Round Two – The Elevator Project Guelph's Community-Building Launchpad Wed, 20 May 2015 13:01:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.2 The Big Show: It’s Time to Celebrate Community Change-making! /the-big-show-its-time-to-celebrate-community-change-making/ Wed, 20 May 2015 13:01:14 +0000 /?p=786 Yes, folks, it’s time. Our wonderful ideamakers have put so much work into creating proposals that will make Guelph great, and now we showcase their amazing projects revealing which have already attracted investment. It’s also your opportunity, as a community-benefit-project enthusiast, to invest in the awesome!

Just by showing up to celebrate community change-making with us at 6:30 p. m., Thursday, May 28th at the River Run Centre for the Big Show, you are an investor! That’s because all of the proceeds from your $10 ticket, available through the River Run Centre box office (519-763-3000), will go towards supporting Elevator project ideas.

Bring out your business cards to network with like-minded community-building peers, and be ready for lots of other fun surprises that the evening will have in store. Take this opportunity to help us and our ideamakers make Guelph a better place to live, work and play.

]]> The Ideas Are In! /the-ideas-are-in/ Fri, 06 Mar 2015 20:43:48 +0000 /?p=733 It’s alive! Welcome to our brand new website! Please explore and get involved. We’d especially like to show off the Idea Bank, now fully stocked with this year’s awesome project proposals. Notice that you can now sort the submissions based on “Areas of Interest” to find the idea you’d most like to support quicker and easier. Why is this important? Well, because we’ll be counting on you to vote for the ideas you think are best as a part of the selection process. Your voice matters.

The community vote will be held officially from March 9-15. Please add your voice by voting for the ideas you think will make Guelph a better place to live, work, and play. Meanwhile, our Community Panel will be hard at work marking each application using the “Great” standard that we have developed as our scoring rubric. The results for both the scoring and the voting will be revealed in early April as we gear up for the Big Show, where we will highlight some of the superstars.

So browse the Idea Bank and vote for your favs. You’ll be doing your part in helping to make Guelph even more awesome!

]]> Now recruiting: Community Panel Members /now-recruiting-community-panel-members/ Mon, 26 Jan 2015 17:00:58 +0000 /?p=443 Are you passionate about Guelph? Are you “in the know” on community issues and values?  Are you looking for ways to make Guelph a better place to live work and play? Then we want you as a Community Panel member!

We are looking for nine Community Panel members to help assess the Elevator Project project applications. In this important role, you will use you community knowledge and expertise to score project applications using our “Great Standard” Rubric.

Nominate yourself or someone you know to the Elevator Project’s  Community Panel by sending an email to Gabrielle.

We need to know:

–    Your name and contact info (or that of your nominee)

–    The community knowledge and/or experience you (or your nominee) brings to the table.

–    Why you (or your nominee) want to be involved.

As a  Community Panel member, you will read and mark each project application through the month of March, and attend one in-person meeting near the end of March. Help us bring Guelph’s Greatest ideas alive!

Nominations will be accepted until January 30th, 2015 at 5:00pm.

]]> Bringing Great Ideas to Life /bringing-great-ideas-to-life/ Fri, 23 Jan 2015 16:08:28 +0000 /?p=447 Every one of us an investor. Striving towards our goals is sweat equity in our future, and every goal we achieve broadens the impact we can potentially create for ourselves and in our community. Investing in worthwhile ventures has long been a key for creating community impact.

Whether you’re buying lemonade from that plucky second-grader at the end of the block, giving your neighbour’s teenage daughter some volunteer hours at your firm, or employing that start-up social enterprise you read about in collaborate magazine, you’re investing in the most worthwhile venture of the new economy: talent. Or more properly, people with talent. This is because, like us,  you’ve come to understand the value of expertise, which develops when talent is given the resources, time and opportunity they need to succeed. At the Elevator Project, we know that a community of talented and enterprising ideamakers is the surest possible bet for a prosperous future. That’s why we’re invested in bringing their great ideas alive – creating a culture of community building –  and we want you to help make that happen.

It’s time for us to solve social problems differently – to innovate from the grassroots, up. And we’re already seeing how the seeds planted during last year’s round one of the Elevator Project have borne fruit:

Ed Video – Microtiles

After moving their headquarters out of the downtown care, Ed Video needed a way to maintain their exposure and presence in the heart of the city. Enter Microtiles. Finally a technology that could be used to showcase video anywhere at any time of day. Ed Video was able to use funding received through the Elevator Project as leverage to gain further Ontario Trillium Foundation funding to get their project rolling. You can see the technology in action at the MacDonald-Stewart Art Centre and at their new location at Studio 404 on York road.

Help plant the seeds for the next round of community growth. There are so many ways to contribute and every bit makes a difference. Together, as a community, we have the potential to make Guelph a better place to live, work and play. Help bring great ideas alive.

Everyone has something to give in making a strong community. Contribute your ideas, time, elbow grease, and investment in making Guelph a better place to live, work and play. The Elevator Project – Guelph is on the rise! Stay connected with us through Twitter and Facebook

]]> Identify as an Idea Maker! /identify-as-an-idea-maker-2/ Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:49:09 +0000 /?p=438 In Round Two of the Elevator Project we want to get to know you better. We received such rich feedback from last year’s community of imagineers, and we want to use that knowledge to improve how we all work together to bring your ideas to life.

So identify as an Idea Maker!

We want to know who you are so we can communicate with you better. Meanwhile, closer contact with all of our Idea Makers will allow us to better track the impact of both your projects and our support so that we can keep improving the EP process year after year. But don’t worry, identifying as an ideamaker is easier than opening a Facebook account – just answer these four questions:

1. Can we have your contact Info?

Give us your name, e-mail and phone number, and sign up to receive email updates. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to this blog. Help us keep you in the Idea Maker loop!

2. Do you have a project idea that will make Guelph an even better place to live, work and/or play?

-Yes I do!

-Not yet but I’m sure something will come to me

3. If you answered “Yes I do!” to question 2, how would you describe your idea?

-Ready to rock!

-Nearly ready to rock, just a few kinks to work out

-About half way there. Some pieces are in place but I still have things to figure out

-I’ve got started but I have a long way to go

-It’s just an idea right now

4. How can The Elevator Project help you? What sort of help do you need to plan/execute/strengthen your idea? (Check all that apply)

-Marketing

-Project management

-Business planning

-Finding funding

-Evaluation

-Mentorship

-Start at the beginning

-Feedback on my idea

-Help me meet collaborators

See? 4 easy steps to getting connected with the EP community of imagineers! We look forward to working with all of you in making Guelph a better place to live, work, and play.

Everyone has something to give in making a strong community. Contribute your ideas, time, elbow grease, and investment in making Guelph a better place to live, work and play. The Elevator Project – Guelph is on the rise! Stay connected with us through Twitter and Facebook

]]> We’ve Got Your Back! /weve-got-your-back/ Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:32:01 +0000 /?p=426 Change-making is hard work. You have an idea, you’ve heard about The Elevator Project but you aren’t sure if your idea “fits”. That’s okay! Thanks to our crew of amazing volunteers, there is now more help than ever to get your project off the ground.

Introducing Drop-Ins, our new program to get you all the Elevator Project info you have been craving. Each week our dedicated team of volunteers will host Drop-In sessions at 10 Carden. They are available to answer your Elevator Project related questions and/or listen to your idea. They can direct you to the information you are looking for and advise if your idea will qualify for this round of The Elevator Project.

We’ll publish our Drop-In schedule each week on Mondays so you can plan which time suits you best. You can also pre-book an appointment with a volunteer by emailing Gabrielle at [email protected].

Drop-Ins for this week:

Tuesday January 13 from 5:00pm-7:00pm (stick around for Elevator Academy Session #1 from 6:30-8:30pm)

Thursday January 15 from 9:00am-1:00pm

Friday January 16 from 9:00am-11:00am

What are you waiting for? Come meet our amazing volunteers – Duncan, Esmira, Robin, Shawn and Gerrit!

]]> Getting to Great /getting-to-great/ Tue, 13 Jan 2015 14:25:03 +0000 /?p=423 That magic formula for being investor-worthy. If you’ve ever tried transform an idea into action, you know what I’m talking about. Whether applying for a grant, mobilizing your community, or starting your own business, the success equation can seem a jumble of sortilege and sorcery. However, we are all too familiar with the stories of those fabled start-up wizards whose touch seems to turn their imagination into pure gold. So what’s their secret? We’ve tapped the expertise of some of Guelph’s innovation gurus and distilled their alchemy down to a set of criteria that’s both effective and easy to use. We call it the “Great” standard.

Quite simply, the “Great” standard is a living rubric, or measuring tool for self-assessing your ideas. It was developed in partnership with Guelph’s “Great” experts including Innovation Guelph, CBaSE at the University of Guelph and Futurpreneur. Your score evolves with you over time as you gain the skills to meet higher and higher standards. The “Great” Standard also acts as the criteria through which project applications are judged and scored. Now don’t fret if you don’t think you’ll be able to out of a rabbit out of a hat right off the bat. The Elevator Academy series is designed will give you the skills to continually improve your score and generate a “Great” investor-worthy Elevator Project application. So what makes great?

Rubric for the Elevator Academy: Getting to “Great” Projects

Each section has a total possible mark of 5. A mark of 5 means the project has achieved the “Great” Standard in that section or in other words, is investor worthy. The Great Standard (5) is explicitly defined for each answer, as is what a “0” looks like. The rubric can be used by Idea Makers to assess their project readiness and will be used by the Community Panel to assess the merit of each project individually. Based on how they score, projects will be sorted into three categories (Planning, Development, Deployment). These categories will be published on our website along with each project description and used by investors as pieces of information when they are determining which projects to invest in. Idea Makers will privately receive details of their score that they can use to further their project development.

Here is the rubric:

1. Project Model/Plan

1A. What problem am I trying to solve? Why is it a problem?

The “Great” Standard 5= Group has clearly identified the problem they are trying to solve, why it is a problem and how they are going to solve it. There is evidence that they have conducted research to support their theory and talked to others to validate their ideas.

3-4= Quite a bit of evidence of the Great Standard but not everything.

1-2= Some evidence of the Great Standard but not much.

0 = Group hasn’t considered what problem their project solves. They have conducted no research and talked to no one to validate their idea.

1B. How will I know if my project is successful? (what things will have changed? What can we measure?)

The “Great” Standard 5= Group clearly articulates what their success will look like and has achievable plans to measure that success. They have clearly defined what will be different in the community as a result of their project. Project demonstrates significant potential impact on the community.

3-4= Quite a bit of evidence of the Great Standard but not everything.

1-2= Some evidence of the Great Standard but not much.

0 = Group has no idea or wildly unrealistic ideas about what success looks like for their project. They have no way to measure their success. They have not articulated what will be different in the community as a result of their project. The project will have little to no impact on the community.

1C. Who will benefit from my idea? And how?

The “Great” Standard 5= Group has identified a large group or niche group of community members (target market) whom this project will benefit. They are able to clearly define their target market by segments (gender, age, income, etc). There is evidence they have a plan to reach their stated market and that they have validated their plan by either discussing their idea with key market members or run a pilot of their idea.

3-4= Quite a bit of evidence of the Great Standard but not everything.

1-2= Some evidence of the Great Standard but not much.

0 = Group has not identified a target market or strategy, or naively feels everyone will be a user.

2. Team & Expertise

2A. Why are we the right people to solve this problem?

The “Great” Standard 5= Group has clearly defined the skill sets required to tackle their problem and recruited the appropriate team members to fulfill those requirements. Team is well balanced and dedicated. Leadership has the vision, experience and network to deliver results. Team has dedicated time to work on the project. Team has the confidence and tenacity to go the extra mile. There is evidence they are working in cooperation and/or collaboration with other groups who are working towards similar goals.

3-4= Quite a bit of evidence of the Great Standard but not everything.

1-2= Some evidence of the Great Standard but not much.

0 = Group has one founder with little to no project management experience. The combined skills of the leadership team have never managed a project or led a team, have limited experience with no accessible network. The leadership team are working full time at other careers. The project is 100% hobby. The leadership team see coaching as a means to an end; they are not coachable; they have a my-way-or-the-highway approach; their approach tends to turn off potential investors, partners and users; Usually they end up failing before they start.

3A. What makes my solution the right solution? What sets my solution apart from other currently available solutions?

The “Great” Standard 5= The project has a clearly defined “unique” value proposition. It is clear they have researched other potential solutions and/or others solving the same issue in the community. The solution is innovative or just plain fun. The project innovatively enhances existing or model programs or is a brand new thing that doesn’t exist yet.

3-4= Quite a bit of evidence of the Great Standard but not everything.

1-2= Some evidence of the Great Standard but not much.

0 = Group has not developed a clearly defined value proposition. They have no idea why their solution is the right one and they have not completed any research into who is currently solving this problem in the community and how. Their solution unnecessarily duplicates other work already being done on the community. The project is not innovative or fun.

3B. What resources do I need to make my project a success? What resources have I already gathered?

The “Great” Standard 5= Group has identified a realistic amount of monetary funds or goods needed to complete the project. There is evidence they have considered the smallest version of their idea that could still be effective in solving their stated problem. The project is cost effective based the impact they expect to have. The resources they seek are beyond just funds and/or they have considered alternative ways of funding their project such as donated services or goods (if appropriate). Group has already secured some resources.

3-4= Quite a bit of evidence of the Great Standard but not everything

1-2= Some evidence of the Great Standard but not much

0= Group has set a wildly unrealistic and unattainable goal for funding. They are relying entirely on support to come from The Elevator Project and have not found any resources.

Everyone has something to give in making a strong community. Contribute your ideas, time, elbow grease, and investment in making Guelph a better place to live, work and play. The Elevator Project – Guelph is on the rise! Stay connected with us through Twitter and Facebook

]]> Community Elevation 101 /community-elevation-101/ Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:28:35 +0000 /?p=420 Now you’ve done it. You’ve gone ahead and identified as an ideamaker, now what? Well, if you’re like the many other would-be movers and shakers who have signed up for round two of the Elevator Project, you’re going to make Guelph a better place to live, work and play! No pressure.

No, really, there’s no pressure. Because we’ve got your back. If you’ve been following this blog, then you know that we’ve learned a lot from round one. It’s tough taking a raw idea all the way through to great project plan. And although there are those among you who possess this superpower, there are some of you with great ideas who are getting your cape caught in the phone booth door on the way to saving the day. Fortunately, this is a superpower that can be learned.

Enter the Elevator Academy.

Walk in with an inkling of what you would like to do for the community, and walk out with an investor-worthy plan for elevating your community. Eight 2-hour Tuesday sessions starting January 13th at 10 Carden (opposite City Hall) will get you to great.

Developing an EP project is a lot like founding a community start-up. So we empanelled a subcommittee of start-up experts from Innovation Guelph, CBaSE at the University of Guelph, and Futurpreneur, and they adapted their expertise to the community-building context. They looked at the feedback we got from last year – where folks said they needed the most support – and created a free skills-building program that will have great value for every ideamaker, from beginner to veteran.

Although all 8 sessions are jam-packed with valuable programming, the first three sessions are most important. Designed to be taken together as a unit, these first three sessions take you step-by-step through the idea-mapping process to a completed application ready to submit! The full series features guest presenters from our panel of start-up experts, including Dr. James Doran, CEO of Innovation Guelph and Michael Peace, Business Development Manager for Futurpreneur, who will bring their in-demand, start-up know-how week four’s session on project planning.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been superheroing for years, or if you’re just now trying on the tights, The Elevator Academy is the best way to beef up your utility belt (Ok, I think I just jumped the shark on the superhero theme).

Did I mention it was free? Yeah, really.

For full details, and to book your spot in the Elevator Academy series, visit our Eventbrite page

Everyone has something to give in making a strong community. Contribute your ideas, time, elbow grease, and investment in making Guelph a better place to live, work and play. The Elevator Project – Guelph is on the rise! Stay connected with us through Twitter and Facebook

]]> How To Round Two – For Returning Idea Makers /how-to-round-two-for-returning-idea-makers/ Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:43:14 +0000 /?p=417 Welcome back! You were an Idea Maker with us in Round One and you would like to continue with your idea. So what now?

1. Identify as an Idea Maker. Fill out the quick form and tell us you want to be an Idea Maker. This will help us communicate with you better and to measure the impact The Elevator Project is having in our community. It’s fast, easy and completely painless – we promise!

2. Build your idea with our event series. The Elevator Academy program is specifically designed to help you work on your idea.

3. Collaborate with others. Our Idea Maker Mingle events are back this round. Get inspired by the work of others and meet potential co-conspirators. See our Eventbrite page for event details.

4. Let our Community Animator know you would like to keep your idea in the bank. The deadline to do this is January 30th.

5. Book your 20 minute “check up” phone call with our Community Animator for early February. This is your chance to tell us about your project updates. *Note: if you were Top 15 last round and already had your wrap up interview, you can skip this step.

6. Resubmit and/or update your application. This is an optional step and should be done if your project has changed since last round or there is different information you would like the Community Panel and Investors to know. Applications are due February 20th, 2015. *Note: the application has changed for round two so you may want to have  look at it and see if there is information you would like to provide.

7. Participate in the Community Vote process March 9-13th, 2015. Vote for your five favourite projects.

8. Next our Community Panel will review all our applications and “mark” them according to our rubric during the month of March. You will receive details of your score from our Community Animator that you can use to further your project development.

8. Celebrate! About mid-April we will once again do The Big Show where we celebrate all of our ideas and investors. It is at this event that we will announce which projects will be receiving what types of investment.

For project updates and more information, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and stay tuned to this blog.

]]> How to Round Two – For New Idea Makers /how-to-round-two-for-new-idea-makers/ Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:30:55 +0000 /?p=415 So you’ve heard about this Elevator Project thing and you have an idea to make Guelph great. Welcome! By joining our league of Idea Makers, you are saying you want to improve the quality of life for all in Guelph. The Elevator Project is here to help you make the changes you want to see happen. So what now?

1. Identify as an Idea Maker. Fill out the quick form and tell us you want to be an Idea Maker. This will help us communicate with you better and to measure the impact The Elevator Project is having in our community. It’s fast, easy and completely painless – we promise!

2. Build your idea with our event series. The Elevator Academy program is specifically designed to help you plan your idea and make sure you are ready for your application.

3. Collaborate with others. Our Idea Maker Mingle events will introduce you to other Idea Makers in The Elevator Project community. Get inspired by the work of others and meet potential co-conspirators. See our Eventbrite page for event details.

4. Launch your project by submitting your application. Applications are due February 20th, 2015.

5. Participate in the Community Vote process March 9-13th, 2015. Vote for your five favourite projects.

6. Next our Community Panel will review all our applications and “mark” them according to our rubric during the month of March. You will receive details of your score from our Community Animator that you can use to further your project development.

7. Our Community Animator will be working during all of this to collect “investments” such as volunteer time, skills, mentorship, materials and funds from the community and then match them with the projects like yours in our Idea Bank.

8. Celebrate! At the end of the round (about mid-April) we get together for a big event called The Big Show where we celebrate all of our ideas and investors. It is at this event that we will announce which projects will be receiving what types of investment.

For project updates and more information, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and stay tuned to this blog.

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