Research and Innovation : In The News

The Globe and Mail writes on the innovative ways Canadian business schools are incorporating international experience into their academic training. Toronto's Rotman school of Management, in particular, is lauded for its series of international trips that connect MBA students with senior executives from around the world. 

The Torontoist writes on Gary Wright's final annual conversation as Toronto's chief planner. In a talk hosted by the Canadian Urban Institute, the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto and NRU Publishing, Wright shared his almost four decades worth of wisdom on the past, present and future of city-building in Toronto. 

 

 

"Wright began working in planning in 1974, during a citizen-driven epoch of neighbourhood development. In response to the transition from surface transit to underground subway development along the Bloor-Danforth corridor, Bloor West business owners set up the city's first Business Improvement Area in 1970, and throughout the decade others would follow—an energetic, community-minded time for city planning in Toronto. The 1980s, marked by recession, would be different. Wright recalls one particular development, an office tower at the northeast corner of Queen and Yonge in the mid-1980s, as being particularly momentous. 'It's just a reminder: you look out here—and what are they talking about, like 119 cranes in downtown Toronto or something like that?—and we were absolutely delighted that there would be one crane.'"
 

"The 1990s and onward, with economic growth and the amalgamation of Toronto proper with its five adjoining boroughs, brought about dramatic changes to city planning. Suddenly, city planners were forced to cooperate with a number of different mindsets—'a much bigger city with much different interests.'"

 

"'Amalgamation helped us all learn,' Wright recalls. 'There's lessons learned from everywhere, doesn't matter whether it's in Scarborough or Etobicoke or North York. Now we find the commonality of those languages, the commonality of those structural changes that we work with all the time. So, we think differently.'"

 

"Looking forward, Wright sees citizen engagement and collaboration as essential for city building—the harnessing of social cohesion for momentum."

 

"'We live in a very interesting, complex, interactive society in which all different kinds of people and influences make us think about where we're going next,' he says, citing the necessity of fostering collaboration between developers, activists, businesses, politicians, media and philanthropists in order to foster positive, and effective, growth."

 

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original source Torontoist 

 

 

"Mercer says its survey is done to help multinationals and governments determine compensation for employees in foreign posts."

 

"(The consulting firm also says that 'in no event will Mercer be liable for any decision made or action taken in reliance of the results obtained through the use of, or the information and/or data contained in or provided by, the reports.' Presumably that means that if you get shot in Luxembourg, deemed the world's safest city, you'll look for someone else to blame.)"

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original source Globe & Mail

"Hundreds of applications were received from across the country, and the finalists hail from the Toronto area, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, St. John's and Waterloo. The selection committee was made up of experts from corporations, as well as entrepreneurs and investors. The companies were judged on a number of key factors, including the product or service offering, the depth of management, market opportunity and business model."

 

"The Dec. 1 event gives each business the opportunity to showcase their innovative concepts to a CIX audience of Canadian and international venture capital firms and corporate investors. A winner from each of the two categories will be chosen through a 'virtual stock exchange,' where event attendees buy, sell and trade virtual shares."

see full list of winners here
original source Globe & Mail

 

"After 11 years of searching for a sense of unity, the event, as spearheaded by Fashion Design Council of Canada president Robin Kay in consultation with global event producer IMG, has finally found it."

 

"The theme was 'Canada Cool' and the coolest thing about Fashion Week this season was its ability to bring together diverse interests and constituents from across the country: young and old, French and English, commercially oriented and flagrantly artistic."

 

"Established industry veterans like Montreal's Marie Saint-Pierre and Toronto's David Dixon presented alongside rookies such as 23-year-old Calgary native Caitlin Powers, 27-year-old Golnaz Ashtiani (winner of the Toronto Fashion Incubator's New Labels competition this year), 23-year-old Albertan Sid Neigum and 21-year-old Adrian Wu from Burlington, Ont."
 

"'I think there's a Canadian fashion history and I'm honoured to be part of it,' Wu said backstage at his show, which featured fantastical gowns inspired by quantum physics and the French Enlightenment."

 

“Canadian fashion is hugely underrated, but there's so much talent here."

 

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original source Globe & Mail

Toronto is the 10th most innovative city in the world,  according to the annual rankings from 2thinknow, a Melbourne, Australia-based consultancy firm. As reported by the Huffington Post Canada, more than 331 cities were benchmarked by the firm and assessed in three general categories: cultural assets, human infrastructure and networked markets. Toronto is one of only four North American cities—and the only Canadian city—to crack the top 10. 

 

"Four Canadian cities made the top 100, but only Montreal, at 31st place, was listed along with Toronto as a 'nexus' city—one of 33 urban areas that are at the heart of the global economy."

 

"The other Canadian cities were listed as 'hubs,' cities that are still vibrant centres of innovation but that play a relatively smaller global role. Those cities were Vancouver at 49th, Quebec City at 79th and Calgary at 81st.... In a separate list of cities of the Americas, Toronto placed fourth after Boston, San Francisco and New York, while Montreal placed seventh."

 

"2thinknow's index is based on 162 indicators that the consultancy groups into three general categories: cultural assets (arts, sports franchises); human infrastructure (startup companies, health, education); and networked markets—the city's access to and role within the global economy."

 

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original source Huffington Post Canada

A good Toronto showing at this month's IndieCade—an international festival of independent gaming, hosted in Culver City—helps to cement Toronto's reputation as a global hub of indie game development. As reported by Torontoist, three of this year's 36 IndieCade finalists hailed from Toronto, an impressive showing at a festival (known as the industry’s version of Sundance) which receives more than 400 submissions annually.  

 

"Local game developers returned from California with plenty to be thankful about, picking up awards and continuing to bolster Toronto’s reputation as one of the strongest global cities for independent game development. With over 400 games submitted to the festival, Toronto can stand tall: three of the 36 games selected as finalists hail from here."

 

"Those finalists are Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Depths To Which I Sink, and Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure."

 

"The exposure at IndieCade is advantageous because independent games, which tend to be more experimental and smaller in scope, receive less notice from the public and the media than broader mainstream titles. At some point, this dynamic will have to change, at least in Toronto; as local games rack up accolades and awards, they’ll become that much harder to ignore."

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original source Torontoist 

Business Review Canada recently interviewed Toronto-based entrepreneur Mike McDerment. McDerment is chief executive of the successful online bookkeeping service Freshbooks. He is also the co-founder of Toronto's annual Mesh Conference, the can't-miss-event for the city's online media and tech community. An excerpt from the interview:

"BRC: How's Freshbooks?"

"MM: Things are really good. We've continued to grow—like a weed. We're trying to hire a whole bunch of people and it's always hard to find the right people. We work really hard at that. We have our heads down trying to hire about ten people. We are only forty-some-odd people. Growth is good, which speaks to the pace of change and some of the things we're up to here."

"BRC: 5th anniversary of MESH… Did you envision it getting this big?"

"MM: No, absolutely not. We just wanted to do it for all the right reasons. When I say labour of love, I'm not kidding. We all have day jobs. We meet Wednesday nights throughout the year to pull it all together and send a whole heck of a lot of emails in between. The reason we all do it is the joy from five years ago, which is still alive. The story is… a bunch of guys get together and decide we should meet up and have a beer because we're all blogging in Toronto ,and it doesn't seem like anyone is getting together to talk about the stuff. We met, and two hours later we were gonna start a conference. Now, what can happen in a situation like that is absolutely nothing. Everyone goes home, sleeps on it, and nothing comes of it. In our case, a month later we had a website up. We were selling tickets a month later. Two months after that we sold out and were putting on the conference. It was a crazy ride, but we pulled it off. It's been rewarding. It's still very fun and exciting for us, the guys I organized MESH with. We finished off the conference this as excited and giddy as we were year one. To keep that going, it's not about the money, and if we were looking at this as a money thing there is no way we would have the love. Focusing on the stuff that matters keeps it alive. We are proud of what MESH has become and the role it is playing in the Toronto community."

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original source Business Review Canada

"Making Toronto a top centre for global finance involves leadership and strategy by the commercial sector, governments and the academy. It requires something that we may wish to call ‘Reverse Reaganism,’ whereby governments accept the role that they ought to play in shaping their own economy, rather than yielding the planning function to unfettered markets."

 

"…In conclusion, Toronto business and political leaders need to lead through rigorous focus on particular niche areas where Toronto already enjoys enormous strengths. Leadership in any of the foregoing sub-segments of the finance cluster – e-commerce, Islamic banking and resource-sector finance – could well propel Toronto’s financial destiny to the global leadership position to which it ought to aspire."

 

"Finally, Toronto business and political leaders ought to consider the establishment of a City Wealth Fund, similar to well-known sovereign wealth funds. Investors are private and public: they use their equity stake to participate in management, to keep the company in Toronto, and to create a Coke-Atlanta relationship for Toronto and the fund’s investors. The fund – totalling, say, half a billion dollars over five years – would be privately operated. The terms would be negotiated among the investors. The first deal could be done in the spring of 2011. Then deal-flow would follow, and the rest would be momentum through commercial success. The focus of the fund could be one or all of the three niche financial services areas discussed above. This idea is ambitious, but not absurd. Ten years, from now every city will have such a fund, but it will have started in Toronto."

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original source Global Brief