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By Allie Houghton
Marketing Manager
OISE Continuing & Professional Learning
July 23, 2026
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The Energy Doesn’t Stop: Reflections on InnovED’s Evening Social
Jul 23rd, 2026 | CommunityThe MicroLab had wrapped. Ninety minutes of concept mapping, design thinking, and peer collaboration: the kind of focused work that leaves you energized and wanting more. For most participants on July 16th, the next step wasn't the door… It was the social next door.
For the first time, InnovED paired a MicroLab with an evening social, and what followed was a natural extension of the energy in the room. People who had spent the afternoon working through ideas together didn’t want to stop. And the arrival of additional community members who came just for the social brought fresh perspectives into conversations that were already well underway.
The mix made for something special. Ideas flowed freely. People who had spent the lab deep in their own projects found themselves genuinely curious about what others were working on. Connections formed across themes and backgrounds. Contact information was exchanged. Follow-up meetings were planned. What had started as parallel journeys began to look like shared ones.
People connected on the work they were doing and on who they were as people. Some long-standing InnovED members even brought some of their team members, making the most of an evening rich with people working through similar ideas.
By the end of the night, the feedback was unanimous. Do more of this.
That’s exactly what InnovED intends to do. As Samantha put it: “You can never design in isolation. You always have to be aligned and connected to the real stakeholder life cycle and context you’re working in.” An evening social isn’t a footnote to that principle. It’s a practice of it.
To learn about upcoming MicroLabs, QuickCasts, EduForum, and membership, visit the InnovED page or contact innoved@utoronto.ca.
