In the rapidly evolving environment created by COVID19, we have reconfirmed our commitment to protect the safety and health of our employees at the Supercluster, your employees and our community. At the same time, we are committed to continuing to support your projects, proposal developments and your engagement with the Supercluster.
We have been closely engaged with other businesses and organizations across the province recognizing that coordinated and consistent approaches across our community will hopefully be the most effective for all employees across the community and will present the greatest opportunity to ‘flatten the curve’ of the spread of the virus.
With the above objectives in mind, and understanding that that thing may continue to evolve, we are taking the following steps in respect of our office and events:
- All Supercluster staff will be encouraged to work from home or in a space that does not require them to use public transit or be in other confined spaces where they cannot maintain ‘social distance’. While this is certainly a change in our operations, it does not change our availability to you or your proposal or project partners. We are fully available online or via telephone.
- We realize that some of our staff and perhaps some of our Members may not be able to work from home. Should anyone need to use our office, it will be open with the expectation that anyone who needs to come to the office will strictly observe safe hygiene practices
- All in-person Supercluster events scheduled through to June are cancelled. This includes our Member Forums, Ideation Workshops, Thought Leadership Breakfasts and our Member Retreat. We look forward to communicating rescheduled dates for these events when things become more certain
Our project teams, proposals and your enthusiasm are at the core of what we do and why we exist. Here are some of the things we are doing to make sure that we continue to support existing projects, evolving proposals and ideas and proposals that we understand may be targeted at COVID 19 and related issues:
- Engagement: We are exploring other mediums for continuing our engagement and information sessions and so that we can continue to support you, your project teams and our innovation community
- New Projects. We know that many of you have been preparing for the next cycle of projects. At this point, our plan is to carry forward with a call for Cycle 4 projects later this spring with the call for proposals being determined once other elements of our business environment are a little more clear. During the coming short while, we will be trialling new digital engagement tools to support you and your proposal teams in your ideation, workshopping and project development to prepare for Cycle 4. We appreciate that some proposals teams want to move faster than usual during this time while other teams will need more time to evolve proposals given issues created by COVID 19. We will adapt to all needs along this spectrum to make sure that we support proposals that can expedite as well as those that need more time.
- Projects Targeted at COVID19. We have received interest from members who have projects targeted at COVID19. If you have project ideas, please get in touch with either Karen McClure at kmcclure@digitalsupercluster.ca, or with Bill Tam at btam@digitalsupercluster.ca.
We will work with your project teams to determine the most effective means of continuing to advance your projects so that you can deliver the incredible outcomes in your plans. At the same time, we must respect that the nature of collaboration and engagement will change. Changes in how project teams engage with each other and how we engage with you are evolving in light of the virus, but what will not change is our unwavering support for you and your teams. You can count on us to be available to answer your questions, act on any matter and bring new ideas to you. Stay tuned as we develop new tools and suggestions to replace in-person meetings. Should any of you or any project team experience delays in advancing any element of a project, we will be here for support and will work with you to extend the necessary flexibility.
You are likely being inundated with updates on the virus and so in the spirit of being helpful and hopefully to not add to overload, we are providing a link to the Health Canada webpage which is maintained with current information nationally, https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19.html, as well as the link to the equivalent BC site https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020HLTH0077-000484
Thank you again for your continued contributions to our economy and to our innovation ambitions. We are on to “something” in this Supercluster and it is because of your ingenuity, ambition and commitment. Please take care and do not hesitate to contact me directly about any of your concerns on this matter.
Bill Tam