Stantec
Idea Hackathon
How can we use technology to ensure Toronto is a thriving, livable, and resilient city for all?
On June 25th and 26th, the Globe Content Studio partnered with Stantec and Hackworks for their first Stantec Idea Hackathon. The Globe and Mail Centre hosted a two-day forum where industry professionals, academia, and citizens shared and brainstormed ideas to answer the question, "how can we use technology to ensure Toronto is a thriving, livable, and resilient city for all."
Here is a collection of the ideas and thought starters captured during the Stantec Idea Hackathon around building Smart cities, smart ideas, using technology thoughtfully, and how collaboration will get us there.
Nancy MacDonald
Vice-president of urban places at Stantec
“ Smart cities are never about just one component. They’re so interconnected that we find our clients and most cities are looking for not just a tiny solution. Because one [smart city] has an impact on another one and another one. You really have to take that holistic approach.
Kevin Magee
National director of emerging technology at Microsoft
“ Don't start with a cool technology. Find an issue. What's a problem that you want to solve first. Then look at what technologies can solve those problems. And that really comes down to looking at digital transformation as a process.
A deeper look into the Stantec Idea Hackathon participants, the ideation process and the winning team.
The Stantec Idea Hackathon e-Book:
10 Diverse Teams. 10 Compelling Ideas.
Melissa Morgan
Senior UX/UI developer and designer and Idea Hackathon participant
“ Come to the table with some ideas and … be prepared to learn about new problems. The speakers were incredible at this year's event and there were problems that I was aware of and then there were problems that they presented that I didn't even know we had. By acquiring that kind of knowledge, you'll think of even more ideas.
Josipa Petrunic
Chief executive officer of CUTRIC
“ Cities are going to have to set a vision and they're going to have to take a lead. And from cities taking a lead that filters up to the province, to a federal action plan with a vision that recognizes not all cities in the country are going to move people in quite the same ways.
Jesse Coleman
Big data innovation team lead for the City of Toronto
“ Why do we need to install this piece of technology? What is it going to do for us? You need to be doing this stuff for a purpose.
Abhinav Tiwari
Director – Head of Advanced Planning at Alectra Utilities
“ If you have to create a connected economy of the future, how can you create a data and analytics platform which could be leveraged to collaborate across industries and help connect those to achieve tangible outcomes and success?
Please note that the speaker and panelist quotes have been edited and condensed yet faithfully represent the speakers’ ideas.
CREDITS: Photography by KATIE DOCKERAY; Creative direction by MONICA BIALOBRZESKI; design and development by JEANINE BRITO
This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's Globe Content Studio.
The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.