Innovation Guelph

The client

Innovation Guelph is part of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE), a network of regional innovation centres designed to help businesses, entrepreneurs, researchers and others commercialize their ideas. Innovation Guelph, like its counterparts in other regions, deliver a full range of innovation and commercialization programs and services to clients. Think of it as a "one-stop shop” for innovators. Innovation Guelph will assess clients' needs and skill levels in relation to a wide variety of factors, such as team and business development, or need for technical and research support.

Client goals

Innovation Guelph, through the Guelph Chamber of Commerce, approached Northern Village to develop a website that would create a space for innovation-minded entrepreneurs to come to for a wide range of resources. The website needed to provide a forum for discussions on important issues, as well as information about special events. It had to be intriguing enough to then draw people to contact the folks at IG for further assistance.

Implementation

The Innovation Guelph website was implemented using Igloo, a platform which allows organizations to create online communities that connect people, teams, and other groups and facilitate relationships. Innovation Guelph typically focuses on projects that fall into six sectors, each of which has its own collaborative space on the website.

Igloo is fully customizable so that a normally static website can be transformed into a dynamic online community with a specific look and feel. The design of the Innovation Guelph website was developed by Ballyhoo Media. And, most important for those who want to upload information as efficiently as possible, the website is updatable (people are granted permissions that permit different levels of participation).