Posts Tagged ‘Community Futures’

OCAD’s Yogya Team Competing in Hult $1M Prize

Thursday, April 9th, 2015

The Yogya team of students of the Strategic Foresight & Innovation (SFI) program at OCAD University is still competing to reach the finals of the $1Million Hult Prize. They are determined to help bring Early Childhood Education to 10 Million children in urban slums. Yogya means worthy as in “every child is worthy”. The team has engaged in the Hult on-line challenge and have put their project up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo. They need this seed money to prototype their solution and field test it. Now it’s a race against time. If they reach their goals in number of funders and in amount funded, they will get into the finals of the Hult Prize competition. Indeed, it is a project worthy of support. Please contribute what you can!

TRIEC Connector Program – Pilot

Monday, January 26th, 2015

TRIEC, the Toronto Regional Immigrants Employment Council, is launching an interesting new program called Connector. The program creates networking opportunities for skilled internationally trained professionals, and their established GTA counterparts. The idea behind the program is simple enough: business needs talent; talent needs opportunities. Connect offers to provide such opportunities through the network effect. We are thrilled to join the Advisory Board of this interesting project.  Its first meeting will be held on Thursday January 29, 9-11 AM at the offices of TRIEC in Toronto.

Connecting Citizens to Future Governance

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

The Design with Dialogue group in collaboration with Strategic Innovation Lab of OCAD University is dedicating its January session to discuss the convergence of governance and digital technologies. The session’s agenda is to use dialogic techniques to discuss the co-evolution of connected citizens in Canadian governance. DwD events usually attract 20-30 participants of diverse backgrounds. Discussions are usually rich and nuanced and participants leave often with surprising new insights.

The event takes place on Wednesday January 14th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM in the Lambert Lounge (Room 187) at OCAD’s flagship building, the Sharp Design Center (100 McCaul st., Toronto).

Conference Board Workshop: Foresight & the Learning Organization

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

The 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, 2013

The 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, 2013

Think 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, 2013

The 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.

Can We Catch Up With Angola?

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

This was the title of a talk by Madelaine Droha, Canada correspondent for The Economist in January 2013 at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. A provocative title for sure given that she was addressing a Canadian audience. Curiously enough this event on a mostly economic topic was co-sponsored by the LRC (Literary Review of Canada) and CIC (Canadian International Council).

Behind the provocative title the topic was about lessons Canada should learn from other global resource economies, in particular using sovereign wealth funds to create a development fund for the future.

Around the world wealthy countries like Norway as well as developing countries like Timor and indeed Angola have been putting at least part of revenues from non-renewable natural resources such as oil, gas, timber and mining products into a sovereign fund, whose investments yields would be used for preparing for a future without such resources.

Canadian governments have largely balked at saving such revenues and are “Spending like There’s No Tomorrow”, which is the title of the essay Ms. Drohan wrote for the Literary Review of Canada in January/February 2013 issue. The essay is based on her recently published CIC report “9 Habits of Successful Resource Economies”.  The report is available in print form and also electronically from CIC’s web site. It provides an interesting new perspective on Canada’s economy and the future.

Recipes for Systemic Change

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

On Wednesday November 14th I have the pleasure of hosting Bryan Boyer from the Helsinki Design Lab and co-author of the book “Recipes for Systemic Change” in an Explorations event at the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab). The event is organized in collaboration with Social Innovation Generation.

In this event we will explore with Bryan questions like: How might we undertake to “redesign” systems, institutions, markets, and even the social contract, in the face of constraining legacies, limited finances and other extreme challenges in the public sector? When good ideas abound, but don’t always come to fruition, what approach might bring success?

Participating in the event is free but registration is required here. Don’t delay, only a few seats remaining!

Toronto: A Hub for Foresight & Futures?

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Toronto is buzzing this week with foresight events and activities. WorldFuture 2012: The annual conference of the World Future Society, is taking place at the Toronto Sheraton Centre, July 27-29, 2012. In conjunction with it the Futures:BetaLaunch 2012 also known as F:BL  2012 awards will be celebrated. This free event features 11 award winning future-focused start-ups is scheduled for Saturday July 28 evening. For details click here.

APF, the Association of Professional Futurists is celebrating 10 years of existence with a full-day of professional development hosted by the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) team July 27 at OCAD University’s landmark Sharp Centre, with a reception in the evening. To top it all the Strategic Foresight & Innovation masters program at OCADU is celebrating being selected for on of the F:BL 2012 awards.

Much to celebrate in a Toronto rapidly becoming a hub for foresight and futurists activities.