A Thousand Small Ideas Done Well...

"Strategy is not one big idea. It's a thousand little ideas done well."

I recognized this truth very early in my career as a marketer and is always one of the first things I tell my students. Details matter.

Evidence of this is the work done over the past year in transforming a big idea into a thousand little ideas done well. The big idea came in the form of a question: will embedding senior business students with professionals in downtown Calgary accelerate their transition into the labour market?

Over the past 12 months this question came to life through the new 15,000 Sq. Ft. LearningCITY Open Learning Lab in Bow Valley Square, the Bissett School of Business AccelerateU program being delivered to up to 1000 students downtown, and the Downtown Learning Study designed to evaluate whether the big idea actually worked.

The thousand little ideas done well starts with thanking the many people from across #yyc who transformed a question into reality:

Timothy Rahilly Kelly Williams-Whitt Elizabeth Evans Chad London from Mount Royal University for providing the support and encouragement to explore a new model of learning.

Catherine Pearl, PhD for designing and delivering Vivacity since 2017. We have big shoes to follow. Donna Dumont for her support in managing the internal challenges of scheduling 30+ classes for up to 1000 students downtown. Adam H. Cave for helping adjust the MRU registration system to make it possible for students to register for classes off-campus. Bradley Congram and Evan Cortens for crunching the data needed to design the program. Carmen O'Callaghan Heather Ansari for advising students on how they can participate. Leah Hamilton , Paul Varella and Jessie Singh Chahal for supporting delivering strategic management downtown.

Stan Anthony Nicastro Courtney Gresham Alexandra Swiston Nouha Ezzine Tyler Massie Kassidy Gerhardi Kennedy Lukey Dylan Phillips Kolten Nelson and many other Bissett School of Business students and MRU Alumni for guiding the program design.

James Stauch and Tracy Pfeifer from Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University for managing the backend administration of building a Lab downtown.

Terry Rock Jennifer Lussier Vanessa Gagnon James T. Radke from Platform Calgary for generously hosting the first year of the AccelerateU program.

AnneMarie Dorland Dr. Simon Raby, Ph.D. Amir Bahman Radnejad for teaching the pilot classes at Platform Calgary and supporting us in working out the inevitable logistical kinks.

Damon Harmon, CPA, CGA from Cresa for being relentless in pursing a real-estate partner and a believer in the potential of the big idea.

Ryan Sirski Jace Jonsson Trish Fairgrieve-Park, RPA from Oxford Properties Group for their generous support and for seeing the shared value of hosting 1000 students in Bow Valley Square.

RGO and Steelcase for their generous support in transforming an empty floor into a fantastic collaborative workspace.

The incredible Mount Royal University facilities team, including Leigh Derby Tracey Ross and Vince Gianfrancesco for designing, coordinating, moving, and installing all the furniture in our new Open Learning Lab. Benjamin Hall for supporting all the contracting and legal issues.

Thom Mahler Sheryl McMullen Jason Cameron Kristyna Ng and Gurbir S. Nijjar, P. Eng from the City of Calgary for their generous support and encouragement.

Mark Garner and Heather McRae from the Calgary Downtown Association and Deborah Yedlin and Josh Pentland from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce for highlighting the potential of transforming downtown Calgary into the world's most immersive classroom.

D'Andre Wilson-Ihejirika, P.Eng, PMP, LSSBB and the entire TalentED YYC team for joining as the presenting sponsor of the Open Learning Lab. Margo Purcell and Greg Hart from InceptionU Ltd for seeing that the future of learning is about open and collaborative learning.

The Downtown Learning Study Team that will ultimately evaluate the value of these pilots, including John Brown Josh Taron from School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape - University of Calgary Janet Segato Blake Kanewischer Charissa Lee, MSc, CPCC from Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Dexter Lam Nicholas Newnes Katherine Koplovich Jacoby Holder 胡杰 from Calgary Economic Development Chad Saunders from Haskayne School of Business Rylan Graham from University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) Brenda Nguyen from the University of Lethbridge Calgary Campus Amir Bahman Radnejad Julie Gathercole Dr. Simon Raby, Ph.D. Catherine Pearl, PhD Kim Gordon from Mount Royal University

All our AccelerateU faculty who agreed to take the leap to deliver their courses in the Open Learning Lab.

The LearningCITY Collective Community Board that I have an honour to chair and who will push the open learning vision to the next level to deliver on the promise of a more inclusive and equitable city.

The founding thirty members of the Open Learning Lab for recognizing the future of learning is about collaboration and co-creation.

Village Brewery for bringing The Thoughtful Maverick to the Open Learning Lab.

Finally, an HUGE thank you to Elaura Tait and Aidan Cooper for your incredible support in starting to build the foundation of the Open Learning Lab community over the past three months.

This is just the start....