Pop-up restaurants are all the rage in major cities like New York and London and they’ve started to become popular elsewhere too. The term “pop-up restaurant” is used to mean various things, but I think about three main categories of pop-ups: kitchen takeovers (a chef takes over an existing restaurant’s kitchen and space to create something new), temporary dining spaces (there may not be a kitchen on-site, but some sort of space has been transformed into a dining room), and full-on temporary restaurants (empty spaces completely transformed into restaurants outfitted with kitchens for a short period of time). We’ve had some kitchen takeovers here in Edmonton, but Blink is the first temporary dining space (we’ll have to wait for our first full-on temporary restaurant, an undertaking which requires considerable expense).

When we started discussing the idea for Blink, Sharon was immediately drawn to a pedway. We both love the idea of utilizing forgotten or neglected spaces, so a pedway seemed perfect. When was the last time you stopped in a pedway to look out the window? We walked through the pedways downtown, looking for power outlets, measuring dimensions, etc. We had a few candidate bridges, but decided that we needed a chef on board with the idea first. Knowing that Lux was conveniently located in Commerce Place, we approached Tony and thankfully he agreed to take part in our project right away! That made narrowing the pedway choice down to the one connecting Commerce Place and Scotia Place much easier.

Next we worked on getting the necessary approvals in place. Jim Taylor, executive director of the Downtown Business Association, was incredibly helpful in that regard. He introduced us to the building managers, and helped us track down the owner of the pedway (we discovered as part of this process that ownership is uncertain for many parts of the pedway system). Everyone really liked the idea, so we quickly started working out the logistics. Thank you to the DBA, GWL Reality Advisors (on behalf of Commerce Place), Morguard Investments (on behalf of Scotia Place), and DECL for helping us make this pop-up restaurant happen!

We’ve got some work to do still, but our goal is for Blink to look and feel as much like a real restaurant as possible. We have decided to go with a communal table for seating, to enhance the experience of eating in a unique space with other Edmontonians. The menu makes my mouth water every time I read it, with dishes like confit rabbit pot pie and Alberta pickerel – where possible it features local ingredients. Tickets are $65, which I think is a great deal for six courses, and a cash bar will be available as well. The restaurant will open at 5pm for cocktails, with dinner service beginning at 6pm.

We hope to see you on February 26 at Blink in the pedway!

You can read Sharon’s post on Blink here.

Canada’s population increased at a faster rate than the population of any other member of the G8 group of industrialized nations between 2006 and 2011. This was also the case between 2001 and 2006.

Canada’s population now sits at 33,476,688. Looking at the provinces, Alberta leads the country in growth with an increase of 10.8%, taking our population up to 3,645,257, which is about 11% of the country.

Increasingly we are an urban country. A total of 69.1% of the population lives in one of Canada’s 33 census metropolitan areas (CMAs), and that number is going up:

The rate of growth between 2006 and 2011 was 7.4% in CMAs as a group, above the national average of 5.9%. The two fastest growing CMAs were both in Alberta: Calgary, where the population rose 12.6%, and Edmonton, where it increased 12.1%.

Here’s a look at the fastest growing CMAs in the country:

Looking at federal electoral districts in the Edmonton region, Edmonton-Leduc was the fastest growing with 28% growth since 2006 census, followed by Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont at 22%.

Looking at Edmonton more generally, the population of the city now sits at 812,201 while the population of the CMA is now 1,159,869. Here’s the population for the City and the CMA over the last fifteen years:

And here’s the percentage increase over that same time period:

Edmonton is now the sixth largest CMA in the country, and we’re growing more quickly than anticipated.

We’ll have to wait until May 29 to learn more about the age and gender breakdown, September 19 to learn more about households, marital status, and structure types, and October 24 to learn more about language.

The City of Edmonton is conducting another municipal census in April this year, and is looking for 1400 people to act as census workers. You can apply in person at City Hall. You can learn more about the municipal census here.

You can learn more about the 2011 Federal Census here, and also check out The Daily for today.

In order of appearance, these were the presenters at PKN12:

1. Erin Monaghan, Blogger
2. Ben Henderson, City Councillor
3. Duncan Kinney, Polynerd
4. Leroy Schultz, Photographer
5. Stephen Visser & Dawn Lamothe, Yoga Lovers
6. Joseph Ahorro, U2 Fan
7. Michael Walters, Community Organizer
8. Chris Falconer & Owen Petersen, Foodies
9. Sue Huff, MLA Candidate
10. Steve Sandor, Journalist

It takes guts to get up in front of such a large crowd, especially when you have a limited period of time and high expectations! I thought all of the presenters did a great job. All of them seemed to have fun too! Sharon remarked that PKN12 was probably in the middle of the pack in terms of presentations, and I agree.

Erin kicked off the evening with her discussion of street fashion, drawing mainly on her experiences writing The Vestiary. I thought her approach, treating Edmonton as her “little sister”, added a nice touch of humor, even if the overall flow was at times difficult to follow. I love that Erin and others like her are doing something about the perception of Edmonton’s fashion scene! Duncan’s presentation was packed with information, and I thought he did a nice job of discussing what a credit union is and why you should consider one. Duncan recently organized the Local Money Summit and is running to be a director of Servus Credit Union. One of the more moving presentations of the evening was Leroy’s overview of Miguelito’s Little Green Car. It’s an amazing story really, he has taken this little green car all over the world and photographed it people from all walks of life. He wants to show that everyone is connected. Here is the photo he took of the audience with the little green car:

First up after the intermission was Joseph, who talked about his experiences travelling to U2 concerts all around the world. We’re not talking one or two concerns, we’re talking dozens, on four different continents! The human connection is what made the story interesting, that and Joseph’s occasional singing! Michael Walters spent his twenty slides talking about local food, and in particular, the northeast part of our city which is home to some of the best farmland in the country. He talked about The Great Potato Giveaway, and about the importance of building a local food hub. The next presentation featured foodies Chris and Owen who wore matching plaid shirts and aprons. Their high energy talk was focused on bread – the history of it, why bread is great, and even some science behind it. They finished with the quickest bread making I have ever seen! Sue was up next with an interesting talk on creative politics. It was a solid talk with some good ideas, but it just couldn’t match the energy of some of the other talks. The final presentation was all about why Edmonton needs an SCTV monument. Steven made the case and had some really interesting visuals (I like the one of Melonville). I can definitely get behind the notion that we should celebrate more than just our sports heroes, but I think we can do better than SCTV. I think the association between ‘Edmonton’ and ‘SCTV’ is incredibly low for the vast majority of people, and a monument isn’t going to change that. On the other hand, maybe I am just too young.

I think a lot of people in the audience really enjoyed Stephen and Dawn’s “presentation” but it didn’t work for me. Instead of a typical presentation, they did yoga on stage for the six minutes and forty seconds, with a different position for each slide. Obviously they worked very hard at the presentation, and as Michael Brechtel commented to me, it was executed perfectly, and for that I commend them. For me though, it wasn’t a Pecha Kucha talk. The voiceover was pre-recorded There was a third, unannounced presenter off to the side who provided the voiceover for each slide, and I found I wasn’t even listening to it because I was distracted/enthralled by the acrobatics on stage.

My favorite presentation of the evening (and Sharon’s favorite too) was Ben Henderson’s discussion on winter. He showed images from his trip to Oslo, Helsinki, and other winter cities in northern Europe. Ben was full of energy, full of passion for his subject, and I think he did a nice job of being serious and fun at the same time. I hope he made as much of an impression on everyone else as he did on me, and if you’re interested in learning more about the City’s WinterCity strategy, visit the website and also check out the IdeaScale site.

Twitter always plays a large role in Pecha Kucha. The #pkn12 hashtag was buzzing last night! Here are a few tweets from the evening that I thought were worth capturing:

"Punch that dough in the face like it's John Travolta" #PKN12

— NextGen (@EdmNextGen) February 3, 2012

making politics accessible -tough to compete against making bread #PKN12#yeg

— Steven Boyko (@stevenboyko) February 3, 2012

I love bread. Like "I could eat a loaf of fresh bread in one sitting" kind of love. #sourdough #pkn12

— Ken Bautista (@kenbautista) February 3, 2012

I've got to say, #pkn12, last night was the most polished I've seen to date. Well done @edmnextgen!

— Jarrett Campbell (@jarrettcam) February 3, 2012

If we can spend $75K on 3-yr-old Marshall McLuhan's house, maybe we can free up a few shekels for #sctv #pkn12.

— Chris Neuman (@neumanic) February 3, 2012

What a touching story about U2, the Polish solidarity movement, and the power of music. @joe_ahorro #pkn12

— Nadine Riopel (@philanthusiast) February 3, 2012

#PKN12 so enjoyable I almost forgot I wake up in 6.5 hours for @CBCEdmonton AM; Kudos to presenters + organizers of #YEG @PechaKucha

— Rick Harp (@RickHarpCBC) February 3, 2012

It's events like Pecha Kucha that make me glad I moved to Edmonton! #yeg #pkn12

— MERN (Aaron) (@Interslicemusic) February 3, 2012

Sweet Baby Jesus! That was an intense 6 mins and 40 seconds. Mind totally blown #PKN12

— Jennifer Banks (@JenBanksYEG) February 3, 2012

Proceeds from the bar went to the food bank, and there were a bunch of great prize giveaways too. I seem to have pretty good luck with prizes at Pecha Kucha, because I was one of the winners! Once again the event was livestreamed by the Edmonton Journal. I didn’t see as much chatter about quality or connection issues, so hopefully it worked well for everyone. In case you missed it, you can watch the recorded video here.

Keep an eye on @EdmNextGen for details on the next Pecha Kucha Night, tentatively scheduled for June.

You can read about past Pecha Kucha Nights in Edmonton here.

For a long time, I think you could say the same about Edmonton’s airport. Things got a little better with the last expansion, but I still find that the first impression leaves much to be desired. You’ve probably heard the saying that “first impressions are lasting impressions” and I think that’s particularly true when you visit a new city. Even if a visitor makes it to the Art Gallery of Alberta, the river valley, or any of the other memorable attractions that Edmonton has to offer, it can be incredibly difficult to get over a negative first impression at the airport, especially considering you have to go through the facility again to leave.

That’s one of the reasons that I am particularly excited about Expansion 2012. It will change visitors’ first impressions upon arriving in Edmonton for the better.

When you fly through an airport like Heathrow in London, you rarely have to wait for your bags after arriving. That’s because it takes so long to walk from the gate to the baggage carousel – the airport is just so big! In Edmonton, you almost always arrive at the baggage carousel before your bags do. That frustrates travellers and contributes to the poor first impression. With Expansion 2012, the walk in from the gate will take longer, and that should mean less waiting around for your bags.

But don’t worry, chances are you won’t even notice that the walk takes longer. That’s due in part to the moving walkways that have been installed, but more importantly it is because of Flightpath, a digital light and sound system created by Electroland (of Los Angeles, wouldn’t you know it). The interactive installation features motion sensors that pick up movement and activate the sound and LED lights. It’s kind of hard to describe, so here it is in action:

At the end of the Interstitial Corridor is the new entrance, with Canada Customs on the main level (opening this summer) and the new International/Domestic Lounge on the second level (opening this fall). It’s big, open, bright, and inviting – everything our current entrance is not. Prominently featured is The Living Wall, a two-storey green wall that will serve double duty as an art piece and an air filtration system. Coming this summer is The Raven: Bringer of Light, a ceiling-hung stainless steel and embossed acrylic sculpture created by Michael Hayden that is 30 feet by 18 feet and weighs 3500 pounds. It sounds impressive, and I can’t wait to see it.

Airports need to be functional first and foremost, but they can’t stop there. A city’s airport plays a significant role in shaping a visitor’s opinions, and as such needs to deliver an experience that is both relaxing and memorable. Expansion 2012 no doubt makes the Edmonton International Airport more functional, but it also delivers a much improved first impression for visitors. That’s ultimately good for both EIA and for Edmonton.

You can check out a few more photos in my Expansion 2012 photoset.

The Mercer Warehouse project is a natural extension of the 104th Street/Warehouse District revitalization efforts, solidifying the area as the start-up hub of the city. Built in 1911, the Mercer Warehouse enters its next phase of service, from its beginnings as entrepreneur John B. Mercer’s liquor and beer cold storage to housing the next generation of creative endeavors and innovations.

The news comes just a week after a series of exciting announcements related to the ongoing revitalization of the Warehouse District. For more on the history of the Mercer Warehouse, check out Lawrence Herzog’s article from March 2010.

It should be no surprise that I’m incredibly excited about this! The new space will play a significant role in anchoring the north end of 4th Street Promenade, and it provides Startup Edmonton with the space and physical presence we need to grow and achieve our goal of making Edmonton a hotbed for creativity and entrepreneurship. Here’s a concept sketch for the space:

And here’s a concept floor plan:

There’s a lot of renovation work yet to be done, but don’t be fooled by the sketch above. The brick, the beams, all of the historic elements that give the space character – that’s all staying. The space needs to be functional, but that doesn’t mean we have to lose the history! Last week I had the opportunity to check out the building, and took some “before” photos.

The team meets with Kelly & Devin Pope.

The space!

Ken with the floor plan sketch.

The other side of the space.

I don’t know why painting over the brick was so popular. I love the brick!

Cam and Ken ham it up!

I can’t wait until the doors officially open! To keep informed on this and other Startup Edmonton initiatives, sign up for the mailing list and follow @StartupEdmonton on Twitter.

UPDATE: You can learn more about the space here, and also check out Ken’s thoughts on what this means for Startup Edmonton and our city.

As part of a move to encourage citizens to embrace and engage in winter, the City of Edmonton is leading the development of a new WinterCity Strategy to highlight Edmonton as a leading winter city.

This strategy is about changing how many of us feel about winter – from enduring to embracing it.

When John took his turn at the podium this evening, he did so wearing an Oilers jersey and joked that he hoped it would keep him safe if we didn’t like what he had to say. He started by recounting his experience of arriving in Canada from Ireland. He came to Edmonton and after being told to “help make Canada a better place” by the customs official became a nation builder, even if he didn’t realize it at the time. “I felt like they’d send me back if I didn’t do my part!”

For most of his speech, John took us through the ups and downs of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Building the team, preparing for the event, pulling it off, etc. He shared many stories, everything from being interviewed for the job to watching Crosby score the game winning goal in overtime. One of my favorites was about the snow, or lack of snow, when the games began. Based on the last 100 years of history, there had to be snow in January. But there wasn’t any. “It was as if God was looking down on us saying ‘anyone can pull off the Winter Olympics with snow, you have to do it without snow!’” John told us. They eventually trucked snow in from Manning Park, which put up a banner that read “Official Snow Supplier” for the games. Feeling that the task was impossible, John was at the park every day, encouraging the team to keep going. He called in the Premier, the Prime Minister, and others to help encourage the team. One day, the guy in charge of the site finally spoke up and said “John, stop coming here every day. We’re not going to fail.” The lesson was one John cited many times throughout his remarks this evening – you need to trust people.

Another story I quite enjoyed was about transportation during the games. Enabling people to get around the city safely and efficiently was a tall order, and John and his team realized that to do it, there would have to be less cars on the road. So they asked Vancouverites to find alternative modes of transport, to leave their cars at home. Unsurprisingly, people laughed at the idea. They mocked it. The team was looking for a reduction in traffic of 25% and nobody thought it was possible. To prepare, they held single day trials a few weeks in advance of the games. The results were discouraging – traffic volumes dropped just 1 or 2 percent. But on the day the games opened, the reduction was 37%, well above targets. “We asked people nicely,” John said, “and I think they realized this was their way to play a role in making the games a success.”

Here are a few of the things he said that really stood out for me:

• “To be a champion, you have to have belief.”
• “Visions can’t be about stuff, they must be about people. About humanity.”
• “The legacy you want to leave behind is the human one.”

As motivational as John’s remarks were tonight, I’ll admit that applying the lessons of Vancouver 2010 to the City of Edmonton’s WinterCity Strategy seems incredibly daunting. Someone in the audience was brave enough to ask John that very question – “how do we do that here?” He said we need two things: strong belief in the vision, and strong leadership.

Councillor Henderson has taken the lead on the WinterCity Strategy, and tomorrow morning will be sharing the results of his trip to Finland and Norway to identify best practices of winter cities. He’ll be joined by a committee of community leaders at the first symposium to explore the question, “what would make you fall in love with winter in Edmonton?” In his remarks tonight, Councillor Henderson said that “at some point, Edmonton sort of fell out of love with winter.” It’s time to get that back.

I’ll be in and out of the symposium tomorrow, and I look forward to participating in future public involvement events related to the WinterCity Strategy as well. The goal is to draft the strategy this spring, with Council reviewing and hopefully approving in the fall. The timeline is relatively short, so don’t wait to get involved. The easiest way is to participate in the WinterCity IdeaScale site. There you can submit ideas and vote and comment on ideas from others.

Here’s my first bit of feedback to the team leading the WinterCity Strategy: get rid of all mentions of turning Edmonton into “a leading winter city” or making Edmonton “one of the best winter cities in the world.” Recognition is a by-product of doing something well, not the target we should be aiming for. Instead, let’s focus on making Edmonton a great winter city for Edmontonians. On embracing winter rather than enduring it. As John said tonight, “you almost always get the reward you deserve.” If we can succeed at making Edmonton a more winter-friendly city for the people who live here, global recognition will come.

Let’s embrace winter in Edmonton! You can learn more about the WinterCity Strategy here.

The 4th Street Promenade is seeking an Event and Volunteer Coordinator for the annual Al Fresco Block Party, which is taking place on June 9, 2012. This is a paid contract position to start immediately and end following the event. This position will appeal to a person who truly enjoys working with people and achieving success through running successful events and functions. The successful applicant will be an outgoing, people-oriented and deadline-driven organizer with a proven track record of coordinating high-quality events of scale. The successful applicant will also be an enthusiastic and community-minded booster of all things Edmonton. A flexible schedule is also a must.

There’s a strong planning committee already in place, so if you get the job you certainly won’t be on your own! Think you’ve got what it takes to make Al Fresco 2012 a success? You can download the full job posting and get details on how to apply in PDF here.

You can learn more about Al Fresco by reading Sharon’s recap of last year’s event and taking a look at my photoset:

If you have any questions, let me know. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who you think may be interested in the position!

 Al Fresco Event & Volunteer Coordinator Job Description

Tonight’s demos, in order of appearance:

• Zeel – Built by Rocketfuel Games, Zeel is “the topical Twitter app that connects you with your interests.” You can think of it as a layer on top of Twitter that makes it easy to follow conversations on specific topics. You can do that with saved searches of course, but that’s a little more difficult and the experience certainly isn’t as nice!
• Cross Platform Tablet App using Flash – Randy demoed an application that he built using Flash that was then deployed to the iPad and an Android tablet without requiring any changes. I didn’t catch the name of the app, but it was pretty cool to see the same app running on different platforms.
• Accessing US-Only Blocked Content in Canada – Ben showed us a trick he shared with the YEGRB group recently. It’s a bit technical, but with just a few steps, you can get access to Pandora, the US Netflix catalog, and other services that block access from Canada. He’s got a screencast that shows you how to do it here.
• Web Suite Pro – Collin was really nervous, but did a pretty good job of showing off his online invoicing and CRM app. Web Suite Pro seems very feature rich, with lots of built-in functionality and support for a variety of platforms. FreshBooks is the obvious competitor in the space.
• Linelo – Terry demoed his solution for recording and organizing large amounts of text. You capture lines of text, and then you can group lines together, format them, collapse them, and more. He’s got support for Android and additional platforms are on the way.
• Slapshot Heroes – From Visimonde, the folks behind Rinksters, comes this iPad app that is kind of like Angry Birds but with pucks and coins. It started out as a mini-game within Rinksters actually, and was popular enough to stand on its own. Ted was entertaining, just as he was back at DemoCamp Edmonton 15 when he showed off Rinksters itself.

I think Ben’s demo was perhaps the favorite of the night, even though it was a little geekier than the rest. It’s always fun to have demos like that – stuff that isn’t necessarily going to turn into a product or company but which is cool nonetheless. Slapshot Heroes was certainly entertaining, and I’m sure more than a few folks will have already spent the 99 cents to download it. Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m most excited to try Zeel, even though I don’t have an iPhone. I’m always interested in finding new ways to extract value from Twitter!

There were a number of event announcements this evening:

• Startup Hackathon + Global Game Jam is happening January 27 – 29 at the University of Alberta. This is your chance to make an app or a game, to meet some new people, and to learn something new! Monday is the last day to get in at the early-bird price!
• The next Edmonton Girl Geek Dinner is happening tomorrow. Follow them on Twitter so you don’t miss upcoming events!
• MediaCamp Edmonton is taking place on February 4. Aimed at getting storytellers together with coders, it’s going to be a great day of learning how to help one another work together. Get your tickets at YEG Live!

Stay tuned to Startup Edmonton for additional events and announcements!

See you in March for DemoCamp Edmonton 18!

It started on Tuesday with some coverage of the renovations taking place at the historic Mercer Warehouse, located on the corner of 104 Avenue and 104 Street. Owned by the Pope family, the building will soon be home to a flower shop, a restaurant and bar called Mercer Tavern, a high-end furniture rental company, and Roast Coffeehouse, among other tenants. I got to tour the building this week, and while there’s a lot of work still ahead, it is fantastic to see the building coming back to life.

On Wednesday we learned that The Confederation Building, which has been undergoing a much-needed facelift since late last year, will soon be home to a 7-11 as well as a whisky bar. I love the idea of a whisky bar as opposed to just another pub, and though you might scoff at first, the 7-11 is a big deal. Alex makes the point: “I see a new 7-11 as a sign that there’s a permanent population that justifies its creation (many new residences have been created on or around 104th).”

Yesterday the news came out that Langham Developments Ltd., the developer behind the Icon towers, has purchased the land at the northwest corner of 104 Street and 102 Avenue. Currently home to a parking lot, we’ve heard for many years that condos would be going up on that site, but it sounds like it might actually happen now. Langham is planning something similar to the Icon, with two towers. I think they did a great job of keeping the Icon towers in line with the Heritage Zone, so I am looking forward to the new development.

There have of course been lots of other things happening on 104 Street as well:

Oodle Noodle’s latest restaurant, located just around the corner on Jasper Avenue, opened recently and has been busy.

The film I Think I Do is filming in and around Edmonton, and was located on 104 Street in the Armstrong Block most of last week.

The façade improvements to the Birks Building are ongoing and so far look great!

There are more announcements on the way in the next couple of weeks, including the launch of our new website, so stay tuned!

Back in June, when I wrote about the launch of the advertising component to the service, about 1.2 million messages had been sent, or 7050 per day. By the end of the year, the daily average had risen to 8494. You can see that the increase is due in large part to the back to school season – the number of messages sent jumped from 225,730 in August to 333,877 in September.

As expected, increased use of the text messaging service has led to a decrease in the number of calls made to BusLink, the automated 24-hour telephone line for transit information. Nathan Walters from ETS told the Journal that the number of calls dropped by 340,000 in the first nine months of last year to 2.8 million. I suspect it dropped even further when school started up again.

It’s great to see people embracing initiatives like this! ETS recently launched an updated Trip Planner that contains a number of new features like the ability to subscribe to email alerts for planned detours and bus stop closures, and there are additional technology-related services on the way. Should be an exciting year for connected transit riders!

Fort Edmonton had of course been around for about a century by the time Edmonton became a town. With a population of just 700, Edmonton was small but the arrival of the CPR south of the river the previous year brought with it the promise of rapid growth. It also prompted fears that South Edmonton, or Strathcona, would become the city, leaving Edmonton to remain the smaller and less important community. Thus efforts got underway to make Edmonton a town.

The first train into South Edmonton on November 25, 1891

A few weeks later on January 30, 1892, a more complete story on incorporation was published in Frank Oliver’s Edmonton Bulletin. The paper noted that incorporation would take practical effect on February 10 when the first council would be elected. It also offered a brief analysis of the reasoning behind and impact of incorporation:

“Incorporation did not become a fact on account of what Edmonton is, so much as on account of what it is to be. It is not a result of the development that has occurred – wonderful though that is, all things considered – so much as a step towards still further development.”

“It was felt that a crises had been reached in the affairs of the town in which so many have sunk so much of their capital of time and energy and money, and that united action from this time forward had become a necessity if what had been gained or made was to be preserved.”

The story went on to discuss the importance of the first town council, asserting that “there is no reason why they should not be successful, or that Edmonton should not be in a very few years, as nature plainly intended, the leading city in the Northwest.” Even then Edmontonians were clamoring for recognition!

Also in that day’s paper came notice about the first election. Nominations for a mayor and six councillors were held on February 3, 1892 at Fielder’s Hall, from 10am until noon. The election was held a week later at the same place, from 9am until 5pm. Persons qualified to vote included: “All men, unmarried women and widows, being British subjects over 21 years of age, who have been owners or householders within the municipality for a period of not less than three months next preceding the day of voting.”

Four women voted in the election, and more votes were cast than expected. “Due to an unexpected population spurt, an anomaly occurred in the statistics dealing with voter turnout. Extra ballots had to be printed to include those who were earlier excluded from the original voter list.” Matthew McCauley (after whom the McCauley neighbourhood was named) was acclaimed as Edmonton’s first mayor. There were fourteen candidates for council, and the six councillors elected alongside McCauley were Colin Strang, Daniel Fraser, Edward Carey, James Goodridge, John Cameron, and Philip Daly. The first meeting of the newly formed town council took place on February 15, 1892.

These men all had a big impact on the growing town. McCauley later represented Edmonton on the Territorial Legislature, and was a founding member of Edmonton’s school board, for which he earned the nickname “Edmonton’s Father of Education.” Strang was an accountant, and also served on the school board and the board of trade. Fraser, who operated flour mills, also served on the first council of the new formed City of Edmonton. Carey co-founded Edmonton’s first general store, Norris & Carey. Goodridge of course built Edmonton’s first brick hotel, Jasper House. Cameron was president of the board of trade and also served on the school board (the Cameron Heights neighbourhood was named in his honor). And Daly operated a pharmacy and bank before entering politics.

Strathcona followed Edmonton’s lead and was incorporated as town in 1899. Both towns experienced rapid growth – Edmonton’s population had surpassed 8000 by the time it was incorporated as a City in 1904. Once again Strathcona followed suit, becoming a city in 1907. Just five years later in 1912 the two amalgamated, setting the stage for Edmonton to grow into the city we know today.

You can see the Government of Alberta’s Location and History Profile for Edmonton in PDF here.

I also never imagined that DemoCamp would eventually lead to Startup Edmonton, but I’m glad it has. Ken, Cam, Sam, and Tiffany recognized that DemoCamp was actually part of something bigger, and they decided to do something about it.

We help connect creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to start and scale bold new ideas through events, mentorship, workspace, and accelerators. Our vision is to make Edmonton a hotbed for creativity and entrepreneurship. Our mission is to amplify creative innovation and activate startups. Our goal is to invest in 500 creative entrepreneurs over the next 5 years.

DemoCamp helped showed us that Edmonton is full of smart, talented, creative people with really innovative ideas. But having an idea is not enough – you need to take action. That’s where Startup Edmonton comes in.

The organization has been around for a while now, organizing events like Launch Party and TEDxEdmonton in addition to DemoCamp, but it became much more official on December 5. That’s the date Startup Edmonton turned into a fully-fledged non-profit company. Here is the board of directors:

• Todd Babiak – Co-Founder, Story Engine Inc.
• Brad Ferguson – CEO, Strategy Summit Ltd.
• Veer Gidwaney – CEO, DailyFeats.com
• Chris LaBossiere – Co-CEO, Yardstick Software
• Chris Lumb – CEO, TEC Edmonton
• Mack Male – Co-Founder, Paramagnus Developments Inc.
• Gregg Oldring – Co-Founder, Mailout Interactive / Inkdit
• David Quail – Co-Founder, Attassa
• Darin Rayburn – Executive Vice President, Melcor Developments
• Kevin Swan – Principal, iNovia Capital
• Sheetal Mehta Walsh – Founder/CEO, Shanti Microfinance

Though not everyone could attend the first meeting in person, there was great energy in the room as we went through introductions and got down to business. Here is our management team:

• Ken Bautista – CEO
• Tiffany Linke-Boyko – COO
• Cam Linke – Director of Product/Community
• Sam Jenkins – Director of Development
• Edwin Radke – Controller

Rock stars, each and every one of them!

The year ahead

Ken and the team spent countless hours last year planning, networking, connecting, pitching, building – basically doing all of the things a startup needs to do. They’ve put a solid foundation in place, and they’re the right team to drive the organization forward. With the help of our founding partners, I really feel like Startup Edmonton is going to make a big splash in 2012.

The investment ecosystem in Edmonton (and Alberta) is pretty good at funding things that already have momentum, but there’s a serious lack of viable products flowing into that funding pipeline. Yet we know from DemoCamp and other events and initiatives that there is no lack of ideas. How can we get people with ideas to turn into entrepreneurs with fundable products? That’s the challenge that Startup Edmonton will tackle. Here’s how:

• Inspire – DemoCamp and other events to bring the community together
• Create – Hackathons, Startup Weekend, and other events focused on prototyping
• Accelerate – Incubator for early stage tech startups to rapidly take their prototypes to the next level

Startup Edmonton is already pretty good at “Inspire” and efforts related to “Create” are ramping up, but it’s “Accelerate” where things will get really interesting this year. The tech accelerator program is called Flightpath, and it will invest in up to 30 early stage software/digital media startups over the next three years. These are small financial investments, but combined with mentorship, learning, and networking opportunities, the goal is to help startups make meaningful progress in a short period of time. To turn more ideas to into fundable products.

You will of course see more DemoCamps, Startup Weekends, Launch Parties, and other events in 2012. But you’ll also see the startup space that was teased a couple of months ago – a physical space downtown “where geeks, entrepreneurs, and creatives collide.” You’ll see more opportunities to share your knowledge and to learn from others. You’ll see the launch of Flightpath and the first class of startups. You’ll see a more concerted effort to build awareness of startups in Edmonton.

And I think you’ll start to see that creative entrepreneurs and Edmonton’s future are beautifully intertwined.

It’s going to be a great year – get connected!

Here are the top ten individual posts from 2011 by views:

1. Daily Deals in Edmonton
2. What the Truck?! Edmonton’s Food Truck Extravaganza
3. Edmonton’s Homicide Rate: How much has changed in 30 years?
4. Homicide Rates in Canada: Statistics & Trends
5. Your Guide to Summer Festivals & Events in Edmonton!
6. More than just email: Google Apps goes live at the University of Alberta
7. Avenue Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2011
8. Edmonton Transit (ETS) now offers schedule information via SMS text messaging
9. Timeraiser Edmonton 3 and WestJet Giveaway!
10. The City of Edmonton is failing at public involvement

Thanks for reading and commenting over the last year!

Here’s my video on vibrant streets downtown. It focuses on 104 Street, the “blueprint” for future streets in Edmonton’s downtown.

I saw some really positive feedback via Twitter, so I hope the video was well-received at the event.

The features I went through in the video are not the only things that make a street vibrant of course, but I do think they are important. The bottom line is that people make streets vibrant, so we need our streets to attract and support people. No other street downtown does that better at the moment than 104 Street.

The vibrancy and character of a community’s downtown is a critical part of its identity. Think about places you’ve travelled to and you’ll know exactly what we mean. Please join us for a dynamic, one-day, one-of-a-kind event to learn about Edmonton’s downtown – what we have now, what’s in the works, what’s yet to come, and some new things we might need to consider. Come learn, talk, connect and get involved in your downtown. As goes your downtown, so goes your city.

It has been a pretty great year for our downtown. EPCOR Tower, the first new office tower in two decades and also our tallest, opened.  Despite some hiccups, both the arena project and the new Royal Alberta Museum appear to be moving forward. The province is working to complete the renovations of the Federal Building and the adjacent Centennial Plaza in time for next summer. The first phase of construction on Capital Boulevard is underway. MacEwan University has started working toward its single sustainable campus. I could go on – the point is, there’s a lot happening! Megaprojects aren’t enough though, we need more people living and working and shopping and learning downtown. What are the barriers this? How can we make it happen? What are we missing? Join us next week to discuss those questions and more.

I had the opportunity to talk about the event yesterday on CTV Edmonton:

Downtown X-posed runs from 7:30am until 3:30pm on December 15. Tickets are just $50, which includes breakfast and lunch. You can purchase tickets here. If you can’t make it, be sure to follow along with #yegdt on Twitter.