Tag: local
YQG Celebrates Social Media Day 2017
Launched by multimedia company Mashable in 2010, Social Media Day celebrates social media’s impact on global communication. Friday, June 30th, 2017 marks the eighth-annual official global celebration. Join us and a host of amazing local sponsors at Lanspeary Lions Outdoor Rink at Lanspeary Park – 1250 Langlois Avenue in Windsor from 11am-1:50pm on Friday, June 30th. This location has a roof, so we’re covered, rain or shine!
WEtech Alliance, a non-profit organization helping accelerate tech-based companies in Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent, along with its Social Media Superheroes – a peer-to-peer group of over 30 local social media superheroes that represent a cross-section of our community, including school boards, the media, non-profit organizations and businesses – will once again be celebrating the occasion with their 7th annual Community Chalk Tweet, with this year’s theme centred around Canada’s 150th Anniversary of Confederation.
WEtech Alliance has partnered with Windsor-Essex municipalities including City of Windsor and Town of Lakeshore, organizations and businesses including Cypher Systems Group, Motor City Community Credit Union and Strong Body Yoga & Fitness and media partners including Windsor Star,AM800 CKLW and CTV Windsor to make this a fun, FREE, community event open to all residence and visitors in Windsor-Essex.
The event will feature a giant outline of the Canada 150 logo painted on the ground by local artist DERKZ, with the community invited to fill in the outline by using chalk to draw and/or write their favourite things about Canada, Windsor and Essex County.
Participants will then be encouraged to snap a picture of their creation and upload it to social media using the official hashtag #SMdayYQG. #YQG and#SMday are also encouraged secondary hashtags.
The event will feature a soundtrack of music from local artists; an aerial drone powered by DarkRoast Digital to capture the footage of the artwook being created below; free snacks compliments of The Hub Powered operated by Samantha Buhler, Blab Media and Parker DKI; a free Canada 150 t-shirt from Hogans Printing to the first 150 attendees; a celebration of Canadian Innovation through the CANnovation project and other Canadian themed giveaways compliments of the Windsor Express, Rogues Gallery Comics and Playdium 5 Pin Bowling and the Stilt Guys will be on hand to entertain the crowd in a big way!
For more info about Windsor’s free Social Media Day celebration, you can visit the official website at http://smdayyqg.com/
Blab Around Town: St Clair College Graphic Design Grad Show
As some of you may know, I teach part time at St Clair College Centre For The Arts in the graphic design program. While I’m no graphic designer (by any means) I am qualified to teach the Copywriting For Design class first year, first semester. My class focuses on teaching graphic design students how to write copy for ads, how to use copy in conjunction with design to create effective and appealing advertisements and most importantly, how to use their minds to generate ideas instead of their computers.
So many of my students enter the class frustrated and unsure as to why they have to use a pencil and paper instead of laying things out digitally on a computer but I know first hand that an effective brainstorming process should always start in your own mind so I teach them accordingly. Typically by the time they’ve finished their 3 year program, they can reflect back on that class and see the value it added to their lives. I’ve been told that it helps simplify their thought process for assignments, streamline their work time and gives them a better understanding of how and why they generate ideas.
I teach these students for just over 3 months and then I don’t see them again until the grad show at the end of the program where they’re able to display their work and personal brands. I always enjoy attending because it gives me a chance to see how they’ve grown over time and what type of style they’ve developed in the process. As per usual, I ran into many familiar industry contacts, caught up with some past students and also had a chance to chat with most of the designers which is always a pleasure. I brought home a whole bag full of goodies and branded material that I was able to grab from each of their tables. I scooped up candy, business cards, art pieces, pins, pens and even a cootie catcher.
So proud of this year’s St Clair College Graphic Design grads and so excited to see where life takes them next!
Blab Gets New Business Cards
A lot of things have changed in the past two years but Blab’s business cards haven’t so it was about time for a refresh. I wanted to upgrade the design a bit and add more modern finishings for a sleeker, more sophisticated look. A big thank you to Imaginative Group for helping me bring my vision to life. I decided to hide a blab logo on the front with a white-on-white Spot UV and was very happy to see that it turned out perfectly. It feels good to have new cards and I’d be lying if I told you I haven’t been flashing them around constantly. Next time, embossing!
Where do you get your business cards designed/printed locally?
Giveaway Alert: Win Two Epic Winery Passports
Do you use Facebook? Do you love wine? If you’ve answered yes to both of these questions then it’s your lucky day because Blab is giving way two EPIC Winery Passports on Facebook and you could win! Follow this link to the original post, complete all the qualifying actions as stated and cross your fingers because you might have the best excuse ever to visit some of our amazing local wineries.
Not familiar with the passports? These little booklets contain information/maps/directions for all of our EPIC local wineries as well as discounts/special promotions for pass holders at the wineries and other businesses in the county. Use your passport to get a freebie or discount at a whole bunch of awesome local restaurants, shops and more. Plus, once you collect a stamp from 5 wineries, you get entered to win a quarterly draw! To learn more about EPIC wineries and the passports, check out their website.
Contest closes Thursday February 9th 2017. Enter now for your chance to win and good luck!
Boost Your City Celebrates First Successful Event
The first-ever two day Boost Your City event was a whirlwind of creative ideas, strategic execution and a whole lot of fun! Day one was fast-paced and incredibly productive with our web development, photography, graphic design and marketing teams brainstorming, strategizing and delegating tasks. The Sweet Revenge girls contributed to the final outcome through mini meetings and sessions with each individual team. By the end of the day, everyone involved had a firm grasp on the direction and began executing individual elements. Day two was a lot more task-oriented, focused and efficient with team members editing, sculpting and finalizing elements. Each team was responsible for rationalizing and reviewing their aspect of the project as part of a group presentation. The Sweet Revenge girls were given an overview of everything the group accomplished over the course of the event and were later provided with a full booklet outlining all strategies, recommendations, and necessary information.
Our team of volunteers was unstoppable! A combination of St Clair College students and industry professionals made up our web development, graphic design, marketing and photography teams. They all demonstrated impressive time management skills, produced inspiring content and kept their cool all while working seamlessly together in a group! We couldn’t have accomplished anything without them and we owe them a big thank you for their time, dedication, insight, skills and contributions to the event.
All of our volunteers worked so well together and it was great seeing each of them contribute their unique skill set and ideas to the final product. We all had a great time despite the strict deadline and could not be happier with the outcome! The Sweet Revenge team was involved throughout the whole process and was able to work with each group to help sculpt the end result. They left with a rolodex full of professional contacts, new branding, print materials, a fully functioning website, custom icons and a full marketing and promotions strategy to help them plan for the future.
On behalf of the whole crew, we wish Saskia and the Sweet Revenge team nothing but the best! Your passion is so evident in everything that you produce and your delicious sweets were no exception. We’re so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented and motivated young entrepreneur whose passion and positive outlook are contagious. All we ask is that you don’t forget about us little people when you get your own baking show on TLC!
First Boost Your City Business Chosen
We’ve finally chosen the first ever Boost Your City business and we’re incredibly excited to get this project started! We’d like to send a big congratulations out to Saskia Scott and the whole team at Sweet Revenge Bakery in Olde Riverside. Young, fun and motivated to the max, Saskia sees big potential for her bakery to expand in size to start taking on my orders and expanding services. We can’t wait to learn more about her inspiration and her goals so we can give Sweet Revenge the boost it needs to succeed! Stay tuned to our social channels for event teasers and post-event updates as we progress!
Boost Your City Announces Partnership & Launches Applications
We’re very excited to announce that our project, Boost Your City, is officially launching today! We’re also very happy to share our partnership with St Clair College School of Media Art and Design and Genesis Entrepreneurship & Innovation Centre! The first ever Boost Your City event will be held on Saturday June 13th & Sunday June 14th 2015 and it will take place from 9am-4pm both days at the St Clair College Centre for the Arts downtown campus. As a partner, St Clair College and the Genesis Centre will also be generously providing food and beverages for the hard working team of industry professionals and students during this two day project.
Part of the team will include junior positions and we’re excited to announce that these positions will be filled with qualified second year St Clair College students. These students will have the opportunity to work alongside industry professionals in their field of study and will gain valuable real-life working experience they can highlight on their resumes.
Boost Your City is now accepting business and team member applications so small businesses, students and industry professionals who are interested in getting involved can learn more by visiting the website at www.boostyourcity.com and fill out a business application here or a team member application here.
Let’s do this Windsor! We’re counting down the days until we can Boost Your City!
New Community Project Needs Your Support
We’re incredibly excited to announce that we’ll be at the next Windsor Soup event on Sunday March 22nd in the hopes of getting funding for a cool community project we’ve been working on! Come out to the Walkerville Brewery at 6pm and for $5 you’ll get soup, salad, bread and a vote to support one of the four projects pitching at the event (hopefully ours).
If you’ve never heard of Windsor Soup, it’s a group that works together to offer micro grants for social change through public dinners that give people the opportunity to celebrate projects in Windsor. Whatever funds are raised throughout the night are generously matched by The P. and L. Odette Charitable Foundation and donated to the winner to help get their project off the ground. Initiatives like this help make our community so much richer and directly support the people and projects behind the scenes that make Windsor-Essex a better place to live, work and play. It’s a great way to bring the community together for the greater good and we’d love to see you there!
For more information check out the Facebook event page here
Blab Media Rocks WIFF 2014
Well it’s official, we had a absolute blast being part of the engagement team at the 2014 Windsor International Film Festival! Experiencing the festival from the inside after having attended for so many years as patrons, gave us a very unique and different perspective on the festival as a whole. We had a great time preparing and executing special film activities with our team of volunteers, interacting with attendees, making new friends, and in general, doing our part to lend to the overall festival experience.
9 days, 111 films and 12 special activities later, we already can’t wait for next year! Thank you to everyone who made us feel welcome, embraced our ideas and had fun with us along the way. May WIFF 2015 be even bigger and better!
Mentoring Young Minds Speaker Series
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the YKNOT Windsor-Essex 3rd 3rsdays Monthly Mixer as part of a new initiative from The G.L.E.N. Project called the Mentoring Young Minds Speaker Series. I sat down with Glen to talk about why I choose to stay in Windsor-Essex, how I established my business, the pros and cons of the city, insight into entrepreneurship, and advice for young people that are looking for jobs or opportunities in the area. We received many questions from the audience and were able to have a great discussion about living and thriving in Windsor-Essex. If you missed the event, we hope to see you at the next 3rd 3rdsday Monthly Mixer in September where Glen will be interviewing another awesome young mind! Be sure to connect with YKNOT Windsor-Essex on Facebook and Twitter to get updates on upcoming events.
-Katie
