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Community Self-Determination- Guidance Without Control
A community’s future cannot be handed to it from the outside. It must be imagined, debated, chosen, and built by the people who live there. Outside organizations like ICN can bring tools, experience, contacts, and encouragement, but they cannot replace local wisdom. When support becomes control, even good intentions can weaken the very ownership…
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From Conversation to Tangible Local Action
Every community has conversations about what should change. People talk about better services, stronger local businesses, safer streets, youth opportunities, housing, transportation, health, culture, and the future they want for their families. Too often, however, these conversations remain scattered. They happen at kitchen tables, in community halls, online, or after public meetings, but they…
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Belonging is the foundation of community growth
In every community, growth is often measured by new buildings, larger budgets, better services, or more people moving in. But those signs can hide a harder truth. A community may grow on paper while many of its people still feel invisible. Real growth begins when someone who has stopped attending meetings decides to come…
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Innovative food tracker uses app to help you live zero-waste
Industrial designers Altino Alex and Savin Dimov have just unveiled an innovative product geared towards helping families around the world reduce their food waste. The Bubble Food Tracker is an app-controlled food tracker that monitors products in your kitchen, keeping you aware of what you have in stock and your regular consumption habits, all…
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Blueprints for Success – Growing an eCommerce Business
Membertou, Shalene Johnson,a mother of 4, works full-time, does volunteer work in her community and also owns a small e-commerce business. She came to ICN with idea of launching her brick and mortar gift shop while growing her e-commerce business. Having gone through the discover process, Shaylene was accepted as an Entrepreneurial Intern in ICN…
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Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs’ Mindset is Different
Most entrepreneurs know that regardless of the owner’s cultural heritage, for a business to succeed it must be built on solid business practices with an added dose of luck. Many people recognize that female-owned businesses make a key contribution to household incomes and economic growth. However, for most Indigenous women when launching a business…
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Why Should a Buyer Choose You?
Ever had the feeling of banality when asked by a potential buyer — why should we choose your company to deliver the goods or services we need? Do you get the feeling every time you open your mouth to try to tell someone that your company is special and they should hire you because…
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Generating renewable energy from a wood floor
How do you make a renewable, natural, oxygen-producing, CO2-storing material even more sustainable? Make it as close to zero-waste as possible. Wood waste left over after milling lumber already gets put to myriad valuable uses, from paper products to biomass fuel, and a new innovation will actually enable it to produce clean energy. Engineers…
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Foresight: Interviews AWHRC
To start the Foresight method process we’ve asked in video interviews recognized subject experts to share their perspectives on eight questions. The interviewees were: Dr. Shannon MacDonald, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, First Nations Health Authority of BC; Cora-Lee McGuire-Cyrette, Executive Director, Ontario Native Women Association; and Erica Samms-Hurley, Nurse Educator, Western Regional School of Nursing, Grenfell Campus-Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner…
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Marketing Using Social Media
The INS and OUTS of Using Social Media to Generate Revenue Lisa McKenzie, founder of McKenzie Moxie Media and Chief Bliss Instigator.talks with host Business Entrepreneur and Advisor Jacques Pilon and with ICN’s Entrepreneurial Interns Shaylene Johnson, Jennifer Harper and Esther Stewart about the INS and OUTS of using social media to launch product or service and generate both…