By Nancy Fornasiero

ACE Coworking is pleased and proud to be supporting an exciting new Ontario start-up dedicated to making our fire fighters safer. Catapult Tactical XR was the People’s Choice Winner at Haltech’s Hi5 Pitch Competition, which was sponsored in part by ACE Coworking. Part of the prize was an ACE membership, and that’s how the relationship started. Once we had a chance to experience their cutting-edge technology first-hand in a demo at our space, we became convinced that they are onto something unique and very effective. To say that we were impressed is an understatement.

Founded by a team of innovative tech experts and real-world fire fighters, Catapult Tactical XR emerged from the recognition of the need for better and safer training for all emergency responders. Recognizing that mixed reality can provide innovative and engaging training solutions, their first modules were designed.

CEO and Co-founder, Robyn Simpson, explains, “Fire fighters perform a dangerous job which requires extensive and ongoing training, but the training itself is expensive, destructive, dangerous, and less available than ever before due to safety and legislative concerns.” In her view, some scenarios are simply impossible to reproduce in a training environment.

Catapult Tactical creates mixed reality training tools that provide participants with a lived experience, or embodied cognition. This experiential learning helps form the muscle memory that is so critical to safety. With the brain tricked into believing the scenario is real, some participants even have visceral comments like “it was really warm in there.”

On Wednesday October 16, 5 to 8PM, Catapult Tactical, in cooperation with ACE Coworking, will be holding an information evening complete with demonstrations. Anyone interested in investment opportunities, fire safety education, or VR technology is welcome to attend.

Their target markets are both fire suppression and fire education organizations. They stand apart from their competitors for both immersion and realism. The start-up is currently raising money in a “Friends & Family” round.

For more information visit www.catapultdesignstudios.com

Or email Robyn.Simpson@CatapultDesignStudios.com

By Nancy Fornasiero

November 28 is Giving Tuesday, the perfect time to announce that our applications for the 2024 Honorary ACE Membership has opened!

What’s Giving Tuesday

This is a day for Canadians to come together and donate to charities and causes that are important to them. This national day of giving was established to shift the focus off the over-the-top consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and we are 100% behind that idea!

What’s an Honorary ACE Membership?

As a way of giving back to the community, every year at ACE we donate a free membership, including use of boardroom space, to a deserving local registered charity or NFP. We seek to partner with organizations who a) would benefit from the ability to meet in person but don’t have budget for space, b) help to make Oakville a better place to live, and c) possess values closely aligned with our own.

Honorary ACE Coworking Member 2023: Oakvillegreen

One of the founding principles of the coworking industry is sustainability and environmental responsibility, so the latest recipient of an honorary membership was a perfect fit for us. For the past year, Oakvillegreen has held their board meetings in our space free of charge, and we also support the organization by promoting their initiatives to our members and beyond through our digital platforms and at our in-person events. (Learn more about our partnership here.)

Recently Oakvillegreen thanked us in a special way. Did you know that the Latin name for a maple tree is “ACER”? Since this is what we call our members, they thought it would be a cool gesture to plant a maple (acer) tree here in Oakville and dedicate it to us. No thank-you was necessary, but we tree-huggers were really touched by the gesture!

We have been super proud to partner with Oakvillegreen. We will always be supporters of the group – but in terms of a formal membership arrangement, it’s time for us to spread the love to a new organization…

Honorary ACE Coworking Member 2024

We know that there are dozens of groups doing great work to make our town a better place, and their boards and committees are meeting around someone’s dining room table or in coffee shops, or entirely over video calls. They deserve better than that, and we would love to support them! With a free ACE membership, they would get all this:

• 24/7 access to a professional office
• coffee and tea for their meetings
• boardroom access whenever needed, complete with technology for hybrid meetings
• access to a podcast room
• a mailing address (if needed)
• promotion about their initiatives via our newsletter, social media feeds, and internal communications to our ACE members
• access to host fundraisers or educational events in our space

Are you a part of (or know of) a worthy organization who would enjoy having physical headquarters to work from? Please do a good deed this Giving Tuesday by helping us spread the word!

We are accepting applications until Dec 24, 2023, and the recipient will be announced on January 5, 2024.

Interested organizations must fill in this application form in order to qualify. Questions? Email us (info@acecoworking.ca) for more information.