Refresh Annapolis Valley

Refresh is a community of designers, developers and innovators working to refresh the creative, technical, and professional culture of digital technology endeavours in the Annapolis Valley while promoting design, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Refresh Annapolis Valley was founded to create a cultural and educational space for our regional digital technology professionals, both current and future, to grow their skills and build regional synergies.

We believe deeply in the digital economy as a component of a strong diversified Nova Scotian economy. Information and Communication Technologies have revolutionized traditional industries and spawned new ones. As we shift from the Information Age to the Age of Artificial Intelligence, there are tremendous opportunities to solve problems across wide industry segments while generating opportunity.

It is our hope that Refresh contributes towards a rural discussion about the digital economy. There is a very real tension between urban and rural within the digital economy. Urban centres like Halifax have done well growing digital tech industry through the maintenance of an ecosystem that pulls innovative business to it. However, a networked society has the potential of distributing these sites of innovation to wherever digital technology talent and good ideas find themselves.

Refresh believes in this potential to grow micro-ecosystems supportive of rural digital industry. But this is challenging. If talent cannot be found here, opportunities will move elsewhere. In a small way, the cultural space that Refresh creates helps to foster a sense of place and potential for digital technologists and creatives that choose to call the Annapolis Valley home.