The Mayor and City Council will vote next week on the first-ever digital strategy for the City of Vancouver, continuing City Hall’s work to support the local digital economy and improve service delivery for citizens.

The strategy focuses on improving the way the City provides services online for citizens and small businesses, supporting our dynamic local digital media industry, and putting Vancouver at the forefront of support for digital innovation.

“Making Vancouver a leader in digital innovation has been a key priority of my work as Mayor,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “The City’s first-ever digital strategy represents another significant step forward in our efforts to improve how City Hall does business and engages with citizens, how we support leading-edge job creation in our local technology and creative sectors, and how we foster digital innovation to make life better for all Vancouver residents.”

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Statement from Mayor Robertson on TED Conference coming to Vancouver:

The world-renowned TED Conference moving to Vancouver is great news for our tourism industry and validation of our work to make our city a world leader in sustainability and innovation.

TED talks are known around the world for being a source of inspiration, innovation and an opportunity to rethink some of our most pressing challenges. Millions of people watch the talks in person and online. Having the TED organizers choose Vancouver as their new home is a big vote of confidence in the creative entrepreneurs, social innovators and community leaders who make Vancouver a leading-edge city.

The City is proud to have excellent partners in the Canadian Tourism Commission, Tourism Vancouver and the Vancouver Convention Centre that worked hard to support the TED Conference coming to Vancouver. We will work with TED and our sponsors to ensure the conference is a success and that we enable a variety of spin-off events to capitalize on being the host city. We look forward to welcoming TED here in 2014 and showing them everything Vancouver has to offer.

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Mayor Gregor Robertson joined representatives from local start-ups Growlab and Ayoudo at the closing of the Cities Summit to launch ‘Made in Vancouver,’ a community resource for local start-ups to show their pride in Vancouver’s burgeoning start-up community.

In just 24 hours since Made in Vancouver launched, over 50 local start-ups have already signed on to take part.

“The battle for cities to become digital start-up centres is competitive, and Vancouver is competing with international talent in the US, Europe, Asia, and around the world,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “‘Made in Vancouver’ is all about fostering a stronger digital community in Vancouver, providing connections and resources for budding entrepreneurs and building tomorrow’s tech leaders.”

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