Calgarians learn Category Design

We had a great time at our in-person category design sessions on April 28! Thank you to category design experts Peter Goldie and Deborah Kattler Kupetz for sharing their wisdom. Kim Follis, Lead Sponsorships at Platform, shares his experience:

“What do the minivan, iPad and frozen food have in common? Their emergence created new categories that revolutionized industries and created solutions to problems people didn’t know they had. In the process they saved a company (Chrysler), made computers fun, and changed the way we cook and eat.

According to experts Peter Goldie and Deborah Kattler Kupetz, these new categories are created through a purposeful process known as category design that can result in the invention of a whole new kind of business. The outcome: devoted fandoms, passionate users and a marketplace where people forget how they ever lived without the product.

On April 28, Kattler Kupetz and Goldie spoke to a group of Calgary tech leaders at Platform Calgary during the first of our Railside Sessions thought leadership breakfasts. They were joined in a panel discussion by local tech entrepreneurs Cory Paddock - President of  Kinetyx Sciences Inc. and Graeme Edge - Co-Founder & Chief Instigator of Energy Disruptors both of whom have used category design to align the designs of their product, company and category to become category leaders in health tech and energy conferences.

In the evening, the panel reconvened on the KPMG Pitch Stage to share their insights with 140 people in a public forum. The lively Q&A showed that Calgarians are ready to think big about the possibility of creating new categories that reshape the way we think and live – both in our city and around the world. ”

- Kim Follis, previous owner of 2 minivans

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