Imagine a place where leading nonprofit organizations, socially minded entrepreneurs, consultants, freelancers, artists, and innovators can work together.
Imagine people young and old, from different walks of life, with different backgrounds, skill sets and diversity of experience having the ability to connect on a daily basis.
Imagine a beautiful 4-storey building, 32,000 square feet, with exposed brick, hardwood floors, community rooms, office amenities, event space, and an accessibility ramp, right in the heart of downtown London.
On September 24, our imagination became reality…
Play.
Create.
Innovate.
These were the words that guided our first tenant event at 201 King Street, the future home of Innovation Works. We are a community and building this community begins even before the space opens. With this in mind, we hosted "Partners in Good" to bring together our founding tenants and early adopters.
It was a night of co-creation, collaboration and making connections. We asked people to come prepared with their thoughts on what a culture of innovation means to them, what programs and activities they would like to see in the space and a prop.
A prop?
This is where the "play" aspect of the night came in. When they entered the building, the Partners in Good were given instructions that they had just returned from a Social Innovation Island to see that London had been taken over and innovation was not welcome. Using their props, they had to save the day and explain innovation - all this before dinner (Thanks for the food, Edgar and Joe's!)
Coming back to reality, everyone had a chance to meet each other, chat about the vision and co-create the culture of Innovation Works. We used art as a way to embody the culture we hope to see - everyone contributed words that represented their vision and the result was a beautiful collage of ideals.
Innovation Works is the only place in London that is intentionally designed to bring together Social Innovators. We had a great night with the Partners in Good and looking for more Partners to join us.
Are you interested in being part of Innovation Works? (We'd love to have you!) - visit www.innovationworkslondon.ca and get involved.
Want to see the space? Upcoming tours of the building are scheduled for 8:00-9:00am on November 11 and December 9. Sign up here.