HomeMy WebLinkAboutEDAC - 2015-09-23
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES
September 23, 2015 City of Kitchener
The Economic Development Advisory Committee met this date, chaired by Councillor Paul Singh with the
following members present: Adrian Conrad, Councillor Bil Ioannidis, Cory Ernst, Jeremy Auger, Kevin Fergin,
Mark Bingeman, Philip Jones, Councillor Scott Davey, and Shantal Myers.
Staff in attendance: Brian Bennett, Chris Farrell, Janette MacDonald, Kim Feere, Rod Regier, Silvia Di Donato,
Thom Ryan, Val Bradford, Sandy Curzon, Carrie Kozlowski, Krista Blake, and Eowyn Spencer
Business Items
1.
On motion the minutes of the August 26, 2015 meeting were approved as circulated.
1.1.
This item was on the agenda in New Business item 3.1. Thom Ryan gave a brief update on the
1.2.
upcoming Passport to Success program. Passport is an annual event that takes place during
Oktoberfest, and is a joint effort of Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo, and Canada’s Technology
Triangle to showcase the region for investors from around the world. Thom requested that members
contact him in regards to any potential attendees for this year or next.
2. Presentation Items
Rod Regier gave a brief introduction to the upcoming presentation, stating that EDAC was about to be
2.1.
introduced to the many projects clustered around the pillars and theme of Make it Kitchener, economic
development’s new strategy. Rod qualified that each project and project concept about to be discussed
are largely dependent on our private sector partners, and that we (the City) are facilitators or
supporters for most of these projects. These project concepts are being introduced to discuss possible
implementation strategies, but final decisions will ultimately need to be approved by council.
Janette proceeded with a presentation introducing projects that correlate to the six pillars and main
theme of the Make it Kitchener strategy. A brief overview of each pillar was reiterated, followed by an
outline of implementation projects including several ideas to turn the Make it Kitchener concepts from
words in to action. Projects ideas include: expanding the Landing Pad program, exploring pop-up retail
ideas, embracing advanced manufacturing, a manufacturing incubator, accommodating a music and
media hub and creating one-year employment contract for music and media officer, integrating multiple
uses for City owned assets, expanding our reach to partner cities and opening up the innovation
corridor, evaluating our fibre and wireless infrastructure.
The Make it Kitchener project team plans to move forward, presenting the project list to council on
th
October 5. Each of these projects will be carefully planned and will be presented for council’s
consideration individually as they come up over the course of the implementation process.
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Janette concluded the presentation by revealing the design outline of the Make it Kitchener publication.
2.2.
This publication will feature photography of actual people making actual products. The maker concept
is strong throughout the publication and the completed project will illustrate the power we have to drive
innovation and showcase the makers of Kitchener.
Key highlights of feedback from the discussion include:
Pop-up retail could introduce space related issues because of the potentially small number of
landlords willing to lease space for shorter terms
Supporting initiatives of fibre and bandwidth throughout The City and partnering with the
Region on this initiative
Collaborating with Cambridge and Waterloo for a music and media hub. A tangible benefit to
this would need to be presented to council
Creating a position on a one-year contract for a music and media officer
Co-locating major creative events with music events
Expanding the conversation with Toronto mayor regarding transportation and investment
between the innovation supercluster hubs
The discussion came to a close following the feedback session.
3. New business
Next Meeting: October 28, 2015
3.1.
Councillor Bil Ioannidis requested that Make it Kitchener budget/revenue discussion be put on a future
3.2.
agenda
On motion the meeting adjourned at 1:00pm.
Eowyn Spencer
Committee Administrator
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