Editor’s note: This op-ed, written by Guy Levesque, executive director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary, was originally published in the Calgary Herald on March 11. You can read the original here.
Conversations about Calgary’s future are taking place among our most experienced voices. But an essential question remains unasked: who else is being invited to help design that future?
Across the Blue Sky City, emerging entrepreneurs, students and early career founders are already building solutions to community challenges and new economic opportunities. However, their voices often remain outside the rooms where long-term decisions are made.
In my role as the executive director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking, I have the immense privilege of being at the epicentre of all things entrepreneurial at the University of Calgary.
I get to witness changemakers action their dreams and aspirations — locally, nationally and globally — whether it’s an undergraduate student focusing on a local community challenge, a PhD student exploring how to become a founder or an alumnus growing their startup.
The future isn’t coming — it’s already here
Entrepreneurs of all types are hard at work building their future. Our future. They share an unshakable belief that they can succeed here because they see growth all around them. Calgary’s “secret sauce.” This is a world-class community, where changemakers and founders who not only “started something” here — but became successful here — now graciously give back their time, advice and support (often in dollars).
In the “Countdown to 2 Million,” I often wonder if this model is sufficient for what comes next. As young Calgarians learn, build confidence and forge their own paths, are we creating meaningful space for them to contribute to our city’s future? The real question is not whether Calgary has the next generation of builders (it does!); it is whether we are truly listening to them.
Young people stay in cities where ambition is welcomed, where risk is supported and where their agency matters. Calgary has something rare: deeply generous, experienced founders, mentors and civic leaders. But generosity alone is not enough. The next step is co-creation. Otherwise, we may end up with tomorrow’s solutions using today’s thinking.
Our future is bright
Some of the most important city building today is happening in “third spaces,” places outside of home and work where people gather to test ideas, form communities and collaborate.
People come to the Hunter Hub because they feel a deep sense of belonging and a special connection to the space where each day they experiment, try, fail, learn and grow. The impact of these environments goes beyond university walls. The ideas formed in third spaces become the social, political and technological realities that shape our lived experiences, helping to better understand the world we live in, and to effect positive change.
Innovative thinking often begins in communities where people are engaged and involved, well before they hold formal titles or decades of experience.
So what does that look like in practice?
It means inviting the 18- to 35-year-olds like those at the Hunter Hub and the University of Calgary to civic conversations now, not once they become established. It means including young folks and early career innovators at advisory tables, social policy discussions and economic development conversations. It means asking not only how we grow, but who gets to help design that growth.
Because the truth is simple: the leaders who will shape Calgary are living and seeing the world through a very different lens. If we want them to build their future here (and we do), we must give them a meaningful role. At the Hunter Hub, our mission is to give them the guidance and tools they need to act on their agency to create a city they want to invest in.
It has been so inspiring to read the words of my colleagues in this series. Let’s create space for the voices of those who will become Calgary’s leaders for the next generation and beyond.