Recap: 2012 State of the City Address

Mayor Stephen Mandel took the stage yesterday during lunch to address the hundreds of local business, community, and government leaders in attendance at the Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the City event. As expected, most conversations were about Monday’s provincial election and Mayor Mandel did touch on that subject in his remarks. I would characterize the mayor’s speech as upbeat, and as Councillor Iveson remarked, perhaps that was because of Monday’s result!

So... I'll buy lunch for anyone who can get their hands on @MayorMandel's *Script B* for today's state of #yeg speech #eccmayormandel #yegcc
— Don Iveson (@doniveson) April 24, 2012

You can read Mayor Mandel’s speech in its entirety here (PDF). He started strong, recalling a particularly memorable comment he made seven years ago:

“I remember the first time I stood here, and I uttered the words ‘no more crap’. On that day, I not only got away with cursing in public, but touched on a sentiment we had all been feeling for many years.”

Whether you like Mandel or not, I think he’s right to point out that during his tenure as mayor, the city has changed significantly and for the better:

“Seven years ago, we were a city organization with no big plans, that avoided dealing with significant challenges and left our true potential unexplored.

Seven years later, we are Canada’s fastest growing city at the core of the country’s second fastest growing region. And we have shaken off a ‘good enough’ pattern by taking care to invest in ourselves and our future.”

Mandel praised the work of City Council and Administration, especially under City Manager Simon Farbrother, for making that happen.

Throughout this remarks, Mandel mentioned a number of projects and initiatives underway in the city. There was big applause for the new downtown arena, the new Royal Alberta Museum, and the City Centre Redevelopment. But he also touched on some of the challenges we face, including the expansion of the LRT, our ongoing struggle with homelessness, and the strong need to better work with and celebrate our growing Aboriginal community. But he saved his most critical remarks for our city’s identity:

“First, we must have an economic development organization that better demonstrates its understanding of the competitive environment our city faces. It must be hungry enough to undertake a relentless effort to sell our city.

Second, we must finally look past all of our reluctant half-efforts to actually work at promoting Edmonton’s story. Without a commitment to this, the former will be very different.

We must be willing to put proper, long-term resources behind a true effort to sell this city to the world.”

Mandel saved his comments on the province for the end. After congratulating Premier Redford and all of the candidates who ran in the election, he made it clear that Edmonton expects change too.

“From our perspective, this election demonstrated how clearly Alberta’s growing urban reality is a major change that has fully dawned on the provincial stage. This election presented near unanimous agreement that it is time for a new deal for Alberta’s big cities. I look forward to working with Premier Redford and Mayor Nenshi to move this agenda forward. I hope this is a discussion we can begin to have very soon.”

The mayor finished his remarks by talking about the people of Edmonton:

“Our place in this great province, our unique economic advantages, our strong cultural identity, our skills at cultivating knowledge and innovation – and most of all, the passion and drive of our people – are the things that are going to ensure our future success.”

All throughout the speech, tweets were displayed on screen and there was a high level of participation from people in the audience. It was really interesting to see how everyone reacted as Mandel spoke. After he finished, Mayor Mandel received a standing ovation.

Reading the speech is one thing, but actually hearing the mayor deliver it is quite another. Thanks to Robin Bobocel and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to the luncheon!

2011-2012 State of the City Report

state of the city In conjunction with yesterday’s address, the City launched its annual report to citizens. The 35 page document covers a wide range of achievements and ongoing initiatives. Here are some of the highlights:

Edmonton’s percentage rate of increase in immigration from 2006 to 2010 was 71%, the highest of seven major cities across Canada.
The 2011 Graffiti Audit results show a 43% decrease in graffiti vandalism in 20 high-incident neighbourhoods compared to a 2010 baseline audit.
As of December 31, 2011, the Cornerstones initiative increased Edmonton’s supply of affordable housing by funding 3038 safe, affordable housing units for citizens.
Edmonton roadcrews repaired 549,000 potholes in 2011, up from 435,000 in 2010.
Corporations donated 82,470 transit tickets to the Donate A Ride program in 2011.
Weekly cumulative bus and LRT boardings increased from 389,224 in 2010 to 397,402 in 2011.
Edmonton has protected 4000 hectares of natural areas, working towards a goal of 5500 ha. Most Edmontonians (75%) are now within a 20-minute walk of a natural area.
The City’s total debt in 2011 was $1.974 billion, or 53.7% of the debt limit defined by the Municipal Government Act.
34,800 new jobs were created in Edmonton from December 2010 to December 2011, the fastest rate of job growth in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

You can download the report in PDF here.

Recap: 2012 EEDC Annual Luncheon

Yesterday was EEDC’s Annual Luncheon at the Shaw Conference Centre. Now in its 17th year, the event was just as well attended as it was last year! Hosted by Manfred Kalk, Client Services Manager of the SCC, the event was an opportunity to learn about some recent changes at EEDC, to get an update on Edmonton’s economy, and to recognize three organizations that have made significant achievements in recognition, innovation, and community leadership.

First up was EEDC board chair Henry Yip, who talked about some recent successes in our province and about how Alberta can continue to succeed in the future. He also provided some updates on EEDC itself, thanking outgoing president Ron Gilbertson for all of his hard work over the last few years. Outgoing board members include Laura Schuler, Bob Gomes, and Peter Kiss, not to mention Henry Yip himself. The incoming board chair is Peter Silverstone.

EEDC board member Richard Brommeland was up next to hand out the annual achievement awards. The three winners were:

Donovan Creative Communications for recognition (those who bring extensive positive awareness and sustained name recognition of Edmonton).
Quantiam Technologies for innovation (those who have created or changed a product, process or business practice creating the broadest impact).
Homeward Trust Edmonton for community leadership (those who best engage our community or industry to achieve impactful positive change).

Each had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes after receiving their award, and a video was played for each organization as well. From the press release:

"Shortlisting the submissions was not an easy task," notes Richard Brommeland, EEDC board member and chair of the award selection committee. "The award winners do amazing work, and we are the better for them calling Edmonton home."

I know Donovan’s work fairly well. Among other things, they are responsible for EPL’s Spread the words campaign as well as EIA’s Stop the Calgary Habit. It’s great to see them recognized for bringing greater recognition to Edmonton. Quantiam I was not familiar with, but I learned that they are a nanotechnology company that recently created a joint venture with BSAF, the world’s largest chemical company. Exciting to hear that kind of thing happening here in Edmonton! And finally, Homeward Trust is an organization that is doing such important work in our city, so it’s completely appropriate that they were singled out for community leadership. Susan and her team have set the bar high. Congratulations to all three! You can see their videos here.

The keynote speaker was Ron Gilbertson himself, and he spent his time giving us an update on Edmonton’s economic report card (which you can look at here in PDF).

"Edmonton has a remarkable economic story. In 2011, our economy grew and showed momentum, and we are poised for a bright future," says Gilbertson. "Combine that with our quality of life, we are well on our way to becoming recognized as one of the world’s top mid-sized cities."

Overall, we received an “A-Minus” on our report card. The four main areas we need to work on are Office Vacancy Rates (C+), Inflation Rate (C), Annual Growth of Passenger Traffic at EIA (B), and Unemployment Rate (B+).

As everyone knows, our economy is built on oil and gas. Current and planned investment in the oil sands is around $290 billion, and that number is expected to grow. But we know it can’t last forever, something Ron acknowledged. “Should oil ever lose its lustre, we don’t really have a plan B.”

For the most part though, everyone was pretty upbeat about the local economy and our prospects for the future.

My thanks again to EEDC for hosting me at the luncheon! Be sure to follow @EEDC on Twitter for updates.

A fundraiser for the next generation: hot chefs, cool bEATS

Sharon and I are really looking forward to hot chefs, cool bEATS on Saturday evening! A celebration of Edmonton’s most creative restaurants, chefs, and food trucks, the event is a fundraiser to support Culinary Team Canada in their quest for gold at the Culinary Olympics in Germany this October. But it’s not the kind of fundraiser you’re thinking of. The dress code at hot chefs, cool bEATS is “street chic” rather than black tie!

Filistix, Drift, Transcend, Wild Tangerine, Elm Café, Bistecca, and Duchess are among the food trucks and restaurants that will be serving up delicious food throughout the evening. For drinks you can look forward to Alley Kat, Granville Island, and a bunch of wine. Interestingly there’s only one sit-down part of the event – a plated dessert created by Culinary Team Canada’s pastry chef to finish things off. Check out Sharon’s post for more information on what to expect at the event.

It wasn’t until we sat down with event co-chair Gurvinder Bhatia that I really took note of the event. And it wasn’t until he explained the philosophy behind it that I was sold:

“Too many events in the city are still geared towards the 50+ crowd. There are many young professional in the 25-45 age group that make good money, love food and wine, but don’t want to attend the same events that their parents attended. It is not only important to create events for this demographic, but to facilitate, encourage and foster philanthropy and community involvement for members of this group.”

That speaks to me. My experience with fundraisers thus far has been pretty typical – black tie, ten-seat table, five-course meal, silent auction, etc. Why not do something different? Why not encourage some creativity? More importantly, we really do need to foster philanthropy and community involvement in my demographic. Ever since Marty Forbes shared his concern that our city’s future leaders are not stepping up, I have been thinking and talking about “succession” and about how we can get nextgeners involved in building a better Edmonton. The answer is not always to create something new, but there’s certainly got to be room for that approach as well. In this case, I think a fresh take on the fundraiser is long overdue!

Tickets are not cheap at $150, but it is a fundraiser after all (and that includes all food and drink). In addition to supporting Culinary Team Canada, proceeds will support the High School Culinary Challenge which helps students wishing to pursue careers in the culinary industry. The deadline for tickets is noon on Friday – there will not be any tickets available at the door! You can buy yours online here.

The hashtag for the event is #hotchefs12. Hope to see you there!

More power and money to cities in Alberta? I don’t believe you!

If you haven’t already done so you should check out Cities Matter, a website created by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. It features questions in ten categories related to municipalities that all five of the major provincial parties have answered. The Municipal Financing category asks what each party would do to provide long-range, sustainable, and predictable capital funding for large cities in Alberta. Here are some highlights from the responses:

Alberta Liberals:

Our view is that provincial funding for municipalities should be provided with little to no strings attached, and that local governments are best positioned to determine what their own priorities are and how money should be spent.

Alberta Party:

We are committed to ensuring municipalities have access to stable, adequate and predictable funding. The Alberta Party will shift from 3‐year budget cycles to 5‐year cycles to ensure more long‐term planning can happen. We will also explore alternative ways for cities to raise their own revenues, so that they are less dependent on provincial funding and are more able to accurately budget for their needs.

Alberta’s NDP:

An NDP government would support municipalities’ efforts to occupy the entire property tax and would be prepared to consider additional sources of revenue for municipalities which are appropriate to their responsibilities.

PC Alberta:

The PC Party also plans to help meet the fiscal needs of our cities with city charters and more local decision making through transfer of power. Municipalities are entitled to a greater say and accountability in their own governance and fiscal management.

Wildrose:

Our Balanced Budget and Savings Pledge will lay the groundwork for growing surpluses in the short term; combined with rising income taxes this will ensure that municipal funding increases along with Alberta’s economy. It also means that municipal leaders won’t need to curry favour with government ministers and align their ideas with the latest trendy notions among bureaucrats. Wildrose trusts local communities to know what their short and long term priorities are, and with this formula will give them the autonomy to carry through in meeting them.

Sounds good right? More power and money to cities!

Thing is, I really don’t believe any of that.

Consider the proposed downtown arena. Our local leadership has determined (whether you agree or not) that a new arena is something the city needs, that it is something that would benefit Edmontonians. Yet none of the provincial parties seem to have acknowledged that decision. In fact, in many cases they have explicitly disagreed.

Here’s NDP Leader Brian Mason’s take:

“There are far bigger priorities for tax dollars in Edmonton than giving handouts to billionaire hockey owners. Instead, the New Democrats want to accelerate the construction of more light rail transit in Edmonton with more funding. We could use that $100 million to provide interest-free loans to 20,000 homeowners for energy efficient home renovations, or build 250 long-term care beds. New Democrats use public money for the public good.”

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith was even more blunt:

“We would not provide funding to a new arena in Edmonton.”

PC Leader Alison Redford hasn’t been quite so direct, but her government has thus far avoided the issue and has been more than happy to move ahead with the new Royal Alberta Museum (which nobody was talking about until the announcement dropped out of the sky). And she too does not appear to agree with the need:

“I think that we have enough funding in our system right now to allow for projects that matter to communities to be built.”

I have not seen either the Alberta Party or the Alberta Liberals directly address the arena (if you can point me to something that would be appreciated).

You might argue that these leaders are just responding to what Edmontonians are saying – they don’t want public money going to the arena. Walk down the street and ask people what they think however, and you get a much different response. I think a lot of people feel that other levels of government need to come to the table to support this project.

Either way, we seem to have conflicting statements here. On the one hand, these provincial leaders are happy to suggest that they would grant more control to municipalities to determine what they should build and how they should spend their money. On the other hand, they’re opposed to providing funding to a new arena in Edmonton. So which is it? Or perhaps a better question, exactly what strings will be attached to the greater autonomy granted to municipalities? The arena is just one example. The City Centre Airport is another (and we know that at least the Wildrose would reopen that can of worms) and of course there’s LRT.

I find it really hard to believe that any of these parties would truly give more control over finances and decision making to municipalities. And that’s a shame, because cities really do matter.

Recap: Trip the Light

Last night was artsScene Edmonton’s Trip the Light, a unique after-hours party and showcase of local artists. With a brand new board for 2012, the event was a great introduction to the new artsScene Edmonton and is hopefully a sign of things to come. Trip the Light was completely sold out, so Sharon and I were lucky to be on the guest list – thanks to artsScene for that! New co-chairs Erin Elizabeth Ross and Miranda Wulf and their team put on one heck of a party – it was certainly the place to be in Edmonton yesterday evening.

We asked Erin where the name came from, and she said it was a play on the phrase “trip the light fantastic”. As Wikipedia explains, the phrase has come to mean dancing in an imaginative manner. In the sixties and seventies, it was commonly used to mean “let’s go out and have a great time!” The organizers decided to drop the “fantastic” to shorten it, but wanted to channel that message.

Held at the Breakfast Television Studios, Trip the Light was an opportunity for people to experience an unconventional event space in the heart of downtown. I understand that it took a lot of negotiation and compromise to secure the space, but it was totally worth it. The studio worked really well as a venue, with lots of room for a stage, DJ tables, a photo booth, two bars, and more. Guests even got to sit on the BT Edmonton couch, and the Good Women Dance Collective partied in the elevator! It was particularly cool that they left the cameras and lots of other equipment in the studio. One of the monitors was setup with Twitterfall tuned to the very popular #tripthelight hashtag.

Ryan Jespersen

Miranda & Erin

After DJ Alex Faid had gotten everyone warmed up, Mitch Holtby (aka Mitchmatic) got up on stage to perform his high energy mix of rap and music creation. A skilled multi-instrumentalist, Mitch impressed the crowd by playing the saxophone in the middle of rapping. Follow @Mitchmatic on Twitter to find out where he’s performing next!

DJ Alex Faid

Mitchmatic

The headline performer was local rock band Scenic Route to Alaska, made up of Trevor Mann on guitar and vocals, Murray Wood on bass, and Shea Connor on drums. They had back-to-back shows last night – fortunately their first gig at the Yellowhead Brewery was not far away! Sonic 102.9’s Band Of The Month for February, Scenic Route to Alaska did not disappoint. Follow @scenicalaska on Twitter for upcoming show announcements!

Scenic Route to Alaska

Food was provided by Bistro La Persaud and consisted of two-bite quiche tarts and salad rolls. Yellowhead Brewery served up beer all evening, while wine was provided by Cono Sur Vineyards and Winery. There was a silent auction featuring the awesome Joker mural by The Daft Punk artist, and everyone left with a small piece of art also created by Daft Punk.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615

Trip the Light was lots of fun! Slightly reminiscent of Electric Circus, I think it showed what an awesome combination unconventional event spaces and local artists can be.

artsScene Edmonton will be hosting a new Behind-the-Scenes event this year with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. For details on that and other upcoming events, keep an eye on the website and follow @artsSceneEdm on Twitter. To see more photos from Trip the Light, click here.

A new take on steak in Calgary

A little over a month ago, Sharon and I were invited to join a group of bloggers in Calgary for the YYC Steak Tour. Tourism Calgary wanted to showcase local restaurants that have “a new take on steak” – something more than traditional meat and potatoes! We ate at five restaurants: Ox & Angela, Anju, Raw Bar, CHARCUT, and Rouge. Sharon has already done a very thorough job of reviewing the meal at each, so be sure to check out her posts.

On the way into Calgary, we stopped off at CrossIron Mills to have lunch at South St. Burger Co. While I liked the burger assembly line (similar to Subway) the patty itself was underwhelming. The texture and taste reminded me too much of a frozen burger. Sharon did enjoy the onion rings, however.

We usually stay at Hotel Le Germain when we visit Calgary, but as our accommodations this trip were being covered by Tourism Calgary, we were more than happy to stay at the Kensington Riverside Inn. It was very comfortable, and you really can’t beat the location! We took advantage of it, walking around Kensington and along the river.

We made sure to stop at Higher Ground, a popular coffee shop in Kensington. It turned out that Dan Clapson, the manager of Higher Ground and also a food blogger, was on our tour! It was great to chat with Dan about the popular meeting spot. He really knows his customer base, and doesn’t pretend to compete against Phil & Sebastian, instead recognizing that people visit Higher Ground for more than artisan coffee.

We took advantage of the proximity of our hotel to the river, and walked along Memorial Drive. We spent some time checking out the Peace Bridge, the controversial new bridge that connects downtown and the community of Sunnyside. I think it’s very interesting to look at, but I can see how it wasn’t welcomed by all Calgarians. With a total cost of about $24 million, it wasn’t cheap either! The bridge officially opened on March 24.

Peace Bridge

Our first stop on the YYC Steak Tour was Ox & Angela. We had a tapas style meal, with many small plates which turned out to be a great way to meet all of the other folks on the tour. The Spring Creek Ranch flat iron steak was quite tasty, but the “fierce potatoes” definitely stole the show. They were delicious! I also ate more than my share of the churros for dessert.

Patatas bravas at Ox & Angela

Our next stop was Anju. We were quite excited to meet Chef Roy Oh, a former Edmontonian who moved to Calgary nearly a decade ago. To start, we got to try soju – the Korean equivalent of vodka, distilled from rice instead of wheat. Though there was Sprite on hand to mix it with, I actually preferred it straight. Very tasty. My favorite dish was the malpec oysters, served with kimchi for a bit of heat. Also memorable were the chicken wings, something the Calgarians were raving about. They were, in a word, hot. I swear I couldn’t feel my lips for hours after we ate them!

Malpec oysters with a kimchi mignonette at Anju

The last scheduled stop was Raw Bar, but as we had to leave Calgary early enough to get back to Edmonton on Sunday night, we visited the restaurant for lunch without the rest of the group. We sampled the cocktails and even though we were on the steak tour, I simply could not resist trying the mushroom and bacon poutine. It probably could have used a bit more gravy and cheese, but it was delicious nonetheless.

Mushroom and bacon poutine at Raw Bar

Next up on the tour was CHARCUT, the only restaurant we had eaten at previously. We’re big Top Chef nerds, so Sharon and I couldn’t believe that we were actually with Connie DeSousa! We started by visiting the prep kitchen upstairs where Connie and John showed us how they make blood sausage (which they later cooked and served to us). It was pretty awesome to get a peek behind the curtain!

The kitchen at CHARCUT

Of course, no trip to CHARCUT is complete without eating the signature poutine. Potatoes fried in duck fat, cheese curds, and chicken fat gravy. How can you go wrong? I could have eaten it all night long.

Duck fat poutine at CHARCUT

Probably my least favorite stop on the tour was Rouge. Compared to the rest of the dishes we ate, Rouge definitely featured the most formal and refined menu. My favorite dish was the lab two ways – a cut of sirloin and braised lamb mixed with lentils. The bee pollen macaron with lemon cream to end was also pretty tasty!

Lamb two ways at Rouge

It seems that whenever we visit Calgary we do so primarily to eat! It was great to have the opportunity to try something new at some of Calgary’s hottest restaurants. Thanks again to Tourism Calgary for hosting us – it was a great trip!

Again, be sure to check out Sharon’s much more thorough reviews of the restaurants we visited.

Upcoming public involvement opportunities!

It really feels like this is an unprecedented time for the City of Edmonton – there are so many projects and plans underway that it’s hard to keep track of them all! But that’s a post for another day. For now, here are some upcoming public involvement opportunities you should know about.

Help Create a Vision for Queen Elizabeth Park

“Queen Elizabeth Park has been a well-loved destination park for Edmontonians for almost a century. Given all the planned improvements in the area, including the new Walterdale Bridge and the repurposing of the Rossdale Power Plant, in addition to the demolition of the old Queen Elizabeth Pool, the time is ripe to re-imagine what this park means to us and to explore options for its future.”

There’s an idea gathering workshop scheduled for April 18 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the Old Timers’ Cabin. See full details at ShareEdmonton.

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Complete Streets: Give us your feedback!

“Complete Streets is a concept. It’s a City of Edmonton initiative that acknowledges a simple truth: when it comes to roads, one size doesn’t fit all.”

This is an online opportunity. Share your thoughts here by April 16.

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Survey on Sanitary Utility Rate structure

“The City of Edmonton’s Drainage Services is considering changes to the Sanitary Utility Rate structure. Edmontonians are encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions by completing an on-line survey by April 9, 2012.”

This is an online opportunity. Share your thoughts here by April 9.

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Survey on the Urban Traffic Noise Policy (UTNP)

“Since the UTNP was last updated in 2004, it’s time to review the policy and assess the public’s perceptions and opinions on the impact of traffic noise. Public feedback will be included in a revised policy, which will go before City Council in June 2012.”

This is an online opportunity. The survey will be available here soon and will be open until April 20.

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Northwest LRT Open House

“The public is invited to participate in the kickoff open house for the Northwest LRT project. City staff will outline the project scope and process for evaluation of the Northwest LRT corridor. Participants will be asked to identify issues and opportunities for the project going forward.”

There’s an open house coming up on April 10 from 4pm to 8pm at the Calder Community Hall. See full details at ShareEdmonton.

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Southeast to West LRT Community Conversations

“Public Involvement for this phase will include all 27 km of the line. As this is a large area and stakeholders will have specific interests and concerns, the study area has been broken into six consultation areas. Though information sharing and consultation on the entire 27 km will be a part of every meeting in every area, each meeting will be tailored to the specific area it’s in.”

There are three events still to take place. Strathearn to City Centre West will be discussed on April 11, City Centre West to 149 Street will be discussed on April 24, and 149 Street to Lewis Farms Transit Centre will be discussed on April 26.

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The Way We Green Speaker Series 2012

“The Way We Green project is the City’s consultation with Edmontonians to develop a long-term environmental strategy for a sustainable community.”

The next event is scheduled for April 11 during the lunch hour at the Art Gallery of Alberta. See full details at ShareEdmonton. Additional events are scheduled for May 9 and June 5.

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The Way We Prosper

“The City of Edmonton is preparing The Way We Prosper, a comprehensive economic development strategy for the city. The strategy is one of the six “Ways” – the 10-year strategic goals identified in the City’s strategic plan The Way Ahead that will help to set direction, guide decisions and align the priorities for transforming Edmonton’s future.”

There’s an economic development workshop scheduled for April 30 from 1pm to 4:30pm at the Shaw Conference Centre. See full details at ShareEdmonton. The City has already been holding focus groups on this plan, and I’m sure additional events will be held in the future.

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Other

You might also want to read about the plans for the 2012 construction season. More than $122 million is being invested in projects to enhance Edmonton’s transportation infrastructure. In particular, take note of detours on Jasper Avenue related to the Central Station LRT Rehabilitation.

Oh, and don’t forget that census workers are hitting the streets for the 2012 Municipal Census. Legitimate census workers will have proper identification, they will not ask you for your name or phone number, and they most definitely will not ask to use your computer.

To keep up-to-date on public involvement events, check out the public involvement tag at ShareEdmonton.

2012 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts

mca2012 The 25th annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts took place last night at the Winspear Centre. Being the silver anniversary, Sharon and I just couldn’t miss it! As in years past it was a fun evening of awards and performances, not to mention a great networking opportunity for everyone in attendance. This year the event came very close to selling out, which is great news for the chosen cause for 2012 – the Rock & Roll Society of Edmonton’s Centre for Arts and Music. It was fantastic to see so many people out in support of our amazing arts community here in Edmonton!

Here’s an excerpt of Mayor Mandel’s message in the program:

Arts and culture form the very heart and spirit of our city and for 25 years this event has celebrated the best artistic talents our city has to offer. Every year, some of Edmonton’s most talented artists perform at this event leaving me with renewed appreciation of Edmonton’s immensely talented arts community.

The Mayor seemed to be in a particularly joyful mood last night! His remarks during the show were brief, but he had some fun with MCs Peter Brown and Carrie Doll. At the end of the evening, he even instigated the on-stage dancing, which is something of a tradition for the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts.

The full list of nominees is available at the PACE website. Here are the winners:

Mayor’s Award for Sustained Support of the Arts
Realtors Association of Edmonton, Jon Hall, nominated by Azimuth Theatre Association

Mayor’s Award for Innovative Support of the Arts by a Business
ATCO Gas & Electric, nominated by Victoria School of the Arts

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts
Arts on the Ave, nominated by Theatre Prospero

Robert Koetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
Freddy’s War by Judy Schultz, Brindle & Glass Publishing Ltd.

CN Youth Artist Award
Candace Chu, nominated by Alberta College Conservatory of Music

Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist
Jason Carter, nominated by Jessica Aube

DIALOG Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction
Marsh Murphy, nominated by Kyle Armstrong

TELUS Courage to Innovate Award
iDANCE Edmonton, nominated by Alison Neuman

ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement
Brian Webb, nominated by bottom line productions inc.

The evening’s performances, sponsored by Syncrude, included:

I’m a big Colleen Brown fan, so I really enjoyed her set. I thought Brett Kissel did a fantastic job as the show opener! He’s obviously a talented artist but was funny and personable on stage too. He got the audience clapping along which really set the tone for the show. I also really liked the guys from Caution: May Contain Nuts. They did an Arnold Schwarzenegger segment which was pretty funny. I think lots of people in the audience enjoyed seeing Tommy Banks perform too. Christian Hansen did a wonderful job closing the show – he was very high energy!

Some of the kids from the Rock & Roll Society also performed a song that they themselves composed. The Centre for Arts & Music is a program that helps students learn how to write lyrics, compose music, play instruments, record & produce, engineer video, perform on stage, and many other skills. More than 100 kids have benefitted from the program, which is ten weeks and consists of two sessions of two hours each week. You can learn more here.

Unlike in years past, there was no intermission during last night’s event. That meant that the evening flowed smoothly and quickly, and it meant that everyone got to enjoy the after party! Food was sponsored by Northlands, and it was great to see so many people stick around for the party. It added an excellent social element to the show that I think was mostly missing from previous events. During the after party, a few volunteers walked around with iPod touches preloaded with Touch Metric’s Surveyor to ask attendees to fill out an exit survey. It worked really well!

Congratulations to all of the 2012 nominees and winners! And thank you to all of the sponsors who made the event possible!

This year I joined the event Steering Committee, so it was great to see how it all works from the other side. I joined about halfway through the planning for this year’s event, so I am definitely looking forward to having a bigger impact on next year’s edition!

You can see more photos from the evening here. You can read my previous recaps here: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere 2011 – Hashtags & Links

This is the third part in my State of the Edmonton Twittersphere for 2011 – you can read the overview post here. As we saw in that entry, local users posted more than 2.5 million tweets containing links. They also posted more than 3 million tweets containing hashtags. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly we tweeted about in 2011.

Here’s a breakdown of the number of tweets posted per month containing links. As expected, it trends up:

More interesting than the number of links is what those links are for! Of course, most links are hidden behind shortened URLs using a service like TinyURL. That makes it difficult to see the final destination of the link. Additionally, Twitter rolled out its own URL shortener in August which automatically wrapped all links with t.co. So to get a sense of what the links look like, I examined the data from January through August and excluded any t.co wrapped links. That gives us this:

As you can see, bit.ly is by far the most popular URL shortening service. Looking at the top ten, we can see that Tumblr, Facebook, Foursquare, and YouTube account for a large number of the links we post on Twitter every day. So, we use Twitter to link to other social networking sites!

Here are the top ten domains (excluding t.co):

Other popular domains included instagr.am, goo.gl, and dlvr.it.

Perhaps more useful than links for determining what we tweeted about are hashtags. After all, the hashtag was created as a way to “categorize” tweets. In 2011, local users posted more than 3 million tweets containing hashtags. The most commonly used hashtag, by a longshot, was #yeg. Here is a word cloud of the most commonly used hashtags:

Local users used nearly 600,000 different hashtags in 2011. The shortest was just one character, excluding the hash, and the longest was 139 characters. The average hashtag was 14 characters long. There were seven hashtags that filled the full 140 characters of a tweet (when you include the #) and all but one of them had to do with using a long hashtag (the outlier was an extended hey!).

This should give you a sense of the diversity of hashtags used, and also of the prevalence of #yeg:

Removing #yeg from the word cloud allows us to get a better sense of the other top tags:

Here are the top ten hashtags excluding #yeg:

The only one that surprises me there is #customer. I have no idea why that hashtag was so popular! Given that it hasn’t been used recently, I suspect a bot may have helped boost its use at some point throughout the year.

I have always been fascinated by the number of local “subtags” as I call them, or hashtags that start with #yeg. In 2011, local users posted more than 3600 different hashtags that started with #yeg. The average length, excluding the hash, was 11 characters. The longest was 52 characters. Appropriately, it was about the weather – #yegohmygoodnesscantbelievewinterisherehowwillimanage.

Here’s a look at the top #yeg-related hashtags:

Here are the top ten #yeg-related hashtags:

So what did we talk about on Twitter in 2011? The same stuff we talk about everywhere else – food, politics, music, traffic, etc. The list above is pretty similar to the list from 2010, with #yegfood on top and a number of political tags like #yegcc, #yegarena, and #yegfed.

Here’s another way to visualize how popular those ten hashtags were, when compared with all other #yeg-related tags:

And here’s a look at the next most commonly used tags after excluding the top ten:

I imagine #yegdt, #yegmedia, and #yegbiz will all climb the charts in 2012!

2011 in Review

This year I have broken the report into sections:

This entry brings the report to a close. I hope you found it useful. Thanks for reading!

Recap: Blink Edmonton, Pedway Pop-up

A month ago we held Blink, a pop-up restaurant that Sharon and I organized. On February 26, sixty people filled the pedway that connects Commerce Place and Scotia Place across 101 Street for a six-course meal. We sold out just twelve hours after tickets went on sale, and had a number of people on the waiting list. There’s certainly a hunger for unique experiences in Edmonton!

We had only minor glitches throughout the evening, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The food that Chef Tony Le and his team created was delicious, and I love that they were able to do something different. As Century Hospitality’s VP Culinary Paul Shufelt wrote in the Edmonton Sun:

Yearning for any opportunity to express our creativity. #Blinkyeg was just the opportunity we needed, a chance to create with far less limited boundaries.

Because of the space constraints of the venue, we needed to limit the tickets to 60 people. This allowed us to play with ingredients and techniques that were a little more obscure, and seen far less often on the everyday menu.

So with that in mind, we set out to assemble a menu that would allow us to express a different side of our creativity.

Sharon did a great job capturing the dishes and other details about the restaurant, so check out her recap for more.

We really wanted to hold Blink in a pedway because it fulfilled our desire to utilize a forgotten or under-appreciated space. Usually I speak against pedways, because I’d rather see people on the street than indoors, but they’re an important part of the overall pedestrian system downtown. And even if we succeed at making the streets more attractive, welcoming, and filled with shops and other reasons for people to use the sidewalks, the pedways aren’t going anywhere. So we might as well make the most of them!

As I mentioned in my post announcing Blink, the first hurdle was to figure out who owned the pedway and who we needed to get permission from. Fortunately the Downtown Business Association’s Jim Taylor was extremely helpful in that regard! He was able to track down the information and make the necessary introductions. As a member of the pedway committee, he was already working on gathering that information and they’ve made significant progress in the last year.

Last week, the Downtown Pedway Committee submitted its annual report to Executive Committee. Established in 2010, the pedway committee exists to examine and address the challenges & opportunities related to the downtown pedway network. While much of the committee’s initial work was focused simply on finding ownership, maintenance, history, and other information about the pedways (which culminated in the creation of a database), they are now starting to make some positive changes. By the end of Q2 this year, the committee hopes to have the existing maps updated throughout the system (with help from Edmonton Transit). And next on the list is an integrated way-finding signage system. The signs throughout the system are dated, some are incorrect, and they’re very inconsistent. Refreshing them also provides an opportunity to look ahead, by incorporating digital-friendly way-finding solutions (that was my initial feedback to the committee). All of those improvements will help make navigating downtown easier. And who knows, maybe we’ll see more exciting events take place in pedways!

Thanks again to everyone who had a hand in making Blink happen, especially the Downtown Business Association, the Downtown Edmonton Community League, GWL Realty Advisors, Morguard, and of course, Century Hospitality and everyone at Lux.

And thank you to everyone who bought tickets to Blink – you made it a success! Check out Sharon’s recap here, and you can see my photos here. We are in the process of planning another Blink, so stay tuned for updates!

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