Help Improve Your Community

Here's your chance to build up your community with the help of our kick-off event, giving Calgarians the chance to access funds to make your community dreams come true.

By: Gary Davies

If you have an idea on how to improve your community but you aren’t sure where to start or how to find initial funding, then you should attend our Community Day event on Friday, May 25th that serves as the kick-off to our third annual Best of Calgary Ideas Week.

The event takes places from 12pm-5pm at the St. Louis Hotel (430 – 8th Avenue S.E.), thanks to our venue sponsor Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC). This is a free event to anyone who has a passion for improving their community and who has the time and willingness to see change happen.

Throughout the afternoon, there will be representatives from two of our key sponsors – First Calgary Financial and Calgary Foundation – who will inform you on how they can access community grants ranging from $100 to $10,000. We will be surveying attendees in advance, to assess the areas of importance to them and the granting workshops will be divided by topics of interest. Prior to these workshops, we’re bringing in a small group of speakers to get the conversation and thoughts flowing.

Our keynote speaker, presented by CMLC, is Chris Fair, CEO of Resonance Consulting from Vancouver. A born and raised Calgarian, Chris now heads a consulting firm that produces an annual Best Cities in the World survey. Chris speaks around the world, and he will share with us the basis of the survey and where our very own Calgary places in the world rankings.

Following Chris, the two principals behind Stone Olafson – Tim Olafson and Matt Stone – our research sponsor, will provide an assessment of Calgary in 2018 – politically, economically and socially. This will give you a snapshot of where our city is today, and where we’re heading in the future.

And finally, as a lead-in to our workshops, Ineke Spapé, Associate Professor at the International University of Applied Studies in The Netherlands, will provide concrete examples of improvements we can make to our communities through work she’s done with her class in Calgary over the last five years.

Throughout the day, refreshments will be provided by our food and beverage sponsor Community Natural Foods, and at the afternoon’s conclusion, everyone is invited to head over to East Village Junction to enjoy some Village beer and live music provided by Calgary Folk Music Festival.

This should be a great afternoon of community building and serve as a fun kick off to Best of Calgary Ideas Week. If you are interested in attending, please register here: Community Day. We hope to see you there. 

Gary Davies is a co-founder of Best of Calgary