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Each year in Canada 1,000s of dogs find themselves in shelters in need of loving homes. One of the programs we are most proud of this year is our work with Pedigree and their “Help Us Help Dogs” adoption program, working to support animal shelters
across the country and find “forever homes” for their guests. We worked with champion skater Kurt Browning on a very successful cross-Canada media tour , the development and production of public service announcements and are in the midst of a national shelter fundraising drive. One of the earliest and must successful outcomes is that “Coco” who had been living in a shelter for four years, was adopted after a family saw Kurt speaking about the need for good homes. “Welcome home Coco!”

With Canada set for flat growth at best the party is officially over and with Ontario’s budget announcement yesterday commentators have been weighing in with their views as to the pros and cons. No biases I’m sure (irony). What is clear is that the environment we are in or moving towards (depending on your view) is notably different from the past several years. The benefit of being over 40 is having been here before and as a professional communicator I understand that clear and direct communications will carry the day with both internal and external stakeholders more than ever. Leaders take note. I also understand that each economic cycle brings opportunities.

Interesting Time magazine cover story this month - 10 Ideas that are Changing the World and best of all not one mention of Facebook! A sampling of the 10 are a need to focus on global rather than national problem solving as we share a common planet, the end of direct customer service, reverse radicalism and the profound impact of female entrepreneurship in both developed and developing countries. Worth checking out.

As an out of the closet nerd, I actively seek out opportunities to be with my fellow nerds. So then, I attended the panel discussion “The New Economics of Selling Digital Media Online: How IP Protection Fosters Economic Prosperity” at McInnes Town Hall, University of Toronto. Great panel including Olivier Bomsel, Professor from Paris’ Centre for Industrial Economics, Duncan McKie,President, Canadian Independent Record Production Association and Debora Spar, Senior Associate Dean, Harvard. My personal favourite was Debora Spar who is a very compelling speaker and the author of “Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet.” I picked up the book and it is great! Very recommended!

Over this past Saturday I spent several hours helping to judge the CPRS Ace Awards recognizing outstanding work over the past year. Congratulations to the organizing committee for their great job and as a member of CPRS I am very grateful for the thoughtfulness that went into the entire process. Over six hours my judging partner and exchanged six binders and then engaged in a two-way discussion to get to consensus so we could complete each assessment form. Other judging pairs were going through the same process around us. It was a very stimulating exercise. The added benefit, of course, was the opportunity to get out of my day to day role in an agnecy and get a greater sense of what is happening across the industry in government, not for profits and corpoprate life.

A thank you to Wendy Cukier of the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University for inviting me to speak at the MBA class, “Global Technology Markets”. She asked if I would chat about why marketing communications companies need to keep up to date on new technologies. Obviously a very easy task for me, particularly at this point in time - what does copyright real mean, the decline in mass market communications vehicles, the impact of user generated content etc.. It was a very interesting evening and a special thank you to all the students who asked such great questions and allowed me to share some war stories.

I was sent today a pretty compelling viral campaign video produced by Obama supporters - http://my.barackobama.com/yeswecan. The video was sent to my friend from an email address entitled “Michelle Obama”, the name of Barack Obama’s wife. The video is built around the theme, “Yes we Can”, that Obama introduced during his New Hampshire concession speech. Pretty well done.

We’re off to a great start and are looking for some amazing agency talent with Consumer experience. Specifically we are looking for a Senior Consultant, Consultant and Account Co-ordintor to join our Consumer team but they would of course have the opportunity to work on our Technology and Healthcare accounts too. Only team players need apply. Life is too short to have it any other way.

There is an interesting article in today’s National Post about a banking crisis that is happening on Second Life. Similar to the “real” world, some financial institutions on Second Life appear to have been offering “eye-popping” interest rates on cash investments. Some of these virtual institutions are now on the verge of collapse and their store fronts are being surrounded by mobs of angry avatars. On one level humourous, on another level satisfying that there is not much difference between our physical and virtual worlds and, as always, there is no free lunch.

Last week I had the opportunity to hear former British PM Tony Blair speak on his views regarding “Building Global Relations”. Regardless of anyone’s views on Mr. Blair’s politics or his political legacy he is a very gifted communicator - no powerpoint, visual aids or teleprompter. He held an audience of 2,000 or so enthralled and throughout his talk received several standing ovations. It was a very unCanadianlike love-in. According to Mr. Blair, subprime mortgage are having a global economic impact well beyond US borders (as we are clearly seeing today), the question of appropriate immigration policies and strategies are being grappled with across the world and is the silent, real issue in the US Presidential race. He touched on the growing impact of Severeign Wealth Funds (this week’s “Economist” cover story topic) and of course global terrorism. Mr. Blair believes on the subject of global terrorism we are all really in the fight for what global values will dominate in the new world order. He was candid, self-deprecating,engaging and with a powerful message. Like all great communicators.