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Innovation Week set to return to New Westminster

Spotlight on: Innovation Week 2019
Innovation Week
Innovation Week returns to New Westminster - with activities for residents of all ages. This year's event features a more robust program for kids and ties into International Women's Day.

What’s happening?

The City of New Westminster is hosting its third annual Innovation Week. It begins March 2 and ends on March 8 – International Women’s Day.

“Innovation Week is now a highlight of the year in New Westminster,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “The excitement and inspiration it creates have fueled lasting conversations in our community. New Westminster is proud to be a leader in important discussions around how to make communities innovative, vibrant places to live and do business.”

What’s innovation?

Jen Arbo, who has been retained by the city as its Innovation Week coordinator, said Innovation Week events have been built around the city’s expanded definition of innovation.

“When we say innovation, everybody immediately thinks about computers, coding and technology, and that’s not entirely it,” she said. “For us, we developed a definition that refers to new ideas, approaches and solutions, a different way to approach things, and a sort of creative and more fulsome way of thinking of things. We try and come up with solutions that will benefit everyone. When we think about innovation, it doesn’t just refer to the technology.”

Why have Innovation Week?

The City of New Westminster initially created Innovation Week as a way of creating opportunities to engage with other levels of government in order to increase funding and partnership potential. The city is now using Innovation Week to develop relationships with stakeholders that can help advance city priorities and programs such as Intelligent New West, the master transportation plan and the New Media Gallery.

“It gives us an opportunity to have government engagement and show off what we are doing here,” Arbo said.

What’s planned this year?

Innovation Week kicks off with the YEET! Child + Youth Innovation Festival on March 2 and 3 and the PechaKucha New West speakers’ series on March 2. March 4 features the New Westminster Business and Tech Meetup (a networking event), BC Tech Dev. 101 (a workshop for newly elected municipal politicians), a school district showcase of work by local students, and a technology fair.

The Innovation Forum, being held in conjunction with Public Services and Procurement Canada, is on March 6 and the Transportation Forum is on March 7.

The Advancing Women in STEAM symposium, a new addition to Innovation Week, takes place on Friday, March 8. It features speakers on numerous topics celebrating ways for advancing women in STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Is anything else happening?

Ongoing events taking place during the week include an exhibit about magnetism at the New Media Gallery and the Getting the Word Out exhibition at the New Westminster Museum. Stay tuned for details about a “secret popup dance event” being planned by the Arts Council of New Westminster and Open Space Planning Collaboration.

Who will be speaking during Innovation Week?

While there will be more than 30 speakers, including experts on various topics, advocates and government representatives, there will also be keynote speakers at two Innovation Week events.

Aoife MacNamara, the dean of the faculty of communication, art and technology at Simon Fraser University, is the keynote speaker at the Advancing Women In STEAM symposium.

Elise Roy, a human-centred designer and motivational speaker who has spoken to the United Nations and NASA, will be the keynote speaker at the transportation forum. Roy’s TedX talk, When We Design for Disability We All Benefit, has more than 1.1 million views.

What happened to the hackathon?

“Hackathons are super popular right now,” Arbo explained. “A lot of people are doing them. In that month alone, there’s about three that are happening. We were concerned that we wouldn’t get a huge turnout for the hackathon.”

Instead of the hackathon, Amazon is helping to put on more robust programming for youth by sponsoring this year’s YEET! Child and Youth Innovation Festival.

“There is some sort of hack stuff that will be happening there,” Arbo noted. “It’s not necessarily a room of people coding at their computers with an end product but it is a lot of that sort of code and hack and innovation thinking.”

How much does Innovation Week cost?

Last June, city council approved a $120,000 budget for Innovation Week, anticipating it would bring in $50,000 in sponsorships and would cost the city $70,000. A Jan. 14 report to council stated all previous sponsors renewed their commitment to participate and additional sponsors have been secured. The city has identified $57,000 in sponsorship funding, which is $7,000 more than what was forecast in the budget.

More information please:

Visit www.innovatenewwest.ca for more information.