The Olympic Flame passed through the Maritimes recently, and after seeing it in Halifax, I proceeded to follow it all the way to New Brunswick! I attend the ceremonies in Halifax and caught a glimpse of Sidney Crosby – and more importantly, Olympic snowboarder Sarah Conrad. My friends and I used to snowboard with Sarah – in the fall – behind Cole Harbour Place – on Zamboni snow. Her father was a big advocate for the sport even then, and built the first rails that Martock ever used, if memory serves me. Go Sarah!
The Halifax Ceremony featured music by Skratch Bastid and Classified, and tons of Coca-Cola and RBC memorabilia and exhibits. People were scrambling to get the limited edition cola bottles – especially the one that glows different colors. Gotta love corporate sponsorship – and Coke is certainly the king.
A week later, I found myself in the car headed to Moncton, New Brunswick to see the torch once more. Turns out my sister there was chosen as a torch-bearer – and all the family was converging on Moncton to show their support. So my lovely wife an I drove 600 km return to see Monica wield the flame or 10 minutes or so. Long drive, but certainly worth it to see this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Go Canada! Even though I won’t be at the Games on the other side of the continent, it was nice to experience a part of them at home.
Rich Graphics was recently invited to join the Nova Scotia Come To Life initiative – and had the opportunity to sign the Come To Life Charter with our Premiere, Darrell Dexter. A number of local cutting-edge businesses were in attendance for the ceremony – and it was a great opportunity to meet some new peers and touch base with some I hadn’t seen in a while. It was particularly nice to see Spider Video, Media Badger and Head Space Design represented.
The event took place at the new NSCAD Port Campus – which as NSCAD Alumni – was great to see for the first time. It was also nice to re-connect with my old University, and I am now on their mailing list – giving me access to all kinds of information and events NSCAD is offering.
What is the Nova Scotia Come To Life initiative all about you ask? It’s essentially a branding program for the province – and by signing on – I am responsible for helping to promote Nova Scotia as a great place to learn, visit, prosper and live. Something I can totally get behind, being a Cole Harbour boy who believes in supporting local businesses. If you’d like to learn more, be sure the check out the Come To Life Website!
I’ve recently joined the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. I’ve shopped around, attending various networking events put on by others, but in the end the Chamber seemed like the best fit for me right now. Many other business owners question my decision to join, having joined in the past and not finding the value and ROI that they expected when they signed up. I’ve listened to their arguments, and have decided *not* to be just another statistic. I intend to *leverage* my Chamber Membership – and get involved with a few committees and events – in order to network with other businesses I might otherwise never connect with.
As I look at my schedule for the next few weeks, I realize that I’m running out of work to do… *Cue panic attack* I’ve spent so much time working lately, that I haven’t taken the time to go out and drum up any new projects. Looks like it’s time to kick into ultra-super-networking-mode(tm) once again! Does this sound familiar to you too? The classic catch-22: If I work too much, all of a sudden I have nothing to do. If I network too much, I run short on time to complete billable projects.
Good day to everyone out there in the blog-o-sphere. I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and I don’t want to be a blogfade statistic, so here I am once again gracing your monitor. Rich Graphics is active in the social media scene. I am an avid user of WordPress, several Google products, twitter, facebook and LinkedIn. I can also set up you with these services if you’re interested. Contact me today.
This past Sunday, I attended Halifax, Nova Scotia’s first PodCamp – an unconference. It was organized by a dedicated group of local social media enthusiasts, and the presentations and workshops were delivered by the participants themselves. There was standing room only at most presentations, and my head is still swollen with information-overload from the day-long event. The keynote speaker, Andrew Baron, was particularly enlightening, and is my new internet geek hero. He’s the founder of RocketBoom, and is dug deep within the trenches of social media culture.
Barack Obama is following me on Twitter. And I him. I kid you not. And I read his blog yesterday… Kind of blows the mind, eh? And I’m not even American – I’m a proud Canadian, and a Maritimer at that. Though I must say, now is one of the only times in recent memory I would say being an American may not be too bad. I have *always* heard California is nice *every* time of year… So, the Obama Administration has a Minister of New Media. There is an Obama blog available at whitehouse.com. And he’s Tweeting too. I sincerely hope he lives up to all the expectations, and doesn’t turn out to be a complete moron like some other presidents… Here’s hoping.
As I’m sure most small business owners are aware, networking can play a key roll in your success. It never hurts to get out to networking events, rub shoulders, and put your business at the top of people’s minds. You may not land work immediately, but if two people tell two people… Well, you get the idea. Since the inception of Rich Graphics back in August 08, I’ve been attending a LOT of networking events. From the local Chamber and Junior Chamber’s offerings to events offered by professional networkers like Lynn at BConnected, I’ve been to them all. One of my favorites though, is the weekly SMB Soapbox held every Thursday in Halifax. It’s informal, and a good number of people turn up sporadically from week to week – which gives a good mix of potential clients.
This week I’ve been thinking a bit more about what they’re calling New Media Marketing. This term seems to cover any non-traditional marketing techniques that utilize technology to reach out to potential clients. The Rich Graphics website has outlets to Facebook and LinkedIn – as well as this blog. These are three powerful New Media vehicles which can drive web traffic to your site, and result in business. Another New Media tool that I’ve more recently latched on to is Twitter.
What a week! As most of you know, I am the proprietor of a small design firm called Rich Graphics – which is currently experiencing a steady flow of work. However, most of this work originates from a single source – a local web design firm with whom I have a sub-contracting arrangement in place with. This arrangement has been working fine up until now, but it also got me thinking… Thinking that I ‘have all my eggs in one basket’ as the cliche goes. And so the push on networking began!