Catherine Winckler

I love putting process to innovation — particularly in the digital world. I describe myself as a synthesizer and a catalyst, passionate about bringing inspired teams, design thinking, and emerging technologies together around great ‘What if?’ questions. We asked ‘What if?’ in 2001 when we incubated one of the world's first online anime series set to motion (winning at Sundance Online Film Festival as a result). And ‘What if?’ again when we brought sensor based technologies to a huge 110 ft. long interactive wall at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics to demonstrate how people could power changing stories as they walked down a corridor. When the Museum of Vancouver challenged us to take people back to Vancouver's 'neon past' we created a robust AR mobile app walking tour -- a first for any museum in Canada. And when CTV television network asked us to accommodate the upload of over 16,000 ‘Canada in a Day’ videos from across the country in just 24 hours to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, we built an online hub and user content platform equal to the task that was described by the Network as the most robust and glitch-free platforms they had ever commissioned by a third party creative team. In 2017 I pivoted the digital agency to create our own IP in the area of health & wellness, believing that lessons learned from putting ‘audience first’ have application to Digital Health and patient first. MindfulGarden, a behaviour modification platform for lowering anxiety & aggression associated with chronic disease is our first big ‘What if?’ question in this sector. Note: Catherine is a former PROFIT magazine ‘ Top 100 Women Entrepreneur;' member of the invitation-only International Women’s Forum (IWF); a 2018 'Top Women in STEM' by BC Business magazine; past Forum for Women Entrepreneurs e-Series grad; past committee member of the Canadian Media Producer's Assocation (CMPA); board member of both an arts organization and an international environmental group; and winner of a number of industry awards including 'Best Interactive' at the U.S based Alliance for Women in Media's 'Gracies Awards.' Catherine is active as a health advocate and speaker on continuity of care issues arising from personal experiences around the misdiagnosis of delirium of her mother and subsequent tragic death. This journey to justice is chronicled on the website www.esthersvoice.com and as a chapter in the bestseller, After the Error, by Susan McIver and Robin Wyndham, RN.