In Episode 8 of Bloom, co-host Emily Rendell-Watson interviews Martin Garber-Conrad, who is about to retire after 17 years at the helm of the Edmonton Community Foundation. They talk about the foundation's many innovative approaches to philanthropy during his term, including the launch of the Social Enterprise Fund, the foundation's rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the creation of The Well Endowed Podcast.
"It's actually our endowments that were set up years ago that give us the capacity to respond in often very innovative ways now," he said. "And ... we're going to be able to do that for many decades, and for many generations into the future."
Rendell-Watson and co-host Faaiza Ramji go on to take a look at some upcoming events of interest to the innovation community, including the finale of Startup TNT's Life Sciences Investment Summit on March 17; the Rainforest Summit (at which Taproot co-founder Mack Male is the keynote speaker) on March 24; the Cleantech Investment Summit on April 7; the Alberta Technology Symposium in Calgary in April; and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute's AI Week in Edmonton in May.
You'll also hear a message from Bloom's sponsor, Innovate Edmonton, in which CEO Catherine Warren discusses how the term "innovation" has been somewhat hijacked by Silicon Valley and needs to be reclaimed.
If you have an event or a story that's related to the spirit of innovation in Edmonton, Bloom is interested! Send it to hello@taprootedmonton.ca.
Bloom is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.