Windsor-Essex Entrepreneurship & Innovation Ecosystem
Participation Agreement

The Windsor-Essex Entrepreneurship & Innovation community is welcoming and open to everyone who shares our vision and our values, and who agrees to abide by the rules that govern our activity.

Our Vision inspires us to make be the changes we want to see

Windsor-Essex is a region that is widely recognized as a thriving entrepreneurial community, a place where new products and new solutions are conceived and developed. It is a place where open collaboration, experimentation and testing of new ideas lead to the start of the next big thing; a place driven by an inclusive, entrepreneurial spirit; a place where diversity of people, ideas and resources intersect and merge, and where long-term vision and an eye to the future continually guide our actions.

Our Shared Values guide our work

Empowerment

We believe in providing tools and support to empower people, enabling and encouraging them to pursue their personal and economic dreams.

Collaboration 

We believe in fostering a culture that embraces “open-source” and expanding the pie thinking, which is more productive, both creatively and economically, than a culture that clings to “silo” and zero-sum game thinking.

Facilitation 

We believe in being a catalyst for cultural change, and in facilitating access to the connections, skills, infrastructure and resources required for our entrepreneurial community to thrive.

Sustainability 

We believe that lasting, impactful change will best be achieved through a self-sustaining “creative ecosystem” of participants that see value in working together.

Transparency & Accountability

We believe that our community must work in an open and accountable manner that engenders trust and goodwill between all participants, within and outside the community. 

Our Rules govern the way we work

They also serve as a commitment to one another, and help to keep ideas and innovation flowing freely. 

• Open doors and listen.
• Give before you get.
• Trust and be trusted.
• Experiment and iterate together. Practice often!
• Seek fairness not advantage.
• Do. Action trumps talk.
• Err, fail, and persist.
• Pay it forward.
• Break rules and dream big. 

Your Commitment

By signing below, you are joining a community of innovators who are helping to build a thriving community for the benefit of all, and are committing to uphold the Vision and Shared Values, and to abide by the Rules set out above. 

Publish and Share

We encourage you to publish your commitment on your own website or social media channels. Help spread the word. Encourage others to join in. Working together in a spirit of collaboration and entrepreneurship, we can help create a thriving, engaged and productive entrepreneurial ecosystem in Windsor-Essex.