Press Releases
City of New Westminster’s “Hack Our City” offers activities and events for all ages that celebrate innovation, ideation, and problem solving
Posted On:
February 15, 2017

New Westminster – The City of New Westminster has proclaimed February 24-March 3 Innovation Week in New Westminster, a showcase of the City’s increasing role as a regional centre for research, technology and innovation. Innovation week will feature a number of events and activities for all ages from startups to kids to business leaders to residents, providing opportunities to learn, showcase and experience innovation in action. A key component of Innovation Week is Hack Our City, a two-day Hack-a-thon, February 25 and 26, taking place at City Hall and sponsored by Amazon.

 “As a member of the New Westminster community, Amazon is proud to support the city’s Innovation Week and to sponsor the ‘Hack Our City’ event. This event brings together the New West community to think big about new ideas, and to invent and simplify solutions to problems through the use of open data. During Canada’s 150th anniversary, we are excited to support initiatives that encourage innovation and learning, particularly among youth and indigenous communities across Canada,” a statement from Amazon said.

Hack Our City offers events for all ages and skill levels including open data hacking using the City’s own open datasets, where registered teams compete over two days to build a project that provides value to the community; drop-in social hacking where participants can have access to experts and mentors as they work on their own projects; and civic hacking – a no-code problem-solving and ideation participatory workshop with City staff.

Drop-in and registrable events for adults include one-on-one privacy consultations with Canopy Privacy, a tech bar staffed with New Westminster Public Library and Amazon Solution Engineers, and information about the City of New Westminster’s ongoing innovative initiatives such as the fibre optic network, BridgeNet; the District Energy Project; and the IDEA Centre.

There are also a number of free activities for children and youth, both drop-in and registrable. These include hands-on fun with Lego Robotics, the Spare Parts Adventure Playground and a Stop Motion Animation workshop with Paul Romein from Techno Monkey Media.

Registration for the workshops is at: https://www.newwestcity.ca/innovation-week - hack-our-city

Innovation Week features a number of other events that allow businesses, investors and community members alike to engage, such as the New Westminster Business and Tech Meetup, the VANTEC Pitch Circuit, BRINK at the New Media Gallery, New West PechaKucha Volume 14, and Digital Days – a creative industry conference. The Innovation Forum and the Leadership Dinner round out the week’s activities.

A full listing and details of all events are available on the City’s website at www.newwestcity.ca/innovatenw.

-30-

Contacts:

Ruby Campbell
Intergovernmental and Community Partnerships Manager
604-515-3821 or