More than 100 residents, visitors and business owners engaged their ‘explorer spirit’ last evening, August 15th (2018) at the Bruce GPS kick-off event at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre in Southampton. They were there to hear about and explore the future of Bruce County in the next 20 years.
Those present enjoyed discussions about the future of the County, making for a successful launch of the County’s engagement project, titled Bruce GPS.
Warden Paul Eagleson, pleased with the turn out commented that, “The interest and willingness of the community to come out and share their thoughts on the future of Bruce County was a great way to launch this project. Having the community participate is important because it will provide valuable insight to help guide decisions about the growth and development of the County”.
Those who participated at the free event also heard about the importance of understanding the current trends impacting society through a message delivered by guest speaker Shawn Kanungo.
Kanungo works with hundreds of organizations in digital transformation. He works with corporate executives to help them better understand and plan for opportunities and threats associated with disruptive innovation through adopting concepts of behavioural economics, user-centered design, rapid prototyping, crowd-sourcing and artificial intelligence(AI).
He discussed the importance of considering the impacts of trends, such as changing demographics and economic shifts, advising that such information is crucial to plan Bruce County’s future in a thoughtful way. “Technology is creating incredible changes and it’s only just begun and you have to take advantage of all that it offers.”
Kara Van Myall, Director of Bruce County’s Planning and Economic Development Department, explained that Bruce County is taking these steps now to engage the community and gather their input. “We are asking our residents, visitors and businesses to ‘Be Our Guide’ by answering three short questions related to the future of Bruce County.” Van Myall added that, “The goal is to produce a guiding vision that can lead into a refresh of the County’s Official Plan. It’s time to refresh our Plan so that Bruce County remains an exciting place to explore and discover.”
The County is committed to a meaningful community engagement process to develop the Bruce GPS vision. This will occur at community events between now and October, with details available at www.BruceGPS.ca . Connect with this project by:
- Registering to stay informed about updates and next steps;
- Answering three survey questions, to make sure your voice is heard; and
- Mapping your comments to specific locations and features in Bruce County.
The project can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
While the evening was all about planning, it was also an opportunity to mix and mingle and share ideas through a social time prior to the formal part of the evening.
Guests enjoyed networking and a buffet while listening to music on the patio before moving inside for the ‘serious’ reason they were all there.
