The Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group will be holding its January meeting on Tuesday January 13th, 4:30-6:00 PM at OCAD University’s Strategic Innovation Lab. On the Agenda for this month are news and updates about members activities and achievements as well as a discussion on how to measure the progress of the Group towards achieving its mission: The acceleration of the transition of small and medium enterprises (SME) to sustainability.
Archive for the ‘News’ Category
SSBMG January 2015 Meeting
Monday, January 12th, 2015SSBMG December 2014 Meeting
Sunday, December 7th, 2014The December meeting of the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group (SSBMG) will be held on Tuesday December 9th, 4:30-6:00 PM at OCAD University’s sLab (205 Richmond Street West, 4th Floor, Room 7410) in Toronto. The final meeting of this year will have two presenters. First Fiona Stappmanns, a doctoral candidate at the Innsbruck Universität in Austria will be presenting her work from her Masters thesis and her plans for her dissertation. Her talk is titled “Business Model Innovation – Sustainability as a Key to Competitive Advantage”. The second presenter will Anshula Chowdhury, CEO of Social Asset Measurement, who will be updating us on the insights from the annual conference of cthe Social Impact Analysts Association, held for the first time outside Europe in Toronto this fall. As usual we expect a lively and inspiring discussion.
xClinic Stakeholder Meeting
Tuesday, November 18th, 2014On Wednesday November 19th we are convening a meeting of all stakeholders in xClinic+, an evolution of the original xClinic concept integrating more clearly the cultural change agenda of the project. Since the original charette (collaborative design) of 2010 the ideas underlying the project have evolved and the spectrum of interested persons has broadened. In addition a team of graduate students of the Strategic Foresight & Innovation program at OCAD University has explored various models for sustainable operations of xClinic. They will be presenting their findings at the meeting, which is being hosted by the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab). If you are interested in joining the project you are welcome to attend the meeting. Attendance is free but seating is limited so you have to register on Evenbrite.
Como Innovation Summit 2014 – Authors Retreat
Saturday, September 13th, 2014The Como Innovation Summit started in 2012 with the objectives of creating an “invisible college” or network of leading professionals in the field of innovation. The focus initially was on innovation education, although the scope is expanding rapidly. In the first two summits held near Como lake in Italy, a number of interesting observations were made about the emergence of multidisciplinary higher education in a multiplicity of forms. The idea was born to collect those observations in a book in order to alert the higher education community to this development, provide guidance on how to start your own multidisciplinary programs, and offer a collection of already successful programs from around the world as examples. The book idea was pitched to the publisher Springer, who agreed to publish the book in its innovation series. In order to complete the contents of this collectively authored book it was decided to dedicate the Como 2014 summit as a retreat of the book’s authors to finish their respective chapters. The book is intended to be available for Como Summit 2015. Our own Dr. Nabil Harfoush is participating in this project with responsibility together with Dr. Paola Bertola from Politecnico di Milano for a principle chapter plus a collection of invited short chapters describing select multidisciplinary programs from all over the world.
Studio Summit at Copenhagen Business School
Sunday, August 31st, 2014As part of the 7th Art of Management and Organization Conference 2014 of the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Stefan Meisiek of CBS and Moura Quayle of University of British Columbia organized a summit dedicated to the studio teaching/learning method.
Stefan had started the Studio at CBS three years ago, and it has grown to become a space for education and industry interaction over time. The summit is meant to connect likeminded individuals, exchange experiences, and lift studio work to the next level, beyond the formulaic.
The first day was dedicated to exploring the various studio practices of the participants and understanding the current state of studio education and the use of the studio method in general. The format was that of a World Café with a synthesis in Plenum. It was encouraging to discover how may business schools were experimenting seriously with variations of the studio method.
On the second day we explored in 5 breakout groups how to push the envelope of the studio method, particularly into domains other than architecture, art or design. Some interesting frameworks emerged, which will be presented in a blog soon, so stay tuned.
On the last day the agenda is to synthesize the gained insights and findings and chart the next steps for this new community. It goes without saying that intense networking and peer learning is happening constantly even late night after a long day. It is what makes these small focused gatherings (25-30 people) such refreshing and learning intensive events.
Conference Board Workshop: Foresight & the Learning Organization
Thursday, June 5th, 2014The Conference Board of Canada is organizing June 11-13 the Joint Councils of Human Resource Executives in Quebec City. The title of the event is: Predictions and Plans for the Changing World of Work. We have been invited to provide a mini-workshop on the role of foresight in the learning organization. Using four scenarios for Ontario in the year 2032 participants will engage in a facilitated exploration of the implications of each scenario for their organization and the sector. The consideration of multiple scenarios supports expansive thinking and planning for possibilities not usually considered in traditional strategic planning.
Strategic Foresight for North-East Paris
Monday, November 25th, 2013The town of Aulnay-sous-Bois in the north-eastern suburb of Paris, France, has signed a 3-year partnership agreement with l’École des Ponts ParisTech one of the most prestigious and selective French “Grandes Écoles”. The partnership, which extends until 2016, aims at defining the “territorial development” of the town and helping the town articulate its Master Plan 2030.
The first phase of the project includes a survey of the Aulnay territory, its interactions with adjacent communities, and identifying the sectors or topics that should be given special attention in the planning activities. It also includes a review of other jurisdictions that faced similar challenges as Aulnay and have responded with innovative solutions.
As part of the project activities, the Department of Town, Environment & Transportation of the School is teaming up with the Paris- Est D-School to organize a series of workshops for elected town officials, town staff and graduate students to jointly work on some of the topics. We have been invited by the Paris-Est D-School to organize a 2-day workshop with their audience this December to introduce our own approach to strategic foresight and planning, which is somewhat different from the rich and well established practice of foresight in France.
Looking forward to brush up on our French, interact with our French colleagues and learn from practicing in a different environment.
Fifth Take Over Toronto Dinner
Friday, November 1st, 2013Think you should be running Toronto? So do the organizers of the fifth Take Over Toronto Dinner. Come out for dinner on November 13th and meet a group of creative co-conspirators, who really ought to know each other better.
This is the fifth Takeover event in a series, each of which is hosted by a participating organization. This one is hosted by Idee Inc. who are hosting us for the second time! There are always good conversations, interesting discussions and brief show & tell around hardware/software projects the host is working on.
Participants are to bring something with them to share: it could be a story, a favorite book they’d like to pass on, something they found of relevance or value for others. Be prepared to share or to sing for your supper! 🙂
Registration is here.
Taking Over Toronto
Saturday, February 2nd, 2013The Toronto Overlappers community has been seeing a resurgence of activity recently thanks to the initiative of Michael Dila founder of Foundery and the support of Overlappers like Leila Boujnane, CEO of Idee Inc., and Mathew Milan, CEO of Normative Design who hosted monthly dinners for the group in November and December 2012. On February 6th the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) at OCAD University will be hosting the next dinner gathering of the community.
In true Overlap fashion, no strict agenda was set for these gatherings. Beyond strengthening the bonds and introducing new friends into the community, the conversation that is starting to emerge is exploring the real potential for Toronto to become the global hub for an innovation for change movement and how the Overlap community could play a leading role in it. Stay tuned for what is certainly a very exciting and promising emergent thread.