Discover a Unique Tool that Builds, Nurtures and Grows Innovative Communities
Mikele Brack, CEO of Upplift in Toronto recently informed us about a unique new tool called Upplift that builds, nurtures and grows innovative communities through its Urban Living Futures’ experience of developing innovation hubs and managing successful innovation challenges and piloting programs. To contact Mikele Brack for more information, call her at 1.416.453.7447
ICF Canada found Upplift’s tools interesting and wanted to share it with other communities in its network. Upplift is a unique tool that maintains innovation databases; engages the community; and launches and manages innovation challenges in one platform, creating actionable insights in a community’s ecosystem. To view one of Upplift’s case studies involving Edmonton, click here:
Upplift Case Study: Edmonton, ICF Intelligent Community (Smart21 city in 2008, 2009, 2015, 2017 and Top7 Intelligent Community in 2017).
The City of Edmonton’s innovation hub needed to collect, maintain, and organize data on the city’s innovation ecosystem; demonstrate ecosystem growth to bolster support and funding; engage the innovation community; and gather insights to inform programs.
Edmonton Unlimited connected with Mikele Brack, CEO and licensed Upplift®, launching a branded Innovation Ecosystem portal, EDGI. Data from numerous spreadsheets, CRMs, and lists was checked and verified before a list of over 2,000 innovative local companies was imported to EDGI. The automatically generated cluster map was displayed on their website. Innovation ecosystem members searched the cluster map for their companies, claimed and completed their profiles, and now return to their secure, personalized dashboards regularly to view and apply with one click for opportunities, challenges, events, and programs posted by their community host, Edmonton Unlimited.
The outcome created a central source of innovator data by consolidating numerous disparate sources of data about the innovation community into a single platform. It created easy ecosystem engagement whereby ecosystem members signed in, updated their profiles and respond to opportunities posted by their host with a single click. It also demonstrated progress to attract funding.
Catherine Warren, the CEO of Edmonton Unlimited remarked:
“For the first time, we will identify local innovations that map to global mega-trends, including the climate emergency, public health, food security and digital inclusion, to harness purpose-driven investment, build shared prosperity and broaden international markets. EDGI will bring considerable value to the community by building greater visibility for made-in-Edmonton solutions.”
For more information, see: https://edmontonunlimited.com/maps-dashboards/edgi
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ICF Canada 1310-20 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N8 www.icf-canada.com
Contact: John G. Jung at jjung@intelligentcommunity.org 1-647-801-4238 cell
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