Exciting 2022 Pedesting Updates

So much has happened in the world of Pedesting since our last blog post, that it is difficult to know where to begin. As was the case for countless businesses, COVID-19 threw a wrench in the works for Pedesting and our progress, at a critical time in our development. Whilst the whole world was affected by the pandemic, its onset had a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities according to Statistics Canada. 

As the world springs back into action from the Winter COVID-19, we are spurred on with plenty of things in the future to look forward to. The first of which being that Pedesting is currently in the alpha testing phase of the app. Three of Calgary’s most dynamic downtown buildings have been added to the platform, the New Central Library, Arts Common and Brookfield Place. If you are curious and would be interested in being alpha tester, please email hello@pedesting.com. We are looking forward to feedback and using it to refine Pedesting to be the best tool it can be in making the world more accessible.

 

Screenshot of Pedesting App in New Central Library

Screenshot of Pedesting App in New Central Library

 

At the beginning of 2022, Pedesting was delighted to learn we had been one of a select group of nineteen startup companies accepted into the TELUS Community Safety & Wellness Accelerator (CSW). The CSW is a first-of-its-kind accelerator focused on addressing the social and safety challenges facing our communities.

The program is a partnership with AlchemistX, the Edmonton Police Foundation, and Alberta Innovates. The purpose of the program is to bring proven Silicon Valley acceleration programming to the social impact space.

The TELUS CSW describes their “why” for the program, “We believe that this Accelerator can leverage entrepreneurship, technology, data, AI/ML, mentorship, funding, domain partners to finally help devise and deploy workable solutions that can not only deliver better outcomes, but more importantly, make a real difference in the lives of our citizens and help our entrepreneurs scale the solutions globally.

This is our chance to do Good, Deliver Better Outcomes and Create Scalable Companies and for Alberta to lead the world in Community Safety and Wellness Solutions.”

The Pedesting team is fortunate to be joined by 18 other members of the cohort from six different countries tackling a wide array of issues from racism, hate, domestic violence, addiction, misinformation, accessibility, child abuse, mental health, personal safety, child support payment and early emergency detection.

Our main focuses throughout the program have been customer discovery, telling our story and refining our pitch. Through this customer discovery, Pedesting has had the pleasure of talking to members of the disabled community as well as key figures in Canada’s real estate sector. This exercise has been key in strategizing how to best serve each side of the coin and bridge the mismatch between those with disabilities and the built environment.

Our CSW demo day is April 19, 2022 and we welcome your participation and feedback, please email us at hello@pedesting.com if you are interested in attending.

Lastly, and crucially, Pedesting has been working with our incredible tech team to develop the features of the app as we move ever-closer to going live. We are thrilled to announce we will be launching the app in Calgary and anticipate a soft launch in Q4 2022 with a public launch to follow in Q1 2023.

In the meantime, we will be growing the Pedesting community, learning more from our future users and honing the technology.

Our focus always remains on the end user, the Pedester, and finding the easiest, safest, and most accessible way to reach your destination.