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Welcome to VivaScoop, your monthly rundown on everything Vivacity Technologies.
The end of the year is insight and December has arrived! Christmas lights are springing up everywhere, warm winter jackets are out, and the eggnog is flowing...(at least one glass so far). Before the holiday season slowdown, however, there’s been a huge amount of activity at Vivacity. This includes our ongoing projects with Simpcw Resources Group, Saulteau First Nations, the City of Kamloops and others. On top of this, the City of Kelowna recently signed up for a VivaCitadel pilot project - our new smart city product. This is huge for us and we couldn't be more thrilled.
There's lots of positives as we wrap up for the year, but to learn more about what's been going on herewith VivaScoop November.
VivaCitadel Pilot Project with the City of Kelowna
November brought many exciting developments for us at Vivacity, including the tremendous news that the City of Kelowna is coming on board for a VivaCitadel pilot project. VivaCitadel is our new flagship product aiming to mitigate data silos and paving the way for cities to explore revenue generation beyond taxation. Jazz and Andreas have been key parts of the inception of this product, so we’re incredibly excited that the City of Kelowna will be one of the first municipalities to get their hands on this new technology and help us bring this vision to life.
In this pilot project, we’ll be diving deep into a number of processes wherein city data is used to create value to external stakeholders. It’s common practice to rely on employees to manually retrieve and compile relevant data, which places significant burdens on resources and often leads to cities losing money in the process of completing these requests. Our goal is to use technology ethically and equitably to turn these processes into significant net positives for organizations, and in doing so provide value to the community by getting citizens and businesses the information they need as quickly and effectively as possible.
If you’d like to learn more about our pilot program for VivaCitadel, reach out to our team here! And stay tuned for future updates, 2024 will be an exciting year for us and the team!
Going vCIO with Saulteau First Nations
In November, Vivacity embarked on a new journey by becoming the virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) for Saulteau First Nations (SFN). We're super thrilled by this opportunity, as we get to continue our work in building out IT capacity for indigenous communities.
Earlier in the summer, Vivacity conducted a comprehensive assessment on SFN’s IT environment, identifying several IT initiatives aligned with the communities growth and industry best practices. Now, in our role as their vCIO, we are well placed to play a critical role in taking these IT initiatives from a concept to implementation.
This project solidifies Vivacity's position as the vCIO for two esteemed indigenous organizations, namely Simpcw Resources Group (SRG) and now Saulteau First Nations (SFN). We are delighted by the meaningful work we get to undertake in this space and the impact we are having on organizations.
Supporting the TRU Privacy and Security Conference
The 8th Annual TRU Privacy and Security Conference is coming up in January 2024, and Vivacity is excited to announce that for the second year in a row, we are a gold sponsor for the event! Plus I get to breakout my favorite Austen Powers character.
This year’s theme is “The Delicate Dance: Finding Harmony Between Privacy and Security” and will feature topics such as data governance and collection, ethical hacking, tracking and surveillance, and more. We are excited to see the conversations and issues that the presenters will delve into (as well as delving into a few ourselves), and are looking forward to engaging with our local community about the actions being taken to manage the fine line between privacy and security in IT!
We love having the opportunity to participate in and support our home town conference and local IT community here in Kamloops. We will have a booth where attendees can stop by and learn a bit more about the work we do. We will also be giving a presentation and hosting a breakout session, so make sure to stop by and say hi! We hope to see you there.
Taking a page out of writing by 'killing your darlings'
You may, or may not, have heard of the saying 'killing your darlings'. It sounds harsh I know, but the idea credited to the English writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, is that writers should be willing to cut, edit, or "kill" those beloved elements if they don't contribute to the clarity of the piece as a whole.
In the realm of business strategy, the adage "killing your darlings" although not commonly used can take on a positive significance. Just as authors trim beloved passages for the broader sake, firms can shed parts of their business or cherished strategies that no longer align with market dynamics and future growth trajectories.
Far from a negative act, this intentional evolution can become a strategic cornerstone for nimble firms. It encourages a culture where everyone feels empowered to challenge the status quo, fostering fresh perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking.
At Vivacity we don't openly embrace the term "killing your darlings", but we do harness some of the biproducts of this thinking, namely unlocking space for new ideas and not being afraid to quickly evolve.
I have no doubt that the Vivacity today, will be very different from the Vivacity a year from now. And in this time I hope the VivaTeam can embrace this concept of making bold, sometimes painful, leaps in new directions.
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