Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Vancouver is a hotbed of social innovation, entrepreneurship, and technological development in multiple sectors, including information technology, biotechnology, and alternative energy.

SFU International, the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation, and University of the Fraser Valley collaborated to bring together academics, entrepreneurs, NGOs, funders, social innovators and technology experts in a two-day Symposium and DevLab to incubate new ideas to address issues of local and global concerns and fuel further innovation in support of partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17).

The DevLab portion of the event not only culminated with a winner of the original $10,000 project seed fund, but an unexpected surprise emerged from two independent funders in the room to award a second $10,000 prize to a project idea of their choice.

The Symposium and DevLab features the following themes:

This two-day event was comprised of panel presentations on the four themes listed above, the formation and collaboration of teams for cultivating innovative ideas, the development of proposals, and presenting of ideas to a panel of expert judges, who then awarded the winning team(s) for their innovative idea(s).

See PROGRAM for details.

This event preceded a High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in July 2018 where Canada participated in a national review of achievements related to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Agenda.