I was across the pond in London last week, so I was unable to attend the Downtown X-posed event that took place on Thursday at the Shaw Conference Centre. Though I wasn’t there in the flesh, I did participate by way of a video!
I saw some really positive feedback via Twitter, so I hope the video was well-received at the event.
The features I went through in the video are not the only things that make a street vibrant of course, but I do think they are important. The bottom line is that people make streets vibrant, so we need our streets to attract and support people. No other street downtown does that better at the moment than 104 Street.
Hundreds of Edmontonians will gather next Thursday at the Shaw Conference Centre for a full day event focused on downtown. Organized by the EEDC and the Downtown Vibrancy Task Force, the Downtown X-posed event will provide an opportunity to learn more about the broad array of things happening downtown, and will also give attendees a chance to provide input and feedback on how we can continue the positive momentum.
The vibrancy and character of a community’s downtown is a critical part of its identity. Think about places you’ve travelled to and you’ll know exactly what we mean. Please join us for a dynamic, one-day, one-of-a-kind event to learn about Edmonton’s downtown – what we have now, what’s in the works, what’s yet to come, and some new things we might need to consider. Come learn, talk, connect and get involved in your downtown. As goes your downtown, so goes your city.
It has been a pretty great year for our downtown. EPCOR Tower, the first new office tower in two decades and also our tallest, opened. Despite some hiccups, both the arena project and the new Royal Alberta Museum appear to be moving forward. The province is working to complete the renovations of the Federal Building and the adjacent Centennial Plaza in time for next summer. The first phase of construction on Capital Boulevard is underway. MacEwan University has started working toward its single sustainable campus. I could go on – the point is, there’s a lot happening! Megaprojects aren’t enough though, we need more people living and working and shopping and learning downtown. What are the barriers this? How can we make it happen? What are we missing? Join us next week to discuss those questions and more.
I had the opportunity to talk about the event yesterday on CTV Edmonton:
One of the highlights of this year’s Fringe Festival was Sustainival, an amusement park on the grounds featuring carnival rides powered by used vegetable oil (Sharon wrote about our experience here). With sales of more than 25,000 rides and lots of positive feedback, the first iteration of Sustainival was a big success for founder Joey Hundert. Now he’s focused on his next venture: YEGWOOD.
YEGWOOD is a group of fashion & environmentally conscious people. We like our style and we love our planet.
We’re also from Edmonton, which isn’t necessarily a global hub of progressive fashion. We’re not knocking our small town of a million people, but great wears can be hard to find here. So, we set about our task of bringing absolutely righteous apparel & accessories to YEG. Thus, YEGWOOD was born.
I remember seeing the Yegwood booth at the Fringe Festival, and of course it caught my eye because of the name. Their first product was the WeWOOD watch, a line of watches made from recycled wood. Now they’re offering wooden sunglasses, also using recycled wood. And maybe soon, prescription glasses too:
“We have our labs here in Edmonton and we have been experimenting with prescription frames, so all of the folks who have inquired about using our glasses for their day-to-day glasses, we will be able to offer something soon. In the mean time, we have some seriously beautiful sun glasses for Albertans to enjoy during our upcoming sunny winter (yes, we are willing a sunny winter to happen).”
To celebrate, Yegwood is hosting a launch party on December 17 at Da Capo. You can see the event details on Facebook or on ShareEdmonton. One of the highlights is a photo booth sponsored by Georgie Magazine. Simply get your photo taken wearing a part of the sunglasses and you could win a pair for free!
Here’s a promo video for the event featuring the Da Capo crew:
I’d encourage you to check out the event to learn more about Yegwood and the new sunglasses. If you can’t make it though, don’t worry – Yegwood has given me one pair of TreeFarer sunglasses to give away here!
The TreeFarers are inspired by the classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer. The rust FRAMES & TEMPLES (arms) are made out of a reddish softwood with a tight grain pattern. The HINGES are spring-loaded to flex in either direction (in & out), ensuring the right fit across a broad spectrum of faces. The LENSES are polarized poly-carbonate with a medium tint; they are UV400 rated.
The glasses have a retail value of $119. There are only about 50 available for the holiday season!
To enter the contest, simply leave a comment below telling me how you plan to live more sustainably in Edmonton in 2012. The winner will be picked at random from the comments. The contest closes at 12:00 AM on December 18 (midnight on the evening of the 17th).
We are looking for a talented senior C# developer to join our development team in designing and creating the next generation of on-line assessment delivery software. The senior C# developer will work closely with a Product Owner and other team members (C# developers and QA) in a SCRUM (Agile) environment. They will be responsible for delivering potentially shippable functionality each Sprint using the latest technologies (ASP.NET MVC, WCF, .NET 4.0, etc.).
If you have experience building web applications using core web technologies (HTML, JavaScript, and CSS) then you might be interested in this opportunity. That said, we use ASP.NET MVC and jQuery quite extensively so experience with those is essential. The other tiers of the product utilize .NET 4, WCF, Entity Framework, and SQL Server, so experience working with any or all of those technologies is preferred. The project you would be working on is a very important one for the company, with lots of opportunity to both flex your technical muscles and to have a big impact in the marketplace!
Our development teams are cross-functional and work in two week iterations. We use Visual Studio Team System 2010 to manage source code and other artifacts, and Visual Studio Lab Management to facilitate automated testing and deployment.
Our Edmonton office is located downtown in the Empire Building on Jasper Avenue at 101 Street, right above Central LRT Station.
Congratulations to The Charrette, now one year old! Scott and Mike wrote: “We started blogging because we saw a need for another voice advocating for good urban design in the city. We thought, and still think, that Edmonton is in a very exciting place, a time that will shape the future of the city for decades.” They’re one of my favorite local blogs, check them out!
As I mentioned previously, both up! 99.3 and Lite 95.7 are now playing all Christmas music, all the time. The Journal interviewed both, and it seems that Lite feels they called dibs on Xmas tunes. I do agree that two stations with Christmas programming Edmonton seems like overkill.
MediaMag has a good update on local media moves. Among others, Emily Mertz has replaced Jennifer Martin on Alberta Primetime. Emily Mertz filled in for Jennifer Martin while she was away, but has not replaced her, and Jennifer is back.
Global Edmonton and Shaw are once again running the Give Me Shelter campaign to provide “thousands of much-needed items and Christmas gifts for women and children who are the victims of violence in our community.”
The Copper & Blue blog takes the local media to task for their lack of criticism of Ryan Whitney: “The Edmonton sports media is never one to cross the Oilers’ organization, but they are collectively falling down on the job with regards to Ryan Whitney.”
Since I started tracking local media more closely, I’ve noticed a disturbing amount of this sort of thing: a YouTube user called “YegNewsBabes” has been uploading videos of Edmonton’s female TV reporters.
CFWE-FM broadcasts in the Edmonton area at 98.5 and airs a country format for First Nations. I came across their Radio Bingo site the other day.
We had a great planning meeting for MediaCamp Edmonton 2 on the weekend. Mark February 4th in your calendar, and if you’re interested in sponsoring, please get in touch!
And here are a few non-local items I found interesting:
I think the Little Printer is neat idea, though it’s a novelty at best. One of the things it enables is a personalized “newspaper”, printed on-demand just for you. The BERG Cloud that powers it is much more interesting, however.
The Journalism Foundation launched today with a mission to promote, develop and sustain free and independent journalism throughout the world. You can read more about it at The Independent.
The new Xbox 360 dashboard goes live tomorrow. I can’t wait! With over 50 million consoles sold and more than 35 million Xbox Live memberships, the Xbox appears to have the best chance of ushering in “the future of TV.”
The Edmonton Journal WiFi Zone in Kingsway Mall
You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.
So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!
Last night EPCOR held an event to celebrate its 120th anniversary. A few dozen EPCOR employees, board members, VIPs, and other guests met on the 20th floor of the new tower for a brief program before being invited up to the 28th floor for a reception and the opportunity to step out onto the balcony of Edmonton’s tallest building. President & CEO Don Lowry spoke briefly about EPCOR’s history and the opportunities ahead. He also thanked Mayor Mandel for his leadership and presented him with a pair of ice grips for his shoes, a nod to the Mayor’s recent slip and fall.
The 28th floor of the building is where EPCOR’s executive and legal offices will be located, and they are set to move in this week – the last of EPCOR’s employees to do so. I’m told the interior was being worked on right up to the reception, but the last minute completion didn’t show. Guests were invited out onto the balcony for a unique view of Edmonton at night.
Looking north
Looking west
Looking back at downtown
There seem to be more opportunities to look south (from the Crowne Plaza, Coast Edmonton House, or the CWB building, etc.) so the view north is not one most Edmontonians are familiar with. It’s amazing at night to see just how far the lights go. You can see my post about the new EPCOR Tower here.
Founded on October 23, 1891 as the Edmonton Electric Lighting and Power Company, EPCOR has grown significantly over the years, and today provides water, wastewater, and electrical distribution services to over 1 million people across Western Canada. With a series of acquisitions in Arizona and New Mexico, EPCOR is becoming a series player outside of Canada as well.
One of the highlights of this year’s Fringe Festival was 
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