Captain's blog: 2001/11

Posted Thursday, November 29, 2001 at 11/29/2001 12:49:33 AM

A fun wednesday today. I sat on a youth panel today at the AIMS (association of internet marketers) event "Kidfluence", moderated by Nikisha and Jennifer. This was a the theatre in the St. Lawrence centre for ..arts on front street.

It was the 5 of us sitting side by side at a table on the stage of the theatre, each of us with a microphone, glass of water, some paper and pen for scribbling on, Nikisha and Jen guarding our left and right on their lecterns , and the audience of about 100 to 150 business execs, managers? mostly marketers with some biz or some interest in the internet, and they sat in the comfy theatre seats that sloped up in a steep semi-circle.

The event started off with two co-authors of a book "Kidfluence" about how kids (generation Y) have power influencing spending so that busiensses should pay attention.. maybe something similar to Don Tapscott's "Net Generation" but specifically aimed at marketers? Maybe, ill have to read the book to really know. So there was a break, then we got back and it was our youth panel on the stage. We started off by talking about what we agreed or disagreed about the co-author speaker's ideas.

1 example of a thing we disagreed with were:
1. the amount of money it seemed that she was saying we teens had to our free discretion , especially coming for parents

at least 3 of us have parents that dont give us squat, we WORK for our money, so what we could spend we felt was more limited than what the co-authors seemed to be saying.

We agreed with other ideas such as the fact that kids have a greater influence on buying decisions than they did in previous generations - my example was in the buying of computer equipment, but there were other examples.

After the commenting on the co-author's books, Nikisha and Jen then started the series of panel questions such as "how do you feel about marketing" (mostly OK with it if its done respectfully.. and we HATE POPUP ADS!!! ) "do you know when you are markted to.." , questions about how we use the internet ( nearly everyone revealed intensive ICQ/chat usage, some like myself and justin mentioned instant access to news, others things: research/homework, games, downloading music and other goodies ;p So we went on with these questions for a while, casual, honest (I think) replies

Then there was the Q and A opened up to the audience, MC's dashing up and down the seat aisles to throw the mike at ppl who would then ask us questions, whichever of us could respond would just grab the mike in front of us and reply away, and even asked them a question for a change.. it was fun answering the questions ( well dont know about all of you guys thought but hey I had fun ) because they were casual, respectful about it that we probably could have continued the fun another hour but the time was soon up.

So afterwards everyone went out to the reception/lobby area, tables with finger-food fruits, and two bar areas where you could trade the business card they gave you for a free drink. Networking, chatting environment basically.. I talked to a few people: Farhan who had started and sold 2 companies already and was CEO of his third company pointsite.com. There was a Nora (duo.ca) who asked about print marketing's effectiveness for universities because I had mentioned my university-choosing experience and she was working with the U of T faculty of law as her client trying to reach international students. Arlen who asked me about online gaming because he was an entreprenuer who started a company doing online games (flash, mostly: 3genius.com ) and had an upcoming project w/ cityTV. Also found out he was involved with ACE (association of collegiate entrepreneurs) in his university days at Western, and I was just beginning to get involved w/ ACE so we had a good chat after his business-related questions.. Jesse who was a getting a bit drunk? but nevertheless fun to talk to, was an entrepreneur, 2 businesses, one in fasion (manufacturing and selling to stores) and the other was something in marketing for the web.. he was also from U of T, Bcomm finance program.

Also talked to Karis ( wow, goes to school within Western Tech where I helped a class w/ their website project only june this year! small world) . Talked to rest of the youth panel, mostly TIG hard core members (I'll bring back the funny javascript for u sometime, susheela =) )? and it was fun helping hand out the TIG stickers (we need the earth in the logo!!) . Then it was time to leave, we all headed to union station, chatted away on the subway before we parted our ways... Jennifer - you need more lungs - you hav so much to say, so little air! =p


- im going to fall asleep on keyboard now.. but check the updates of fellow TIG'ers who went!:
youth panel: me, susheela, karis, justin, adele,
moderators: nikisha, jennifer



- interesting note on time management today:
this day started with these key ideas in mind: A 6-page essay for my philosophy of science course was due in class which starts at 10 am, i needed to shave because i looked like a cave man, because I didnt want to look like a cave man when I was going to show up at AIMS after my 1:00 physics class, but i couldnt shave because i needed the time for my essay. So instead of shaving at home , i defied routine (oh noo!) and put my shaving accessories in a plastic bag and stuffed it into my bag so that I could use all that time before breakfast on the essay.. worked on essay then ate breakfast. Subway'd down to U of T, typed and handed in the essay at 11:30 half hour before class ended, now that the essay was over I took out my shaving stuff and shaved in the washroom, went to my 1:00 class, and at 2:15 went to subway to go to AIMS..

Posted Saturday, November 24, 2001 at 11/24/2001 09:44:35 PM

someone asked for the notes from the keynote speaker events at enterprise toronto small biz forum 2001 (on thursday), and since i just happened to have them in digital form..here are my messy quickly written notes, online:

http://kabinet03.tripod.com/trad/smallbizforum2001/

the notes on margot franssen (founder, body shop canada) was typed in notepad but the rest of these pages came from a combination of paper (hardcopy) notes and also with a brainstorming-diagramming program called inspiration, then exported to html, so from diagram format to linear page format it might look wierd, but the hiearchy is there, so that should help you read the quick notes..


And Marianne from ACE-Brock scanned the group photo of the ACE central reg. conference at waterloo last last weekend! thanx Marianne! (see me in the circle? , w/ unfortunately camera flash in my glasses)

Posted Friday, November 23, 2001 at 11/23/2001 12:04:56 AM

a very long but worthwhile thursday today. Went down to the Enterprise Toronto Small Biz Forum 2001 at the metro toronto convention centre, jam packed w/ entrepreneurs speakers, discussions, seminars, booths like I thought it would be:

9:30 am - got there down the escalators, registration,saw mrs. nunes
10:00 - youth forum, saw ppl from my high school Don Mills, probably Mrs. Nunes' class
10:30 ? - "grow ur biz" seminar for about 5 minutes then left
11:00 - keynote Speaker #1- Margot Franssen , prez/founder Body Shop Canada. Exchanged cards w/ gentleman in wild food biz (wildfoods.ca) . Sarah and Paula from ACE-Canada saw me and sat beside us. Franssen was a great speaker. Profit w/ principle. There should be more speakers like her.
12:00 - a bit of the "laugh and learn" even on trade floor
1:00 pm - (ate lunch, came late) keynote Speaker #2 - Greig Clark, founder of College Pro painters. very well read, easily brought in quotes in his speech.
2:00 - trade floor stage event, wandered a few booths, got resources from Canadian Found. of Economic Education, and said hello to Jen Corriero of TakingItGlobal (TIG also spoke eariler at the youth forum) , then caught a bit of internet marketing roundtable discussions
3:00 - keynote panel of entrepreneur speakers: Rita of TourEast, Laura of Big Soul Productions and Damian? of Big It Up (hats). Each speaker was introduced, talked about how they started, their philosophy/viewso n business, and then it was open up to questions from the audience- very well done. Damian's business was the most interesting- how from lotion @ humber college back in 1996 to t-shirts and through one night's dream, changed his business to the hat business it is today, He was really fun to listen to.
5:00 - networking activity- chairs were removed out of the stage area on the trade floor, refreshments served, then at the chimes you had to quickly meet someone else! chimed about 5 - 6 times? Amazing.. here's free advertising for u all:

betty- FidelityCarpet.com , long standing family owned biz w/ husband and son..
khuzaima- metrobusinesses.ca, at this point I had been out-carded so I had to start writing my name/email on a piece of tear-off paper every person i met
Saifee - starreesidences.com - rememberd how hard it was looking for a temp place to stay when he immigrated to canada, so he started a biz to help new immigrants w/ temp housing, encouraged me
John - Kingbird Group Intl - now starting to get into china's market, w/ vitamins and Traditional herbs (westernized for high quality!) funny guy !
Simon - SC Consulting - U of T compsci grad! just beginning to do computer consulting on the side, encouraging

5:30 - left the networking, talked to Scarborough , North York Chambers of commerce booth ppl to get more info (wow, the NY exec director lives in my nieghborhood! ), left the conference to the subway


6:00 arrived at Hart House for the UTEC speaker panel with 2 VC's, chatted, ate dinner (bread and water) . Nice speakers too, experienced entrepreneur here in Toronto and visited Silicon valley, .. but I was too tired by now to listen much to the end..
7:30 over, went home..

Posted Monday, November 12, 2001 at 11/12/2001 12:00:16 AM

ACE-Central Regional Conference @ Laurier (this title is more clear than ACE-laurier) , day 2 cont'd:
The Pub crawl night was a crazy networking-get-to-know-others kinda fun event.. we were split into 6 teams, each team had a different route through at least 3 pubs/restaurant spots where there would be specific activities to do (and a little break and free booze before going to the next pub), where points would be rewarded for how well a team performed an activity, and winning teams with most points, announced at the end of the night. The activities were hilarious - example: at the second pub/restaurant, (w/ same kind of casual atmosphere as Jack Astor's restaurants ) we had to go around the restuarant in order to collect specific items from people. At the top of the list were: 3 bras (5 points ea., max 15 points), 3 boxers, 7 condoms, ..these restaurant customers were college students but also there were families, children and old grandparents eating at the restaurant!! We got all the top 3 items. We were also the winning team at the end of the night, and probably also the most drunk. One person was so drunk he fell 3 times walking up stairs (only 15 steps..). A few ppl like myself didnt drink tho, we respected the pub culture but didnt like to drink...

Then we headed back to the campus, to Wilf's for the announcement of the winning teams (our team first place) and then more drinks and chatting. I left early, so didnt get to the dancing..

ACE Central Regional Conf. @ laurier Day 3:
Up, checked out of the motel, ACE Canada executive staff including sarah the director whom I talked to earlier, updated us on ACE events in depth, such as new chapters, organization structure changes, chapter affiliate agreements to take back to our chapters, etc. We had pita lunches, chatted w/ Seneca guys/girls who were really agressively developing and planning their chapter - newly formed this year.Then we went back ACE Canada brainstorming of ideas, before shaking hands with each other and parting ways- my pal Randy who is the only other member from U of T , took the initative and started an email list that would later be emailed to everyone so that we could get each other's emails later. It was great meeting everyone from different universities and hearing their stories and plans - the president of an ACE chapter in New brunswick came, even tho this is for central region-ontario/quebec. Definitely worth seeing how everything turns out next year, if time permits next year...

Posted Saturday, November 10, 2001 at 11/10/2001 08:15:16 PM

ACE Laurier day 2 (today):
First speaker was David Singh, founder of Fortune Financial as well as many others. What struck me as a surprise was he avoided the topic of making money , and his point was as entrepreneurs, we should think about making the world a slightly better place - from a humble background, he believed in helping first, business second, and had many anecdotes and activities we did. Amazingly, as part of his sincereness he did a goal-setting activity where he will mail us money for each goal that we meet in 1 year (we had to write our goals w/ our addresses, and he collected that) AND he gave us full contact info (cell phone!!) and invited us to call him anytime. Amazing..

Then there was entreprise rent-a-car the sponsor, and they did a powerpoint and handout to give us training for networking/conversation effectiveness, such as in lobbies, breakfast networking, and business conferences such as ACE.

Then we had buffet lunch at a student union-owned pub called Wilf's, chatted with director of ACE-Canada about how they were trying to make new partnerships, events... Followed by another entrepreneur speaker Mr. Saldebus at the Paul Martin room. Saldebus founded the MODROBES all-purpose pants for 15-25 year old age group, amazing story of an artist who started small while in university and got thru hurdles and made it, and now battling american competition...

then there was break, went back for nap-time, came back to Paul Martin's for semi-formal dinner. Next up is the Pub Crawl competition, for "networking" activities..

Posted at 11/10/2001 07:57:48 PM

I`m at Laurier, me and my U of T pal Randy snuck into the Laurier-students only computer lab. Update of what happened:

ACE Laurier ``young entrepreneurs in action`` day 1:
Arrived awefully 1 hour late at 9pm, checked into the comfort inn, missed the first few buses that brought students down to the night club event, but I went on the next buses- loud and hyperactive 2nd-3rd year laurier students mostly ) went in, looked around the main dance area and minor rooms, loud music, girls in cages (dressed, of course), talked to a few laurier students but mostly got tired, headed back to buses to motel to shower and sleep..

Posted Tuesday, November 06, 2001 at 11/6/2001 11:39:21 PM

Going to waterloo this weekend to attend the 3 day ACE-Canada(association of collegiate entrepreneurs) central regional conference at Wilfred Laurier U, but the carpool driver poo-ed out on us (he has too much homework, can't go anymore ) so now Im going to have to figure out how to get there by train before its too late..

I told Jen Kushell (a pro-youth entrepreneurship leader, author) about going to the ACE conference (along with the news that our team made it to semi-finalist on thinkquest ), and apparently she's the one who started the UCLA and Boston U. Chapters of ACE! And that she started her YEN ( young entrepreneur's network ) after ACE had failures in '93.. Wow. Wonder how ACE-Canada was started.

and Jennifer Corriero ( co-founder of TakingITGlobal) wrote a GREAT endorsement for our thinkquest site in such a short time ! Thank you Jennifer!

Posted at 11/6/2001 11:12:00 PM

blogback service really slows the blog page, Im taking it out...visitors will simply have to give feedback on the guestbook (thats what its for! )

Posted Sunday, November 04, 2001 at 11/4/2001 11:02:04 PM

I'm bloggin using blogbuddy but i find the browser based interface is still better. Here's another discovery: blogback - lets users comment on your weblog entries. This isn't a new idea, it was already done by TakingITGlobal's updates.

Next weekend i'll be off to Wilfred Laurier U for the ACE-Canada regional conference (Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs- Canada conference for central region ontario-quebec), maybe blogger will come in handy to record notes..

see the [ comment ] ? U can blogback! ------>