Sharing Our Succcess Stories from Across Cape Breton

Elevate magazine was launched with the objective of broadening and enhancing perceptions of Cape Breton’s business community and social-economic characteristics. The magazine aims to provide insight into the diverse people, enterprises, ideas, and happenings that illustrate the progressive, changing nature of our communities across Cape Breton and Mulgrave. The type and degree of economic diversification that’s occurring within our region and the change in attitudes are giving rise to new confidence in the future. Each new edition of the magazine provides examples of how the narrative is changing in respect of Cape Breton, its potential, and our transition to a more modern service and knowledge-based economy.

In keeping with its objective, the 2016 editions of Elevate magazine highlighted business successes and shared stories to illustrate the entrepreneurial and innovative nature of the many people helping to shape a new economy. Feature stories ranged from growing global recognition of Cape Breton as a place to visit and vacation to cutting edge ventures in the ICT-digital sector. Readers were given insight into the growing impact of the creative economy with features on the Celtic Colours International Festival, the Gaelic College, and select artisans whose products are commanding export market share from North America and beyond.

Cape Breton’s history is entwined with the sea, therefore, it’s not surprising that it plays a significant role in the growth of our collective economic future. Like so many of today’s industries, the extraction, processing and marketing of seafood is being reshaped by digital forces. In part, that’s why, in 2016, Elevate’s readership took such interest in a story on Louisbourg Seafoods’ Sea ++ initiative. It was an excellent illustration of how innovation is driving new approaches to enhancing the value of Cape Breton’s vitally important seafood industry.

Every now and then otherwise ordinary steps taken in marketing and promotion produce a bounty of unintended social and economic consequences. That’s why Elevate opted, in 2016, to take readers inside the story of the Cape Breton’s Trump Bump and environmental remediation at the former Sydney Tar Ponds. Both impacted Cape Breton in ways that could not have been imagined and demonstrate the considerable potential of novel creative thinking and the industry expertise that exists within our region.

Enhanced community perception is giving rise to growing optimism, sense of purpose, and confidence in our future. Throughout the Island there are signs of change, growing recognition of the value and benefit of entrepreneurship, and increasing success harnessing and applying the power of digital technologies in new products and in key economic sectors and industries, both traditional and new.

The Cape Breton narrative is changing and Elevate is just one of several products working to move the needle in this regard. Enhanced community perception is giving rise to growing optimism, sense of purpose, and confidence in our future. Throughout the Island there are signs of change, growing recognition of the value and benefit of entrepreneurship, and increasing success harnessing and applying the power of digital technologies in new products and in key economic sectors and industries, both traditional and new. Cape Breton has momentum and its building. There are many stories waiting to be told and in 2017, Elevate magazine will share them with you. In the process, I hope, community self-awareness will continue to grow and with it the vigor and ingenuity with which Cape Breton responds to the exciting opportunities ahead.