The Elevator Project is off to a remarkable start with over 50 ideas to make Guelph a better place submitted by “Idea Makers” into the “Idea Bank”.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive.” Says Community Animator Gabrielle Clermont, “We were literally bombarded with ideas. We have everything from garlic to greenhouses to public art, and everything in between!”

The Elevator Project is a collaboration between 10 Carden, the City of Guelph, the Guelph Community Health Centre and Innovation Guelph. Together they are creating a new process to match great ideas that will make Guelph an even more amazing place to live and work, with the resources to make these ideas happen such as funding, advice and connections.

The next step in the process is to find out what the community thinks of the submitted ideas. All ideas will be posted on The Elevator Project website for perusal by the general public. Open voting will begin Wednesday February 5^th and continue until Sunday February 9^th. Anyone can vote for their top 5 ideas by using the survey monkey link that will be distributed via social media and the project website Wednesday morning. Don’t expect to see a live tally of the votes though; voting results will be published only after voting ends, and only one vote will be allowed per person.

“The Community Vote process is not about creating a popularity contest but rather about understanding what issues and ideas matter most to Guelph citizens. The information we get from the results will help us identify which project ideas our investors should be paying closer attention to.” Julia Grady, 10 Carden, Partner in The Elevator Project.

All of this is building towards The Big Show, a public event that will be a showcase of community-benefit ideas. The event will be held March 25^th, 2014 at The River Run Centre. This will be the culminating event of the first round of this project with another round to commence, later this year.