Recap! Hub Ottawa’s Pop Up Weekend
Jason is one of the founders of Hub Ottawa – Ottawa’s interdisciplinary social innovation studio, opening winter 2011/2012.
Ten months ago (Feb 2011) we thought we’d just go out and talk to a few people to gauge whether Ottawa could support a Hub. Having heard some interest, we thought we’d host a purposeful networking/social innovation showcase event to accelerate and celebrate the social impact of Ottawa’s growing community of change-makers. We knew we were on to something after that first event sold out, and quickly undertook writing a feasibility report to make our case to the Hub General Assembly for why Ottawa should be given a license to open a Hub. Ultimately, along with Hubs New York, Dubai, Los Angeles, and Seoul, Hub Ottawa was confirmed as a Hub in development, and this past weekend we took another big step towards realizing our goal of a socially enterprising Ottawa by briefly opening Hub Ottawa’s doors to the public.
Jane Porter facilitating the crowd
For the entire weekend people were stopping in to sign up for membership, tour the space, providing their input on Hub Ottawa’s design, and just hanging out in the deconstructed space on the 6th floor of 71 Bank. In addition to the open house, we hosted a design charrette for Algonquin College and Carleton University’s brightest design and architecture students. From stunning technical design solutions like ribbon seating and 3 zone shelving to deep conceptual understanding of co-laborative spaces, the Hub Ottawa founding team and those in the audience were floored by the creativity and potential of Ottawa’s young designers. Even the Ottawa Citizen stopped by to see the final product (Nov.28’11 article http://bit.ly/vrR7tL). A special thanks goes out to the students and the design experts who stopped in to mentor the teams, and thank you to our Hub Pop Up sponsors who’s support allowed for both a comfortable and productive weekend!
Now where do we go from here? Well we need to complete 2 phases of construction over the next few months, but we’re excited to
Design Charrette students listening attentively
offer the Hub at no charge during Hub Beta in January to individuals who have signed up as a member. If you’re interested in becoming a member, send us an email (hubottawa2011@gmail.com), or keep an eye out for our December open-house schedule – one of the founders will be at the Hub for a few hours every day.
To wrap up this longer post (sorry), over the last few months we’ve answered some pretty fundamental questions:
a) Yes, Ottawa can support a Hub.
b) While there are a lot of things about Ottawa that are predictable/institutional, we’re in a transition, and young social entrepreneurs are on the vanguard (http://bit.ly/o4J4bp).
c) If you have a promising idea to improve your community, by surrounding yourself with a network of like-minded individuals and supportive mentors, you can achieve some amazing results in a short amount of time.
While we still have a ways to go before Hub Ottawa is up and running, and there are certainly challenges ahead, with a supportive community, ambitious members, and a great network of mentors, we’re confident that Hub Ottawa is going to do great things for this city. And you’re invited…
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[...] just did the recap on the Pop Up Weekend on the Hub blog so won’t say too much more except - wow, after all of that hard work [...]
I was excited to see what you guys are doing and can’t wait to see it in full action! #highfive