We’re currently on a road trip from Vancouver to Edmonton. We taught two social media marketing workshops in Kamloops last week, tomorrow it’s Calgary and then on to a session in Edmonton on Wednesday. We spent the weekend in Yoho National Park.
Updates may be a bit light over the next few days, between the workshops, client work and travel in-between. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the road. I see that this slideshow goes backwards, but I’m sure you’ll manage:
Speaking of workshops, we have a few spots left in our Vancouver session on September 16, if anybody’s interested.
As I mentioned back in March, we’ve been running a series of all-day social media marketing ‘bootcamps’ in Victoria and Vancouver. Attendance has been good, thus far, and we’re running our fifth one in Vancouver on July 23 (there’s a few spots left for that session).
We’ve taking the rest of the summer off, but, come September, we’re going to take our bootcamps on the road. We’ve scheduled events in Kamloops, Kelowna, Calgary and Edmonton in the second and third weeks of September. The details and registration links are below:
Kamloops
Campus Activity Centre Thompson River University Thursday, September 3 9:30am - 4:30pm Register Now!
Kelowna
Delta Grand Okanagan Resort Friday, September 4 9:30am - 4:30pm Register Now!
Calgary
University of Calgary 2500 University Drive NW Tuesday, September 8 9:30am - 4:30pm Register Now!
Edmonton
The Mettera Hotel Wednesday, September 9 9:30am - 4:30pm Register Now!
Vancouver
BCIT Downtown Campus 555 Seymour Street Wednesday, September 16 9:30am - 4:30pm Register Now!
In promoting these events, we’re looking to connect with local marketing and communications groups. We usually offer a discount to their members or a free spot for a staff member in exchange for an email announcement or mention in their newsletter. If you’re such a person, or know such a person, drop me a line.
Because I’m a big nerd, I made a Google map showing the bootcamp locations. Google actually chose the route, so I welcome alternative suggestions. We’re also going to spend a weekend somewhere between Kelowna and Calgary, so I’m up for recommendations there, too.
I flew to Toronto this week. One flight out, two flights (hello, bizarre sculpture in Calgary airport!) on the way back. While checking in at a terminal, uh, in the terminal, I glanced at the seat selection screen. There were plenty of other seats from which to choose. The seat next to me was empty on all three flights.
Julie was down at Granville Island today. It was a gorgeous day, and that place is usually teaming with tourists in the summer months. She was surprised how uncrowded the island was. She easily found parking.
We recently used Hotwire to book a four-star hotel in downtown Seattle for Gnomedex. The conference occurs over a weekend in August, surely a popular time of year for tourists visiting the city. We’re paying US $99 a night.
I know these are all isolated anecdotes, but they confirm what I’ve been reading over the past few months: fewer people are traveling shorter distances. Here’s some empirical evidence. Between March, 2008 and March, 2009, the Canadian Tourism Council reports an 11.5% reduction in the number of trips to and within Canada. That probably represents the entire profit margin for a lot of hotels, travel agencies and related services.
As a matter of curiosity, I checked which countries were showing the greatest decline in trips to Canada. The percentages reflect how many fewer visitors came in March, 2009 compared to March, 2008:
United Kingdom - 24%
Japan - 24%
South Korea - 23%
Mexico - 21%
Of course, most foreign visitors to Canada are from the US, where travel is only off 5.9% between March, 2008 and 2009.
In any case, I guess it’s all good news for the consumer, and pretty bad news for anybody in the travel industry.
While in Calgary, Julie visited Knifewear. They’re a knife shop. In fact, they’re a knife shop that only sells Japanese knives. Talk about specialization, eh? She bought this knife:
According to the accompanying documentation, it’s an ‘Ohishi Tsuchime’. That doesn’t return any results in Google, so maybe it’s spelled incorrectly?
In any case, it’s hand-forged in Seki, Japan from VG-10 high carbon stainless teel and laiminated on each side with 15 layers of stainless Damascus steel. The unique Tsuchime style–the dimpling on the back side of the blade–is from it being hand-hammered. Apparently that prevents food from sticking to the blade. The handle is made from rugged mahogany with “a full tang and welded bolster”, whatever that means.
It wasn’t cheap, but apparently it’ll last the rest of our lives. How many purchases can you say that about?
I know I’ve been on a bit of a West Wing kick, but I can’t mention fancy knives without citing another of my favourite episodes: ‘Shibboleth‘:
Jason Neufeld and Alix Sobler have a clever idea for a pair of Fringe shows. They’ve been together as a couple on the Fringe circuit for five years, but this year they allegedly broke up.
Hi. My name is Alix Sobler. For almost 5 years I dated the most selfish, laziest, unromantic jerk in the world, and now its pay back time. So maybe he is extremely good looking and insanely smart. So what? Just because he always did the dishes and never stayed out late and forgot to call, am I supposed to just stay with him the rest of my life?
It’s a great approach, and (I think) quite original. There’s all sorts of cross-promotional opportunities–apparently they’re going to picket each other’s show.
The only risk? What if one show is great and the other is awful?
I heard these folks interviewed, as below, on the CBC’s Q.
