Toronto Design Offsite Festival 2014

The Toronto Design Offsite Festival is an event that I look forward to every year. You get design. You get art. You get art about design and design about art—basically, if you enjoy art or design in any capacity, even if only during an annual, drunken stumble through Nuit Blanche, TO DO will have something for you. On top of all that, most of the exhibitions are either free or very affordable and feature a mix of established and emerging artists who engage with a diverse set of themes in eclectic settings. Here are some of the events I'm looking forward to this year:

Come Up to My Room

Photo: Come Up To My Room

Although it's not really billed this way, Come Up to My Room feels like one of the gala expositions of TO DO, and it's a personal favourite. This year, artists and designers will take over the Gladstone Hotel with installations and "unexpected prototypes" that engage with themes of "trust, risk, and collaboration." You can see and hear some of the exhibitors talk about their works in progress on the CUTMR website. It's a steal at $10 ($5 for students).

From Nothing, Something

A documentary about the creative process screening for one night only at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. If you've ever wrestled with the wacky alchemy of designing, drawing, writing, coding, building, making (hopefully) awesome stuff, this might be for you. Plus, the Bloor is great. Any excuse to drink beer in a movie theatre is fine with me.

Eames: the Architect and the Painter

I have a strange fascination with couples who manage to work, play, and live together. In this documentary, the couple in question is Charles and Ray Eames, two of the most influential design thinker/practitioners of the last century. If you had a chance to see the film about the Vignelli's last year at Hot Docs, this will be an interesting counterpoint.

Digital Promises

Photo: TO DO

If, like me, talk of 3D printers and their potential for revolutionizing our material and social worlds sets your imagination alight with possibilities of self-manufacturing robots, "printed" limbs, and Star Trek-esque food replicators, you might want to see this show.


Nations are Narrations

Photo: Nicole Tarasick

Maps are very "in" right now. We seem to be living through a period where people, especially urbanites, renegotiate their relationships with the built environments they live in. I enjoy placemaking in its many forms, from urban art installations like TO's own murmur to the Leslieville toque I got for Christmas. This exhibition by Nicole Tarasick, one of the designers behind STYLEGARAGE, is a series of prints on a 1957 Atlas of Canada.

The festival runs next week (January 20th to 24th) at venues all over downtown. 

By Justin

Google and the World Brain Opens Tonight at The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema

The people of the Book are pitted against the people of the Screen in the latest instalment of the Bloor Cinema's Doc Soup Series

From The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema:

"In 2002 Google began to scan millions of books in an effort to create a giant global library, containing every book in existence. They had an even greater purpose—to create a higher form of intelligence, something that H.G. Wells had predicted in his 1937 essay “World Brain”. But over half the books Google scanned were in copyright, and authors across the world launched a campaign to stop Google, which climaxed in a New York courtroom in 2011. Google and the World Brain is a film about the dreams, dilemmas and dangers of the Internet."

Google and the World Brain opens tonight at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (504 Bloor Street West). The director, Ben Lewis, will be in attendance and fielding post-screening questions.

Converge 3.0

CONVERGE is a unique, modern take on a networking event. Now in its third edition in Toronto, taking place during TIFF season on Thursday, September 12th, CONVERGE 3.0 TIFF Edition brings together true influencers and cultural innovators in the realms of entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, music, real estate, sustainability, law, film, gaming, food, fashion, politics, finance, technology, philanthropy, sports, and more.

In honour of this world renowned film festival taking place in our city, CONVERGE 3.0 will be themed on film with all four panelists being accomplished and recognizable individuals in the film industry including:

Dani Weinstein: President of Publicity, The Weinstein Company
Stephen Bruno: Director of Marketing, The Weinstein Company
Nicholas Tabarrok: Executive Producer, Darius Films
Hill Harper: Actor

As with previous CONVERGE events, following the exclusive 2 hour panelist session from 7-9PM, attendees will have the opportunity to partake in a decadent and upscale social gala where they will have the opportunity to mix and mingle with 500+ influential guests, VIP’s, celebrities, media and of course the panelists. Headlined by guest DJs Ellingson of Young Empires andMarktoshi, guests can expect a good party with special prize giveaways and take-away gifts for our exclusive guests. 

Click here to register. 

Content Innovators Summit

Content Innovators Summit is a convergence of producers, broadcasters, digital content creators, media and publishers seeking new ideas and opportunities in multi-platform distribution. An extension of the nextMEDIA community, this unique event will explore the forces changing the entertainment industry, frame threats, new ideas and opportunities, and provide a platform to facilitate knowledge transfer and new relationships.

Content Innovators Summit is presented by the Banff World Media Festival, MaRS, and nextMEDIA. Click here to register.

Digital and Social Media Marketing Madness!

Courtesy of Sean O'Connell

Flagship marketing conference SES Toronto is happening this week – if you feel the need to brush up on your knowledge of digital marketing among the likes of private consultants and representatives from Google and Bing (to name a couple), this search and social conference is right up your alley.

Courtesy of Sean O'Connell

The event will take place June 12-14, 2013 at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre, covering topics from current marketing strategies, most notably to mobile marketing, Big Data, Web analytics, Email marketing, Display advertising, Content marketing, and e-Commerce, according to the site’s agenda.

The conference is into its TENTH year and the ways in which it has grown and changed with the world is immeasurable. In this fast paced world of virtual commerce, Andrew Goodman, long-standing member of the SES Advisory Board and founder of the Toronto headquartered agency Page Zero is here to answer some important questions (with a splendid amount of knowledge and humour!):

What brought you to the SES Advisory Board? What is your role in the SES conference?

AG: Several years ago, SES made a transition from a founder who programmed every show in a workaholic fashion, to the long term vision of its management company (Incisive Media) that was looking to put in place a repeatable structure to handle global expansion and the heavy lifting of releasing new content and preparing for each new show. Kevin Ryan, the first VP of Global Content for SES after the transition from the old leadership, built this big Advisory Board. We've scaled it back a little more recently under Mike Grehan's leadership.

Andrew Goodman
Photo from PageZero.com

I'd been Chair of SES Toronto (there are no longer regional Chairs) and they were looking for a representative group of leaders in the industry, so because of the Canadian flag on my forehead, and as the author of (what was at that time, in 2005) one of the few known books in our field, I was asked to join the Advisory Board. Also, since summer 2002, there hasn't been a North American SES that I *haven't* spoken at (I think it's like 47 and counting.) I do plan to take a break one of these days, but I get the feeling that if I'm asked to stop coming, I'll just show up like Costanza and pretend the "firing" never happened.

So, long story short, I've been a huge booster and participant in SES at every level for many years. Toronto is the most important place for us to meet people, but it's been an amazing thing catching the vibe of the industry in places like San Francisco, London, New York, Stockholm, etc. I have a lot of the various folks at Incisive to thank for being so fun to work with and so professional in carrying off all those events.

How have you seen the conference and/or advertising routines change over the 10 years that you've been a part of SES?

AG: Some topics feel like they are near-universal, but the answer that's probably closer to the mark is that there's been rapid change. The flavor of the conference has changed radically in my view. In the early days, you really had to be half crazy to be in our industry, so it's attracted a lot of misfits and zealots (in the best possible sense of the word). Now, you can be normal and work in digital marketing and search marketing. Even "SEO" (which isn't SEO anymore, the way many of us see it) is considered a mainstream marketing discipline.
 On the social side, the role of Community Manager has already started to gain respect in companies, as a real part of one's business planning and communications strategy. Just three years ago that wasn't a job, it was the province of various misfit gurus and ninjas. So as the various marketing tactics we love to experiment with become normalized, the shows have lost that wild west feel, which some of us miss. The culture of the industry has changed so much.
 Google held, for seven or eight years, an event in connection with SES San Jose, called the Google Dance -- a big party outdoors on their campus. And then it came to an end. It felt like summer itself was ending. But in any case, if there is growing acceptance that there are best practices in digital that must be followed, and that these are a normal part of what it means to execute and be contemporary as a company... then it's particularly grating and frustrating when companies are years behind in catching up to that reality.
 Those of us who got into this industry early are, pretty obviously, impatient. We're eager to work with agile, nimble players. All that Seth Godin stuff about acting like a linchpin and leaning in -- sticking your neck out -- is as true and as scary as ever to many of the folks that want to avoid standing out in their organizations. Keeping your head down and accepting a slow pace of (digital) implementation is still all too common in Canada. I feel like I'm a broken record on this, but we have to get better. Agility and bold action can't just be for VC-funded startups.

As a consumer, in what ways are new marketing and advertising strategies affecting individuals?

AG: Consumers have been in the grip of what Godin referred to as the "television-industrial complex" for 50 years. The fact that folks have more control over the message they're seeing, the fact that print flyers, phone books, and other marketing detritus are being phased out in favor of more relevant messages... are all positive developments. Better targeting in advertising is often being billed as creepy or scary. Well sure it can be. But I believe that the real shift in what consumers are working with is in the explosion of information that is -- not entirely but to a large degree in many fields -- making the "Brand Bubble" deflate.
 The premium value placed on corporate brands will shrink, according to this view, as micro-brands pop up, as consumers order more online, as we aren't captive to what's on a shelf or limited to a message from P&G showing up on one of four available places to watch content. We have a client called Nuts.com that I believe benefits from the trend of "luxury generics"... people are not looking at just the names of products and feeling what the $200 million TV ad campaign wants them to feel. They are reading labels, talking about ingredients, joining online nutrition forums, sharing their favorite ideas and recipes in social media, etc. The nature of the media actually allows us to know more.
 Think, also, about what people had to do if they wanted to invest in the stock market just 20 short years ago. They'd have to have a certain amount of money. They'd have to develop a relationship with a full-service broker at one of the full-service firms like Nesbitt Burns (now BMO Nesbitt Burns, formerly Burns Fry). If they wanted to make a few trades themselves, they'd pay a giant commission. There was no information about companies other than big, heavy chart books and annual reports, and of course the customers were much more dependent on the broker's advice and their firm's research departments. How about now? Even without unusual degrees of digital tool savvy, a smart investor can trade pretty much anything at any time for their self-directed RSP, online, for a commission of $7-10. Mutual fund management expense ratios have even been driven way down by the proliferation of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF)'s. If you like preferred shares but don't understand them, you can buy an ETF dedicated to that investing theme, as you drink your morning coffee, after having researched the information on the vendor's site and read articles by mainstream media, analysts, as well as the "pro-ams" on sites like Seeking Alpha. These kinds of developments are present in every field. The information revolution has made it all possible. Keeping people in the dark has always been a way to gain an unfair power advantage in any society, and that's never going to go away entirely. But there's a lot less dark today.

How quickly are we, as a culture, expected to adapt to the ever-changing and advancing digitization of the world?

AG: As a culture, we typically adapt to these tools and capabilities in too superficial a way. And there *isn't* very much pressure on us to adapt and experiment to these transformations. Otherwise, we'd be rioting in the streets in Canada over simple things like the unavailability of many digital services here; roaming charges; etc. You certainly don't get a society of great problem-solvers or entrepreneurs merely by putting cute phones and sleek tablets in everyone's hands. I don't have the formula for how that happens, but we do need to be patient with the fact that institutions that foster science and technology, health care research, and all forms of investment in emerging knowledge -- i.e. both basic and applied research -- will lead indirectly to the fostering of incredible discoveries and communities of achievers and creators. On another front, industries themselves need to develop, and so do creative clusters in the geographic sense. Personally, I'd like to see more varied styles of people using tools like Twitter. If someone with a more intellectual or professional bent just wants to follow more learned folks or nerdy updates from a certain museum, then we're probably all going to be better off. Similarly, it's the tools that aren't necessarily easy-entry but rather ones with long learning curves that confer the most benefit. Architects must study for a long time, apprentice with greats, use hard-to-use tools. A research tool like Evernote is said to have a steep learning curve, but those who do structured research do their jobs better if they take that trip. I'm lucky enough to be friends of web design and user experience pros who are so adept with their tools that users get great interface design when all is said and done.  In our world, AdWords is an advertising method that takes a lot of diligence to crack, and inside its seemingly simple interface lurks many pitfalls. Few people are willing to "strain themselves" to go along the journey to learn complex systems. When you do, I think the rewards are there. You won't learn the right mindset from media coverage, most times. One thing I've discovered about many authors and journalists is, as smart as they seem, they "never log in". One of the most famous books about Google Search out there is by one of the top technology journalists and entrepreneurs of all time. At least two years after his bestseller was published, he blogged about wrestling with certain AdWords features he should have known like the back of its hand. It was evident that during the entire time of researching his famous book on Google, he'd never even logged into an AdWords account! And this man today heads up a leading online ad rep firm! Another time, a Toronto-based environmental journalist wrote an article in the Star about how terrible AdWords was working for his own personal purposes... something like nine years after AdWords had launched. It was like he expected Larry and Sergey to drop everything, get on a plane, and customize the platform for his personal $100 account! If there isn't pressure on some of the leading minds in our culture to really dive in and geek out on the nuts and bolts of how a lot of these tools work, then it's certainly safe to say that anyone who takes the trouble to read and learn voraciously, and to try to solve hard problems, will be in elite company. Hey, that's OK. The Radian 6's, Freshbooks, Acquisio's, Cory Doctorow's, Skoll's and Omidyar's, HomeStars's, Wave Accounting's, etc... these Canadian entrepreneurial outliers know who they are. Investors and analysts often ask about a company's "barrier to entry." There is a barrier to entry into the world-view of anyone who is ridiculously obsessed with creating online communities, tools, and marketplaces that scale. Their efforts don't always turn into billion-dollar businesses, of course. But as to anyone with ordinary (or less) levels of stamina, passion, innovative spark, networking ability, etc. trying to simply "knock off" another's idea... those folks have very little hope of succeeding. Insane passion is certainly a barrier to entry.
 As for the "digitization of the world" as daily personal practice, I'm self-consciously retro and certainly not "all-in". No Google Glass for me. No smartphone on hiking trips. A distinct unease about the concept of drone strikes. I know how to use many cool tools, but choose to ignore many others. I like to go "analog" frequently to avoid total alienation from body and earth. A client asked me today if I was into fly-fishing. Imagine that! Fly fishing. If there is one cause that is emerging that will be important for all concerned to get interested in, it is both the threat and promise of Big Data. In every field, from epidemiology to climate change research, the massive explosion of data points has so much to offer society. And via the magic of crowdsourcing or "wikinomics," folks can voluntarily upload their own data sources to improve any number of collective efforts. The looming threat is that too large a proportion of the outcomes from, and control over, Big Data, become proprietary. Much like the battles that have come and gone about the open and non-proprietary nature of the World Wide Web standards, it's possible to win or lose such battles based on how many people have decided they have a personal stake in them, and become permanent advocates. Are we going to become a society that fritters away its valuable attention span on saving a few dollars by "buying a Groupon," or one that joins up with causes that fight to keep public benefits of massive data collection? Our attention spans need to become longer. 

Brought to you by Andrea Wrobel

Discovery Innovation Conference 2013

Are you a tech buff? Discovery is the leading innovation-to-commercialization conference, showcasing leading-edge technologies, best practices and research in Ontario.

Taking place May 27-28 in the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, OCE’s Discovery is Canada’s premier innovation to commercialization event, you're talking chocolate printers, a flexible paper-thin tablet, intelligent homes and cars, and robots. Robots. 

These and many more made-in-Ontario innovations will be on display as part of Ontario Centres of Excellence’s annual Discovery conference and trade show.

“Each year, Discovery brings together the best and brightest in industry, academia, investors and entrepreneurs to showcase leading-edge technologies, best practices and research,” said Dr. Tom Corr, president and CEO of OCE. “We are proud to be able to gather these groups together under one roof to help them make the kinds of connections that will lead to long-term and prosperous collaborations.”

Now in its eighth year, Discovery highlights ground-breaking work in sectors like cleantech, advanced health, digital media, information and communications technologies, and advanced manufacturing. Each year, thousands of attendees and hundreds of exhibitors make deals and find export opportunities at Discovery.

Free UBER Taxi Week

Thanks to UBER, Torontonians can enjoy free taxi rides for three days starting NOW. We're talking FREE Mr Big service; a personal driver at your disposal, contacted through Uber’s iPhone/Android app.

Beginning Monday, September 24th at 6am and continuing through Wednesday, September 26 at 11:59pm, all Toronto Uber TAXI rides requested through the Uber app will be FREE! Simply tap the TAXI button at the top of the screen, watch your TAXI arrive in the app, then hop out for FREE at your destination!


These are the same people who ferried artists around for NXNE 2012 and most recently, VIP TIFF afterparties. They're well known for their promotions, sometimes taking a cool $20 off your bill to promote their service via their app.

We've taken their rides a couple of times and love the awesome drivers who seem to have been selected for being pretty well-spoken and generally easy-going. We didn't feel the strange pressure of riding a taxi-cab with the meter running while a gruff cabbie makes 4 left turns.

Besides no funny business of drivers trying to run up the meter, it's just way cooler to have a driver pick you up exactly where you are and have constant updates on his location to yours while you're waiting. It's a high-tech means of getting the perfect cabbie.

#FREEUBERTAXIWEEK
A few important things to keep in mind:
FREE TAXI Week is for local Uber TAXI rides only, so the first $20 of your trip will be FREE (automatically – no code necessary).

While Uber has hundreds of TAXIs on the system, the drivers do have other business too, so be patient if your first request isn’t fulfilled. TAXIs will be opening up every few minutes, so keep checking the app.
Monday through Wednesday night, all Uber TAXI rides are FREE up to $20. All other days, the metered fare + 20% gratuity will be charged to your credit card on file.

FAQs:
Q: How do I request a free Uber TAXI?
A: Download the Uber iPhone/Android app. Sign-up for an account (in the app or at uber.com/go). Select the TAXI button in the top of the app, set your pick-up location and press Request. That’s it!

Q: What does it cost, outside of Free TAXI Week?
A: TAXI from Uber costs the same as a Toronto city cab. Your driver will enter the metered fare and then Uber will automatically add a 20% gratuity for the driver. You’ll receive an emailed receipt showing the breakdown.

Q: Who is driving me?
A: A licensed city of Toronto cab driver. Uber is just one more way they find customers and increase their business.

For more information on TAXI from Uber: www.uber.com/taxi
For more information on Uber in Toronto: www.uber.com/toronto

Net Change Week

Net Change Week (NCW) is Canada’s premier event on social tech for social change. The week-long series of events featured training workshops, evening programming with guest speakers such as Alastair Wilson, CEO of SSE in the UK, lab sessions with Ladies Learning Code. Guests took the opportunity to network amongst techies, creatives and thought leaders.

In its fourth year, Net Change continues to be committed to digital literacy and pushing the boundaries of technology’s potential to yield greater impact. With 4 main events hosted at the MaRS Discovery District, attendees hunkered down at Social Media for Nonprofits and  Ladies Learning Code, both selling out every single seat.

A highlight of Net Change Week was our interview with Heather Payne of Ladies Learning Code. Joining the Net Change lineup for the first time, Ladies Learning Code was led by Mark Reale of BNOTIONS, who along with approximately 50 volunteer coders, provided a learning space for HTML and CSS newbies to feel comfortable learning beginner-friendly programming.

Green Living Show 2012

The Green Living Show as always, does better and newer every year. Now a hub of fresh ideas and innovative green technology, the show is an education portal for sustainability. North America’s largest green consumer show saw great displays from the Royal Ontario Museum and WWF and a huge green/electric car section with lovely offerings from Porsche, Infiniti, Fisker and Lexus.

Some stats! The show saw an increase of 21.9%in attendance over last year with an impressive 37,348 in total. Over 49,000 pounds of e-waste was collected to be responsibly recycled, and over $150,000 was donated to environmental organizations through the help of its supporters.

Crowds were drawn by the EcoKids Zone and the Bird Exhibit, with live animals wandering the aisles, including rare species such as Mongolian miniature mountain goats. We overheard one energetic 6 year-old raving about a giant turtle and piglets with a fondness we hope lasts decades.

The famous Farm Fresh Fare left no space in our tummies, featuring food from locals Brockton General, Chef Alexandra Feswick, The Gabardine, Chef Graham Pratt, Keriwa Café, Chef Aaron Joseph Bear Robe, Local Kitchen and Bar/Bar Salumi. We love subtle changes, such as a public water-stand, which makes all the difference when you're hopping from curry to porchetta sandwiches.

From Over 450 Green Living exhibitors, we now single out standout products such as Greens Your Colour Bottles, which will keep ice solid for up to 8 hours on a hot day. There is also Buncha Farmers Stain Remover, organic honey from ACE Bakery, Cascades compost bags, Elmer's Earth Friendly School Glue, daiya dairy-free cheese, Van Dyk's blueberry juice, sodastream, and pièce de résistance, JellyFish Nanotechnology Sealant which we've taken the liberty of including a video.

Sigh. Don't we all wish the Green Living Show was a bi-annual affair?

ArtScienceCamp2 Unconference

It was a good day to have an ArtScience Unconference (#artscicamp). Organised by brilliant peeps at Subtle Technologies, divergent viewpoints towards Singularity, Assistive Technology, How To Make Toronto Suck Less and The DIY Project were some of the sessions that caught our attention. Held simultaneously with 4 other interesting modules at each time slot, the Unconvention was a serious exercise in wanting the ability to bend time.

Take a look at a schedule and you'll see what we mean. People flitted from room to room, speeding through topics concerning industries, applications, theory and practicalities. It was great. Super-smart conversations and spotting the occasional Sheldon-lookalike is nothing but fun. Stereotypes beware. There were sword fights in the hall, fisticuffs in the tuck shop and building towers of Babel in marshmallows and Jenga.

The organizers promised and delivered an intense but informal gathering of artists, scientists, designers and geniuses.  From their Friday-night party where all attendees were invited to propose their own sessions, to round tables in the afternoon debating a new transit system, the Unconference was a creative enclave that we'd be happy to return to.

Check out their Photo Booth gallery for a look at some of the attendees. 

TEDxToronto 2011

Dan Jacob, 2nd from right

TED is the phenomenon of sharing ideas with the world and we are proud to have been delegates and media to TEDxToronto 2011. Providing the public with free education and information went well, with approximately 500 people gathered at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. We stayed hushed for opening remarks by Dan Jacob, their twenty-something TEDxToronto Co-Chair and lead organizer who opened the convention quickly and set a vibrant tone.

Unsung tech heroes who kept the installations running

Delegates/attendees were the epitome of the typical TED stereotype: Energetic, ambitious, bright and actively networking with one another. We gawped at the youthful energy of Nicholas Schiefer, a grade 12 student and philanthropist, listened intently to Joshna Maharaj and her concept of food as medicine and stood at applause for Dr Brian Goldman who spoke about humanity. We left feeling enriched and a wee bit guilty that it was such a grand time. Work turned into play the moment we signed into the convention, with QR codes pasted on every surface and interactive installations that responded to tweets.

For those who couldn't take time off that Friday afternoon, do not despair. In typical TED brilliance, they've uploaded every single speech from the day.

Check out their videos here : TEDxToronto 2011 Videos

FGI Toronto Presents #fgisocial with Alan Gee

FGI Toronto threw a very chic networking event, #fgisocial. A highlight being a keynote presentation by Alan Gee, #fgisocial was hosted at HUGO Boss. Guests networked over good food and vino, and the crowd included fashion mavens, art directors, media, social media experts, pr executives and business owners.

We all went to hear advertising veteran Alan Gee, award winning creative director, Juno Award Winner and Partner at BLAMMO International. If you're looking for someone qualified to speak about rolling out effective social media campaigns, Alan Gee is it. Toronto can be a tough crowd, but he came prepared and brought up great examples from his own award-winning work and the Cannes Lions Screener Reel.

A man who obviously gives great thought to the nuances of human communication, it was by far the most insightful presentation I have seen so far regarding the use, effect and results of social media.