On the heels of a very successful EconoUs event focused on city economic development (www.econous.ca) comes the annual Soul of the Next Economy Forum (www.nexteconomyforum.com).

Ambrose University, FigTree Foundation and Vibrant Communities Calgary as co-hosts and BDC as lead partner are proud to host this year’s Soul of the Next Economy Forum on September 29 & 30 –  where the non-profit sector, government, business and educational institutions converge. Fueled through innovation, collaboration and corporate social responsibility, we come together to LEARN about local & global social and development issues; CONNECT with peers, industry experts and other sectors addressing these issues; and ENGAGE in sustainable business oriented solutions to these issues.

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Event schedule & highlights for 2017:

Friday, September 29

1:30 – Executive Roundtable with 32 Calgary business & community leaders as hosts, Enbridge’s Linda Coady as moderator and Minister Joe Ceci kicking off the event (last year Mayor Nenshi kicked off the event with Imaginea’s Suzanne West as moderator) (www.nexteconomyforum.com/2017-2/executive-roundtable) 

5:00 – Keynote with Wayne Visser, author of Sustainability Frontier and 20+ other books on responsible business as the way of the future (http://www.waynevisser.com)

7:30 – Food Co-op film screening

Saturday, September 30

8:30 – Morning keynote with Daniela Papi-Thornton, Oxford scholar tackling Heropreneurship

10:00 – Break-out sessions on such topics as mental health in the work place, effective international development, cultivating an innovation ecosystem, engaging millennials, supply chain & human rights, disruptive business, social impact through blockchain. Notable presenters include Haskayne School of Business Dean Jim Dewald, Engineers Without Borders CEO Boris Martin, Rainforest Managing Partner Henry Doss and Calgary entrepreneur Craig Elias. (www.nexteconomyforum.com/2017-2/sessions)

2:45 – Lion’s Den Social Innovation Challenge – understand the problem, don’t tell us your solution (www.lionsdenalberta.org)

Contacts:

Soul of the Next Economy Forum exists to bring together different sectors to learn, connect and engage on social & development issues and how we can work together with businesses to address them. Please contact them to help further the conversation as we get closer to the Forum.

Register for Soul of the Next Economy Forum

Olds College

Alberta's premier forum for rural knowledge exchange and network development. 

RAIL Commons is a a three-day learning commons focused on rural economic and community development. It is a great opportunity for councillors, mayors, CAOs, EDOs, community development professionals, and students from across the province to engage in various rurally focused topics such as: community and economic development, sustainability planning, social policy, water, continuing care, recruitment and retention, business succession, aboriginal relations and the changing agricultural landscape.

Register for RAIL Commons 2017

The conference will provide in-depth information creating a strong foundation for understanding rural economic and community development.  With a full day and half of sessions covering topics including broadband connectivity; women in municipal politics; quality of life for rural seniors; engaging rural youth; flood management; farmland conservation and fragmentation; assessing cumulative environmental, community and health impacts of resource development and much more, the weekend promises to hold learning opportunities for everyone.  There is also time for rural community delegates to network and share with each other; from the opening network reception to the main Gala dinner.

1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern Time

This webinar will share developmental stages, challenges and key learnings of establishing a province wide initiative within a pan Canadian collective impact effort to end youth homelessness.  A Way Home – a national collaborative for youth homelessness was one of the Ontario Trillium Foundation's first collective impact grantees and they will share their experience using a collective impact approach.

Register for the Collective Impact Stream Action Area: Prosperous People webinar

Facilitator

Tracey Robertson
After spending the last 25 years in strategic philanthropy, community development, higher education and the voluntary sector, Tracey has learned that the most innovative solutions are developed when people from diverse perspectives and disciplines come together to look at an issue in a new light. Over the last 10 years, Tracey has focused her work on investing and fueling social innovation at the grassroots, community and systemic levels.

Guests

Melanie Redman
Prior to becoming the Executive Director of A Way Home, Melanie was the Director of National Initiatives at Eva’s. In that role she directed the National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness, the Eva’s Awards for Ending Youth Homelessness, and the Mobilizing Local Capacity to End Youth Homelessness Program, which works with communities across Canada to craft, implement, and sustain plans to end youth homelessness. She currently serves as the Chair of the Youth Homelessness Research Priority Area at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Her passion for addressing the root causes of complex social issues drew her to co-develop A Way Home with partners across Canada.

Dr. Stephen Gaetz
Dr. Gaetz is a leading international researcher on homelessness, and is director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at York University.  He focuses his efforts on conducting research and mobilizing this knowledge so as to have a greater impact on solutions to homelessness. Stephen has played a leading international role in knowledge dissemination in the area of homelessness through the Homeless Hub.

11:00am – 12:00pm Pacific Time

Over the past decade alone, web technology has vastly increased data availability, and community innovators have created new tools for accessing, visualizing, analyzing, and sharing relevant data to advance equity-focused policies and investments. From local tools like the Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas, which connects local leaders to timely data across eight key areas of community well-being, to national tools like Mapping Police Violence, which provides interactive maps and charts on officer-involved deaths of community members, online data tools are equipping advocates, policymakers, funders, and the public with relevant data to advance health equity and move policy across a range of issue areas.

Register for Designing Data Tools for Health Equity and Community Action

Join us, live from Portland, for a panel discussion with national leaders who are using and designing data tools to drive health equity and community action.

Featured Speakers:

• Sarah Treuhaft, Senior Director at PolicyLink (moderator)
• Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Chief Equity Officer/CEO of the Partnership for Southern Equity
• Sam Sinyangwe, Co-Founder of Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence
• Julia Sebastian, Research Associate at Race Forward
• Cat Goughnour, Founder and Principal at Radix Consulting and Right 2 Root
• Antwi Akom, CEO of Streetwyze; Co-Founder of ISEEED; Associate Professor at San Francisco State University

This convening is generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.