GEIC Conference Offers Solutions for Toronto

Things like urbanization in Toronto, climate change and energy, are these problems being solved by engineering professionals? We thought about it and we concluded they are not,” Yang explains. “We need to put more emphasis on solving these problems and that’s how the entire event came together.”

Yang feels that it’s necessary to get engineers more involved with politicians, business professionals and marketers to really come together and provide practical solutions to common problems. “The end goal is to work with these people to come up with solutions and we have done a typical marketing campaign with social media such as Facebook,” he says.

A common theme raised throughout the inaugural GEIC event was the lack of funding for Toronto’s transit system through investments from bankers and other finance professionals.

Of all the teams that presented, team number 21 won the challenge with their proposal for a public referendum on new taxes to finance an infrastructure bank. This idea also aims to supplement traditional funding levels and present a new and innovative solution that could appeal to all stakeholders.

Lindsay Roxon and Howard Tam comprise team number 21, and both benefit from a background in engineering as well as finance, which contributed to their successful presentation. “We looked at Venture Deli. They assist with start-ups; their financial plan, marketing plan and stuff like that, so we asked people there for some feedback and advice,” Howard explains.

The team members spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas individually and then came together to determine their best solutions with advice from Venture Deli and investment bankers. (Venture Deli is rebranding to Purpose Capital.)

“My portion was infrastructure bonds and eventually sort of blend development as well. It started when I was working at Venture Deli. Some of the consultants there helped me work out those ideas and we consulted with them after we came up with the whole system,” says Roxon.

It all comes down to persuading politicians to look at the new ideas and really consider them when planning public transit for Toronto. The city will only become denser, and we will need to come up with creative solutions to accommodate population growth. Organizing conferences like GEIC and bringing diverse thinkers together is a start to getting these initiatives off the ground.

As Bedford claims, “Politicians must bite the bullet and do what needs to be done.”

Image provided by: geic.ca

Curated: Ani Hajderaj is a journalism student involved in the electronic music scene in Toronto. He enjoys writing about music, technology, business and the general city life. Please follow him on twitter @AniHajderaj.