Edmonton Notes for 1/5/2014

Best in the world? No.

As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, National Geographic blogger Andrew Evans highlighted the City Market on his Best of 2013 list. Based on the response here in Edmonton, you’d think this was the first time we’ve ever received praise for something! People are losing their minds! Our market is fantastic (in the summer), but it’s not the best in the world, and anyway, that’s not what Andrew said. He said it was the best of all that he visited in 2013. There’s a difference.

Headlines

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Alberta Legislature

Upcoming Events

snowy path
Photo by profernity

Edmonton in 2013

Happy New Year! In case you missed the celebration, here was my view of the countdown to 2014 in Churchill Square:

Here’s a collection of some Edmonton-related lists and year-in-review articles for 2013. I’ll keep adding to the list as I find more, so let me know what I have missed.

Happy New Year Edmonton!

You can take a look at the 2012 list here. Looking ahead to 2014? Here’s a list of things to watch for from the Journal. From Omar, here are five bad Edmonton habits to break in 2014.

December 2013 Update

With the holidays coming to a close and the new year approaching, I’ll soon be back into my regular routine. My much-needed break away from everything was longer than anticipated, but refreshing! I’m easing back into things this week, starting with this post.

I was in Miami, FL the week of December 9 for work. We had a very productive week of meetings, and got to enjoy some fabulous weather too. Florida was the only place in the US with warm weather that week.

We also took a trip to the Kennedy Space Center. It’s easy to get inspired to tackle your own moonshots by learning about everything NASA has accomplished over the years.

From there I flew to New York City to meet Sharon for our vacation. We last traveled to NYC in 2007 also just before Christmas. This time we skipped most of the touristy things and made much better decisions and where to eat and what to see! It definitely helps to travel with an excellent planner like Sharon. Highlights included the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge, Chelsea Market, and upper west-side.

The trip was a lot of fun, but also a bit tiring thanks to our 20,000+ steps every day except one! We’ve uploaded a bunch of photos here if you’d like to check them out. Sharon will be writing more about our trip in the future too.

Of course, it was a special trip for another reason too. I proposed to Sharon on December 18 in Central Park, and she said yes! Thanks to all of you for passing along your “congratulations” and “finally” comments, we enjoyed reading each and every one of them! (And yes, it was about time…)

Since coming home to Edmonton we’ve been enjoying some much needed down time, as well as a visit from my Mom! It’s been great to see her, though I’m sure Dad will be happy to have her home for New Years. He’s had to deal with some crazy weather in Yellowknife this week.

Lastly, I turned another year older on Saturday. I had a great day, included go-kart racing with my brother at Speeders (a surprise gift from Sharon). I’ll let this photo illustrate how we did.

If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday. Happy New Year!

On vacation in New York!

Just a quick post to say that I am on vacation this week and likely won’t be blogging. I was in Miami all last week for work, which was nice considering it was one of the few hot places in the United States, and now I am in New York with Sharon. We’ll be back in Edmonton for Christmas.

Manhattan, NYC

If you want to see what we’re up to in the Big Apple, follow along on Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare.

If you’re looking for Edmonton news, check out ShareEdmonton. Or, you know, Twitter.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #95

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.

Edmonton’s City Centre Airport closes to make way for the new Blatchford

Runway 12-30 at the City Centre Airport officially closed at 4:49pm on Saturday, November 30, 2013, bringing to an end one of Edmonton’s longest-running civic debates. City Council voted to close the airport in phases on July 8, 2009 after years of fierce arguments, countless reports, and two plebiscites. Runway 16-34 closed on August 3, 2010 in the midst of a last-ditch effort by Envision Edmonton to keep the airport open. Now the full closure means the planned redevelopment of the lands into “a walkable, transit-oriented, and sustainable community” can move ahead.

Last departure
Last departure, photo by Jeff Wallace

The final flight to depart the airport was a 1963 red and white Cessna 172D, with registration C-FWKV, piloted by Chris Blower. Two CF-18 jets from the 409 Squadron out of 4 Wing Cold Lake were scheduled to perform a touch-and-go to mark the closure of the airport, but they had to cancel at the last minute due to weather. It would have been a nice reference to the airport’s history as two Royal Canadian Air Force Siskins were the first to land when Blatchford Field officially opened in 1927.

City Centre Airport

Here’s a look at the final departure and closure of the City Centre Airport:

Earlier in the afternoon a press conference was held at City Hall to mark the occasion. David Ridley of the Edmonton Heritage Council called the Blatchford lands “among the most important of historical locations in Edmonton.” He said naming the new community Blatchford “the first step” in preserving the history of the airfield.

City Centre Airport Closure

Newly elected Councillor Bev Esslinger also spoke, reinforcing the importance of the site’s history. She unveiled a plaque and living time capsule that will be on display at City Hall until it can be included in the redevelopment. “The items included show and tell the story of the airfield, and will be an enduring reminder of the role aviation has played in shaping Edmonton,” she said.

City Centre Airport Closure

Over the last year, any remaining uncertainty about the closure gradually faded away.

  • A new, 3,600-square-metre air ambulance based opened in March at the Edmonton International Airport, completing the relocation of medevac services.
  • City Council voted on June 19 to expropriate interests in the airport lands, which included more than 200 individual landowners.
  • On October 10, Villeneuve Airport announced a large expansion with plans to build 6 new hangars, to extend one runway to 5,000 feet, to install an Instrument Landing System (ILS), and to improve storm water, domestic water, and sanitary systems.
  • The new Alberta Flying Heritage Museum was announced on November 17. Located at Villeneuve Airport, the new museum will focus on the broad history of Central and Northern Alberta. The Alberta Aviation Museum will remain open in its current location and will focus on the history of Edmonton and Blatchford Field.
  • The Pacific Western Airlines Boeing 737 that had been featured as an exhibit at the Alberta Aviation Museum since 2005 flew once more on November 29, landing at its new home at Villeneuve Airport.

City Centre Airport Closure

Though many called the closure bittersweet, I’m glad it is now finished. With the airport closed, the City can move forward with implementation of the Master Plan for Blatchford.

The 217 hectare (536 acre) site will become a home for up to 30,000 residents, and a place to work for up to 11,000 employees. This will transform the City Centre Airport into a mixed-use urban community that meets the City of Edmonton’s goals of building strong, vibrant neighbourhoods and increasing density to make best use of existing infrastructure.

Shovels are expected to be in the ground next year, with the first Edmontonians living and working on site as early as 2016/17. Full build out of the community will of course take decades. The opportunity to build a community as large as Blatchford so close to the heart of the city is one that cities of our size simply don’t get.

Blatchford Redevelopment
Artist rendering of future Blatchford community street

I feel more now than ever that closing the City Centre Airport was the right decision for Edmonton, and I look forward to the incredibly positive impact that the Blatchford Redevelopment will have on our city.

Roundup: Edmonton’s downtown arena will be called Rogers Place

This afternoon at Startup Edmonton, Rexall Sports (or should that be the Edmonton Arena Corporation) announced that it has reached a deal with Rogers Communications on the naming rights for Edmonton’s new downtown arena. When it opens in 2016, it’ll be known as Rogers Place.

Rogers Place

Here’s what the folks involved had to say. First, Daryl Katz:

“Today’s announcement helps make the new arena a reality and underscores its potential to make downtown Edmonton a magnet for our community and for new investment by world-class companies like Rogers.”

Here’s what Rogers Communications Executive Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer John Boynton said:

“Today’s announcement builds on our long-term commitment to the Edmonton Oilers, its hockey fans and our investment in Alberta. Rogers Place will be one of the most technologically enabled stadiums in North America; we look forward to bringing passionate fans a connected game experience powered by the country’s fastest LTE network.”

And here’s what Mayor Don Iveson said:

“This is a great day for Edmonton’s downtown and our city. Rogers Place will become a beacon in our downtown, one that will foster a new sense of energy that will further attract development and investment in the heart of our city.”

Here’s a look at how the arena is envisioned to fit into the new downtown:

The name certainly didn’t inspire everyone, but some were more annoyed by the revenue than the name. Under the terms of the agreement between City Council and Daryl Katz, his Edmonton Arena Corporation (EAC) would receive revenue from the naming rights:

EAC will operate the new arena and pay all operating and maintenance expenses, and will receive all operating revenues, including naming rights and parking revenue.

Of course, no financial terms were disclosed as part of today’s announcement. Rogers said the deal is part of its previously announced investment into Alberta:

Rogers announced on October 1st a $700M commitment over the next four years to further enhance and expand Rogers LTE – Canada’s fastest LTE network, open additional retail locations, fuel business growth and continue to build its presence in sports in Edmonton and across Alberta.

In addition to network enhancements, new retail locations, and new business services, Rogers acquired the official sponsorship and marketing rights for the Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oil Kings, and Rexall Place.

Rogers Place

I’m happy that the arena has a name and has moved another step toward becoming a reality, but I do think this is a missed opportunity for Edmonton. Rogers benefits from this deal obviously, but Edmonton doesn’t because “Rogers Place” could be anywhere. This is something we get wrong so often, partly because of our “capital city curse” as I like to call it, but partly because we don’t have a strong brand to hang these sorts of things on. Sure, most arenas and sporting complexes carry a sponsored name, but isn’t that a great opportunity to be different? Instead, it’s all about the money.

David Staples seems to agree with me on this point:

“The first naming of the arena, back in 1974 when it was called the Edmonton Coliseum was the best. That was the right name for our building. It still is.”

Yup. Too bad.

Here’s some other reaction from around the web:

https://twitter.com/OilersNation/status/407971780406435840

https://twitter.com/EricWarnke/status/408089659978571776

https://twitter.com/uncleheth/status/408084022309289985

In a vote on the Cult of Hockey blog, “Rogers Coliseum” seemed to be the favorite choice, ahead of “Some other name entirely” and “Rogers Place” in last. In a poll on Global’s website, more than 60% said they didn’t like the name “Rogers Place”. You can watch an overview of the announcement at CTV Edmonton. Also check out the Huffington Post’s coverage here.

You can learn more about Rogers Place on its new website. You can also follow it on Twitter.

Media Monday Edmonton: Gastropost Alberta & the Future of Newspapers

In the summer of 2012, Postmedia launched two experiments to explore the future of newspapers. One launched here in Edmonton, and their task was as ambitious as they come: to transform the way the Edmonton Journal does business.

They’ll operate much like a tech start-up, with no pre-determined outcomes. They’ll be testing some theories about the growth of the news business, and working to identify, customize and build new products to serve our community.

The Edmonton Experiment, as it was affectionately known in the early days, eventually launched as Capital Ideas Edmonton. Focused on helping local entrepreneurs share what they know, it has grown into a vibrant and active community with events that regularly attract nearly 200 people. The project has also started to figure out its business model, landing a partnership with ATB Business recently. They haven’t yet transformed the Journal, but the initiative has been successful enough to grow beyond the experiment phase.

The other experiment that Postmedia launched was at the National Post. Rather than unlock the expertise of the community or focus on an under-served niche, they decided to share pictures of food with Gastropost. No, really!

Last week, We asked a group of food lovers in Toronto to eat something delicious every day and tell us about it. Some dined out, others stayed in — all made our mouths water. Interested? Get involved!

Chris Tindal, a member of the National Post Labs team that launched Gastropost, described it as much more than just sharing food pictures:

We’re not sure exactly what this is yet, but there are a few things we know (or hope) it’s not. First, this isn’t regular user-generated content. The closest analogy we’ve come up with is to say we’re looking for expert-generated content from the voices within a community. Second, in the example of food, this isn’t designed to replace or compete with what food bloggers, restaurant reviewers and Yelp and Foursquare users are already doing, but should instead surface new value that will ultimately strengthen those existing communities and improve the food experience of the whole city.

As great as that bit of marketing-speak sounds, when you get right down to it Gastropost is all about user-generated content finding its way into the newspaper. This reality has been cemented by the way Gastropost finds its photos (and by extension, its members): via social media services like Twitter and Instagram, services which have helped to define user-generated content.

What is true is that Gastropost does not compete with food bloggers or restaurant review sites. It simply can’t – there’s only room for photos to be shared. Though the weekly missions add a game-like dynamic to Gastropost, it would seem that it’s the chance to see their photo and name in the newspaper that drives people to share and become members.

Gastropost Edmonton

Maybe that’s enough. Gastropost has since expanded to Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary, and now has more than 10,000 members across the country. Still, I have a hard time visualizing the future of newspapers looking through Gastropost-tinted lenses.

Gastropost Alberta

Gastropost started its expansion into Alberta in October when Gastropost Edmonton launched. It was a small blow to Capital Ideas, as Brittney Le Blanc shifted experiments to become the Community Manager for Gastropost in Alberta. I can’t think of anyone at the Journal better suited to the role than Brittney, and in just the first month she had already attracted more than 1000 members. Clearly a wise decision by the powers-that-be.

I visited Brittney at her office at the Edmonton Journal recently to learn more about Gastropost Edmonton. Here’s what she had to say:

For more on Gastropost Edmonton and how it works, check out Linda’s excellent post.

Last month, Gastropost expanded to Calgary, with Brittney once again leading the charge. I’m fairly certain that Gastropost will find success here in Alberta just as it has out east. Sharing pictures of your food has become so accepted (and even encouraged) that restaurants that ban the practice seem unusual.

But will Gastropost change the way Postmedia does business? Of that, I’m much less certain.

The future of newspapers?

Maybe it’s unfair to paint Gastropost with the future-of-newspapers brush. The initiative did grow out of Postmedia’s desire to figure out the newspaper’s role in the future of media, however. The initial objective was very clear: “to transform our cities by inspiring everyone to share their expertise, something we think newspapers are uniquely positioned to do.” So, what can we learn from Gastropost about the future of the newspaper? 1

Basing the success of Gastropost on a reader’s desire to appear in the newspaper seems fraught with risk. The first time your photo is selected, of course you’ll get the warm fuzzies. But that experience is fleeting, and the next time it happens it’s much less exciting. With two full pages of tiny food photos, it won’t take long until yours is featured. Then what? Surely Gastropost can offer more than a whimsical “look ma, I’m in the paper!” moment.

It is often said that newspapers should reflect the communities they serve. Others go further and suggest that newspapers should actively be a part of the communities they serve. I think that’s where Gastropost fits in.

Gastropost Edmonton

Here’s what Brittney wrote in the blog post introducing Gastropost Calgary:

Food is a connector. It’s a common ground that you can share with nearly everyone. We have family dinners, cookie exchanges around the holidays. We share new dining experiences with friends and trade recipes and ideas at potlucks. Food helps us connect through the good times and bad, sharing communal memories and bonding over allergies and sensitivities. Strangers bend over from the next table, wondering what you’re eating and whether they should order it.

Viewed as a way to connect with the community, selecting food for the National Post experiment was a no-brainer. In decades past, a shared food experience might have come from recipes, restaurant reviews, or other food news printed in the newspaper. Today, it happens all the time, on Twitter, food blogs, and other services. Gastropost is a way for Postmedia to remain relevant in that world, to be a part of the food community in which its readers are active.

It won’t be long until the thrill of getting your food photo in the newspaper wears off. The trick will be for Postmedia to figure out how to make money from participating in the food community before that happens. If they can do that, perhaps Gastropost can tell us something about the future of newspapers after all.

Thanks to Brittney for being a good sport and doing the video! The music is “Chords for David” by Pitx.

  1. Note I’m using the phrase “future of newspapers” instead of “future of journalism” on purpose. Despite the worldview of Gastropost’s creators, I look to Clay Shirky’s seminal post from 2009 on the matter. ↩

Edmonton Notes for 12/1/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes!

Heavy Users of Service Project

A two-year initiative called the Heavy Users of Service project will “monitor some of the city’s most frequent users of social, medical, criminal and justice services with the goal of identifying and bridging gaps in service provision and treatment.” It was launched on Friday by EPS and is a collaboration between fourteen organizations. Here are a few quick thoughts on the project:

Headlines

The City Centre Airport is now officially closed. The lights on runway 12-30 went off just before 5pm on Saturday, November 30, with crews installing giant white Xs shortly after. I’ll have more on the closure in an upcoming post. In the meantime, you can check out a few more photos here.

City Centre Airport Closure

Upcoming Events

Rainbow

Recap: Hacking Health in Edmonton

Last weekend was Edmonton’s first Hacking Health, a unique event that aims to enable collaboration between technology geeks and healthcare workers to solve health-focused problems. The hackathon took place at the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy at the University of Alberta from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon and attracted dozens of participants and many more observers.

Hacking Health Edmonton 2013

Here’s what Hacking Health is all about:

Hacking Health is an experiment in collaboration. Our hypothesis is that the interface of front-line clinicians and technology experts will yield innovative approaches to some (not all) of healthcare’s most entrenched problems. By rapidly building and testing prototypes, we can identify the fraction of ideas that have the potential to scale and at the same time, allow others to take their learnings and apply them to new ideas. Our goal is to make this experimentation as low risk as possible for everyone involved – the individual participants, organizers, and supporters.

Hacking Health was founded a little over a year ago in Montreal by Jeeshan Chowdhury, Matthew Huebert, and Dominic Savoie. They found the startup scene and hackathons in particular quite intriguing, and felt that such events could have a positive impact on the world of health too.

What if they could get doctors, nurses, and other health professionals in the same room as technology experts? Could they reduce the risk of healthcare innovation by giving designers and developers exposure to the healthcare knowledge and connections they lack?

Since that first event in Montreal, more than 1000 clinicians, patients, designers, and developers have participated in subsequent events in Toronto and Vancouver. The Hacking Health team have ambitions to spread across the world, starting with Canada. For some additional background, check out this ExpressNews article.

It was only a matter of time until Hacking Health made its way to Edmonton, as this is Jeeshan’s hometown (we actually went to high school together). Our growing startup and technology scene combined with an established and widely recognized health sector make Edmonton a great fit for events like Hacking Health. I didn’t have the opportunity to participate in the event, but I did attend the demo session on Sunday.

Hacking Health Edmonton 2013

Hacking Health followed the same format as many other hackathons. Friday night is when the ideas are pitched and the teams are formed. If an idea or proposal catches your attention, you’re welcome to join the team. Once that’s done, the teams get down to work, spending all of Saturday trying to make progress on their solution or idea. Sunday is when the teams demo what they managed to accomplish over the weekend.

There were 33 projects pitched, 13 of which had teams formed around them. There was quite a bit of variation in the projects and team sizes, which made for an interesting set of demos! Each team had 2 minutes to show off their work, followed by an opportunity for the judges to ask some questions.

Hacking Health Edmonton 2013

Here’s a quick overview of the 13 teams that demoed:

  • Health Facility Wayfinding: This team didn’t actually take a technology approach to their solution. Instead they proposed the use of human guides along with signage to help people navigate the hospital.
  • Education for Extracorporeal Therapies: An extracorporeal procedure is one which is performed outside the body. In this case, the team focused on the need to do something with a patient’s blood, and they devised a clamp system using Arduino. It was described as an add-on to existing products, and while I can’t personally appreciate the impact it might have, others in the room seemed excited.
  • Kala: An Emergency Room Wait Time Genie: The idea with Kala was to use machine learning to predict wait times. They demoed a dashboard that would present that intelligence, and said the biggest challenge would be getting access to data from the hospitals. AHS does share estimated wait times, of course.
  • Referral Appointment Dashboard: Called ezReferral, this team’s project would allow doctors to negotiate with one another to simplify the complicated referral process. They are apparently about 80% of the way to completion!
  • LinkRX: This project aimed to build a link between doctors and pharmacists for prescriptions. Using a QR code on a prescription, the team hoped to ensure that prescriptions could not be forged and to make it easier for pharmacists to scan on their end (no more deciphering doctor’s notes). They said pieces of the system already exist, but their project was a unified system.
  • Tracking/Improving Emotional Well Being via Smart Phone: This team built an Android app to enable emotional tracking. The vision is to combine self-reported moods (the piece they worked on over the weekend) with everything else that your smart phone knows about you.
  • StandUp!: This team said “sitting is the new smoking” and their plan to get you up and out of your seat is an app that reminds you when you’ve been sitting for too long. It would assign you an activity, like doing ten squats, that you could invite a friend to join along in. You earn points for completing each activity, and your workplace could pay for data to monitor the health of its workforce.
  • Mis TakeAway: This project envisioned a safe space for health professionals to reflect on their mistakes, a sort of post secret for the healthcare industry. The webpage featured messages in a bottle, each of which contained a confession.
  • CoughDoc: Another simple but powerful idea formed the basis of this app – allow patients to record their cough (or their child’s) using a smartphone and send it to their doctor. The doctor could then diagnose remotely and determine whether an appointment is necessary.
  • Rehabilitation with games using KINECT: Rehabilitation using Kinect is not a new idea, but this team forged ahead with a fun, Super Mario Bros-inspired game nonetheless. They focused on rehab for an elbow injury in their game called Super Reventure World.
  • What’s for lunch?: This app is a tracker for nutritional information. Again, there are dozens of these services already out there, but what made it unique was the interface – users could enter plain English and the app would parse it and convert it to the appropriate nutritional information.
  • Walk-ins Welcome: It sounds like last minute cancellations are a big problem, and that’s what this project aimed to solve. The service would connect patients with last minute appointment times, and would allow doctors to keep track of which patients were no-shows.
  • TrialConnect: The final project was focused on connecting willing participants to clinical trial research. It’s like a matchmaking service for researchers and patients.

Hacking Health Edmonton 2013
The judges deliberate

In the end, CoughDoc, ezReferral, StandUp!, and Walk-ins Welcome were all recognized by the judges as well as sponsors BDC and Bird Communications. I think my favorite was StandUp!, perhaps because it seemed the most realistic and immediately impactful to me. It’s pretty amazing what each of the teams was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time!

Everyone seemed to have a great time over the weekend, and it was great to see all of the demos at the end. Congratulations to everyone that helped to make Hacking Health Edmonton happen! For more on the event, check out Tamara’s Storify.

Hacking Health Edmonton 2013
The StandUp! team

Hacking Health will be making its next stop in Calgary in February 2014, followed by events in Montreal and Hamilton before going international to New York City, Stockholm, and Strasbourg.

Here in Edmonton, stay tuned for a second Hacking Health event next fall. You can follow Hacking Health Edmonton on Twitter (they may get a meetup group going too). Check out more photos from the first event here.