My very good friend Cathy Brothers, CEO of Capacity Canada, connected me with an opportunity to participate in a speed-dating meetup today. The dates were with a great bunch of social change agents from the MaRS Studio Y Cohort 2. These bright young(er) minds visited from Toronto, touring Communitech and finding out what all the hubbub is about in Waterloo Region. By the time we wrapped up mid-afternoon, I heard more than one participant say they would consider moving to WR. When that comes up, I smile and think we’re doing the right things and we’re effectively communicating what we’re about as a community.
Studio Y is a government-funded 8-month fellowship that provides support for leadership learning. Now when Cathy Brothers calls, my only question is “How can I help?” After I read the participant bios, I was doubly-glad to contribute. We had some short talks from a few local groups followed by 5-minute rounds of participants moving between stations, including my coffee-fueled, speed-talkin’ makebright table.
The TL;DR on this one: the future looks very bright.
Before I turn you loose on the marginally unreasonable number of photos, let me specifically call out Leanne O’Donnell of Social Venture Partners Waterloo Region who organized a good deal of this afternoon and was my primary contact. If all event logistics included the clear, complete, and timely communication plus the on-site delivery of promised setup that Leanne provided, well then a happier world it would be. Merci beaucoup!
On to the pics…
The Tannery Event Centre.
I seem to be spending a lot of time here lately. A little more conspicuous today with a big flatscreen and…
fixed position.
Snaaa…
aaacks.
Always familiar faces: Debbie Currie of CEI and Andrew Wilding of Capacity Canada.
All presenters were in early at 11:30 to set up.
Table 5 for me. Assigned seating so we all mixed and mingled.
Jennifer King of SVPWR and… I’m gonna kill this spelling, please correct me, Amal the awesome A/V tech.
I just poked around other presenters’ booths…
until…
our…
visitors…
arrived from their tour of Communitech.
A cool thing about these kinds of meetups is that invariably I learn something new about my own community. When you look, you see.
Meta!
Another photog. Then I was outnumbered.
Not only is Cathy Brothers a pillar of the community, she is also a good sport with a well-developed sense of humour. Years ago when I was helping promote the BOX Art Show, she helped me with a tongue-in-cheek campaign to raise visibility on that great effort by modeling cardboard earrings for a blog post here.
Dave Beaton of ChangeIt.
Jen King of SVPWR and Ben Jackson of SVP Teens.
Joe Mancini of The Working Centre. This is a guy I definitely want to talk with more. Check out this piece by Frances Barrick in The Record about Joe and Stephanie and The Working Centre.
Hey! There’s Leanne, The Great Organizer, on the mic.
Zainab Ramahi.
Joe Mancini. I introduced myself after the event and am keen to hear more about the digital media hub project Joe mentioned.
Well, getting to the bottom of these photos, I realize I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures of our visitors. The fast-paced 5-minute intervals meant that I was all talk and handshakes and not as much photography as usual. I think that was a good tradeoff today.
Knock ‘em out, Studio Y Fellows. And come back any time.
DW