A colorful window into downtown Edmonton’s transformation

Edmonton’s downtown is undergoing an incredible transformation right now. You can tell by looking up at the more than two dozen cranes located in and around downtown. You can tell by the dust and other construction debris that gets blown around by the wind. You can tell by the closed sidewalks and the detours that drivers face. And of course, you can tell by the energy and excitement that seems to be in the air whenever someone talks about what is happening downtown. This is no mere revitalization. To use the City of Edmonton’s words, it’s an “incredible renaissance coming to life” in the heart of our city.

This growth and momentum was the focus of a showcase that took place today on the empty and unfinished 16th floor of the EPCOR Tower. I’m not sure the organizers appreciated the irony of talking about new buildings and more development while we were standing in the middle of the last new office tower built downtown, one which remains only partially full. I know they wanted the view, but still.

The statistics that Jim Taylor, Executive Director of the Downtown Business Association, and Scott McKeen, City Councillor for Ward 6, shared with us are impressive:

In just two years, the amount of underdeveloped land decreased by 17%.
Over 1 million square feet of land in the core comprises active construction sites. That’s the equivalent of about 62 NHL-sized hockey arenas.
There is 6.6 million square feet of floor area under construction, which is bigger than West Edmonton Mall.
Over 1,100 resident units are under construction and another 3,300 have been announced by developers.

“The new downtown vibrancy and momentum is unmistakable,” said Jim Taylor. “There’s about $5 billion in new condos, office towers, hotels, and infrastructure under construction or planned for our downtown.”

Projects under active construction include Rogers Place, the new Royal Alberta Museum, MacEwan Centre for Arts & Culture, NorQuest College Singhmar Centre, Kelly Ramsey, Fox Towers, The Ultima, 107 Street Annex, Hyatt Place in The Quarters, and of course all the buildings in the Edmonton Arena District, like the new Stantec tower. These projects are for residential, commercial, post-secondary, and other uses. It’s great to see such a varied mix.

The highlight of today’s event was the new visual icon that is meant to tie the various projects together. It’s a window in the shape of an “E” and it comes with lots and lots of color.

I’ll admit my first reaction to the design when I saw it a few weeks ago was negative. I still don’t get the “E”. It doesn’t say anything about downtown nor does it say anything about construction. I guess you can take it to mean that all of these projects are building a bigger and better Edmonton, but that feels like a bit of a stretch. The City seems indicate that the “E” is for everyone:

“Together, as a community, we are building a downtown for everyone, one that is economically strong, vibrant, global and inclusive. The visual style is bold, optimistic and confident. Everything our downtown, and Edmonton, truly embodies.”

That seems at odds with the approach Make Something Edmonton has taken. Instead of pretending that Edmonton is for everyone, MSE posits that it’s not, but that if you’re a maker, this is your city. Can downtown really be for everyone? I will say the design is growing on me though.

Berlin did the work and I had the opportunity to talk to Michael Brechtel about it. He’s a partner and is in charge of creative for the firm. He was quick to point out what the design is not. “It’s not intended to be a new brand for downtown,” he said. “It’s meant to reflect this specific time and this specific place.” He talked about the excitement that people are feeling about downtown and said his team is no different. “We’re excited and we feel a sense of ownership over downtown”, he said, pointing out that most of his colleagues live somewhere in the core and many walk to work.

There are three aspects of the design that I really like. I love the fact that it’s a window. You’ll see that reflected in print and online, and hopefully also around the construction sites, with literal windows into what’s going on behind the hoarding. If I had to pick my favorite construction hoarding from around Edmonton, it would be the new Royal Alberta Museum, partially because of the window (but also the fact that its colorful, well-lit, etc). A window into what’s coming is a pretty straightforward visual metaphor and it works.

Another thing I like about the design is that it’s colorful and bright, something that construction generally is not. “This should feel celebratory,” Michael told me. I’ve written about the short-term pain that comes with construction, but Michael is right – there’s a lot to celebrate. He noted that color helps to provide that feeling but is also accessible and inviting.

The third thing I like is that there’s at least an attempt to tie the various projects together. Obviously it wouldn’t make sense for the Oilers to get rid of their own branding, or for the Kelly Ramsey tower to ditch its excellent signage. But adding the “E” could help to better convey the message that there’s something bigger underway here. “We wanted a fun, common visual connector to raise interest and show our support for downtown,” said Councillor McKeen.

Of course, that only works if it is widely adopted. There were a couple of dozen representatives from the downtown projects in attendance today, so that’s a good sign. I spoke with Tim Shipton from the Edmonton Oilers and he assured me they are on board and are looking forward to integrating the “E” into their site along 104 Avenue. I hope others are planning to do the same.

It will be interesting to see what the City itself does with the “E” as well. So far they have run with the idea on the new downtown section of the website. They’ve added taglines like “put yourself in the picture”, “excitement worth waiting for”, and “who says cranes are an endangered species”. They communicate about what’s happening downtown more than anyone else, so including the “E” will be critical if it’s going to see any traction.

I would argue they need to do more than just marketing, however. The challenge is not selling Edmontonians on the projects, which I think more or less speak for themselves. The real issue is in keeping downtown functional and open while the construction is happening. The new Current Traffic Disruptions map is a good step in the right direction, but there’s so much more that could be done. Without question all the business and community partners have a role to play, but the City is in the best position to provide leadership here.

Today’s gathering reminded me a little of last year’s Edmonton in a New Light event. The focus was a little broader that time, but the message was the same. “Something big is happening,” and we need to tie it all together to help share the story. With luck, the colorful “E” window will help to do just that.

Branding Edmonton: Signs & Slogans

For more than 20 years, Edmontonians have been discussing whether or not our entrance signs should feature a slogan and if so, which one. Whenever City Council or other local leaders have felt the need to shore up our city’s image, the entrance signs have been the go-to starting point. And whenever someone has suggested the entrance signs are dated and need to be replaced, the conversation has inevitably morphed into one about the slogan and brand for our city.

Questions were raised about “City of Champions” as soon as the signs went up in 1989. That prompted Economic Development Edmonton to do some research and a few years later they found there were at least 27 slogans being used to describe the city, like “Gateway to the North”, “Canada’s Oil Capital”, and “Official Host City for the Turn of the Century”. But only one was highly visible, and that was “City of Champions” thanks to the entrance signs.

You only see the entrance signs if you drive into Edmonton, but that hasn’t diminished their importance in the eyes of community leaders and commentators. The entrance signs and debate about them have often been considered the manifestation of our identity as a city. Gene Dub’s controversial entrance pyramid design that won a national design competition in 2008 was a good example of this. It would have done away with slogans and logos in favor of striking public art. The jury called it “a symbol of a city that is poised, confident and energetic.” But not everyone saw it that way. Former Edmonton Journal columnist Lorne Gunter compared the idea to Bedford, Nova Scotia’s giant “Clearwater” lobster statue and said Dub’s proposal would have been “an artificial symbol erected by civic leaders to try to force a recognition of their community that isn’t happening on their city’s or town’s own merits.”

It’s no surprise then that the entrance signs as they exist today are a perfect representation of this conflation of issues. The signs have been cobbled together, piece by piece, just like our city’s brand. In the absence of a strong place brand for Edmonton, we used the City of Edmonton’s corporate logo and the “City of Champions” moniker as stand-ins. When we felt that perhaps we weren’t a welcoming enough place, the words “Welcome to” were added. When we didn’t feel important enough in the province, we added “Alberta’s Capital”. Whenever our sports teams have endured slumps, we’ve suggested removing “City of Champions” from the signs (but someone has always pointed to another local success as a reason to keep them).

And now, because we’re feeling emboldened by population and economic growth, not to mention lots of capital spending, we’re again looking to the signs. They don’t feel representative of Edmonton today nor of the Edmonton we hope to become. They’re old and they look it.

Will the discussion be different this time? I think it could be. Yes, the sign and city identity issues have become so intertwined that maybe it’s not even possible to separate them now. But we should try.

Photo by Dave Cournoyer

On Tuesday, Councillor Michael Oshry is expected to make a motion requesting that the City remove “City of Champions” from Edmonton’s seven remaining entrance signs. The City says the signs are structurally sound, but that’s not why Councillor Oshry is making this proposal. Removing the slogan could finally allow us to discuss the brand issue separately from the signs, and I think that’s really his endgame.

I asked Councillor Oshry why he brought the sign debate up again at Council, and he admitted it seemed like a good starting point for a broader discussion about Edmonton’s brand. “They look dated, they’re old,” he said of the entrance signs. He isn’t fond of the “City of Champions” slogan either. “When we’re trying to attract people, the slogan means nothing,” he said. “And the slogan isn’t actually used anywhere else!”

At least, it’s not used anywhere else in Edmonton. We don’t use it for any of our internal or external marketing. But other cities use it or have used it, like Boston, San Francisco, East St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Inglewood, Tuscaloosa, Syracuse, Tampa, and Brockton, to name just a few. There’s nothing unique or particularly Edmonton about the “City of Champions” slogan.

Photo by Paul Sableman

Removing “City of Champions” is low-hanging fruit that could enable us to get started with a fresh slate, Councillor Oshry said. He doesn’t know where this will lead, but if we do end up discussing new signs, he favors simple ones. “They shouldn’t even have the corporation logo on them, it should just be ‘Welcome to Edmonton’ the place.” He also doesn’t want to spend tons of money on new signs. “They don’t have to be the greatest things the City does, but they need to be better than average,” he told me.

Ronna Bremer, Director of Image, Brand, and Marketing (or just “reputation” for short) in Corporate Communications at the City of Edmonton, agrees that the signs should be replaced with something simple but attractive. “What do those dated signs say about our city?” she asked rhetorically. “They should just say ‘Welcome to Edmonton’.”

EEDC and its predecessors have frequently been included in the discussion about entrance signs and slogans (no doubt thanks to the conflation of issues). “The decision about the welcome signs belongs firmly in the hands of the City and City Council,” EEDC CEO Brad Ferguson told me. He added that for what its worth, he thinks “the signs are dated and we need new ones” but stressed “that’s different from needing a new logo and slogan.”

It has been suggested that new signs would only come after the City makes a final decision on a new brand and logo. That would be the wrong approach to take. There are three different things wrapped up in that suggestion – the signs themselves, Edmonton’s brand and identity, and the City of Edmonton’s brand. The signs do not need to include the City of Edmonton’s corporate brand; they exist to welcome visitors to Edmonton, not to the new City of Edmonton office tower or to a recreation facility. It was probably a mistake to put the corporate logo on them in the first place.

The signs should be representative of Edmonton the place. They should reflect Edmonton’s place brand. This is the work that Make Something Edmonton has been doing. They haven’t been trying to figure out what the City’s new logo should be. They’ve been working to identify the essence of Edmonton. From their brand book:

“A place cannot be reduced to a logo and a slogan. It’s more than marketing. The Edmonton brand is about being true to who we are at our best.”

They have come up with “statements of encouragement” which are kind of like slogans, but there are many of them, and you’re supposed to take inspiration from them to create your own. “Be playful about it,” the brand book says. The statements of encouragement are conversation-starters and are “simple, memorable ways to express Edmonton-ness.” But they’re not a collection of possible slogans. It would be wrong to pick one and put it on the entrance signs.

The brand promise is the heart of the place brand:

“If you have the courage to take an idea to reality, to build, to make something, Edmonton is your city.”

That’s what any new entrance signs need to reflect.

So how do we do that? “We could tell people a story as they enter the city,” Todd Babiak told me. He has been working on Make Something Edmonton since the beginning, and he has thought a lot about this. What if instead of a single static slogan, we changed the message on our entrance signs every now and then? What if instead of one entrance sign, we had many, each featuring a different statement of encouragement or example of local makers? We talked about the “City of Champignons” sign that some pranksters plastered over the existing “City of Champions” sign a couple years ago. “You could argue that’s the most Edmonton thing anyone has ever done!” Todd said.

He’s not sure what the answer is, but he knows how we should go about finding it. “There’s a way to build things in Edmonton,” he said. “If you want it to work, invite the community in.”

It sounds difficult, but I think it can work. Right now we don’t see Edmonton’s place brand reflected in very many places. But over the next year or two, if Make Something Edmonton and EEDC are successful at getting others on board, that will change. And then our entrance signs simply need to be consistent with the branding we use elsewhere, like at the airport or at our post secondary institutions. Let’s see what people come up with before trying to design new signs. And please, let’s remember they’re just signs!

In the meantime, we should remove “City of Champions” from Edmonton’s entrance signs to bring clarity to this discussion. The signs don’t need logos or slogans and neither does Edmonton.

You can learn more about the history of Edmonton’s entrance signs here.

What’s next for Make Something Edmonton?

A few weeks ago I attended a discussion hosted by Make Something Edmonton (MSE) at Startup Edmonton. For a few hours on a particularly cold Saturday morning, a handful of former MSE volunteers shared their thoughts on the past year, offering insight into what worked and what didn’t. It was an opportunity to reflect on how MSE has evolved over the last year, and to consider where it should go next. There hadn’t been much communication with volunteers since the final report was produced in September, so many of us were unsure of MSE’s status. It turns out that many things were happening behind the scenes!

Funding Make Something Edmonton

The final report of the City Image & Reputation Task Force was presented to Executive Committee on September 9, 2013. The recommendation that was passed was for EEDC and the task force to work together to:

“operationalize the Make Something Edmonton Initiative, and bring back recommendations to continue implementation of the Make Something Edmonton Initiative, including setting up an agency or other entity, and with a service package developed and funding to be requested for allocation in the 2014 budget.”

In December, a plan for funding MSE was presented to City Council. That plan suggested the following approach:

An Executive Director and Operating Budget would be provided through EEDC.
A Make Something Edmonton Activation Board would be established to provide strategic direction and implementation support.
The Activation Board would be co-chaired by two community leaders, jointly approved by the City Manager and the CEO of EEDC, who would serve a two-year term.
A Leadership Group comprised of the City’s Chief Communications Officer, the CEO of EEDC, and the Co-Chairs, would be established.

It also outlined the allotment of a $2 million budget:

$500,000 for the City of Edmonton to adopt the MSE brand platform in its marketing & communications
$975,000 for MSE through EEDC to fund operations & implementation
$525,000 for EEDC to execute targeted external marketing campaigns

That might seem like a large amount, but it pales in comparison to what has been spent on branding in the past.

An Initiative of EEDC

As a result of that plan, MSE now calls EEDC home:

“As of January 1, 2014, Edmonton Economic Development is proud to steward the Make Something Edmonton Initiative, continuing this grassroots organization’s mandate to make Edmonton a hub for building, creating, changing, for making something. An advisory board will soon be established to ensure connectivity with the vibrant creative and entrepreneurial communities and to keep the spirit of the program alive.”

The idea is for MSE to be part of EEDC’s “coordinated incubator strategy”. That’s basically a fancy way of saying that EEDC provides the necessary supports for organizations like TEC Edmonton, Startup Edmonton, and now MSE so that they can focus on their core objectives.

I asked EEDC’s VP of Marketing & Communications Kevin Weidlich about where he sees MSE fitting in. “I think EEDC is responsible for developing the Edmonton brand,” he said, “but we’re not the only ones.” Kevin was excited about the opportunity for MSE to continue on as a community-led initiative, supported by EEDC, and he sees volunteers as critical advocates for the adoption of the MSE brand in other organizations.

New Co-Chairs

MSE’s new co-chairs are John Mahon, former Executive Director of the Edmonton Arts Council, and Tegan Martin-Drysdale, former Co-Chair of Edmonton Next Gen. They take over from outgoing co-chairs Chris LaBossiere and Amy Shostak. Though her title still reads “interim”, Mary Sturgeon has moved to EEDC to remain as MSE’s Executive Director.

Both John and Tegan spoke eloquently at the event a few weeks ago, sharing some thoughts on how MSE fits into the bigger picture. Both stressed the importance of gathering feedback, and listened intently as everyone in attendance shared their viewpoints on what MSE should be focusing on next. They heard opinions on such things as whether to narrow the focus or whether to go after a broad range of Edmontonians, on whether a physical office was important or not, on how they should be engaging volunteers, and on how other local organizations could be encouraged to adopt the brand.

The big task ahead for John & Tegan is to establish the advisory or activation board, and to determine what structure the organization should take. It’s critical that they establish a plan for the next two years, in conjunction with Mary, so that they can bring the right people on board. I know they’re up to the task.

Anecdotes & Projects

While the MSE website remains operational, it hasn’t been updated as frequently as originally intended. One new feature called Anecdotes was added recently, however. With titles like “make something active” for the Edmonton Ski Club and “make something solid” for Waiward Steel, the stories are meant to both educate and inspire:

“Icons of Edmonton are big, small, strong, strange, strangely profitable, and increasingly global. There are thousands of examples of ideas that started here and grew into extraordinary events, social organizations, businesses, festivals, and community projects. Browse through these profiles and read about Edmontonians, their ideas, and what they’ve created. We’re building an inventory. If you have an example of Edmonton-ness in mind, get in touch and we’ll include it.”

There are nearly 20 anecdotes up on the website so far, and I expect we’ll see many more added in the weeks ahead. You may have seen some billboards around town highlighting some of these stories.

Projects continue to be added, and MSE actively promotes them via its Twitter and Facebook pages. At the moment there isn’t much incentive for a project creator to go back on to the website to update its progress, so that’s one area that the website’s functionality could be improved. I understand there was a laundry list of other improvements identified that have yet to come to fruition too.

Onward!

I was concerned last summer about where MSE would land, so I’m really happy that Make Something Edmonton will continue on as an initiative of EEDC. I think the direction that EEDC is headed is exciting, and I’m sure that MSE will benefit from the new energy and talent they have there. I’m also very happy to see John & Tegan step forward as MSE’s new co-chairs. Both have already given so much to Edmonton, and I know they will be great leaders for the initiative.

Clearly there’s a lot of work still to be done. MSE could reach more people, the essence of the brand could be adopted by more organizations, and project initiators and volunteers could be better and further engaged. I’m optimistic that with its future now certain, MSE can achieve all of that.

EEDC looks to deliver “monumental value” with new energy, identity, and purpose

When Brad Ferguson took over as President & CEO at Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) in the summer of 2012, he knew things had to change. Even though Edmonton’s economic growth remained strong, many leaders throughout the city felt that EEDC could be doing more. Even City Council had begun to lose confidence in the organization, with Councillor Caterina going so far as to suggest that EEDC be shut down if its fortunes weren’t turned around. Brad insisted he was fired up and ready to do the work of remaking the organization.

He wasn’t kidding. The organization today has changed dramatically from the one Brad took over. He opened his speech at last week’s 2014 Impact Luncheon with that context:

“I stood at this podium one year ago knowing a lot had to change. Our organization had lost the confidence of City Council and lost relevance with the business community.”

“I can stand here today proud of the work we’ve done and the changes we’ve made in the last twelve months.”

Over the last year EEDC has clarified its purpose and approach, revamped its brand and visual identity, brought in fresh leadership, and has started to dramatically shift the internal culture of the organization.

Edmonton Economic Development is changing the way it does business. “The culture of winning is what we’re building,” Brad said.

New Purpose & Approach

To bring greater focus to the work of the organization, EEDC has clarified its primary objective:

To ensure the Edmonton Region outperforms every major economic jurisdiction in North America consistently over the next 20 years…regardless if the price of oil is $140 or $40.

That’s a big departure from the organization’s previous (though fleeting) goal statement, which was to become one of the world’s top five mid-sized cities by 2030. It’s a shift from aspirational hyperbole to measurable outcomes, from uncertain ROI for stakeholders to an assured local impact.

In the next three years, Edmonton Economic Development needs to transition from “monumental change” to “monumental value” created for the City of Edmonton.

EEDC’s new website and its 2014-2016 Statement of Intent detail how the organization is evolving to deliver greater value and achieve its objectives. Importantly, EEDC’s strategic direction references the City of Edmonton’s plan on economic development known as The Way We Propser. Rather than duplicating effort or taking different approaches, EEDC envisions itself contributing to the City’s efforts in seven ways. “These seven roles can best be accomplished outside the City of Edmonton, and provide Edmonton Economic Development with a platform for delivering significant value to the economic growth strategy for the City of Edmonton.”

It’s remarkable how little EEDC’s structure has changed since it was formed two decades ago. The four separate organizations that came together have always remained highly visible – the Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton Tourism, the Edmonton Research Park, and Economic Development. The new approach doesn’t completely move away from those historical silos, but it does make a start.

Edmonton Economic Development will be structured as a conglomerate of six divisions, each with their own expectation of performance and accountability.

The six divisions are:

Enterprise Edmonton
Edmonton Tourism
Shaw Conference Centre
Build Edmonton
Brand Edmonton
Corporate Services

Build Edmonton is slated to be approved and established by April, and will take over ownership of the Edmonton Research Park. Corporate Services is an internally-focused division and one of its key goals will be to earn Top Employer awards by 2015.

Brand Edmonton is perhaps the area of the new EEDC that is most in flux. Sometimes mentioned as a division and other times mentioned as a priority, Brand Edmonton will build on the work of Make Something Edmonton to provide brands, campaigns, and plans for building Edmonton’s brand locally and around the world. While the details about how Make Something Edmonton will continue are still being worked out, it’s clear that EEDC will play a significant role in it’s future (for instance, interim executive director Mary Sturgeon has already moved over to EEDC’s offices). It’s a recognition of the fact that EEDC has a key role to play in telling Edmonton’s story.

Priorities and performance measures for each division have been identified and shared publicly in the Statement of Intent, which speaks to both the competitiveness and accountability that Brad is trying to encourage throughout the organization.

Overall, the 2014-2016 period will be defined by “performance” in a way that will forever differentiate the expectation of Edmonton’s economic development organization.

Forget what you think you know about economic development organizations!

New Brand Identity

One of the most visible ways EEDC is changing is of course it’s new brand identity. EEDC last underwent a major change in 2004, when the name Edmonton Economic Development Corporation was announced on May 7. The organization had been known as Economic Development Edmonton prior to that. Then President Allan Scott said the change would “clearly emphasize what we sell: Edmonton.” The following week, EEDC moved into its current offices at the World Trade Centre (they had been at the Shaw Conference Centre before that).

Now EEDC has dropped the word “Corporation” from its public brand. Though officially (on paper) still known as Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, the public-facing brand will simply be Edmonton Economic Development. Much as Apple dropped “Computer” from its name back in 2007 to better reflect its new business strategy, the change at EEDC brings clarity to the organization’s direction. The emphasis is now clearly on economic development, rather than bureaucracy.

More visually, EEDC worked with DDB Edmonton to develop a new logo for the organization and its divisions:

“Our logo reflects Edmonton Economic Development’s vibrant new culture. It is bold, confident and energetic. Its graphic expression tells the story of big ideas transformed into tangible economic progress for Edmonton.”

Here’s the old logo compared with the new one:

EEDC Logo Before & After

Kevin Weidlich, VP of Marketing & Communications at EEDC, told me that “the old look and feel was inconsistent with the direction” that the organization was headed. When he joined in March 2013, he found himself struggling to explain to friends and family what EEDC does. “I realized that lots of energy was focused on ourselves instead of on our clients”, he told me. “Our brand architecture caused that confusion.”

Howard Poon, DDB’s Design Director, had this to say about the new look:

“What we’re doing with this identity is showcasing EEDC’s vibrant new culture, the entrepreneurial spirit. We’re telling the story of how this organization takes big ideas and transforms them into progress for Edmonton. It’s all about energy and momentum.”

The vertical grey line is viewed as the anchor, representing the organization’s established, grounded and trusted team of experts. The green and gold rays are said to be “bursting forth from the anchor” and they represent “the entrepreneurial dreams, ideas, and actions Edmonton Economic Development transforms into reality.” Green and gold are also seen as a nod to Edmonton’s heritage.

Two of EEDC’s divisions have new logos too, Enterprise Edmonton and Edmonton Tourism.

EEDC Logo Before & After

I remarked that the new logos all looked a bit abstract. The DDB design team (which included David Landreth and Adnan Huseinovic) chose that approach because they felt “it better reflects EEDC’s innovative mindset.” Howard said “a literal symbol or icon doesn’t effectively capture the organization’s personality.”

Helene Leggatt, President of DDB Edmonton, spoke positively about working on the project with EEDC. “There seemed to be a unified sense of purpose,” she told me. It can be tricky with multiple stakeholders to get consensus, but she found everyone at EEDC to be really well-aligned. The project took just 10-12 weeks, from start to finish. “They’re pushing more innovative thinking,” she said. “There’s new energy, new focus, and real fire at EEDC.”

Shaw holds the naming rights on the Shaw Conference Centre until 2016, so that logo remains untouched. Though the new EEDC website still highlights just three divisions, other material frequently mentions Build Edmonton and Brand Edmonton too. I think we can expect a logo for Build Edmonton later this year. Brand Edmonton, on the other hand, is currently envisioned as “a new suite of Edmonton Economic Development brands.”

The voice of EEDC is also evolving. The words “leadership”, “entrepreneurship”, “innovation”, and “competitiveness” permeate the language that EEDC now uses to express its mandate. The new brand guidelines say the tone of voice should be smart, inspiring, sincere, confident, and active.

As a result, the work being produced by EEDC now is less corporate and much more confident. Take the vision statement:

Edmonton, Canada’s economic and entrepreneurial powerhouse: A great northern city filled with unlimited entrepreneurship, education and energy that is a beacon toward which people who crave opportunity will come.

You’d be forgiven if the use of the word “powerhouse” surprised you. Elsewhere in the Statement of Intent you’ll find words like “unstoppable” and “scalable”. These words and phrases are used by energetic organizations like Startup Edmonton, not arms-length municipal bodies! That’s the new brand voice in action.

EEDC also launched a new website at IgniteEdmonton.com. The website doesn’t replace Edmonton.com, but it has become the corporate home of the organization. Plans are still being fleshed out, but it is likely that Edmonton.com will become consumer/tourist-focused. I asked Kevin about the choice of the word “ignite” and he said it perfectly captured the new direction of EEDC. Indeed the new brand guidelines use it to describe EEDC as “the spark that ignites success.”

New Energy

If you’re thinking that all EEDC has done is put on a fresh coat of paint, think again. From its divisional structure to its individual employees, EEDC’s internal changes have been significant.

At the 2014 Impact Luncheon Brad noted that 36% of EEDC’s employees have been with the organization less than a year, and 24% are in new roles or are doing things that didn’t previously exist, which means a full two-thirds of the organization is fresh. The organization’s makeup has changed demographically too. Just 12% of EEDC’s employees are baby boomers, while 42% are Generation X and 46% are Generation Y. They have also achieved a 52-48% male-female split.

One of the first new leaders to come on board was D’Arcy Vane, a director of Enterprise Edmonton. In early 2013, he was joined by Glen Vanstone who was previously the Director of Business Innovation at EIA. Kevin Weidlich came on as VP of Marketing & Communications, followed by Maggie Davison just a couple of weeks later as the VP of Tourism.

In April 2013 Derek Hudson joined to take on the role of Chief Operating Officer. In July 2013, Ken Chapman joined as Executive Director of Northern Initiatives. He was previously the Executive Director of the Oil Sands Developers Group, and he brings relationships and experience that EEDC has long lacked.

These are just a few of the new faces at EEDC. As noted, many existing EEDC employees have moved into new roles at the organization too. For instance, Tammy Pidner has taken on the role of Chief Evangelist.

I asked Kevin what the mood was like as a result of all the change. “Many of the new hires have brought skillsets that never existed in the company before,” he said, noting it has increased EEDC’s capacity. He cited Euna Kang, EEDC’s Creative Manager, as someone who has enabled EEDC to do more in-house than ever before.

“The level of excitement in the company now is palpable,” he told me.

Monumental Value?

When I interviewed Brad after he was just a month or so into the job, he already had a clear picture of the direction he wanted EEDC to go. “I want to fundamentally up the value of the organization to the community and to the City of Edmonton,” he said at the time.

The first step in achieving that was revamping the organization. EEDC today is focused, energized, and confident. But change is easier to bring about than increased value is (let alone monumental value). That’s the challenge facing Brad and everyone at EEDC over the next couple of years – translating all of the positive changes of 2012 and 2013 into results.

One of the things EEDC will need to do to find success is avoid distractions. While important, spearheading the work of image and branding for the city has historically been fraught with peril. Likewise, it can be easy to get drawn into the current political hot potato of the day or to start defining economic development too broadly. Focus is one of the most important things that EEDC has found over the last year, and it would be wise not to lose it.

It is often said that culture trumps strategy, but culture is much more difficult to change than strategy is to develop. New divisions, new logos, and new faces – none of these things come easily, and all are important elements of changing the organization’s culture. EEDC recognizes the challenge:

Developing the right corporate culture is a major undertaking that began in August 2012 and is developing into a strategic asset of Edmonton Economic Development that can never be measured on a balance sheet.

Getting the culture right isn’t the only hill to climb. EEDC will need to rebuild confidence in the business community and earn the trust of our new City Council. All of these things will take time and dedication because they require action. Fortunately, taking action appears to be something that the new EEDC is very good at. Brad promised changes, and he delivered.

Edmonton Economic Development’s mission is “to inspire a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness that forever differentiates our city.” If that wasn’t enough to make you a champion, the new energy and approach that Brad has brought to EEDC should be. The next few years are shaping up to be monumentally exciting.

Make Something Edmonton moves forward with 8 recommendations

Today the Mayor’s Task Force on Image and Reputation submitted its final report to Executive Committee. The task force is better known by its adopted name, Make Something Edmonton. In summarizing the work that has been done thus far and recommending next steps, the report draws the task force to a close and marks the start of Make Something Edmonton as a more official thing. Exactly what that thing is however, must still be determined.

Here are the recommendations outlined in the report (which you can download here):

Adopt Edmonton’s Brand
Open the Make Something Edmonton Office
Preserve and Maintain the Citizen-Driven Focus
Recognize and Reward Excellence: The Builders Prize
Promote a “Make Something” Culture
Appoint a Make Something Edmonton “Champion”
Implement an Image and Reputation Strategy
Create and Activate Ambassador & Mentor Networks

Some of these recommendations are obvious while others are a little more interesting.

The first recommendation would see “Make Something Edmonton” become Edmonton’s “brand platform”, the foundation for an image and reputation strategy. This doesn’t necessarily mean that “Make Something Edmonton” replaces “City of Champions” as some have suggested, but it does assert that the story behind MSE is our brand.

The second recommendation calls for the creation of an organization similar in structure to the Edmonton Arts Council, perhaps operating under the umbrella of EEDC. The purpose of the office would be “to develop the words, the tools, and the expertise” to help existing organizations and Edmontonians in general to launch new businesses, promote events and initiatives, and attract others to our city. It would guide the brand. The third recommendation is obvious and somewhat related, calling for an advisory council with representatives from a broad range of sectors.

The fourth recommendation is to create The Builders Prize, an annual cash prize to recognize MSE projects. “$30,000 will be awarded to one outstanding and completed Make Something Edmonton project. The recipient of the $30,000 prize will then award four $5,000 Catalyst Prizes to other Make Something Edmonton projects in progress.” I love the twist there – the grand prize winner must award the smaller prizes.

The fifth recommendation is again fairly obvious, and also probably the most difficult to action. Some suggestions include offering a MSE award as part of the Awards of Excellence, and embedding “What are you making? How can we help?” on City of Edmonton business cards.

I’m perhaps most excited to see the sixth recommendation, which calls for a “champion” to operate out of the City Manager’s office. This person’s job would be something like an ombudsperson for MSE. They would help navigate City of Edmonton bylaws and rules, and would work to streamline things for future makers. City Manager Simon Farbrother has endorsed this idea.

The seventh recommendation is really for the organization created out of recommendation #2 and its to implement a strategy and communications plan. As a result of this you should see the brand story and image appear throughout communications from all of Edmonton’s prominent organizations, businesses and institutions.

The final recommendation is really something the task force has already been doing. The idea is to create “an informal training program” to go out and tell the MSE story to anyone who will listen. An addition would be the mentor network, made up of people who have already made and built things in Edmonton, to help new makers get their own ideas off the ground.

The report concludes with:

This is only the beginning of Make Something Edmonton. The first phase of our work was to discover the Edmonton Story and to activate it with early adopters. Now we begin to actively find – to use marketing parlance – the “early majority.”

It also promised a new website and advertising campaign to launch this fall.

I feel like the report and recommendations address many of the concerns I raised in my post from July. Executive Committee this morning decided to request that a funding package be put forward as part of the budget in order to move these recommendations forward. I think this is an initiative that deserves ongoing support from the City of Edmonton, even if it ultimately lives with EEDC or elsewhere, and I am optimistic that Council feels the same way.

Kudos to everyone involved with Make Something Edmonton on progressing to this point!

The Make Something Edmonton Rope

What’s a rope? "A rope is a linear collection of plies, yarns or strands which are twisted or braided together in order to combine them into a larger and stronger form," according to Wikipedia. I like to think of Make Something Edmonton (MSE) as a rope. As such, it’s made up of a number of different strands that had to come together. There are three strands that I want to highlight.

strand

The first started with a wall.

In the spring of 2011 while still working at the Edmonton Journal, Todd Babiak wrote a series of stories on what he called "interventions". It began with the blank, unattractive wall that he saw every day when looking out the window. Todd wanted to do something about it, so he wrote about it. And he encouraged readers to email him with their suggestions.

A few months later at the downtown-focused Pecha Kucha 10, Todd spoke about the interventions project. He stole the show that night with a hilarious, entertaining, and thought-provoking presentation. Todd called Edmonton "a magpie town" and shared with us a lesson he learned through the interventions process: "I should have asked people to do something, then email me."

Six months later, Todd had a new startup called Story Engine, and he found himself pitching the City of Edmonton. "I had worked on the City Vision for 2040, and I had noticed — in community halls all over the city — that citizens were obsessed with the Edmonton story," he later wrote. Todd wanted to help tell that story. He was persuaded to start a blog, appropriately called magpietown, and he used it to explore the ideas that would form the groundwork for Make Something Edmonton.

The second strand is a long one. If you follow it back far enough, you might find yourself at Edmonton’s beginning.

Like most cities, we aspire to be recognized and loved on the world stage. We want our city’s image to be positive and well-received. Branding is a part of forming that image, and over the years there have been numerous attempts at identifying or creating our brand. We’ve always had this inferiority complex, and many Edmontonians have tried to do something about it. Most recently, the City of Edmonton embarked on a project called Edmonton Stories. By most accounts it was a disappointment, masked only by the repositioning of the project as a tool for recruiting rather than as a tool for emboldening Edmonton’s image.

Last year, the issue once again came up at City Council. One of the outcomes of The Way We Propser was a desire by those involved to better define and communicate our city identity. So in July 2012, Council decided to strike a task force. It got off to a rocky start due to significant differences in approach, but by the fall everything was in place.

That’s when Brad Ferguson, the new CEO of EEDC, spoke up about the issue. "On a scale of one to 10, we’re a one and a half. I’m not going to sugar-coat it," he told Council. All of a sudden, the new task force on image and branding became even more important.

The third and final strand I want to highlight is probably pretty boring to most people, but it’s highly intriguing to a City-watcher like myself.

Since 2006, the "big C" City (the City of Edmonton) has been undergoing a significant transformation. A new City Manager, a new approach to visioning and planning, and a progressive Council working cohesively to move things forward all contributed to a very different mood around City Hall.

One of the side effects of that transformation, in my opinion, has been an expansion in the kinds of things the City is willing to take on. Whereas in the past certain things may have been ignored because they were not seen as central to the City’s mandate (such as establishing a Food Council), today there’s almost an expectation that the City tackle such endeavours. On the whole this has probably been a good thing for citizens.

I think the City has gone back-and-forth on who should own the image and branding piece. Should it be Communications? Should it be a new City-led office? Should it be a partner, most logically EEDC? If the expansion trend continues, I would not be surprised to see some within the City push for MSE to remain a City-led initiative.

These and other strands all came together to form Make Something Edmonton. How exactly the strands came together, I don’t know for sure. But I like to imagine that the committee was sitting around trying to figure out how to get from being 1.5 out of 10 to something better, and Todd said, "I have an idea!" He pitched Make Something Edmonton and everyone declared, "our work here is done!" That’s probably unfair to everyone who put some significant volunteer time into the project, and I don’t mean to belittle that effort. But I also think it’s probably not far from the truth.

The initiative, or movement, or experiment – take your pick – officially launched in March of this year with a splashy party attended by the same people who always show up at these sorts of things. It was a good start, and the launch party was energizing and created a certain amount of momentum. There have been a number of really successful projects added to the website, and the Twitter hashtag remains as popular as ever. It’s a great way to showcase the many exciting things happening in Edmonton.

There is, however, a certain amount of spin surrounding Make Something Edmonton. It was evident at the launch party, and has become somewhat more evident in recent weeks.

Is MSE a grassroots movement, by the people for the people? The funding and committee structure behind it would suggest otherwise. There’s a big MSE committee, and a number of smaller sub-committees, all made up of the same 300 or so people who get involved in most things. Furthermore, that committee is expected to submit a report back to Council. It is, after all, just an expanded form of the task force that Council struck.

Is MSE a new approach to city branding, because traditional branding doesn’t work? The process would seem to suggest otherwise. The City hired a firm to design the MSE logo and identity, and another firm to build the website. There was Brand Camp a few weeks ago, but the only element of it that didn’t resemble a traditional branding exercise was that it was called Brand Camp. It was a bunch of people in room talking with no clear idea about what the outcome should be. Pretty typical consultation piece for a branding exercise if you ask me.

Does MSE tap into a fundamental truth about Edmonton? I feel it does, but many others dispute this point. "Can’t I make things in Winnipeg?" they ask. "Maker is too exclusive," others will say. If MSE isn’t resonating with the smaller group of the same 3000 people that are already hyper-engaged, how can we ever hope to get to 30,000? Or to 300,000?

Since March there have been a number of smaller MSE-related events (like Brand Camp), but the big success has undoubtedly been the creation of the website and its listing of hundreds of projects. I think "maker" is absolutely the right word, because otherwise we’ll end up with the lowest common denominator and that’ll get us exactly nowhere. It needs to be aspirational. Seeing all of the projects on the website and thinking about all of the people behind them gets me incredibly excited about our city.

But as great as that website and all of those projects are, thinking about them inevitably leads to the question that I’ve been hearing people ask more and more: what’s next?

The City of Edmonton has funded MSE so far (by way of the task force on image and reputation) which means they not only feel a sense of ownership, but need to be careful about how they spend the money. It also means that MSE is going up against everything else the City does for resources. And practically it means there will need to be a report that goes back to Council.

Another thing is that while our current Mayor and City Council support the initiative, they’re gone in October. There’s no guarantee that the next Council will be as supportive. So you can almost certainly expect the report to come out before then.

Beyond that, I’m not sure anyone knows what’s next. Maybe there’s not even a correct answer. Let’s phrase the question differently: what are we going to do with this rope?

Are we going to have a tug-of-war to see who hangs on the tightest? Are we going to give up and let it collapse into a pile on the ground? Or are we going to keep using it to climb ahead?

I hope we can use it to keep climbing ahead, but to do so we’ll need to know what outcome we’re moving toward.

Here are some suggestions on how we can establish that:

Let’s figure out where Make Something Edmonton will live. Right now I think it should be EEDC, because if it remains City-led there’s too great a risk that politics and/or bureaucracy will cause it to fail (or at least to hold it back). (And if we’re going to give it to EEDC, let’s ask them to drop something that doesn’t align as closely with their vision and strategic plan as a consequence.)
Let’s recognize that there’s a difference between the organization that funds & supports Make Something Edmonton, and the people who lead it. EEDC can provide meeting space, coffee, and administrative support, but it doesn’t need to be EEDC staff setting the direction.
Let’s identify the gaps between the successful projects and the ones that haven’t gotten off the ground. That’ll help us seed opportunities and remove barriers for makers, hopefully resulting in even more great projects for our city.
Let’s clearly define our desired outcomes. We want the language, tools, and confidence to be able to talk about Edmonton. From there, we want the City of Edmonton, EEDC, the University of Alberta, Northlands, and everyone else to make use of that toolkit.

Thoughts?

Recap: Make Something Edmonton Launch Party

Tonight a few hundred Edmontonians gathered at the Avenue Theatre on 118 Avenue to celebrate the launch of Make Something Edmonton. With lots of buzz about the initiative but few details on the launch event itself, attendees arrived both excited and curious. Something was happening, but what? How would the evening unfold?

Sharon and I caught the specially chartered ETS shuttle from City Hall which dropped us off right in front of the theatre. It turns out our driver, who was just 19 years old, had only moved to Edmonton a couple of months ago. He’d always wanted to be a bus driver, he told us, and he came here to make it happen! While enjoying the ride we chatted with The Local Good’s Tad Hargrave, catching up on one another’s projects and blueskying Make Something Edmonton. That sort of set the tone for the evening.

We found the Avenue Theatre already buzzing with activity when we got there just after 5:30pm. Volunteers scanned tickets, checked coats, and welcomed us. We entered the theatre and found it completely transformed. The seating was gone, and the space had been converted into a two-level open room, with tables around the edges and the stage at the front. There were lights, cameras, food, and the pleasant sounds of connections being made and ideas being spread.

We split up and said hi to as many people as we could. It was a veritable who’s-who of the hyper-engaged in attendance, and I felt like every direction I looked there were familiar faces to greet. People continued to pour in and after a few brief delays to ensure the shuttles could all make it through the snow, the formal program got underway.

Mayor Mandel took the stage first to welcome everyone and to say a few things about the project. I had managed to snag a few minutes with him just before the program began, and he seemed totally pumped about Make Something Edmonton. Who cares what people outside the city think, he told us. What matters is getting Edmontonians on board with the idea that Edmonton is a great place to make something. If we can do that, the rest will come. Mayor Mandel then brought Randy Boissonnault, a local entrepreneur, literacy advocate, and public speaker, to the stage. As our MC for the evening, Randy shared a few introductory thoughts and then welcomed Todd Babiak to the stage to provide some history.

I really feel like tonight was Todd’s night. He would probably tell you that Edmontonians are the ones who came up with Make Something Edmonton, but he’s the one who listened to what we had to say and helped us put our thoughts into words. Todd spoke of Edmonton’s history of collaborating and building, and of our struggles with civic identity. He framed Make Something Edmonton as our city’s story, and noted that “a story is about choice.” Some in the room had made the choice to come to Edmonton, others had made the choice to stay.

Here’s the video he showed to help tell the Make Something Edmonton story:

Next we heard from four makers. Lewis Cardinal kicked things off by discussing the importance of our city’s history. He introduced words like Pehonan and Monto. Our pehonan (“gathering place”) is where Edmonton was born, the area we now call the Rossdale Flats. Monto, which is found in our city’s name – Edmonton – refers to our spirit. You can learn more in the Spirit of Edmonton presentation.

The second speaker was Dave Mowat, who shared his idea for lighting up the High Level Bridge. It would take 45,360 LED bulbs to light the bridge, he told us, and the money for the project will come not from the government, but from Edmontonians themselves. His presentation was a lot like the one he delivered at Pecha Kucha 14, but with some new visuals to help illustrate the idea.

Third was Christy Morin of Arts on the Ave. She welcomed everyone to Alberta Avenue and gave some background and context to the ongoing revitalization of the area. The initiative got underway over eight years ago because she was sick of the crime and knew the community could be different. “The beauty that hides behind the crime and grime,” is what she wanted to help expose.

The final presentation was from Rob and Kirk who are looking to launch the Edmonton Keg Roll. They got the idea from the annual Cheese Rolling event that takes place near Gloucester in England. So why a keg roll? “Edmonton isn’t known for its cheese making,” they told us, “but we do make fine beer.” The winner will get, appropriately, a keg of beer. Their presentation was my favorite, both for its whimsy and for its seductive simplicity.

Make Something Edmonton co-chair Chris LaBossiere brought the formal program to close by thanking all of the volunteers and attendees, and by introducing the rest of the makers who were in the room. In addition to the featured makers, attendees could check out the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters, Make Jen’s Day, The Found Art Project, Gillian’s Just Right, Little Warriors, Edmonton’s Next Gen, and The Startup City Project. Chris highlighted the fact that Make Something Edmonton needs to “change the culture of our whole city,” to make it easier for projects to move forward. “Welcome to Edmonton, what are you making, how can I help?” is how he described the new approach.

The new Make Something Edmonton website went live this afternoon, and it features the ability for you to add your own project and to discover other projects that Edmontonians are working on:

Explore how your neighbours are making the city more fun, more beautiful, more caring, more profitable, sillier and sassier and stupider and smarter. Join them, help them, launch your own project.

There are already a couple of dozen projects up on the site, and I’m sure we’ll see many more added over the next few days.

Thank you #yeg for helping us kick off #makesomethingyeg. Talk to the makers and start your own projects. #makesomethingyeg

— Make Something YEG (@makeitYEG) March 22, 2013

I left the launch party feeling energized (it didn’t take long for Sharon and I to start plotting a future project). I think Make Something Edmonton has really tapped into the core of what makes Edmonton the city it is, and I’m glad that so many people are supporting the initiative already. We’re going to need all the help we can get – moving beyond the hyper-engaged and connecting with the average Edmontonian is going to be a much bigger challenge than we’ve faced thus far. As the launch day blog post states:

A city is not like a new soap or a box of cookies or a chain of restaurants. How can you sum up the spirit of a million people in a few words, a pretty logo, a big sign at the corporate limits?

You can’t. But:

This city does have a story. It does have an identity. It does have a spirit. Make Something Edmonton is an evocation of that spirit.

I want to say a big congratulations to Toscha Turner, Thomas Scott, and the entire event subcommittee who worked really hard to make tonight happen. The “YEG Heads” were great, the livestreaming via the Edmonton Journal seemed to work well, and there were lots of volunteers on hand to ensure everything went smoothly. It feels great to have Make Something Edmonton out in the open, and tonight’s event was a great way to kick that off!

Stay tuned to Make Something Edmonton on Twitter at @makeitYEG and on Facebook. You can check out more of my photos from the evening here, and you can re-watch the video here.

What are you making? How can I help?

Proudly waving the Make Something Edmonton banner

Why Edmonton? I’m often asked this question. As if I somehow need to justify why I spend so much of my time experiencing the city, thinking about it, writing about it. Or maybe people ask it because they can’t fathom why I would choose to live here, of all places. Why choose Edmonton over some other place?

Some people ask that question because they’ve already made up their minds about Edmonton, and they don’t like it. They ask the question because they want to compare their negative vision with someone who appears to have a much more positive one. Some people ask because they want to explain why they have chosen Edmonton, but they’re not sure how. Others ask the question from a neutral point of view. Some days they like Edmonton, other days they don’t. Maybe I can move them a little closer to the positive side with my response, but they won’t stay there for long. They like sitting on the fence.

I don’t like being asked this question, mostly because I don’t have a good answer for it. And yet it is a good question to ask. I want to respond with a well-rehearsed elevator pitch, but instead I usually spit out something about opportunity and how Edmonton is such a great place to live. Blech. I just can’t articulate what I feel, what I know to be true. I think a lot of Edmontonians struggle with that.

Why do I live here? I was born here. My siblings live here. Most of my extended family lives here. And now, my life is here. My friends, my work, my partner. But that’s the easy answer. I could find work elsewhere. I could keep in touch with friends and family from afar. So, why do I still live here?

It’s true that Edmonton is a great place to live, and I can rattle off all the statistics that help to illustrate why this is so. Per capita income is about $11,000 higher and unemployment is about 2% lower than the national average. There are more than 160 kilometers of trails in our river valley parks, the longest urban parkland system in North America. Three quarters of Edmontonians live within a 20-minute walk of a natural area. The Edmonton Public School system is regularly cited as the model for other jurisdictions in North America. About 60% of waste is diverted from landfill, and we’re on track to increase that number to 90% by 2015. Our water is some of the best in the world. Over the last three-year capital investment cycle, a record $3.3 billion was invested in capital infrastructure projects. We have more than 2200 hours of sunlight each year.

I could go on, but so what? Nearly every city has a similar list of positive features. How does any of that differentiate Edmonton? There are lots of cities that could be said to offer great quality of life. You don’t even have to go very far to find one.

There must be something more to Edmonton.

Maybe that something, in a word, is opportunity. Edmonton is a city in which it is possible to get things done. We’re big enough to be considered a large city and to have the affordances (and challenges) that go along with that, yet we’re small enough that the degree of separation between the average Edmontonian and the city’s power brokers is quite small. But it’s more than that. You don’t need permission here to take action, and people are always willing to lend a hand if you ask for it, even the so-called power brokers, in my experience.

Edmonton has always been a city of opportunity. In the early 19th century, Edmonton was an important fort in the North American fur trade. As the 20th century approached, thousands flocked to Edmonton on their way to the Last Great Gold Rush. Many stayed. Just after the second world war, oil was discovered near Leduc, and we quickly became known as the Oil Capital of Canada. A sense of opportunity seems to be ingrained in our civic culture.

But don’t other cities also have opportunity? Of course they do. The thing is that in Edmonton, you can have an impact. You can act on that opportunity and do something and make a difference.

Todd Babiak has been writing about this topic a lot lately. He too likes to ask the question, Why Edmonton? I’ve come to really like his answer. Here’s how he explains it:

People are growing things in every city in the world, but we’re doing it differently in Edmonton. Our economy and our culture, that spirit of openness and curiosity, of urban barn-building, is peculiar. People say it in different ways: this is the best place to build, to create, to get ‘er done. To make something. It always has been.

This is our past and our present. Edmontonians know this. They arrive at this truth, when you talk to them long enough. But we don’t say it to each other and we don’t say it to people in Toronto, in New York, in Beijing.

I think that’s the truth I was having trouble articulating. Todd calls this Make Something Edmonton, and in recent weeks many Edmontonians have embraced the idea by using the #MakeSomethingYeg hashtag on Twitter.

Make Something Edmonton is a call-to-action. It’s about building up rather than tearing down. It’s simple and powerful. It is broad enough to encompass the great diversity found in our city, yet it doesn’t fall into the trap of being vanilla. It encourages story rather than sound bites. But perhaps the most important thing about Make Something Edmonton is that it is participatory. Anyone and everyone can make something here, and that’s why it is meaningful.

Why Edmonton? Because if you have the courage to make something, Edmonton is your city.

Thanks to Todd, I now have some vocabulary to address why I love this city. Just like any of you, I can take the Make Something Edmonton banner and wave it proudly.

But saying that naturally leads to a question – what does the banner look like? What exactly is Make Something Edmonton? Does it fit into the various branding exercises we’ve undertaken over the years? Could it be the next one? Todd discussed the notion of a Make Something Edmonton campaign back in October:

If this is going to work, it has to be a call and an invitation to all Edmontonians — not just the creative class types. In Edmonton, you can make something beautiful. You can make something new, make something big, make something global, make something delicious, make something green, make something north, make something odd, make something unforgettable, make something true. We have anecdotes to prove all of these and more.

I like that Make Something Edmonton is inclusive and that all Edmontonians can participate. It doesn’t matter what you’re making, as long as you’re making something. Sure that makes it a little bit messy, and it certainly makes it more difficult to fit into a “traditional campaign”, but I think that’s one of the greatest things about Make Something Edmonton. It’s more than just a slogan or a logo, because Edmonton and Edmontonians should not be reduced to such things.

Clearly there’s tremendous upside to having three simple words like Make Something Edmonton to help articulate the complexity behind why Edmonton is different. The downside is that it’s all too easy to jump from those words straight to the notion of a brand or campaign. To ask what the banner looks like. I say, who cares? Just make something, and wave that banner proudly!

The Alberta Party’s Big Idea Night (and new brand)

Earlier today the Alberta Party unveiled its new logo and brand package. I’ll admit that I wasn’t an immediate fan of the new logo. Putting speech bubbles inside the provincial shield feels more obvious than clever, at least at first blush. I’ve been thinking about it though, and I actually kind of like how direct it is. The logo conveys its message in a clear and very to-the-point fashion. And I do have to admit that the speech bubble element itself is rather smart, as Chris pointed out:

My favourite part of this brand strategy, is the “Speech Bubble”. The pull-apart element of the logo will become part of how our supporters will be able to make this brand their own. The number of ways that this can become personalized to each member, constituency association, community or neighborhood, are endless.

As I descended the steps at the Shaw Conference Centre tonight on my way to the Big Idea event (I attended as media), I passed a number of volunteers wearing black tee shirts featuring the new visual identity. Set against a dark background, the new logo is definitely attractive. The fonts used are Avant Garde Gothic Bold and Book.

Here’s how the Big Idea Night was described on the Alberta Party website:

Join us for an evening of fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking and inspiring presentations from our members, supporters and friends. Do you have a great idea for our province? An innovative way of doing something? A vision for Alberta in 20 years?

Think “mini-Pecha Kucha”. Each speaker got five minutes to share their “big idea” with no time for questions (but plenty of time for networking afterward). The speakers tonight were, in order of appearance:

Dennis Lenarduzzi – Logo
Everett Smith – Vision 2031: Rewarding civic duty & community service
Danielle Klooster – Community culture by design: Penhold on purpose
Connie Jensen – A few tips for a proactive campaign
Lisa Maria Fox – Brining public to policy
Glenn Taylor – This is my voice
Jesse Row – My big idea
Wade Ferguson – Welcome to Vermillion: accelerating innovation in sustainability

It just so happened that one of the first people I ran into at the event was Dennis Lenarduzzi, Associate Creative Director at Red The Agency. He’s the man behind the new logo, and he shared with me that he was particularly excited to see people using the logo in new ways already. He was also the first presenter tonight, and I thought he did a great job discussing the “common ground. common sense.” slogan and other new brand elements. He emphasized that the logo is for all Albertans, not just the Alberta Party.

Dennis Lenarduzzi

Everett Smith talked about his vision for Alberta, and focused on volunteers. He suggested adjusting taxes to reward Albertans that volunteer. Danielle Klooster talked about community culture, and had an intriguing slide labeled “Bad Stuff in the ‘Burbs”. Connie Jensen suggested Alberta Party members should organize their own “Concerned Citizens for Democracy” groups. She also said she wants to see 40+ seats go to the Alberta Party or she’ll be disappointed! Lisa Maria Fox talked about policy and the public, and spent a bit of time discussing deliberative democracy, crowdsourcing, and other ideas. Glenn Taylor started off by talking about Shane Koyczan and how his poetry slams had inspired him, then he left the stage while he showed a video of Koyczan’s “This is my Voice”. Jesse was a good speaker and had some interesting ideas, such as an American Idol or Star Search-like competition for selecting candidates. Finally, Wade (who’s last name I didn’t catch) talked about Vermillion Canada.

Remember I said to think mini-Pecha Kucha? Tonight reminded me of PKN in both style and content. There was definitely a range of presentations – from solid, on-point ones like Dennis’ to totally-ignoring-the-concept ones like Glenn’s to pitches like Wade’s. I didn’t feel overwhelmed with big ideas. In that respect, I found the evening a little disappointing. Of course it takes guts to get up in front of a crowd and talk for five minutes, so kudos to the presenters for that.

That said, what other political party is embracing this kind of approach? It may not have been perfect, but the Alberta Party’s Big Idea Night is exactly the kind of thing I’d like to see more of. I hope they do it again (after learning from tonight’s experience, of course).

Tonight’s event was the kickoff for the Alberta Party Leadership Convention which takes place all day tomorrow at the Shaw Conference Centre. You can learn more about the candidates here and you can follow along on Twitter using the #abpleader hashtag. You can see the rest of my photos from the evening here.

Get Closer: Meet the new Edmonton Valley Zoo

The Edmonton Valley Zoo, which opened in 1959, is in the midst of a major transformation. City Council approved a Master Plan to revitalize the zoo in 2005, and in 2009 finally committed some funding to the project. Over the last year or so we’ve started to see signs of progress, with the September 2010 opening of a new veterinary hospital and construction of the $16.7 million Arctic Shores habitat well underway. The zoo’s historic Storyland characters are now gone to make way for the new construction projects. There’s a long way to go still, but the vision is coming to life.

Though the Master Plan had been approved for four years, the realization that things were going to change didn’t sink in for Denise Prefontaine and her team until the funding announcement was made. As the Director of the Valley Zoo, Denise saw incredible opportunity with the Master Plan, and still gets quite excited when she talks about all of the plans. “It will help change the perception of the zoo,” she told me. When details of the Master Plan were first revealed, there was a lot of talk that the Valley Zoo was going to try to compete with the Calgary Zoo. Denise set the record straight: “The Valley Zoo will continue to grow as an educational and conservation facility; the footprint will not change.” She knew what the zoo was all about, but clearly it wasn’t be communicated as well as it could have been.

In early 2010, Denise decided to bring a group of people together to look at the zoo’s brand. They held a workshop, talked about the plans for the zoo, and to their surprise quickly coalesced around a shared vision. “We wanted to build on the strengths of the zoo,” she recalled. “It’s a warm place to be, you can interact with the animals.” Here’s the new vision statement for the Edmonton Valley Zoo:

A special place that inspires love and learning of animals and nature.

“When people saw the vision statement, they said ‘yep, that’s it!’” The exercise was useful, but it was also just part of a bigger learning process for the team. They quickly realized how much work and thought goes into building a successful brand. “It affects so much more than just your logo,” Denise told me. In addition to the vision statement, there are four key values embodied in the brand:

Stewardship – True stewards, staff at the Edmonton Valley Zoo provide the highest quality care at home and strongly support conservation efforts worldwide.
Conservation – Passionately practice environmental stewardship.
Education – Encourage and inspire learning through engaging and memorable events and activities.
Engagement – Fun experiences and rich interactions create lasting memories.

The new brand also features five characteristics that the zoo aspires to:

Intimate
Inspiring
Nurturing
Natural
Cool

It’s about connecting with the animals. It’s about intimate experiences that make learning accessible and stimulating. It’s about a high quality of life for the animals living at the zoo. It’s about connecting with nature and learning how to help conserve the planet for future generations. It’s about new state-of-the-art facilities to allow you to observe clearly, and engage authentically. It’s about getting closer.

“The fundamental experience of human/animal bonding and its benefits for animals, people, learning and our society and environment.”

If the brand is all about getting closer, the challenge became conveying that in a logo. The solution? Eyes!

As of today the Valley Zoo will begin using its new logos. Yes, that’s plural. “The zoo has many different faces, so we have a series of logos rather than just one,” Denise told me. Each logo features a different animal face, with the eyes standing in for the letter ‘o’ in the word zoo. “We tried it with lots of different eyes, and some just didn’t work.” They currently have eight logos, but may add more in the future.

Through the use of the animal’s eyes, the logo brings you closer, which is exactly what the zoo aims to do. Calder Bateman is responsible for the creative work, which is really the only part of the brand that hasn’t been shared until now. “We’ve been using brand personality internally since last year, but not the visual identity,” Denise said. Each logo features its own color palette, and all use the Haptic font (with Arial serving as the secondary/alternate font). The placement of the words is reminiscent of the Valley Zoo Development Society’s logo.

The new logo and brand are appropriate given the physical transformation underway at the zoo, but I just had to ask about leaving the old logo behind. “Our current logo gives the mistaken impression that the zoo is about just one animal,” Denise told me. Do a search online and it doesn’t take long to come across the controversy surrounding Lucy, the zoo’s elephant. But that wasn’t really a factor in creating the new visual identity. “Eventually the zoo will no longer have elephants,” Denise noted.

The new logos put the animals front and centre. “Using multiple faces lends itself to both serious and fun,” Denise told me. They’ve certainly been embracing that notion – last night the website went offline to make way for a new one, so visitors were greeted with the picture to the right and the following message:

We just need a bit of time to look our best for everyone – shedding our skin, preening our feathers, fluffing our fur.

The goal was to have the website plus all signage, advertisements, uniforms, and other materials using the new visual identity starting today.

As a way to celebrate the new brand and direction for the Edmonton Valley Zoo, the City is holding a contest on Facebook and at Connections 2011 (on ShareEdmonton). If you can correctly match one of the zoo’s new logos with the animal it represents, you’ll be entered into a draw for a family pass to the zoo! Also, as part of the zoo’s celebration weekend on May 7 and 8, visitors can take part in a special scavenger hunt to match some of the logo animals with their real life counterparts among the 350 animals living at the Valley Zoo. For more information, check out the new Edmonton Valley Zoo website.

From the moment I saw the new logos, I loved them. After learning a bit more about the reasons behind the new brand and the journey the Valley Zoo has embarked on, I love them even more. What do you think?

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Funding Make Something Edmonton

An Initiative of EEDC

New Co-Chairs

Anecdotes & Projects

Onward!

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New Purpose & Approach

New Brand Identity

New Energy

Monumental Value?

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