Thank you for listening to the Leaders, Innovators and Big Ideas podcast, supported by Rainforest Alberta.The podcast that highlights those people who are contributing to and/or supporting the innovation ecosystem in Alberta.

Graham Sucha Graham Sucha has worked within the Calgary business community for nearly 15 years. He has spent the past year working for a tech not-for-profit following a four year stint where he served as the MLA for the constituency of Calgary Shaw.

Lori Farley Lori’s business and voluntary commitments curate and facilitate: connections, relationships, and opportunities for social change through entrepreneurship, partnerships, and alliances between various sectors around the globe including Community development, Arts, Disability, Education, and Technology. Lori is involved in numerous ventures related to social innovation and socio-economic development including Intonovus Canada and Impact Calgary.

Lori is involved in supporting cross-sector social and economic development with a mission of sharing and mobilizing time, money, resources, energy, talents, and best practices that align to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), B Corp standards (B Corp) and IRIS metrics (IRIS), all designed to measure the social, environmental and financial performance of companies and investments.

INTONOVUS Canada is a not for profit designed to partner with those advancing social impact, social enterprise, and impact investing.

IMPACT CALGARY is a social business venture launching coworking, ‘impact first’ business development, and access to funding for social entrepreneurs and benefit businesses. These ventures include foci on social impact technologies (such as Virtual & Augmented Reality (VR/AR), Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)), parentpreneurship (child and family-friendly professional work spaces), and crowdfunding.

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Show Summary

Lori Farley discusses her experience in the not-for-profit innovation scene, where she has worked to create an inclusive ecosystem, with a focus on social justice and driving local businesses to be successful.

Show Quote:

"We need to work as locally as possible to create global businesses so those resources leak into the community not out of the community. "

“We have the idea that arts is part of the innovation ecosystem, so artists are part of our ecosystem. So the way artists think about innovations and creativity need to be brought into the tech industry.”

"Each of the co-founders have a very strong social justice-social impact vein. So we are doing the business development piece like most other people do... but we are coming at it from an impact first perspective."

"I thought that I had to be the normal, and turns out that my normal is what other people need"

Credits...

This Episode Sponsored By: Community Now! Magazine

Episode Music: Tony Del Degan

Creator & Producer: Al Del Degan

System Engineering Sponsor: Kris Chase - PODMaster 2020