There comes a time when every writer must let someone else tell their story, and for content composer Amber Rowden, that time is now.
With a series of impressive Calgary-based marketing roles under her belt including Pumphouse Theatres Society and GlobalFest YYC, Amber works as a community storyteller at Rainforest Alberta – a community of innovators working to build a culture of trust, collaboration, and diversity across Alberta’s innovation ecosystem.
Alongside Ty McKinney, Amber also co-founded YYC Queer Innovation Meetup in May 2022, to create representation for queer founders and innovators across Cowtown.
Together with local queer businesses, Amber and Ty are working to break bias and advocate for queer rights across Calgary’s tech sector. This has seen the company partner with Platform Calgary (the minds behind Innovation Week YYC) to co-host a Calgary Pride Viewing party for the past two years. The pair have also walked in the Pride Parade with Calgary Economic Development, a supporting sponsor of Innovation Week YYC.
Her passion for the written word is regularly flexed as the digital marketing and writing lead at Start Me UP PR, a PR, media relations and communications agency for diverse innovators and technology disrupters in the STEAM areas, founded in Calgary.
Between the three passionate roles, Amber’s place in the regional technology ecosystem is… prolific!
Ahead of Innovation Week YYC, we sat down with Amber to find out the importance of amplifying diverse voices and championing startups gaining momentum across Alberta’s tech landscape.
What is Rainforest Alberta doing to uplift startups within the local tech community?
AR: Rainforest Alberta is a grassroots community that is open to everyone and we work to build the framework for building and cultivating a culture of trust, inclusion and diversity to provide tech professionals, curious creatives and everyone in between the space to grow and build meaningful connections across Alberta. We amplify and share stories of founders, entrepreneurs, organizations and creative trailblazers who are ideating, building, growing and supporting startups within Alberta’s tech and innovation community.
Our weekly live event, Lunch Without Lunch allows us to amplify and support startups during the weekly online Wednesday event. It’s a space for fostering transparent conversations that break down barriers within the tech and innovation space, and showcase the stories of entrepreneurs.
Through these efforts, we aim to not only uplift, support and amplify the journeys of entrepreneurs building new companies, making significant changes but also contribute to the growth of Alberta’s thriving tech community.
What should be done in order to better amplify queer voices within Calgary’s business economy?
AR: Traditionally, there’s been a lack of representation of LGBTQ2S+ folks in the tech sector in Calgary and with that comes a lack of representation and diversity with the queer voices that are being amplified.
We have come a long way at amplifying the voices of queer professionals but there is a long way to go in terms of creating spaces and opportunities where queer folks actually see themselves represented at all levels and roles within the business sector (leadership, investors, founders, CEO’s, mentors) as well as feel like they belong there and aren’t just a check mark or diversity hire. It means being able to authentically share our voices in the workplace, on panels, in meetings, with colleagues, conferences without hiding who we are without the fear of discrimination, microaggressions or being tokenized.
YYC Queer Innovation Meetups was created to change this, while also partnering with Calgary-owned and operated, LGBTQ2S+ businesses to provide a safe space where folks can share their experiences and stories, and build connections without discrimination or bias.
One of the ways we are creating a space for voices at YYC Queer Innovation Meetups, is to share the stories of the entrepreneurs, founders, students, creatives in our group with organizations such as Rainforest Alberta and other places where they can share what they are doing. Another important aspect is being invited to the table and not having to fight to be at the table for important conversations. With YYC Queer Innovation, we have started to create relationships and pathways to inclusion that comes more naturally.
We see change happening, slowly but surely I feel we are having to fight less to be invited to the table, and we are being asked to share our stories authentically. Within the last 1-2 years we have partnered, hosted events and had honest conversations with organizations who are constantly advocating and challenging their perspective and bias while creating a community of belonging and diverse perspectives. These partners include: Calgary Economic Development, Platform Calgary, Rainforest Alberta, LearningCity. Theres still a ways to go, but this is a start.
From your experience of speaking with founders, what are some common issues tech startups have faced when trying to build their business in Alberta, and is there a common thread in the stories you have shared via Rainforest Alberta which can help to overcome this?
AR: This may not be an Alberta-specific issue, but there is a fundamental lack of funding for early-stage startups and underrepresented groups. Securing or even finding funding for tech startups is challenging whether from investors, grants, or other financial sources, but this is particularly challenging for people from marginalized communities such as the LGBTQ2S+ community. Unfortunately, this is because a lot of hetronormative folks hold the capital and it’s harder for queer people to make those connections or to even be in those same spaces where conversations can happen, and that adds another layer when there are preconceived notions and biases that come into play. The pitch process itself is another element of the startup world which can be problematic for prospective entrepreneurs within the Alberta ecosystem for tech startups, as it doesn’t provide an inclusive and safe space for entrepreneurs to be able to share their stories, in a way without feeling like they are being judged.
As a grassroots community, we are able to go out and have these transparent conversations with partners, investors, community members and startups at every level of the ecosystem.
And from those conversations, we are able to turn them into action. This comes in the form of sharing stories and hosting conversations around certain topics at LWOL which include open conversations around the barriers that women, the LGBTQ2S+ community, neurodiverse Individuals, working parents, Newcomers to Canada, and Youth face within the tech community.
We tackle topics around mental health, allyship and so much more. We also host a podcast where these conversations turn into series and can be broken down further to celebrate these thought leaders and change markers but also to break down those barriers. We create diverse and impactful learning experiences such as Rainforest Circles, as well as collecting data from our Annual Scorecard Assessment which tells an Alberta-wide honest examintion of how we can improve the Alberta ecosystem. We identify the gaps, strengths and weaknesses to find out where the whole ecosystem can work together to create change.
This also leads our initiatives, and helps to break down barriers, and build meaningful partnerships that change perceptions with stakeholders and the broader community and ecosystem to create impactful environments where startups, founders and creatives can thrive and succeed.
How can startups benefit from community-focused events such as Innovation Week YYC?
AR: Innovation week is the best place to learn about everything happening within tech, innovation and entrepreneurship in Calgary, while also connecting with incredible founders, leaders, startups and organizations who are working to build and support Alberta’s thriving innovation sector. It’s a great opportunity to create, find and build community- and there is something for everyone, even if you aren’t currently involved in the tech or innovation sector.
As an avid community builder and connector, Innovation Week has been a highlight for me each year for the valuable experiences, learnings and connections it has provided. It is especially exciting this year because many of the organizations, I am currently helping to grow are participating. Rainforest Alberta hosted our first ever “Discover the Innovation Sector” on November 15 at Platform Calgary, which sold out, was waitlisted and welcomed 222 registrants to the interactive and fun event, that introduced curious Calgarians ( who are new to Rainforest Alberta and tech) to learn about the opportunities, resources and careers available in tech. It was a co-hosted event with Platform Calgary, CITI, Sait and IncluCity Calgary.
Innovation Week is also exciting for us at Start Me Up PR, because of the sponsorship/partnership with Platform Calgary, we are on board to help with their media relations and this allows us to tell more stories about technology founders and innovations in STEAM. We exist to tell people’s stories, and we love doing it. Being part of an ecosystem like YYC’s gives us the opportunity to support our local clients while we scale beyond Calgary. We are what they call a tech-adjacent business but we are still part of the tech sector. That’s the cool thing about our ecosystem, we often forget that the tech sector impacts all businesses and entrepreneurs – when tech flourishes, we all do.
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