4-minute read
The Spirit of Winnipeg Awards Gala is one of our business community’s most highly anticipated events — and it’s all about honouring local organizations making a difference in our city.
Ahead of the 13th Annual Spirit of Winnipeg Awards on June 17, we’re giving you a closer look at how some of our finalists are impacting our city. Today, we’re giving you an inside look at one of our Design and Building finalists, Downtown Winnipeg Biz!
Downtown Winnipeg BIZ works to market and promote downtown as a great place to shop, play, work and live, and advocate for continued downtown revitalization and services for our members. They host events throughout the year and offer numerous programs and services to improve downtown cleanliness, safety, transportation, and parking.
Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce (WCC): What excites you about what you do?
Downtown Winnipeg Biz (DWB): The community brings so much creativity, enthusiasm, and energy to projects. Seeing the community engage with our projects – sometimes in ways, we had not anticipated brings our team so much joy. It’s astonishing the way our team comes together to make projects happen with few resources. There is often a point where we do not know if the project will go forward, and we need to develop a creative and resourceful approach – making it over this hump is always an incredible moment. We are so fortunate to be able to take a chance or a risk on new ideas – our projects are often temporary in nature, and we are able to push the envelope from time to time.
WCC: How has your organization impacted the community?
DWB: While our projects are sometimes small in size, the impacts are often large – they contribute to a bigger strategy or advocacy initiative. RE: Workspace filled a gap in the way people were working. Pandemic restrictions and employees working from home made companies change the way employees worked together. In-person meetings and brainstorming sessions had almost disappeared from the workplace. Public health orders were more relaxed for outdoor meetings. Enter RE: Workspace, a place where employees could safely meet and feed off each other’s energy. A space where freelancers could see their clients face-to-face. A space where students could study while feeling like they were a part of the working community.
In the 2021 State of Downtown report, we shared that in mid-2021, only 20% of workers had returned to the office. RE: Workspace also reminded people how fun it was to work downtown by sharing a map of places to grab a coffee or a meal within 5 minutes of the space. It aimed to evoke positive memories of the downtown working environment and get people excited to return to working downtown.
WCC: What does Winnipeg mean to you?
DWB: Winnipeg is a city with a truly unique identity. Our public realm department and stakeholders are often discussing urban design principles and tactical urbanism strategies that have been practiced and proven in cities all over the world, but it is the integration of Winnipeg’s unique character and culture that inform authentic and enticing projects.
WCC: What do you think of when I say the word community?
DWB: The pandemic has shone a new light on what community means downtown. Community is the most flexible and durable fabric that makes up our downtown. It is a mesh of interwoven people and organizations that shift and stretch together. It is the strength of this fabric and its connections that provides support and encourages growth and transformation in our downtown.
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