Pecha Kucha Night: Edmonton #12

By Mack D. Male · February 3, 2012 at 4:55pm

pkn12 Edmonton’s twelfth Pecha Kucha Night was held last night at the historic Garneau Theatre in Old Strathcona. More than 500 people attended to see 10 presentations on a variety of topics, all delivered in the now familiar 20-slides-at-20-seconds-per-slide format. Most Pecha Kucha Nights in Edmonton have featured something unique, and last night the spotlight and red carpet outside the theatre welcomed attendees in style. The popcorn was free, the seats were comfy, and the energy in the room was infectious.

In order of appearance, these were the presenters at PKN12:

Erin Monaghan, Blogger
Ben Henderson, City Councillor
Duncan Kinney, Polynerd
Leroy Schultz, Photographer
Stephen Visser & Dawn Lamothe, Yoga Lovers
Joseph Ahorro, U2 Fan
Michael Walters, Community Organizer
Chris Falconer & Owen Petersen, Foodies
Sue Huff, MLA Candidate
Steve Sandor, Journalist

It takes guts to get up in front of such a large crowd, especially when you have a limited period of time and high expectations! I thought all of the presenters did a great job. All of them seemed to have fun too! Sharon remarked that PKN12 was probably in the middle of the pack in terms of presentations, and I agree.

Erin kicked off the evening with her discussion of street fashion, drawing mainly on her experiences writing The Vestiary. I thought her approach, treating Edmonton as her “little sister”, added a nice touch of humor, even if the overall flow was at times difficult to follow. I love that Erin and others like her are doing something about the perception of Edmonton’s fashion scene! Duncan’s presentation was packed with information, and I thought he did a nice job of discussing what a credit union is and why you should consider one. Duncan recently organized the Local Money Summit and is running to be a director of Servus Credit Union. One of the more moving presentations of the evening was Leroy’s overview of Miguelito’s Little Green Car. It’s an amazing story really, he has taken this little green car all over the world and photographed it people from all walks of life. He wants to show that everyone is connected. Here is the photo he took of the audience with the little green car:

First up after the intermission was Joseph, who talked about his experiences travelling to U2 concerts all around the world. We’re not talking one or two concerns, we’re talking dozens, on four different continents! The human connection is what made the story interesting, that and Joseph’s occasional singing! Michael Walters spent his twenty slides talking about local food, and in particular, the northeast part of our city which is home to some of the best farmland in the country. He talked about The Great Potato Giveaway, and about the importance of building a local food hub. The next presentation featured foodies Chris and Owen who wore matching plaid shirts and aprons. Their high energy talk was focused on bread – the history of it, why bread is great, and even some science behind it. They finished with the quickest bread making I have ever seen! Sue was up next with an interesting talk on creative politics. It was a solid talk with some good ideas, but it just couldn’t match the energy of some of the other talks. The final presentation was all about why Edmonton needs an SCTV monument. Steven made the case and had some really interesting visuals (I like the one of Melonville). I can definitely get behind the notion that we should celebrate more than just our sports heroes, but I think we can do better than SCTV. I think the association between ‘Edmonton’ and ‘SCTV’ is incredibly low for the vast majority of people, and a monument isn’t going to change that. On the other hand, maybe I am just too young.

I think a lot of people in the audience really enjoyed Stephen and Dawn’s “presentation” but it didn’t work for me. Instead of a typical presentation, they did yoga on stage for the six minutes and forty seconds, with a different position for each slide. Obviously they worked very hard at the presentation, and as Michael Brechtel commented to me, it was executed perfectly, and for that I commend them. For me though, it wasn’t a Pecha Kucha talk. The voiceover was pre-recorded There was a third, unannounced presenter off to the side who provided the voiceover for each slide, and I found I wasn’t even listening to it because I was distracted/enthralled by the acrobatics on stage.

My favorite presentation of the evening (and Sharon’s favorite too) was Ben Henderson’s discussion on winter. He showed images from his trip to Oslo, Helsinki, and other winter cities in northern Europe. Ben was full of energy, full of passion for his subject, and I think he did a nice job of being serious and fun at the same time. I hope he made as much of an impression on everyone else as he did on me, and if you’re interested in learning more about the City’s WinterCity strategy, visit the website and also check out the IdeaScale site.

Twitter always plays a large role in Pecha Kucha. The #pkn12 hashtag was buzzing last night! Here are a few tweets from the evening that I thought were worth capturing:

"Punch that dough in the face like it's John Travolta" #PKN12
— NextGen (@EdmNextGen) February 3, 2012

making politics accessible -tough to compete against making bread #PKN12 #yeg
— Steven Boyko (@stevenboyko) February 3, 2012

I love bread. Like "I could eat a loaf of fresh bread in one sitting" kind of love. #sourdough #pkn12
— Ken Bautista (@kenbautista) February 3, 2012

I've got to say, #pkn12, last night was the most polished I've seen to date. Well done @edmnextgen!
— Jarrett Campbell (@jarrettcam) February 3, 2012

If we can spend $75K on 3-yr-old Marshall McLuhan's house, maybe we can free up a few shekels for #sctv #pkn12.
— Chris Neuman (@neumanic) February 3, 2012

What a touching story about U2, the Polish solidarity movement, and the power of music. @joe_ahorro #pkn12
— Nadine Riopel (@philanthusiast) February 3, 2012

#PKN12 so enjoyable I almost forgot I wake up in 6.5 hours for @CBCEdmonton AM; Kudos to presenters + organizers of #YEG @PechaKucha
— Rick Harp (@RickHarpCBC) February 3, 2012

It's events like Pecha Kucha that make me glad I moved to Edmonton! #yeg #pkn12
— MERN (Aaron) (@Interslicemusic) February 3, 2012

Sweet Baby Jesus! That was an intense 6 mins and 40 seconds. Mind totally blown #PKN12
— Jennifer Banks (@JenBanksYEG) February 3, 2012

Proceeds from the bar went to the food bank, and there were a bunch of great prize giveaways too. I seem to have pretty good luck with prizes at Pecha Kucha, because I was one of the winners! Once again the event was livestreamed by the Edmonton Journal. I didn’t see as much chatter about quality or connection issues, so hopefully it worked well for everyone. In case you missed it, you can watch the recorded video here.

Keep an eye on @EdmNextGen for details on the next Pecha Kucha Night, tentatively scheduled for June.

You can read about past Pecha Kucha Nights in Edmonton here.

Edmonton Notes for 1/29/2012

By Mack D. Male · January 29, 2012 at 11:24pm

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Saturday was a big day for the Edmonton International Airport. More than 800 people took part in a trial run, where they did everything a passenger would (minus actually getting on a plane). Expansion 2012 looks awesome!
Earlier this week, the EIA announced that Canadian North will be using the facility as its southern charter home base.
The International Housing Affordability Survey found that Edmonton has the most housing of Canada’s six major metropolitan reasons.
This is why I love blogs. Here’s The Copper & Blue’s take on recent mainstream media coverage of the Oilers rebuild: “Luckily the discerning fan is no longer forced to rely on writers who are forced to list "access" as their single best credential in writing about, understanding and analyzing hockey.”
It was a busy week in Leduc. Both the Downtown Master Plan and and the Intermunicipal Development Plan were approved.
Though he campaigned for mayor on the issue, PC MLA candidate David Dorward says that if elected he would not bring the City Centre Airport up.
I love stories like this. Edmonton-based Liquor Stores N.A. has annual sales of $600 million, employs 2000 people across 240 stores, and has a $355 million market cap. Like too many things in Edmonton, it’s a quiet success story.
According to the Journal, the Shih Tzu is the most popular licensed breed of dog in the city. Buddy is the most popular name.
The Edmonton Bicycle Commuters are opening a second location inside a former carpentry workshop at 9305 111 Avenue.
Don’t miss Alex’s take on winter in Edmonton.
People nominated as Snow Angels throughout the city will receive tickets to an Oil Kings game as a result of a new partnership between the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Oil Kings.
I’ve written quite a bit about Edmonton Stories in the past, so I was quite interested to see that estimates put the cost of the site at $131 per story.
We’re coming up to the 100th anniversary of Strathcona’s merger with Edmonton.

Dawson Bridge by Stoncel

And here are some upcoming events:

The community hearings for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline wrap up on Tuesday here in Edmonton.
Head down to the Stanley Milner library on Tuesday for the Local Money Summit.
The Oilers are in action at home three times this week, hosting the Avalanche on Tuesday, the Blackhawks on Thursday, and the Red Wings on Saturday.
The next Bossy Night Out takes place on Thursday evening!
Edmonton’s 12th Pecha Kucha Night is happening on Thursday at the Garneau Theatre.
The Oil Kings play the Red Deer Rebels at Rexall Place on Friday night.
Hope to see you at MediaCamp Edmonton on Saturday! Buy your tickets now!

Edmonton Notes for 1/22/2012

By Mack D. Male · January 22, 2012 at 11:07pm

Check out Edmonton Etcetera for news, photos, and links throughout the week! Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Mayor Mandel has decided to decline the salary increase that was available to him, while councillors Leibovici, Krushell, and Iveson all opted for lower than the total amount available. Last year, eight of the councillors declined some or all of the increase.
It was a busy week for arena news. On Monday, the City announced that ICON Venue Group has been selected as project manager and that Rick Daviss has assumed the role of Executive Director of the Downtown Sports and Entertainment District. The ICON presentation with concept images was released later in the week in PDF (a key feature of which is loge seating). Paula Simons makes the case that the decision should have been put through the normal process as there was no public competition. Former mayor Cec Purves was even more critical, and wrote in a letter to the editor: “In the 45 years I have been involved in city politics and watching I have never seen a more irrational, irresponsible or reckless move by council.” On Friday, CBC reported that there are four construction firms in the running for the project.
After an incredibly cold week that saw record power demand in Alberta, the forecast for the next week looks really good with highs of around zero degrees.
Edmonton ranked second in CIBC’s latest measure of economic momentum. Our city attained one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country (5.7% in 2011Q3)and our population is now rising at 1.7% year-over-year.
The Edmonton Rush had their season opener on Friday against the Colorado Mammoth. Unfortunately they lost 13-12. The Rush are now on the road for four games before returning to host Philadelphia on February 24.
According a new report from commercial real estate firm CBRE, more retail space is under construction in Edmonton than anywhere else in the country.
Meet five of Edmonton’s most promising young theatre starts.
City Council has appointed Derek Hudson, Gary McCuaig, and Suzanne Polkosnik to the Edmonton Police Commission.
The building on 104 Street that used to be home to The Roost will soon be occupied by the Canada Border Services Agency.
In case you missed it, here’s the Startup Edmonton announcement about moving into the 3rd floor of the Mercer Warehouse!
The City is starting to gather ideas for The Way We Prosper, its comprehensive economic development strategy.
New government funding will help bring more affordable housing to Edmonton.
The latest property assessments have been mailed out, so which neighbourhoods saw the biggest increases in value?
Tickets for MediaCamp Edmonton are now on sale!

Cool shot from Christian.

Here are some upcoming events:

The Oilers have one home game this week, on Monday against the San Jose Sharks.
The Edmonton Oil Kings are in action at home on Wednesday against Tri-City, Friday against Brandon, and Saturday against Vancouver.
Looks like a busy week for pop music lovers. City and Colour is at the Jubliee on Wednesday and Thursday. Theory of a Deadman is there on Friday. And for a little blast from the past, Hanson is at Festival Place on Friday.
The Joint Review Panel for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is in Edmonton for the next week for community hearings. They start on Tuesday morning.
Dishcrawl has arrived in Edmonton, with the first event taking place on Wednesday evening in Old Strathcona.
Winter Light’s Mill Creek Adventure Walk takes place on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Startup Weekend and Global Game Jam start on January 27 and run all weekend!
The Renovation Show runs Friday through Sunday at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
On Saturday, you can be one of the first to test out EIA’s brand new terminal!
Metropolis of course continues this weekend, and on Sunday in the tent you’ll find The Tip of the Iceberg, a festival of local music!
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

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

By Mack D. Male · January 19, 2012 at 2:21pm

4th st promenade For 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 · January 18, 2012 at 11:28pm

With 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.

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!

There were a number of event announcements this evening:

Startup Hackathon + Global Game Jam is happening January 27 – 29 at the University of Alberta. This is your chance to make an app or a game, to meet some new people, and to learn something new! Monday is the last day to get in at the early-bird price!
The next Edmonton Girl Geek Dinner is happening tomorrow. Follow them on Twitter so you don’t miss upcoming events!
MediaCamp Edmonton is taking place on February 4. Aimed at getting storytellers together with coders, it’s going to be a great day of learning how to help one another work together. Get your tickets at YEG Live!

Stay tuned to Startup Edmonton for additional events and announcements!

See you in March for DemoCamp Edmonton 18!

Edmonton Notes for 1/15/2012

By Mack D. Male · January 15, 2012 at 10:53pm

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Winter is back! Oh well, the warm weather was nice while it lasted. The forecast for this week doesn’t look so good, bundle up!
The community hearings on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project start in Edmonton on the 24th. The arithmetic on the pipeline adds up to big numbers.
This was the right call: Jimmy Quinlan is the new captain of the Edmonton Rush!
One of the city’s “most historically significant” lampposts has been restored to its former glory at the south end of the High Level Bridge.
According to Pollster’s annual report, Rexall Place was the 27th busiest venue on the planet in 2011, up from number 31 in 2010!
It’s pretty hard to argue with Paula’s take on Metropolis.
The McElheran’s Fine Furniture clearance centre on 124 Street will soon become a chocolate shop, pastry café, and gelato bar, under the Bernard Callebaut banner.
This is kind of a neat story: a former sniper is now protecting the streets as a night beat cop.
Here are the Curb the Danger results for 2011. There was a total of 749 impaired charges.
Cubic Security Systems are providing the “advanced fare media-based real-time threat detection technology” that will be piloted at Churchill Station in late March.
More than 3 million text messages were sent last year for bus route and schedule information!
The Oilers are having another tough season, but Taylor Hall is “making a bold statement about his willingness and ability to lead at a time when the Edmonton Oilers need him most.” Gagner is also playing fairly well lately. Speaking of the tough season, is it time for Katz to speak out?
According to the newest Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast, the average house price in Edmonton is expected to increase by 2.6% in 2012. Unit sales are also expected to rise by 5%.
CMHC figures show a 6% drop in total starts for the Edmonton area in 2011, from 9959 units to 9332.
Edmonton’s economy is expected to grow 3.4% this year, thanks in large part to a strong energy sector.
First & Jasper signed its first tenant this week – Williams Engineering will move into the renovated building when it opens in 2013.
In case you missed it, here’s my recap of a very busy week for 104 Street!

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 continues all week at End of Steel Park!
The 49th annual Minor Hockey Week also continues this week, with the finals taking place on Sunday!
The Canoe Theatre Festival kicks off tomorrow.
It’s a busy week for the tech community. YEGRB’s monthly meetup takes place on Tuesday, DemoCamp Edmonton 17 takes place on Wednesday, and the next Edmonton Girl Geek Dinner takes place on Thursday.
The 3rd annual Edmonton Whiskey Festival takes place on Wednesday evening!
The Oil Kings are in action at home on Wednesday against Prince George, while the Oilers host the Flames on Saturday.
The Edmonton Rush play their first home game of the season on Friday against the Colorado Mammoth.
The City of Edmonton is hosting a WinterCity Strategy Symposium at City Hall on Friday morning. Everyone is invited to the Kick-Off Party the night before, also at City Hall.
Rapid Fire Theatre’s DATE NIGHT sounds like fun!
Leadership Edmonton is hosting a networking and information event on Saturday evening.
This year’s Pet Expo takes place all day Saturday and Sunday at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
Bridal Fantasy takes place on Sunday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
The next Big City Sandwich kitchen takeover is Sunday at The Billiard Club!
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton.

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

Edmonton Notes for 1/8/2012

By Mack D. Male · January 8, 2012 at 10:09pm

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:

Still have your Christmas tree up? Put it out unbagged with your garbage on Tuesday and the City will pick it up. You can also take it to a community recycling depot until January 20, or to an Eco Station until January 31.
It happens every year: a number of charities are still behind on their holiday fundraising targets.
Edmonton is warm and brown at the moment, and that has meant icy roads and other challenges. It’s hard to complain with above zero temperatures in January, however! What goes up, must come down, however. The lack of snow won’t mean budget savings either.
Edmonton Next Gen’s next Pecha Kucha Night is scheduled for February 2. Tickets go on sale Monday morning at 10am!
Also on sale tomorrow morning: tickets for BlogWest 2012, taking place in Edmonton March 8-10.
Canada didn’t win the gold medal, but Edmonton could “easily” see more than $45 million in net benefits from co-hosting the World Juniors.
Blatchford Field celebrated its 85th anniversary this weekend! It was the first licensed airport in Canada on January 8, 1927. Additional events to celebrate the milestone will take place throughout the year.
This weekend was the first for the City’s Night Ride Pilot. A total of 80 people took advantage, 27 on Friday and 53 on Saturday. The Journal interviewed a few of the patrons.
The Edmonton Police Service will now undergo a national search for a pair of deputy chiefs. Darryl da Costa retired this month, and Neil Dubord resigned in December.
The opening line says it best: “Once a gas station, then for years a barren brown field, the vacant lot at Whyte Avenue and 105th Street will finally be reincarnated in 2012.”
Well look at that, it’s January 8 and the year is basically over for the Edmonton Oilers.
A new pedway is under construction that will cross 114 Street at the Health Sciences LRT Station.
CBC’s Edmonton AM is running a series called Downtown at a Crossroads. Worth a listen!
I was very happy to see Edmonton leading the way in Alberta Venture’s Fast 50 Growth list for 2011. Dynamic Manufacturing Solutions was ranked #1.
New data from Statistics Canada shows that Edmonton’s unemployment rate was 5.1% in December, third-lowest among Canadian municipalities.
Sirens for Life, the annual Blood Donor Challenge for Police, Fire, and EMS teams, runs until February 4. This is the 10th anniversary!
Don’t miss Sharon’s 2011 in Review post! Lots of great local food tidbits in there.
Emil has an interview with Mayor Stephen Mandel.
Dave has an update on Alberta election candidates. Keep an eye on his blog for additional updates as we get closer to the next provincial election.
Remembering a great Edmontonian: Don Wheaton.
The Edmonton Poetry Festival is looking for a new Executive Director!
The new Edmonton Remand Centre is scheduled to open in January 2013 at a cost of $568 million.
Apparently Occupy Edmonton plans to return on February 4 at an undisclosed location. The group plans to meet at Ezio Faraone Park and then march to the new occupation site.

“Eight Degrees” by Kurt Bauschardt

Here are some upcoming events:

YEGRB’s monthly hackup is taking place Monday evening.
Also Monday is the launch party for Indigo Drinks Edmonton – “a monthly conscious lounge, shindig and mixer of folks who work in the holistic field.”
The Oilers are finally back in town after a lengthy roadtrip to make room for the World Juniors. They host the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday, the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, and the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.
Jocelyn Brown, the Edmonton Public Library’s new Writer in Residence, is hosting tripLit on Thursday evening at The Artery.
Ice on Whyte kicks off on Thursday and runs through the 22nd. Note the festival has moved to a new location this year – you’ll find it at End of Steel Park on 103 Street and Tommy Banks Way.
Metropolis of course continues on the weekend in Churchill Square.
To celebrate this week’s Friday the 13th, DEDfest is showing The Shining at the Garneau Theatre.
On Saturday, head over to the AGA for The Gallery, a showcase of creative expression for youth of diverse multicultural backgrounds.
The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is performing at St. Albert’s Arden Theatre on Sunday.
And an early heads up: save the date for Eat Alberta 2012, scheduled to take place on April 14!
Check out ShareEdmonton for more upcoming events!

I <3 YEGDT: Downtown X-posed

By Mack D. Male · December 10, 2011 at 7:11pm

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:

Downtown X-posed runs from 7:30am until 3:30pm on December 15. Tickets are just $50, which includes breakfast and lunch. You can purchase tickets here. If you can’t make it, be sure to follow along with #yegdt on Twitter.

YEGWOOD Launch Party & TreeFarer Shades Giveaway!

By Mack D. Male · December 8, 2011 at 3:00pm

yegwood 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).

You can like Yegwood on Facebook to keep up-to-date on news and announcements. Check out Metro’s article on Yegwood too.

Recap: EEDC’s 2012 Economic Outlook Luncheon

By Mack D. Male · November 30, 2011 at 8:42pm

EEDC On November 15, EEDC held its annual Economic Outlook luncheon at the Shaw Conference Centre. Hundreds of Edmontonians filled Hall D on Tuesday to hear from a panel of senior leaders moderated by Dr. Mike Percy, the former Chamber of Commerce president and until this year Dean of the School of Business at the University of Alberta.

This year’s panelists included:

Dr. Jodi Abbott, President & CEO, Norquest College
Diane Brickner, President & CEO, Peace Hills Insurance Company
Pierre Gratton, President & CEO, Mining Association of Canada
Ron Liepert, Minister of Finance, Government of Alberta
Paul Verhesen, President, Clark Builders

The five panelists each shared their thoughts on the local economy before fielding questions from the audience. Here are a few of the more memorable statements the panelists made:

“We are very, very lucky to live where we do.” – Paul Verhesen
“Productivity and innovation are down as a result of not having to compete with others.” – Paul Verhesen
“I’m not sure there’s a better place than Alberta in the world to do business.” – Ron Liepert
“We do not have the population base to meet the expected labour-market demand.” – Dr. Jodi Abbott, indicating Alberta would have 77,00 unfilled jobs by the end of the decade.
“Mining is back.” – Pierre Gratton
“That will go.” – Ron Liepert, indicating the Royal Alberta Museum would in fact move ahead.

For more, check out the Edmonton Journal’s Storify of the event.

At the luncheon in 2009, I learned that Alberta’s aerospace industry is a billion dollar business. This year I learned a little more about the mining industry in our province. The Canadian Mining Journal summed it up well:

Canada’s mining industry will invest as much as $140 billion in this country over the next five years, and almost 50% of it will be in Alberta. The province will grow thanks to 12 mining projects proposed for development by 2016 with combined costs of $67.7 billion.

The $67.7 billion will be invested primarily in the oil, gas and oil sands development that Alberta is most known for, however significant investment is also anticipated in coal, limestone, salt, shale, dimension stone, ammonite shell, sandstone and sand and gravel.

Apparently Alberta accounts for 70% of Canada’s coal production (by weight) and is home to more than 540 mining industry suppliers.

Here is the Edmonton Journal’s story about the luncheon. Here is the Edmonton Sun’s take. And here is Avenue Edmonton’s article.

I thought EEDC did a great job with the event. The luncheon was livestreamed by the Edmonton Journal, and though they ran into some issues with the sound, it did appear to get more Edmontonians involved than usual. EEDC smartly chose a hashtag ahead of time, and made it clear to everyone that they should use #outlook12. They also displayed the tweets up on the big screen, and although it consistently ran behind, I thought it was a useful addition to the event. I expect both will get better in future years!

As enjoyable as the luncheon was, I found myself wishing there had been a handout or better yet, a QR code to scan that would take me to more information. I thought the panelists were great, but I can’t say I left with a strong sense of how Edmonton’s economy is expected to do in 2012. Fortunately, there is a bit of information online if you look for it.

Here is Cushman & Wakefield’s prognosis:

Overall vacancy is expected to increase in 2012 as a result of the market dynamics caused by recently completed Epcor Tower in the downtown core. Regardless, confidence in Edmonton’s economy is strong, despite continuing global economic uncertainty.

Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC) predicts 18% more housing units will be constructed across the province in 2012 than were built this year.

Edmonton will likely have 3,750 construction starts of multi-family housing this year, down less than four per cent from a year ago, says CMHC.

And from the City of Edmonton’s long-term economic outlook:

Few economies have prospects as bright as northern Alberta, at the geographic core of Canada’s economic future. As the research and industrial workhorse of the province, Edmonton stands tall as one of Canada’s most dynamic and prosperous urban centres.

The Economics Society of Northern Alberta is holding its 2012 Outlook Conference all day tomorrow at the Sutton Place Hotel, so watch for more news to come out of that event.

What else have you come across related to our economy in 2012?