Year: 2010

Edmonton Notes for 4/17/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Rexall Place was packed (for a lacrosse game) yesterday for the Edmonton Rush game. They lost to Calgary in overtime, but won tonight in Washington!

Edmonton Rush

First Look at Edmonton’s South LRT Extension (Southgate & Century Park)

On Saturday, April 24, the two newest LRT stations in Edmonton’s network are officially opening to the public, and ETS is hosting a Community Fair to celebrate (on ShareEdmonton). Yesterday, the local media got a sneak peek at the new Southgate and Century Park stations, both of which have been under construction since the Summer of 2007.

South LRT ExtensionSouth LRT Extension

The total budget for the South LRT Extension from Health Sciences station to Century Park was $690 million, the vast majority of which ($573 million) came from tax supported debt (to be repaid from the New Deal for Cities & Communities). Construction included two new tunnels: one beneath Belgravia road and one beneath the southbound lands of 111th Street. There are also two new bridges: a one-way bridge over Belgravia Road (connects South Campus to Fox Drive) and one across Whitemud Drive. A total of 26 new light rail vehicles were added to help service the extension.

The total length of the South LRT Extension is 7.361 km:

  • Health Sciences to McKernan/Belgravia: 0.9 km (roughly 1 minute, 56 seconds)
  • McKernan/Belgravia to South Campus: 1.375 km (roughly 2 minutes, 24 seconds)
  • South Campus to Southgate: 2.032 km (roughly 3 minutes, 20 seconds)
  • Southgate to Century Park: 3.324 km (roughly 3 minutes, 46 seconds)

The McKernan/Belgravia and South Campus stations opened a year ago, and at the time I complained that the media advisory encouraged driving and parking. I’m happy to report that the media advisory for yesterday’s sneak peek said this:

Please note that there is no public parking available at South Campus Station. Members of the media are urged to use LRT to travel to the event.

Much better – I hope future advisories look the same!

We boarded the train at South Campus, and headed for Southgate station (located on 111th Street between 51st Avenue and Whitemud Drive):

For another view, here’s Southgate back to South Campus. Of the two new stations, I think Southgate is my favorite. It mirrors the recent renovations done to Southgate Shopping Centre very well, so it looks like it belongs. The artwork in the station is called “Immense Mode” and was created by Dawn Detarando and Brian McArthur. We learned about all of the new safety features (including the secure washrooms) and got to wander around. Here are a few photos of the new station:

South LRT ExtensionSouth LRT Extension

South LRT ExtensionSouth LRT Extension

Next up – Century Park (located on 111th Street just north of 23rd Avenue). Unfortunately the batteries in my flip died on the way there, so I don’t have video of Southgate to Century Park. I have the return trip though:

As it is the end of the line (for a while anyway) Century Park will probably be the busiest of the new stations, housing an 1100-stall temporary Park & Ride lot, in addition to 130 existing parking stalls. When the bus routes are changed later this month to feed into the new LRT extension, Century Park will receive the bulk of the traffic. The artwork in the station is called “Continuum” and was created by Cezary and Danielle Gajeweski. Here are a few photos of the new station:

South LRT ExtensionSouth LRT Extension

South LRT ExtensionSouth LRT Extension

If you’d like to check out the new stations for yourself, don’t miss the Community Fair on the 24th. It’ll also be a great opportunity to learn more about the changes to bus routes.

What’s next? Well in addition to needing funds to expand the LRT in other directions, the City is already planning for the next south extension to Ellerslie Road. The preliminary design was approved by City Council in July 2008. You can learn more about the future extension here. The currrent LRT network was built to accommodate four-car trains, but work is underway to upgrade capacity to five-cars. The McKernan/Belgravia and Health Sciences stations are being upgraded now, work which is expected to be complete in October. South Campus, Southgate, and Century Park already support five-car trains.

In just a single year, we’ve had four new LRT stations open in Edmonton. Let’s keep it up! You can see the rest of my photos from the preview here.

Recap: Food for all Seasons Spring Gala presented by Edmonton’s Food Bank

Tonight I was fortunate enough to be a last minute guest addition (thanks Tamara) for the Food for All Seasons Spring Gala, an annual fundraising event presented by Edmonton’s Food Bank. Held at the Sutton Place Hotel and hosted by CTV’s Erin Isfeld, the event was an opportunity to show support for the food bank while meeting some really interesting people.

While networking and great conversation was the focus, we did learn a little about what Edmonton’s Food Bank accomplished in 2009:

  • A total of 81,572 kilograms of food was provided to groups on a one time or special request basis
  • Over 190 agencies, churches, and food depots worked with the food bank
  • More than 15,000 people were served by the hamper program each month

Accomplishments, yes, but also a reflection of the need that Edmonton’s Food Bank serves. Each year, the warehouse distributes more than 3.3 million kilograms of food. We were reminded of just how important the organization is to our city – one in six Edmontonians under the age of 18 will go to bed hungry tonight.

Food for all Seasons Spring GalaFood for all Seasons Spring Gala

The theme for the event this year was “A Taste of the Orient” and the menu reflected that with wonton dumpling and spring golden chive soup, spicy thai chicken spring rolls, baked black sesame crusted salmon, and lychee creme caramel for dessert. Very tasty!

Food for all Seasons Spring GalaFood for all Seasons Spring Gala

Cary Williams, co-chair of Edmonton Next Gen and one of Avenue Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2009, was the guest speaker tonight. I thought he did a great job combining food and his passion for Edmonton. Cary said that “food is universal” and that “it’s the glue that unites families and communities together.” He stressed that the city is a stronger community because of the work that Edmonton’s Food Bank does. Cary chose to live in Edmonton because of the people that live here and care about the city. His call to action was to be mindful of the importance of the food bank, and to share it with others.

Cary WilliamsFood for all Seasons Spring Gala

The gala also featured a silent auction with a wide array of items (everything from opera tickets to a bluetooth headset) and the chance at winning 1/4 karat yellow and white gold ladies’ diamond solitaire ring, courtesy of All-Lock Rescue. It looked like there were lots of bids on the silent auction items!

The Spring Gala is just one of the many events organized by Edmonton’s Food Bank each year. I really enjoyed the evening, but I understand the event will be re-imagined for next year, so stay tuned for something new!

You can see the rest of my photos from the event here. If you’d like to make a donation or get involved with Edmonton’s Food Bank, you can learn more here. You may know that they are running the Expressions of Hunger photo and literary contest right now – you can vote for your favorite entries here!

Recap: TEC VenturePrize 2010

Today was the awards luncheon for the 2010 edition of TEC VenturePrize, an Alberta-wide business plan competition. The competition is a great way for entrepreneurs to access professional mentorship, networking, and also provides an opportunity to get some exposure. And speaking as a participant (back in 2006) I can honestly say that you learn so much in such a short period of time!

Today’s host was Ryan Jespersen of Citytv, and our special guests included Annette Trimbee, Deputy Minister, Alberta Advanced Education and Technology, and Mayor Stephen Mandel. Chris Lumb, CEO of TEC Edmonton, also brought greetings. In a statement he said:

“Innovators come first at TEC Edmonton. The cailbre of talent that was showcased today is a reflection of the creativity taking place in our province. The determination to build strong business plans through training, mentoring and finally pitching is what makes Alberta’s entrepreneurs stand above the rest.”

We also heard from Duncan Stewart from Deloitte, and last year’s fast growth winner, Ken Bautista of Seek Your Own Proof. Duncan shared some technology predictions and trends with us, while Ken provided an update on the success that his company has had since winning the competition.

TEC VenturePrize 2010TEC VenturePrize 2010

Dozens of entrepreneurs and students from around the province participated, and it was up to the judges to narrow the field down to three finalists in each category (Fast Growth and Student). The finalists in the fast growth category were:

And in the student category:

  • Alberta Carbon
  • E² Technologies
  • Molecular Tetris Inc.

The winner of the Screeners’ Award of Merit, for a business plan that shows excellent promise, was Innovequity Inc. The winner of the Student Business Plan Award was Alberta Carbon. And the grand prize winner of the Fast Growth Award was Biolithic Corporation. You can read the official announcement of the winners here.

TEC VenturePrize 2010

I had the opportunity to work with Firenest a little on their presentation and elevator pitch, so I was definitely cheering for them. I still think they did a fantastic job. Congratulations to the winners and to all the participants!

You can see the rest of my photos from the event here.

Catalyst Theatre’s Frankenstein

Last night, Sharon and I had the pleasure of attending The Mayor’s Evening (and opening night) for Catalyst Theatre’s award-winning production Frankenstein (thank you Jenifer for the invite). I had never seen Frankenstein before, but I had some idea of what to expect as Sharon and I saw Nevermore last May (Sharon saw Frankenstein back in 2008 too – read her excellent review here). I knew it would be an entertaining, unforgettable show, and it definitely was.

If you’ve never seen one of Catalyst’s productions before, you really must – they are unlike anything else! Thanks in large part to artistic director Jonathan Christenson and production designer Bretta Gerecke, everything just works so well. There’s the mostly dark stage and the effective use of light and shadows, the clever storytelling that manages to touch a range of emotions (including a bit of humor), and the very talented cast. And perhaps the magic element – the music.

I also love that they manage to make the simple things work so effectively. For instance, the way they opened the show, with Nick Green walking on stage in front of the curtains, looking around at the crowd. Eventually he cracked a mysterious smile and announced “fade to black”, and things got underway. So unique and memorable. Or take the props – none of them are particularly complicated (much less so than in Nevermore) but they still helped tell the story. How do you make Victor Frankenstein look like someone interested in science? Give him a giant magnifying glass!

The entire cast was great, but I thought Andrew Kushnir as Victor was superb, and I also really enjoyed Nancy McAlear as Justine Moritz. I felt the most powerful scenes were those between Victor and the Creature, played by George Szilagyi, though my favorite scene was actually the one where the Creature mustered the courage to introduce himself to Old Man DeLacy, played by Tim Machin. It’s the scene I remember most from reading the novel.

After the show I remarked to Sharon that although Frankenstein was great, I still preferred Nevermore. She said that for her, Frankenstein still stood out. We agreed that it’s probably the first Catalyst show you see that becomes your favorite because they make such a great first impression!

Frankenstein runs through Sunday at the Timms Centre for the Arts (on ShareEdmonton). In May it will be in Toronto, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, presented by the Canadian Stage Company. Nevermore will be in London in July, followed by New York in October. Next up for Catalyst Theatre is Hunchback, a commission by The Citadel Theatre, coming to its Mainstage Series in March 2011. As Mayor Mandel and many others said last night, it’s great see Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre achieve such success around the world!

Twitter, Embargoes, and Breaking News

At the end of March, Global Edmonton’s Lynda Steele, one of our city’s most prominent media Twitterers, abruptly said goodbye and deleted her account. She suggested that Global was consolidating accounts, which understandably raised the ire of many local users (for more check out Adam’s post). Last week, a different truth emerged, thanks to a tweet from CBC’s John Archer. He posted this PDF (archive) of a letter sent from the provincial government’s Public Affairs Bureau to Global Edmonton (it has been clicked more than 550 times). In it, PAB Managing Director Lee Funke informs Global Edmonton that for breaking the budget embargo, they would be denied access to any embargoed information until the end of 2010. Lynda was the one who broke the embargo, by posting tweets before the 3:20 PM budget address, so that’s likely why she left Twitter (though there may be other reasons too).

Much has already been written about whether or not the decision is warranted, and even whether or not we need embargoes in this day and age. For more, check out Dave’s post. As someone who continually pushes for open, accessible information, I think you can guess where I stand. And with that in mind, and in addition to the PDF letter above, here are some of the facts.

The four tweets that started all of this, written by @lyndasteele:

BREAKING BUDGET NEWS – Another record deficit, more money for health care and hope for recession recovery. #yeg #ableg [2/9/2010  3:16:44 PM]

The budget deficit for the coming year is projected to be 4.7 billion, almost double what was projected in last year’s budget forecast. [2/9/2010  3:17:08 PM]

Most of the new spending is going to health. 1.7 billion dollars more this year, [2/9/2010  3:17:20 PM]

Edmonton will receive about 100 million dollars less fr province – for Calgary the shortfall could be 150 million. #ableg [2/9/2010  3:17:53 PM]

And then, for whatever reason, she didn’t tweet again until 5:17:01 PM to plug Hugh MacDonald talking about the budget on the Early News.

Her final tweet:

Hey all – Global consolidating twitter…for all your daily news – check out @globaledmonton – take care – it was nice to know ya! [3/31/2010 1:37:41 PM]

It didn’t take long after that was posted for the conversation to get underway. Dozens and dozens of tweets were posted defending Lynda, and asking for more information on the decision. Of course, only a handful of people knew what was really going on, and none of that made it onto Twitter until the letter was posted.

Global Edmonton itself followed up with a tweet a couple of hours later at 3:58 PM:

GM Tim Spelliscy corrects bad scoop. GE is NOT consolidating accounts, not now or ever. Our personalities will continue to Twitter. [3/31/2010 3:58:38 PM]

Shortly afterward, there was a @fakeLyndaSteele account and the conversation continued for a day or two.

Will this affect social media use by the media?

There’s not much to say about the embargo, is there? There were clearly defined rules broken, and as a result Global Edmonton faced consequences. I think you could make a strong case against having embargoes in the first place, but that isn’t going to change what has already happened.

I do think it’s unfortunate that Lynda Steele is no longer on Twitter because of all of this. Not that I thought she was the best or most trustworthy user, but she was a highly visible member of the media experimenting and pushing the boundaries. I hope that this debacle doesn’t turn other members of the media off from exploring further social media use. Instead, I hope this can be used as a case study to learn from.

Looking for a QA Manager to join Questionmark in Edmonton

Hey look at me, blogging for work! Questionmark is looking for a passionate leader for our agile QA team to join us here in Edmonton. We’ve been growing the local office quite successfully (Questionmark also has offices in London, UK, Connecticut, USA, and Belgium), and we’d like to continue that. As a product development team we use scrum, so our office is a mix of developers, testers, and product owners.

Here’s the job description for the QA Manager role:

We are looking for an enthusiastic leader for our agile QA Team who has proven experience researching, implementing and managing appropriate methodologies, best practices, technology, systems and processes to facilitate the effective Quality Assurance of software in a productive and efficient way. The successful candidate will be an experienced QA Manager who has experience testing web-based and/or Windows-based software. This role will suit a hands-on, can-do individual who loves technology and has a deep understanding of QA practices. The ability to communicate and demonstrate the performance of the QA team and the impact of QA investment to people at all levels within our organization is essential.

As I’ve mentioned here before, we’ve got a really great office at the heart of downtown in the Empire Building on Jasper Avenue and 101st Street. There’s lots of amenities nearby, and great transit access.

 Job Description for QA Manager

If you’re interested in applying or would like more information, either send me an email or email Kaitlyn Lardin. You can also follow @questionmark on Twitter for updates about the company!

Notes for 4/11/2010

Here are my weekly notes:

Edmonton Notes for 4/10/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Sharon and I checked out the Muttart Conservatory today! More photos available here.

Muttart ConservatoryMuttart Conservatory

Recap: ONEdmonton Leaders Forum

Yesterday morning was EEDC’s first ONEdmonton Leaders Forum. The series of events aims to “bring together the region’s most influential leaders to discuss key topics affecting our community.” I am honored to have been invited to participate, likely to represent “youth” along with Cary Williams and a few others. Just over 90 of the 150 or so invited leaders attended the event, and while I’m not going to name any names (aside from the speakers) rest assured it was a very impressive collection of individuals.

The morning started with a welcome and overview from EEDC Board Chair and COO of ProCura, Randy Ferguson. He invited EEDC President & CEO Ron Gilbertson to set the stage for the event. Ron talked about where Edmonton is today (one of 307 mid-size cities in the world) and where we’d like to be. He focused on two key areas: economic success, and quality of life, referencing the Conference Board of Canada’s prosperity ratings as he went. After providing some context, Randy and Ron shared EEDC’s Vision (PDF):

To ensure Edmonton is recognized as one of the world’s top 5 mid-size cities by 2030.

I like it, and I think others in the room did too. That’s the vision the group will be aligning on and working toward achieving. The idea is to try to speak with one voice, hence the title of the forum.

After a quick break, we heard from four speakers:

  1. Reg Milley, President & CEO, Edmonton Airports. Reg talked about the new Stop The Calgary Habit campaign, and about the importance of a healthy local airport. The slogan for the campaign, “when you go south, so does your air service” says it all. Reg implored everyone to “shop local” for air travel.
  2. Jim Taylor, Executive Director, Downtown Business Association. Jim talked about the incredible transformations that have happened downtown in the last decade, and a little about what’s coming. He mentioned that the “cumulative story” is what’s important – all of the changes in aggregate are pretty impressive.
  3. Sol Rolingher, C.St. J., Q.C., Duncan & Craig LLP, River Valley Alliance Chair. Sol talked about the importance of preserving, protecting, and enhancing the river valley, and about local heritage. He has been working with others to preserve some Edmonton artifacts throughout the river valley. I thought he was an incredible speaker, very passionate. He also gave everyone a copy of this awesome map.
  4. Dave Mowat, President & CEO, ATB Financial, EXPO Bid Committee. Dave, with a little help from Randy, talked about the EXPO 2017 bid. I got the feeling that many in the room are excited for the bid, because it’s an opportunity to achieve big things all at once. There was nothing new for me in the presentation, but it was still a good overview.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of time for questions or further discussion, but it sounds like they’ll be working on improving that for future forums. I would have made the following comment, had there been time:

We know we have successes here, but we often don’t do a very good job of telling our story. Like Jim’s “cumulative story” on downtown, or the thriving local tech startup scene (reference by someone else in the group). We need to become better storytellers in order to achieve the vision.

Looking forward to the next forum!