November 21-25, 2022 saw Calgary host Innovation Week at Platform Calgary, and a variety of inspiring venues around Calgary. STEM IA was represented at the event by attending several of the events and sessions.

Ben Wood and Dan McWilliam were fortunate to attend the IndigiTech Destiny session on November 23. The immersive virtual reality experience of Writing on Stone Provincial Park was amazing incorporating not only the 360 video of this significant place, but some incredible editing and sound design. Check out: https://usay.ca/virtual-reality/ for more information and trailers for the AR and VR experiences. New editions of New Tribe magazine and the This is our Land graphic novel were also diplayed, with several copies returning to STEM IA.

Darcy Hunt, of Aboriginal Training Services, opened our eyes to the the breadth of applications involved with aeronautical drone piloting. Their expertise is in training drone operators, including students. We learned about the use of drones for LiDAR, Photogrammetry, Thermal Imaging and more.

IndigiTRAILS Augmented Reality self guided tours by USAY included the new Remember our Stolen Sisters tour of Olympic Plaza. This had us wondering how we might develop digital tours with students using augmented reality with geofixed waypionts, or QR code tours.

The Platform building itself was an education in spatial design. It creates the conditions for collaboration and sharing. We were struck with the variety of flexible meeting spaces that did not require structural changes. There were breakout and meeting spaces that consisted of pre-fabricated walls and doors. We imagined these as a great fit in our own Hive at the school.

Our tour of the Platform building continued through the KPMG stage during the Rainforest Leadership Power Hour where we met with experts from SAIT and the Rainforest Alberta. The second floor of Platform shared some unique and inspiring design solutions to promote collaboration and design thinking processes. There were several mobile white boards with flatpack tables attached that had been built at FUSE33, a maker space in Calgary that we had visited previously. We also noted the pre-fabricated meeting spaces throughout for small and medium group breakouts. The second story also had several individual recording or communication booths which were all in continuous use. We did manage to wait long enough for our turn to try one on and found them to be very sound dampening and a great idea for recording podcasts or narrations.

Platform Calgary is located across the street from the new public library and Calgary City Hall.