About the Series

Conceived and created by SiG, Inspiring Action for Social Impact is a national speakers’ series comprised of a mix of in-person and online public talks by international thought leaders, applied learning workshops and dialogue on practical strategies for social innovation in Canada. Led by the world’s leading social innovation thinkers and practitioners, the Inspiring Action for Social Impact Series will guide us through proven collaboration and co-creation approaches and strategies that are capable of generating practical solutions to Canada’s most pressing and complex social problems.

Simulating Social Innovation

The SiG@Waterloo Simulation and Modelling Team believes that software has a strong role to play in supporting social innovation. They have an ambitious agenda: to give decision-makers the tools to explore the impacts of their actions before they are enacted.

There has been a recent explosion in interest in a new type of “Lab.” These Labs take different forms, but share a common commitment to support social change. SiG@Waterloo is working on a particular kind of Lab called a “Social Innovation Lab.” Read more on Social Innovation Labs.

A key element of this unique form of Lab will be the use of visualisation and simulation software. Many systems-change processes already use mapping and prototyping to help participants to understand and engage with systems. Advances in technology have made it possible to imagine developing software that would allow decision-makers to interact with game-like models of the systems they are working within. Read more on simulating social innovations.

Joining us for this webinar will be Mark Tovey, Lead Researcher, and Kirsten Robinson, co-author of the original SiG white paper on Social Innovation Labs.