In January of 2016, the City of Pittsburgh had an idea to promote inclusive innovation through a week-long celebration of events across the city. We had seen other city’s host innovation weeks, but we wanted this to be different, to reflect the broad stretches of innovation in the city and invite each organization, business and person to bring their own take on inclusive innovation to the table. The first Inclusive Innovation Week resulted in 60 events hosted by 47 organizations and ranged from maker opportunities to art shows to panels centered on women in tech, coding education classes and much more.

With a year under our belts, we are excited to host Inclusive Innovation Week 2017, March 31^st – April 7^th. What’s new this year? There will again be over 60 events, but this year more than 120 partners are working together to make that possible. Expect to see events where partners are collaborating and often testing out programming and partnerships for the first time.

New partnerships like Girls Write Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Museum of Art will be collaborating on a writing workshop, while Jetpack Workflow is partnering with Alphalab and Obama Academy for a meet and greet between startup founders and students.  And in a preview of Remake Learning Days in May, The Sprout Fund, Games for Change, City of Play, The Center for Arts & Education at West Liberty University, I&P and other community partners will be teaming up for a Future Communities Game Jam at AlphaLab Gear.

We’re also excited that Steel City Codefest is happening during Inclusive Innovation Week, where tech innovators will spend a week developing apps that solve pressing social and civic problems. Once the adults have had their chance, we’ll be waiting to see what youth coders can do at Steel City Codefest Jr during Remake Learning Days.

In addition to opportunities for youth to engage with innovation there will also be even more events for adults. Click here to see the full calendar for the week.

There are countless organizations and businesses who make inclusive innovation a priority every day and we want to take this week to celebrate and invite more people to experience the opportunities available. I highly recommend checking out the recently released OnePGH video. We challenge you to use this week to participate in and experience innovation in all its forms, meet a new neighbor and show us how you inclusively innovate. We hope you will join us in celebrating Inclusive Innovation Week 2017.

Join and follow the conversation on social media using #WeInnovatePGH