Every year, our festival brings together communities, cultures, and creativity. From engaging performances to inspiring workshops, we strive to connect people through art, innovation, and shared experiences.
The BrightBridge Connections Festival is a community-driven initiative combining cultural heritage with digital innovation. Featuring student talent, international creativity, immersive XR showcases, and a dedicated summit on Digital Advocacy for Seniors, the festival celebrates diversity and fosters intergenerational connections. The exhibition is scheduled for January 31st, 2026 at the Cornell Community Centre.
Explore what makes our event special and discover how you can be part of it.
Themed “Lighting the Way, Bridging Generations,” an immersive XR experience of cultural architecture and innovation, this festival combines an invitational and an open competition together with a series of workshops that help to educate our public the latest digital techologies as well as connecting the young generation with the seniors through these activities.
Our festival kicked off with a press conference on Friday, October 10, 2025, from 12:45 PM to 2:00 PM at the Markham Civic Centre (Canada Room). We had an overwhelming support from our community. Several mainstream media were in attendance and interviewed our team.
We invite all members of our community to participate in our annual cultural event. We believe everyone has talent and the required skill set to make contributions to our community. We want to use this event as a platform to recruit talents like you and show what you have to the public. The theme of our open competition this year is food items that reflect our multicultural values.
Every year we invite students from an accredited Canadian university to participate in our cultural event. This year we have invited the undergraduate students from the Architectural Science program of the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) to participate in our cultural festival. Through this event, we are hoping to offer an opportunity for these students to showcase their talents to the public.
Educating our public to engage in leading-edge techologies is one of our missions. We will host workshops prior to and after the exhibition to instruct our community in accesssing apps and software related to A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), AR(Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality) as well as social media and website creations learning for seniors. Our team of youth volunteers will assist our senior students and interact with them in the whole learning process. Our first FREE workshop - Using ChatGPT to make your 1st webpage is scheduled on Saturday, December 20 (2 to 4 pm) at the Milliken Mills Community Centre. Please register below to enroll.
Participants and winners of our competitions will be recognized and awarded prior to the exhibition date. Our proud sponsors will also be recognized in front of our city councillors and mayor to show our appreciations!
Our main event of the festival features a one-of-a-kind immersive exhibition showcasing cultural architecture designs in an extended reality (XR) environment like no others! The centerpiece of the show is a terrain that shows the augmented reality (AR) models of pavilions surrounded by their interior models presented in the virtual reality (VR) environment. These models are designed by the winners of our invitational competition. Inside one of the interior models will feature the AR food models created by the winners of our open competition.
We are now accepting applicants to participate in our open competition. We are looking for food items that reflect our multicultural values. Your creation will be submitted as a digital asset and the winning models will be presented as an augmented reality object at the exhibition. All participants will receive a certificate of recognition and winners will receive a certificate of excellence from the City of Markham with gift card prizes. We hope you can join us and become part of this exciting and one-of-a-kind festival.
Deadline of submission: January 2, 2026 by 11:59pmWe have invited students from the Architectural Science department of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) to participate in our festival this year. They will be showcasing their pavilion designs with our in-house developed Extended Reality (XR) app at the exhibition. All participating students will receive a certificate of recognition and winners will receive a certificate of excellence from the City of Markham with gift card prizes. Besides, the winning models will be sent to the office of the City of Markham for future pavilion design consideration.
Vibrant Markham Foundation (VMF) and Kych & Co. (KYCH) are proud to announce the upcoming BrightBridge Connections Festival. Themed “Lighting the Way, Bridging Generations,” an immersive XR experience of cultural architecture and innovation, which has been officially launched with a press conference on Friday, October 10, 2025, from 12:45 PM to 2:00 PM at the Markham Civic Centre (Canada Room). We are honored to have City of Markham Ward 2 Councillor, Ritch Lau, President of Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan Chinese Business Association, Henry Chui, VP Internal of Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan Chinese Business Association, Annie Ho and President of Toronto Bona Lions Club in attendance to support our festival. At the conference, we have announced the objectives and rules of our two flagship competitions leading to the main exhibition. We have introduced the digital advocacy for seniors summit which includes workshops to educate our seniors with the use of digital and intelligent techologies. We have also detailed the upcoming exhibition which will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2026 at the Cornell Community Centre.
“Fantasic! Truly one of its kind. Two thumbs up!!” — Globe and Mail
“A very unique cultural event for the City of Markham!” — Toronto Star
“An event you can't miss!!” — New York Times
Tridel Corporation
Bell Canada
Loblaws
Fairshare SC
Toronto Bona Lions Club
BrightBridge Connections is a joint venture between Vibrant Markham Foundation and Kych & Co. which is funded by the City of Markham and the Federal Government of Canada.
Vibrant Markham Foundation is a registered charity organization (Charitable Reg.#791675556RR0001) focuses on providing STEAM education and charity work to public. We are a community leader in robotics and A.I. and the first in Canada to establish a community space program.
W: vibrantmarkham.com | E: info@vibrantmarkham.com | T: 416.402.4428
Kych & Co. is a Toronto-based luxury design-build firm. Rooted in creativity, cultural heritage, and community collaboration. Kych & Co. integrates architectural excellence with thoughtful craftsmanship to create timeless, livable spaces that reflect the diverse character of Greater Toronto.
W: kychandco.com | E: info@kychandco.com | T: 647.689.6126