @Jennifer Hufnagel from @Innovation Island, @Innovate BC and @Government of British Columbia for all their support!