The Innovation Lab

The Innovation Lab

Our mission is to support The City and its employees to innovate - collaboratively tackling big challenges, designing better services, and building capacity and culture - to create a more resilient city, together.

We help staff at The City solve complex challenges that impact Calgarians through innovation and collaboration. Our strategy guides our work and we are focused on achieving four goals that support The City in embedding innovation across the organization:

  • Drive impact

  • Build capacity

  • Shape culture

  • Advance collaboration

We are a team of innovation experts who partner with City staff to improve services every day. We do this through three distinct services:

  • Project consulting

    Solve problems

    Leading Project teams through complex challenges using innovation tools and methodologies to identify the root of the problem. The Lab finds the right path forward and designs actionable solutions.

  • Professional learning

    Build capacity

    Helping City staff expand their toolkit with new ways of approaching challenges. Professional learning opportunities strengthen skills in collaboration, design, and innovation.

  • Innovation network

    Shape culture

    Facilitating connections across the organization to break down barriers. The Lab accelerates innovation by designing opportunities to connect people and projects.

Case studies

Beltline, Inglewood, and Ramsay Social & Recreational Needs

In support of Community Services as part of a larger program, the Innovation Lab led a cross-corporate team to deeply understand the social and recreational needs of Beltline, Inglewood and Ramsay residents. The gathered empathetic insights from five streams of synthesized data enabled the project to move beyond the binary “pools or no pools” discussion that generated viable options to provide value for Calgarians now and into the future.  This work received a national award  for its innovative approach.

National recognition for this work:

2021 IAP2 Core Values Honorable Mention for Project Category Creativity, Contribution and Innovation in the Field

Submission
Website

Community Involvement

Cross-Corporate Collaboration

Solving a Complex Problem

Mayor’s Innovation Challenge

Led by the Mayor’s Office, the Innovation Lab accelerated discussions with key stakeholders in the Calgary innovation ecosystem to explore an innovation challenge to support Calgary’s economic transition and recovery.

The challenge “How might we advance innovative energy solutions on the path to net zero emissions in order to achieve economic, social and environmental resilience?” was developed in 1 month from initial engagement.

Winners in three streams (Commercial Ready, Pre-Commercial, and City Policy & Planning) were announced in Fall 2021, with on-going work with relevant City areas.

 

Project Acceleration

Economic Opportunities

 

Community Involvement

 

Related links

Other ways to connect with The City

undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null,undefined/null