In a recent announcement, Smart City technology development house 22 CityLink has unveiled its first offering, Concept Foundry. Concept Foundry is designed to redefine the term “technology hub” through an immersive, educational, co-working and business accelerator ecosystem located at Gramercy District, in Ashburn, Virginia.
“At 22 CityLink, we believe that the barriers to collaboration need to be broken down to promote and accelerate innovation. We’re doing this with our forward-thinking academia and technology partners,” said Minh Le, managing partner, 22 CityLink. “Innovation can’t happen in silos. History has shown us that. We decided to be different and created Concept Foundry as an ‘open’ ecosystem where the collective community drives experimentation, making innovation happen.”
Concept Foundry will help users to build an ecosystem based on the following strategic characteristics:
Open. The mixture of students and companies at Concept Foundry is meant to encourage interaction, creating an environment where collaboration feels natural. As part of being at Concept Foundry, members have access to a network of industry experts, leading educators, global manufacturers, disruptive technology providers and more.
Modern. The technology that runs Concept Foundry was built using artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics, creating a hyper-intelligent ecosystem that learns and adapts to every member’s needs.
Innovation. An ecosystem can’t foster innovation without being innovative itself. Concept Foundry offers a city as a sandbox and provides the sandbox with live-data from the city, so members can validate ideas in real-world scenarios. What the members learn about and create surrounds them; they live the innovation.
“Fostering collaboration and innovation is more than just providing access to great resources. It’s about welcoming diversity. It’s about creating an atmosphere for stimulating interactions,” said Dave Ladouceur, chief strategy officer, 22 CityLink. “We’re providing this culture at Concept Foundry, where a student, startup or global company can work together to create a better world.”
Concept Foundry is set to launch in late 2018 at Gramercy District.