Tag Archives: edmonton

4th Street Promenade is seeking an Event & Volunteer Coordinator for Al Fresco 2012!

By Mack D. Male ·

4th st promenadeFor the last few years, 4th Street Promenade has staged a block party called Al Fresco in June. It happens on the same day as DECL’s Pancake Breakfast, the Pride Parade, the City Market, and a bunch of other cool events, making it probably the busiest day of the year downtown. This year it takes place on June 9, and we’re looking for someone to take the lead on organizing:

The 4th Street Promenade is seeking an Event and Volunteer Coordinator for the annual Al Fresco Block Party, which is taking place on June 9, 2012. This is a paid contract position to start immediately and end following the event. This position will appeal to a person who truly enjoys working with people and achieving success through running successful events and functions. The successful applicant will be an outgoing, people-oriented and deadline-driven organizer with a proven track record of coordinating high-quality events of scale. The successful applicant will also be an enthusiastic and community-minded booster of all things Edmonton. A flexible schedule is also a must.

There’s a strong planning committee already in place, so if you get the job you certainly won’t be on your own! Think you’ve got what it takes to make Al Fresco 2012 a success? You can download the full job posting and get details on how to apply in PDF here.

You can learn more about Al Fresco by reading Sharon’s recap of last year’s event and taking a look at my photoset:

If you have any questions, let me know. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who you think may be interested in the position!

PDF Al Fresco Event & Volunteer Coordinator Job Description

Recap: DemoCamp Edmonton 17

By Mack D. Male ·

democampWith wind chills reaching well below minus thirty, it’s amazing that anyone at all showed up at the Telus Centre tonight for Edmonton’s seventeenth DemoCamp, but they did! While perhaps not our largest turnout ever, we still had a pretty full house for six demos. You can read more about DemoCamp here and you can check out my recap of our last DemoCamp here.

DemoCamp Edmonton 17DemoCamp Edmonton 17

Tonight’s demos, in order of appearance:

  • Zeel – Built by Rocketfuel Games, Zeel is “the topical Twitter app that connects you with your interests.” You can think of it as a layer on top of Twitter that makes it easy to follow conversations on specific topics. You can do that with saved searches of course, but that’s a little more difficult and the experience certainly isn’t as nice!
  • Cross Platform Tablet App using Flash – Randy demoed an application that he built using Flash that was then deployed to the iPad and an Android tablet without requiring any changes. I didn’t catch the name of the app, but it was pretty cool to see the same app running on different platforms.
  • Accessing US-Only Blocked Content in Canada – Ben showed us a trick he shared with the YEGRB group recently. It’s a bit technical, but with just a few steps, you can get access to Pandora, the US Netflix catalog, and other services that block access from Canada. He’s got a screencast that shows you how to do it here.
  • Web Suite Pro – Collin was really nervous, but did a pretty good job of showing off his online invoicing and CRM app. Web Suite Pro seems very feature rich, with lots of built-in functionality and support for a variety of platforms. FreshBooks is the obvious competitor in the space.
  • Linelo – Terry demoed his solution for recording and organizing large amounts of text. You capture lines of text, and then you can group lines together, format them, collapse them, and more. He’s got support for Android and additional platforms are on the way.
  • Slapshot Heroes – From Visimonde, the folks behind Rinksters, comes this iPad app that is kind of like Angry Birds but with pucks and coins. It started out as a mini-game within Rinksters actually, and was popular enough to stand on its own. Ted was entertaining, just as he was back at DemoCamp Edmonton 15 when he showed off Rinksters itself.

I think Ben’s demo was perhaps the favorite of the night, even though it was a little geekier than the rest. It’s always fun to have demos like that – stuff that isn’t necessarily going to turn into a product or company but which is cool nonetheless. Slapshot Heroes was certainly entertaining, and I’m sure more than a few folks will have already spent the 99 cents to download it. Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m most excited to try Zeel, even though I don’t have an iPhone. I’m always interested in finding new ways to extract value from Twitter!

DemoCamp Edmonton 17

There were a number of event announcements this evening:

Stay tuned to Startup Edmonton for additional events and announcements!

See you in March for DemoCamp Edmonton 18!

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #28

By Mack D. Male ·

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

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!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

UPDATE: Stay warm out there, it’s gonna be very cold for a few days! Don’t believe me? Check out the Long John Index. I love their newsroom page: “Not only is the Long John Index a semi valuable and quasy hilarious weather service, its also GREAT filler for Media organizations!”

UPDATE2: The list of presenters for Pecha Kucha Night 12 has been posted!

Edmonton Notes for 1/15/2012

By Mack D. Male ·

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

w a i t i n g
This has to be one of the most awesome LRT station photos ever, taken by Alison Poole!

Here are some upcoming events to look forward to this week:

Ice on Whyte 2012
We should have visited Ice on Whyte yesterday – it was so cold today! More photos here.

Let’s recap a busy week for 104 Street!

By Mack D. Male ·

This week has been so full of exciting news and announcements related to 104 Street downtown that I figured a quick recap would be helpful.

Mercer Warehouse

It started on Tuesday with some coverage of the renovations taking place at the historic Mercer Warehouse, located on the corner of 104 Avenue and 104 Street. Owned by the Pope family, the building will soon be home to a flower shop, a restaurant and bar called Mercer Tavern, a high-end furniture rental company, and Roast Coffeehouse, among other tenants. I got to tour the building this week, and while there’s a lot of work still ahead, it is fantastic to see the building coming back to life.

Confederation Building

On Wednesday we learned that The Confederation Building, which has been undergoing a much-needed facelift since late last year, will soon be home to a 7-11 as well as a whisky bar. I love the idea of a whisky bar as opposed to just another pub, and though you might scoff at first, the 7-11 is a big deal. Alex makes the point: “I see a new 7-11 as a sign that there’s a permanent population that justifies its creation (many new residences have been created on or around 104th).”

104 Street

Yesterday the news came out that Langham Developments Ltd., the developer behind the Icon towers, has purchased the land at the northwest corner of 104 Street and 102 Avenue. Currently home to a parking lot, we’ve heard for many years that condos would be going up on that site, but it sounds like it might actually happen now. Langham is planning something similar to the Icon, with two towers. I think they did a great job of keeping the Icon towers in line with the Heritage Zone, so I am looking forward to the new development.

There have of course been lots of other things happening on 104 Street as well:

Oodle Noodle

Oodle Noodle’s latest restaurant, located just around the corner on Jasper Avenue, opened recently and has been busy.

I Think I Do

The film I Think I Do is filming in and around Edmonton, and was located on 104 Street in the Armstrong Block most of last week.

Birks Building

The façade improvements to the Birks Building are ongoing and so far look great!

There are more announcements on the way in the next couple of weeks, including the launch of our new website, so stay tuned!

More than 3 million text messages were sent for ETS bus schedules in 2011

By Mack D. Male ·

A little over a year ago Edmonton Transit (ETS) introduced bus schedules via text message. Simply send a message to 31100 from your cell phone with the bus stop number, and ETS will respond with a list of upcoming routes and times. It’s a fantastic service that I have used dozens of times over the last year, and clearly I’m not alone. A little over 3.1 million messages were sent last year! Here’s the monthly breakdown:

ets text messages in 2011

Back in June, when I wrote about the launch of the advertising component to the service, about 1.2 million messages had been sent, or 7050 per day. By the end of the year, the daily average had risen to 8494. You can see that the increase is due in large part to the back to school season – the number of messages sent jumped from 225,730 in August to 333,877 in September.

As expected, increased use of the text messaging service has led to a decrease in the number of calls made to BusLink, the automated 24-hour telephone line for transit information. Nathan Walters from ETS told the Journal that the number of calls dropped by 340,000 in the first nine months of last year to 2.8 million. I suspect it dropped even further when school started up again.

It’s great to see people embracing initiatives like this! ETS recently launched an updated Trip Planner that contains a number of new features like the ability to subscribe to email alerts for planned detours and bus stop closures, and there are additional technology-related services on the way. Should be an exciting year for connected transit riders!

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #27

By Mack D. Male ·

Yikes, over a month since my last update! Time to get back to it. Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

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!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

The Town of Edmonton was incorporated 120 years ago today

By Mack D. Male ·

It was 120 years ago today that Edmonton was incorporated as the Town of Edmonton. In the January 9, 1892 edition of The Edmonton Bulletin, the announcement was simple and followed updates on who had visited the town recently as well as a note that John Cameron, President of the newly established Board of Trade, had been “confined to the house…with a severe cold.” The single line read: “A copy of the ordinance incorporating Edmonton as a town was received by Monday’s mail.”

Fort Edmonton had of course been around for about a century by the time Edmonton became a town. With a population of just 700, Edmonton was small but the arrival of the CPR south of the river the previous year brought with it the promise of rapid growth. It also prompted fears that South Edmonton, or Strathcona, would become the city, leaving Edmonton to remain the smaller and less important community. Thus efforts got underway to make Edmonton a town.


The first train into South Edmonton on November 25, 1891

A few weeks later on January 30, 1892, a more complete story on incorporation was published in Frank Oliver’s Edmonton Bulletin. The paper noted that incorporation would take practical effect on February 10 when the first council would be elected. It also offered a brief analysis of the reasoning behind and impact of incorporation:

“Incorporation did not become a fact on account of what Edmonton is, so much as on account of what it is to be. It is not a result of the development that has occurred – wonderful though that is, all things considered – so much as a step towards still further development.”

“It was felt that a crises had been reached in the affairs of the town in which so many have sunk so much of their capital of time and energy and money, and that united action from this time forward had become a necessity if what had been gained or made was to be preserved.”

The story went on to discuss the importance of the first town council, asserting that “there is no reason why they should not be successful, or that Edmonton should not be in a very few years, as nature plainly intended, the leading city in the Northwest.” Even then Edmontonians were clamoring for recognition!

Also in that day’s paper came notice about the first election. Nominations for a mayor and six councillors were held on February 3, 1892 at Fielder’s Hall, from 10am until noon. The election was held a week later at the same place, from 9am until 5pm. Persons qualified to vote included: “All men, unmarried women and widows, being British subjects over 21 years of age, who have been owners or householders within the municipality for a period of not less than three months next preceding the day of voting.”

Four women voted in the election, and more votes were cast than expected. “Due to an unexpected population spurt, an anomaly occurred in the statistics dealing with voter turnout. Extra ballots had to be printed to include those who were earlier excluded from the original voter list.” Matthew McCauley (after whom the McCauley neighbourhood was named) was acclaimed as Edmonton’s first mayor. There were fourteen candidates for council, and the six councillors elected alongside McCauley were Colin Strang, Daniel Fraser, Edward Carey, James Goodridge, John Cameron, and Philip Daly. The first meeting of the newly formed town council took place on February 15, 1892.

These men all had a big impact on the growing town. McCauley later represented Edmonton on the Territorial Legislature, and was a founding member of Edmonton’s school board, for which he earned the nickname “Edmonton’s Father of Education.” Strang was an accountant, and also served on the school board and the board of trade. Fraser, who operated flour mills, also served on the first council of the new formed City of Edmonton. Carey co-founded Edmonton’s first general store, Norris & Carey. Goodridge of course built Edmonton’s first brick hotel, Jasper House. Cameron was president of the board of trade and also served on the school board (the Cameron Heights neighbourhood was named in his honor). And Daly operated a pharmacy and bank before entering politics.

Strathcona followed Edmonton’s lead and was incorporated as town in 1899. Both towns experienced rapid growth – Edmonton’s population had surpassed 8000 by the time it was incorporated as a City in 1904. Once again Strathcona followed suit, becoming a city in 1907. Just five years later in 1912 the two amalgamated, setting the stage for Edmonton to grow into the city we know today.

You can see the Government of Alberta’s Location and History Profile for Edmonton in PDF here.

Edmonton Notes for 1/8/2012

By Mack D. Male ·

I ended up taking quite a bit more time away from blogging in December than originally intended, but it was nice to have a break. Sharon and I went to Yellowknife for Christmas, and the time away was just what we needed! Then January hits, and things go back to normal :)

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Eight Degrees
“Eight Degrees” by Kurt Bauschardt

Here are some upcoming events:

Why 2012 is going to be a big year for Startup Edmonton

By Mack D. Male ·

I can’t believe it has been nearly four years since Edmonton’s first DemoCamp took place! Who could have imagined, on that winter evening in the dungeon-like basement of the University of Alberta’s School of Business building, that sixteen DemoCamps would take place over the subsequent years. But they have, and they are still as popular as ever, regularly drawing 200 people from a wide variety of communities – entrepreneurs, programmers, designers, investors, and lots of others. DemoCamp Edmonton 17 is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, January 18 – don’t miss it!

I also never imagined that DemoCamp would eventually lead to Startup Edmonton, but I’m glad it has. Ken, Cam, Sam, and Tiffany recognized that DemoCamp was actually part of something bigger, and they decided to do something about it.

We help connect creators, innovators and entrepreneurs to start and scale bold new ideas through events, mentorship, workspace, and accelerators. Our vision is to make Edmonton a hotbed for creativity and entrepreneurship. Our mission is to amplify creative innovation and activate startups. Our goal is to invest in 500 creative entrepreneurs over the next 5 years.

DemoCamp helped showed us that Edmonton is full of smart, talented, creative people with really innovative ideas. But having an idea is not enough – you need to take action. That’s where Startup Edmonton comes in.

The organization has been around for a while now, organizing events like Launch Party and TEDxEdmonton in addition to DemoCamp, but it became much more official on December 5. That’s the date Startup Edmonton turned into a fully-fledged non-profit company. Here is the board of directors:

  • Todd Babiak – Co-Founder, Story Engine Inc.
  • Brad Ferguson – CEO, Strategy Summit Ltd.
  • Veer Gidwaney – CEO, DailyFeats.com
  • Chris LaBossiere – Co-CEO, Yardstick Software
  • Chris Lumb – CEO, TEC Edmonton
  • Mack Male – Co-Founder, Paramagnus Developments Inc.
  • Gregg Oldring – Co-Founder, Mailout Interactive / Inkdit
  • David Quail – Co-Founder, Attassa
  • Darin Rayburn – Executive Vice President, Melcor Developments
  • Kevin Swan – Principal, iNovia Capital
  • Sheetal Mehta Walsh – Founder/CEO, Shanti Microfinance

Though not everyone could attend the first meeting in person, there was great energy in the room as we went through introductions and got down to business. Here is our management team:

Rock stars, each and every one of them!

Startup Edmonton

The year ahead

Ken and the team spent countless hours last year planning, networking, connecting, pitching, building – basically doing all of the things a startup needs to do. They’ve put a solid foundation in place, and they’re the right team to drive the organization forward. With the help of our founding partners, I really feel like Startup Edmonton is going to make a big splash in 2012.

The investment ecosystem in Edmonton (and Alberta) is pretty good at funding things that already have momentum, but there’s a serious lack of viable products flowing into that funding pipeline. Yet we know from DemoCamp and other events and initiatives that there is no lack of ideas. How can we get people with ideas to turn into entrepreneurs with fundable products? That’s the challenge that Startup Edmonton will tackle. Here’s how:

  • Inspire – DemoCamp and other events to bring the community together
  • Create – Hackathons, Startup Weekend, and other events focused on prototyping
  • Accelerate – Incubator for early stage tech startups to rapidly take their prototypes to the next level

Startup Edmonton is already pretty good at “Inspire” and efforts related to “Create” are ramping up, but it’s “Accelerate” where things will get really interesting this year. The tech accelerator program is called Flightpath, and it will invest in up to 30 early stage software/digital media startups over the next three years. These are small financial investments, but combined with mentorship, learning, and networking opportunities, the goal is to help startups make meaningful progress in a short period of time. To turn more ideas to into fundable products.

You will of course see more DemoCamps, Startup Weekends, Launch Parties, and other events in 2012. But you’ll also see the startup space that was teased a couple of months ago – a physical space downtown “where geeks, entrepreneurs, and creatives collide.” You’ll see more opportunities to share your knowledge and to learn from others. You’ll see the launch of Flightpath and the first class of startups. You’ll see a more concerted effort to build awareness of startups in Edmonton.

And I think you’ll start to see that creative entrepreneurs and Edmonton’s future are beautifully intertwined.

It’s going to be a great year – get connected!