County partners with The Groundbreakers to explore new tools for regional economic growth
Virtual media briefing will showcase Economic Navigator platform and early insights for southern Alberta
Lethbridge County has partnered with The Groundbreakers to explore how new data and artificial intelligence tools can help municipalities better understand, support and strengthen local entrepreneurs, innovators and businesses.
As part of the partnership, the County has been testing The Groundbreakers Ecosystem Navigator, an economic development intelligence platform created by Canadian innovation strategist Ian Barker.
The platform gathers structured input from local experts who know a region, often economic development professionals, local business, academic institutions and government officials, compares where their perspectives align or differ, and develops locally tailored analysis to help identify potential gaps, opportunities and areas requiring deeper investigation. Rather than replacing traditional business visits, community engagement or strategic planning, the tool is designed to help economic development organizations ask better questions and focus their efforts more quickly.
“Economic development is changing quickly, and municipalities need to be willing to explore new tools that can help us understand what is happening in our economy and where opportunities may be getting missed,” said Trevor Lewington, Director of Growth & Engagement for Lethbridge County. “The value for us isn’t having technology make decisions. It’s using technology to identify patterns, challenge assumptions and help us have better conversations with businesses, entrepreneurs, educational institutions and regional partners.”
Early findings point to opportunities
As an initial exercise, economic development and municipal representatives from Lethbridge County and neighbouring communities completed a common diagnostic focused on the regional innovation ecosystem.
The resulting report identified several areas worthy of further investigation. Among them was the question of whether major industrial investment in the region is creating enough secondary opportunities for local suppliers, entrepreneurs and emerging businesses. The diagnostic identified supplier matching and more intentional entrepreneurship pathways as potential areas of focus.
Other findings included:
- Connecting local businesses to major purchasers. One recommendation suggests exploring procurement-matching or “reverse pitch” approaches in which large employers identify products or specialized services they currently purchase from outside the region, creating clearer opportunities for local entrepreneurs and suppliers.
- Getting more local value from major investment. Several responses generated recommendations around encouraging knowledge and capability transfer from companies making major investments in the region, including stronger connections with local suppliers and workforce development.
- Strengthening the connection between research and industry. Data shows the opportunity for even more joint research between post-secondary institutions and local agricultural processors.
- Bringing skills development closer to rural employers and workers. Recommendations include exploring mobile precision-agriculture training and workplace-based micro-credentials rather than requiring rural workers to travel to a traditional campus.
The diagnostic itself cautions that the findings reflect the perspectives of participating respondents and are not intended to be treated as a representative public survey. Recommendations are designed to start further conversations rather than serve as final decisions.
Built to make regional intelligence more accessible
From tariffs to newly forming trade alliances, infrastructure spending and the transformative force of AI, there is mounting pressure to improve Canada’s international competitiveness, with much of the change and opportunity arriving at the local level. It is increasingly important for municipalities to respond, plan and act quickly.
Ian Barker developed the Ecosystem Navigator to provide communities with a faster way to establish an economic-development baseline and identify issues that deserve closer investigation. The platform can be used for areas including business retention and expansion, investment attraction, entrepreneurship, workforce development and strategic planning.
The system tailors its questions to the institutions, organizations and economic conditions of an individual community rather than applying the same generic questionnaire everywhere. It can also compare responses from different municipalities or stakeholder groups, preserving disagreements rather than averaging them away.
Barker describes the technology as a practical tool to give economic development and innovation professionals a quick assessment of their region, compare perspectives and communicate findings to partners and other areas of government.
“Every community has a different combination of people, industries, institutions and knowledge. The goal of Ecosystem Navigator is not to tell communities what their strategy should be. It is to help them see their ecosystem more clearly, identify where knowledge and opportunity may be getting stuck and give local leaders a more focused place to begin the conversation,” said Barker.
Lethbridge County plans to use the work as one additional input into its ongoing economic development efforts, including business retention and expansion, regional partnerships, investment attraction and support for entrepreneurship.
Media invited to virtual briefing and demonstration
Members of the media are invited to join Lethbridge County and Ian Barker for a virtual briefing and live demonstration of the platform.
Barker will explain how the technology was developed, demonstrate how it evaluates a local economic ecosystem and discuss what the Lethbridge County exercise revealed. County representatives will also be available to discuss how the information may inform future economic development work.
Date: September 24
Time:10 a.m. Mountain Time
Location: Virtual – https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84865948724?pwd=RGiOk5ICiYMuh1m1hJQ4gNckBePmLe.1
Speakers:
Ian Barker, Founder and Editor, The Groundbreakers
Trevor Lewington, Director of Growth & Engagement, Lethbridge County
More information about The Groundbreakers Ecosystem Navigator is available through its online platform. Explore the Ecosystem Navigator