Empowered to Invent — The First Institute of Canadian Inventors
Allow us to reintroduce ourselves. We’re one of Canada’s top non-profit organizations supporting Canadian inventors & innovators, and we’ve got good news.
TORONTO, October 28, 2020 — The First Institute of Canadian Inventors (FICI) is thrilled to unveil & roll out several updates as part of continued efforts to support Canadian innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs.
If the past nine months have taught us anything, it’s that change itself is the only constant in our lives, and in our businesses. We recognize that these are unprecedented times we’re living through, and that the recent global crises have greatly affected Canadian businesses, as well as businesses around the world in ways we could’ve never predicted. Despite this, in the face of great uncertainty, we’ve seen Canadian businesses rise to the challenge — and most importantly, innovate.
We, at FICI have certainly not been immune to the effects of the recent global crises either. Several core aspects of our organization have been disrupted. For starters, we oversee and organize a network of campus chapters at several Canadian universities. Our activities, outreach and engagement of these campuses has traditionally relied heavily upon events, our leadership being ‘on-the-ground’, and offline word of mouth. Furthermore, local, national and international competitions/events also represented a major portion of our engagement with our community, all of which have been cancelled or postponed for the time being.
Given the circumstances, as well as who we are and what we represent, it was only logical that we too evolve to continue to fulfil our commitment to Canadian innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. So, we made some updates — some big, some small.
As our strategies evolved around how to engage our network of university chapters moving forward, we realized a needed to create a stronger identity for each individual chapter.
Along with the logo assets themselves, we saw an opportunity to refresh the broader identity to better reflect what FICI represents. During this process, we updated the brand colours, typography, patterns and illustration style. These updates will be visible in all of our content moving forward.
“We believe that this bold, refreshed brand identity and thoughtful approach towards our university chapters will better resonate with our community and further encourage engagement, opening the door to new opportunities for our organization and it’s members,” said Babak Khodaparast, President at The First Institute of Canadian Inventors.
To build on what’s already been mentioned, we felt that we needed to better communicate our mandate and the ways in which we can support Canadian innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. The unprecedented circumstances allowed us to reflect on why FICI truly exists and focus on what our members, clients and partner organizations can expect from us, even in the most trying times.
Simply put — FICI exists to help Canadian innovators protect, amplify and commercialize their ideas & inventions.
Members can engage us in a number of ways 👇
Discovery Sessions
Sit down (virtually, for now) with one of our innovation experts for a half-hour discovery session where we’ll learn about your idea or invention, identify risks & opportunities together, and develop a strategy or action plan to move forward.
Patent Express
Let’s protect what’s yours. With our express application process, our team handles everything from existing patent research, writing/developing the application itself, proper application submission, and everything in-between. You’re in good hands.
If you’re interested in learning more about any of our services or programs, feel free to reach out to Babak directly.
Finally, how can we continue to meaningfully engage our own leadership, our members and the broader innovation community moving forward?
The final step in all this involved developing a new set of engagement strategies designed for the ‘new normal’. Here’s what we came up with.
- Double down on amplifying the voices, ideas and achievements of our members in new ways. Digital events, network-wide shoutouts, member/chapter submission portal (more details to come), digital newsletters, etc.
- Create more awareness (especially right now) around the resources available to Canadian innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs through our digital channels, website, partner organizations, etc.
- Make ourselves more accessible to Canadian innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs and prospective partner organizations through a revamped website experience (coming soon), improved presence & accessibility on LinkedIn, etc.
Of course, these things will take time — we’ll be rolling these initiatives out over the next few months heading into 2021. We’re thrilled to continue making an impact with innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs across the country.
About FICI
FICI is a non-profit organization established in 2015 to support Canadian inventors & innovators. We represent Canada as a member of the 95 countries that are members of the International Federation of Inventors Association (IFIA). The IFIA, based in Geneva & Silicon Valley, was established in 1968 and has operated under observation of the United Nations. We at FICI provide our members with the world-class resources & access they need to commercialize their ideas, protect their inventions, and go-to-market successfully, establishing themselves as global professionals. We proudly support hundreds of members across several provinces, either directly, or through our key partnerships with other recognized organizations. FICI is frequently involved in hosting or participating in international competitions, in which our National Inventors Teams have been highly successful. We also oversee several independently governed FICI Chapters at some of the top Canadian Universities, including the University of Toronto & Waterloo, amongst others. We’re actively looking to support entrepreneurs, innovators & inventors through our services and programs — so, how can we help?
Contacts
We can be reached by email, or in-person by appointment. Our office is located at 100 King St W Suit 5600, Toronto, ON M5X 1C9.
