Social inclusiveness - a digitally "connected" society yet so physically "disconnected" from each other.

The divide between urban and rural communities continues to grow! We will never be viewed globally as a digitally connected society until we achieve an economy where all communities benefit from the digital economy. 

As we all know, small town society is struggling just to survive, hard hit by the recession, the shift towards urbanization and the downturn in domestic tourism.  Traditional outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, boating, and wildlife adventures no longer appeal to the younger high-tech generation who more often than not favor urban and virtual digitl world activities.

The gap between community assets, consumer desire and emerging trends is expanding at an alarming rate. We are on the cusp of a very different world! Canada must take a leadership role in bridging the gap!

How....achieving sustainable economic growth for many non-urban communities is highly dependent upon their ability to attract and engage new markets for domestic destination tourism. 

We need only look to the students of Fanshawe College, Faculty of MultiMedia, to see how they are working at designing interactive games for the recreational outdoor industry designed to engage new markets, educate them on outdoor activities and motivate them to use the games to experience a real life adventure in our rural communities.  The program is call TecVana; a social media marketing program specifically designed to reach, engage and collaboratively develop a new age rural escapism adventure that will appeal to our youth population.  TecVama will result in redefining the recreational outdoor industry of today, growing a new geo-tourism industry for tomorrow and provide for meaningful social change that will drive rural economic development.  It will connect the city with the country and the country with the city.  Then and only then can we brag that we have a digital society that benefits all of us.

 TecVana targets the Net Geners leveraging the power of social media to establish a user-created solution. These demographics have a strong interest in driving social change, want to make a difference but want to do it their way.  Creating change means empowering our youth to help build the rural economy of tomorrow.

We are using social media, community outreach, mobile and digital gaming to drive customer engagement, consumer collaboration and public involvement at all levels of the reinvention process creating a new geo-tourism industry; one that will enhance the geographic character of a place - its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents. Dryden Ontario will be the first pilot community.