2024 Clean Energy Frontier Summit

EDAC Promotional Event Abstract
2024 Clean Energy Frontier Summit

In January 2024, the annual Clean Energy Frontier Summit successfully brought together municipal leaders, economic developers, community partners and energy suppliers located within Bruce, Grey and Huron counties. The Summit encouraged collaboration through informative presentations, panel discussions and engaging networking opportunities regarding topics that relate to the region’s clean energy sector.

Presentations included:

•A keynote speaker from OMERS Pension Fund, providing a macro-economic overview of the global economy, with specifics on projected local trends.

•An overview from Energy Storage Canada on different energy storage technologies.

•A panel discussion with Saugeen Ojibway Nation representation focusing on the power of community engagement and participation in building successful projects. The discussion centred on how community leaders, Indigenous groups and the private sector can work together to successfully execute clean energy projects. Attendees remarked at how impactful this session was and the candour with which Chief Greg Nadjiwon spoke about the role of Indigenous communities in energy projects and economic development.

How to keep attendees engaged and networking with those outside their usual circles is always a challenge with a large event like this. We achieved success in both challenges using several innovative tactics:

•Conversation cups: Coffee cups with clean energy-related prompts plus extended networking breaks gave attendees the chance to interact beyond their existing connections.

•Advocacy 101: Attendees used fillable cards to contribute to a live notetaking board that developed over the course of the day and to guide the open learning session at the end of the Summit. The live notetaking board’s visual representation of attendee’s advocacy topics and ideas created a sense of collaboration and resulted in a great discussion piece (and many selfies posted to social media!). The engaging Advocacy 101 session dove into advocacy best practices and a Q&A session—both effective at ensuring attendees felt confident in strategically advocating for the Clean Energy Frontier region.

•Interactive booths: Clean energy partners showcased the current, future and proposed projects happening in the Clean Energy Frontier region.

Effectiveness of the Summit was proven through conducting pre- and post-event surveys plus live polling during the Summit. The surveys demonstrated that attendees had increased awareness and understanding of clean energy topics and economic development factors. The survey results showed that the content and networking opportunities at the Summit were effective and appreciated by attendees: 100% of respondents agreed the Summit was interesting and educational and would recommend the event to colleagues.

Live polling following presentations gave attendees an opportunity to reflect on key messaging and themes, ensuring attendees stayed engaged with the content throughout the day. A post-event press release was issued and picked up by media outlets around the region as well as shared on the Nuclear Innovation Institute’s website and social media channels.

Overall, the 2024 Clean Energy Frontier Summit was an impactful event that brought together regional leaders and stakeholders and filled with relevant information regarding clean energy topics and local economic challenges, including how they can overcome barriers in the spirit of collaboration.