Alberta Technology Chamber - Communications Plan Position Paper

Alberta Technology Chamber - Communications Plan Position Paper

My communications plan would be focused along a direct, niche marketing, relying heavily on trackable permission marketing through electronic means. After you have answered many questions.

There are far too many questions yet to be answered before you decide on how to communicate a message, as I don’t think you have figured out what it should say, let alone to whom.

Having talked to either in person or by telephone, or via e-mail, I cannot honestly tell you if many others in the group what they want the in the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020 to be, or what they wanted it to be when they first got involved.

I know from the e-mail messages that have passed through my little computer since meeting Stephen, I can’t see any common thread, except that the status quo of the technology sector of Alberta is not right.

I would suggest we set up the WIKI first.

Have the access to the WIKI limited to a select group that does not include anyone from the media.

We have got to stop being mesmerized by the glaring lights of a salivating media, and chart our course based on good solid marketing and business principles.

Set out five or six questions, with deadlines for comments staggered across a four or five month period. At the end of each period the messages, comments, and suggestions will be boiled down to a concise message that represents the majority of the comments and commenters.

Then at the end of the process we will have an idea of what we want to be when we grow up.

The thread of the WIKI will be set out to answer the 4-P’s of Marketing as well as ‘Norm’s 5 W’s,’ of communications.

Until you have determined your 4-P’s, you have no product and no ‘brand.’

The four P’s then determine how you communicate your message to who, where, and what, what and how. Norm’s “5 W’s.”

First we must determine what we want to be when we grow up.

I really don’t think the reason for being has been set forth yet clearly, without that you have no product.

The reason for someone to join the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020 is not evident.

You must have a reason for someone to join you in the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020, which is different and unique from all of the other S.I.G.’s they can and do belong to.

You can go to the media, and talk about something like a group to represent the technology sector in Alberta. Who is in the sector, you are appealing to? Is it the SME’s, the IBM’s, or who?

The IBM’s do not need you.

You can execute a media relations campaign directed towards the mass media, but I feel that is misdirected. The typical printed mass media is not being read, listened to, or viewed by the vast majority of people, and especially by people involved in the technology sector.

It strokes egos, but that is about it, and the effect quickly dissipates and the results will be severly limited.

My experience and education leads to giving the advise, that you decide what you want to be, who would be interested in that, and then form the message around that, and use the information from those decisions, to decide the how of delivering the message.

The false starts over the years that many have participated in might be due to the fact that they had no plan for where they wanted to go, what they would do when they got there, or whom they wanted to come along on the trip.

The current S.I.G.’s already think they are doing a good job in representing the industry, but then one has to wonder why your group has so many supporters.

Do we want to be a group that represents the Technology sector like the regular Chambers of Commerce?

If so, why would someone join the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020?

What benefits are there to someone becoming a member of the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020?

Using a name with the word, ‘Chamber,’ in it, sends a message, with a preconceived set of assumptions as to what the group is. Not using that word means you have a larger and some might say harder job of selling the group to your intended customers or members.

Is it to be just a web site with a WIKI/Blog to talk about the issues that are specific to the technology sector in Alberta?

Is it to be proactive? How is to be differentiated from every other group the members we are trying to attract, will come from? (That would be the competition.)

Can we build interest in another group that just talks about the problems and issues?

I am looking for a group that will embark on route to affect change.

That is what is needed.

The question about the ‘why,’ keeps coming up in my mind.







Until we discover the who and why they would join the Alberta Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020, you cannot really decide how or where to communicate the message to bring them to the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020.

You need to decide what the Principles and objectives will be and what the potential members want in a group’s Principles and objectives to attract them to join yet another industry association.

Below is what I have been given as to some marketing information. It is not any where near what is needed before starting the process of communicating our message:

The Products:
o an opportunity for people to join together to create the conditions for success for the technology intensive industries. an organized constituencyThe Product is NOT a Technology Chamber of Commerce, although that might be an outcome. it was merely the starting point of our collective learning process, the trigger.

The Communications Strategy:
o create a free virtual space where this can happen and the preconditions for a successful real event that says and celebrates that we have achieved a constituency for all the world to see and hear.

The Brand:
o grass roots collegiality mediated by the Internet and faciliated by state of the art community building "software" leading to concrete actions locally and provincially:
o walk the talk - you want to promote TII then use its technologies and its organizational paradigm (the self-organizing network).


Until you have a better picture of what the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020 is to be, there is no message to communicate, as you have no audience or market to communicate to.







If I heard right at the first meeting I attended through the facilities of CTI, there was discontent with the way the technology sector is dealt with by the Provincial and Federal governments.

What I heard was the lack of help in finding both traditional and non-traditional sources of financing for technology iniatives.

There was also consensus on the belief that Alberta has no technology strategy for the province, and hence the spotty efforts and attention paid to it.

I also heard that the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce had little interest or ability in representing the technology sector, especially that in the SME area of the economy.

If in fact you ‘deliver a series of presentations to technology sector rich organizations and conferences, starting with CIPS and continuing with THECIS, KEI, Calgary Technologies, an EDE event etc,’ you must also deliver a reason for these same people to come together united behind the idea of the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020.

Why would they, when I don’t think the purpose of setting up the group has yet been defined?

If the only purpose of the Alberta Technology Chamber of Commerce and Network 2020 is to generate traffic to the WIKI and the BLOG, then we can all do that on our own through our own networks. This can be done without a web site, and without any concerted media relations or communications effort.

We must decide what the constituency is going to be, and what they want.

When you do that, figure out the product, and place it will be for the constituency to come to, then you can start, ‘branding.’

Thank you
Norm Greenfield
403-807-1251
www.provocostatusquo.com
http://provocostatusquo.blogspot.com
Media and Government Relations
Myth Confectioner
Published Writer
Corporate, Marketing and Political Communications
New and Old Media
E-Learning/E-Government/E-Democracy Business Development
Registered Federal Government Lobbyist
Registered B.C. and N.B Government Lobbyist

Powder Blues Band show on November 5th.

If this don't get your MoJo working, what will?

Powder Blues Band show on November 5th. This will be an awesome Blues Dance Party with one of Canada's best known and longest performing acts.

Powder Blues Band will take me back to my youth. Watched, listened and danced to these guys at the Commodore Ball Room many times on Granville Street a little to the west of us.

How about you?

Don't be late. Don't be square. Be there. Bowness Community Hall.

A good time to be had by all.

Tickets at the usual Ticketbastards.

Stuff

I think clarification is in order on this Communications Chair/Director thing.

Ideally I would like to be the paid Communications Director, as that is where the work is needed, and my experience and education would be best put. Until Jim either takes a tough decision, or the inevitable becomes reality, the Communications Committee Chair is the next best thing.

The party has no communications strategy, plan or even effort. Internally or externally.

The information below is a prime example. The Green Party of Canada is missing a prime opportunity to be the host to seminar for reporters for upcoming climate change conference, not Ryerson.

We miss opportunities galore to get in the spot light. No leader at the Press Gallery Annual Dinner. No leader on any political talking head panels in the country. A defeatist attitude to the national media.

Jim gets bad advice, because he has communications and strategy people around him with no real world experience, or those who are still in university debate club mode. Jim lost his fund split thing due to three things.

One, the head office has not got the confidence of the people outside of the centre. The confidence is not there.

Second, he or his advise misread the current temperature, and may have just told Jim what he wanted to hear, and not what he needed to hear. Or Jim refused to hear what he should have. Loyalty is nice, but you are sinking, it is nice to have someone who is loyal to you and knows to throw you a life saver and not an anchor.

Third, the regions need the dough to get their work done, and less needs to be in head office. Fourth, Jim should be advocating for a sharing of the membership fees too.

So, if people ask, I am the best for either position. If elected for the one, will work to put the party on track with a proper communications plan and strategy, along with the budget. It will be designed much along the lines of how Greenpeace operates its communications, more grassroots, with head office providing more tools, and some spark.

Mayor sparks power play

The story on the struggle for Mayor Bronconnier's maintenance of control over the city council did not ask enough questions.

Why not ask the people on council who voted for, '...amendment to the procedural bylaw that would allow Ald. Gord Lowe to lead the finance committee for a second year,' if they would extend the same sort of brilliance in logic to the practice of holding the appointments of Calgary citizens to the various boards, agencies, and tribunals the city funds?

The excuse always given is that it is the law, and it cannot be changed.

It is obvious that by-laws, policies, and procedures can be changed if it suits the city council.

After all why, '"... let a procedural item stand in the way of good governance," or even democracy?

I would have asked the eight who voted for this piece of enlightenment, when they plan to open the appointment process to the public. It cannot be a matter of privacy, as the people who want to sit on the various boards, agencies, and tribunals and spend the city funds must know they will be doing it in public and must be in favour of letting Calgarians know who they are and why they are being appointed to the various boards, agencies, and tribunals the city funds.

As Ceci said, it's particularly unfair to show such contempt to the democractic process when doing only part of your job in public, and to think the City Hall is the fiefdom of only Council.

The difference might be, I am not a reporter that relies on the free news being sent my way from the City's giant 'Department of Spin.'

Are U.S. tourists making a political statement?

It is so nice to see that Ezra Levant has studied in the same geography classes that the average American has.

In fact there are no Canadian cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, close to the border, with a matching sized urban centre in the USA. The only one is Detroit near Windsor.

Seattle is not close Vancouver. Chicago, New York, or Boston are not close to either Toronto or Montreal. It takes two hours for Calgarians to reach the border, with more driving to arrive at a tourist destination after that.

He would have been right if he had said that travelling from city to city within the U.S. is a longer drive than heading up to a large urban Canadian centre.

There is a variety of things that have led to Americans staying at home. Considering when you do a Google search, a search of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, or Fox news, no Canadian political or trade policies or news stories show up, how does Ezra figure the average American has heard of all of the issues he cites? Homer Simpson?

I would suspect the reason for the drop in travel is due to several things. Competition, the Americans are in a war, the USA has endured more than their share of weather calamities, as well as, it is expensive to travel by car, plane, or train, due to the high cost of fuel.

Add these all up, and I think even in Ezra's closed mind you can see there is more at play that some sort of conspiracy organized by the Ottawa Liberals.

If Ezra feels all is perfect south of the border, why doesn't he move? From what you read of his drivel is not a happy camper.

Q9 Networks Article

Tamara et al...

It is nice to see the front pages of the Business Section of the Calgary Herald are now the spin section for business in Calgary, and not real business news based in good journalism fundamentals.

Your article about Q 9 is a case in point.

The entire spiel on their security was more hyperbole, than reality.

Their high handed precautions start with security guards that are paid $9 an hour, and are not given much in the way of a security clearance, beyond checking their police records. For which the security guard pays.

None of them have a background check to see where they have worked before, who they have worked for, or their education background.

The fingerprint thing, is not used for anything other than allowing a person in to the guarded enclave, through an air lock. It is not to check on their security background, nor whether they should or can be allowed into the server area.

Yes, the windows are bullet proof, and the walls are reinforced, but nothing more than was put into the building when it was built.

You are not on the camera 100% of the time, and the cameras cannot follow your every move. Combined with the fact that the people watching you on the television screens can only watch a few cameras at anyone time, nor see you from 360 degrees, nor have knowledge of what you are doing and what you should be doing with the equipment you have?

I have personal knowledge of how personal information and hardware can be taken off the premises of Q9 and no one would ever be the wiser. The weighing thing? It is bogus. If you arrive with a computer hard drive, and leave with a computer hard drive, how can the event of weighing you detect that you have just left the premise with a companies complete data?

The government issued I.D., is not checked by the security guards, or even by the security company providing the guards. Yes, it is looked at, and yes if it looks good, it accepted. There is nothing done to verify the person with the driver's license if the person who is holding it. Simply signing out an access card is not much of a security system.

I can take you down to the Cecil Hotel, or Town and Country Hotel, or Bowness Hotel, and have all of the government identification you want that will show that you are Mae West. That does not take into count the rest of the world.

Yes, the Q9 system is secure, but it is in no way as secure from an attack or breach as the spin department of Arafat's Q9 public relations department would have you believe.

They are just living up to the level of security they can get away with and is being used by their competition, and make a good profit. EDS is one, that applies the same kind of security system, and uses the same methods, while competing for some of the same clients.

RE: Daily Digest October 24, 2005

The premise in the article 'Printed word offers what digital deluge cannot: Reliable analysis, opinion, in-depth features,' would be great, if it were not so false.

If it were true, why the stagnant growth in the tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities?

If it were true, why the birth of free giveaway newspapers by those same tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities? If the free give aways were directed at a new group of readers why are they only handed out in a special box, above the boxes that have the tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities in them? Why do they only cut and paste the editorial in them, that is leftover from the tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities?

The tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities, are sorely misinformed if they think that the electronic media cannot out do them?

It is being played out before the eyes of the people, usually white, middle class, Canadian males, who run our tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities. All you need to do is walk on the streets, school halls, shopping malls, and libraries of our country with your eyes wide open, the rose coloured glasses and blinders off to see, that the vast majority of Canadians are not reading the tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities.

The death of the tired old grey mass media's current staid daily newspapers in Canada's major cities is not being exaggerated, it is being played out before our eyes on the flesh of good trees that would serve a better purpose cleaning our air.

An Invitation To My Friends and Colleagues:

An Invitation
To My Friends and Colleagues:

My career in the Oil and Gas Industry is an important part of my life. However, my new passion outside of my career is as a volunteer with RESULTS CANADA (www.results-resultats.ca), an organization which I will tell you more about further along in this e-mail. I have for years been deeply distressed by the state of the world. The cycle of poverty, death and violence keeps escalating, the problems seemed insurmountable and I felt helpless to do anything about it. Through my association with RESULTS I became much better informed about the issues and potential solutions. I was both shocked and encouraged to learn that we actually have the resources in the world to not only impact the worst global poverty, but to actually end it in our lifetime! What is missing is the political will to do so, and this is where RESULTS comes in.

RESULTS is a small but extremely effective and powerful advocacy group whose goal is the elimination of hunger, absolute poverty and debilitating diseases in our world. We are affiliated with RESULTS USA and have parallel organizations in the UK, Germany, Mexico, Australia and Japan. When Hilary Clinton chaired our World Microcredit Summit in 1997, she called RESULTS the most powerful volunteer organization she had ever encountered. We are on the steering committee for the White Band campaign www.makepovertyhistory.ca, and also STOP TB CANADA.

RESULTS CANADA has had many successes over the past several years. Please see the end of this e-mail for a summary of accomplishments from the past year.

Our RESULTS group here in Calgary is the most active in Canada, leading in letters to the editor, op-eds and editorials published in newspapers nationally and also in communications with our parliamentarians. We also raise the majority of the funds to sustain our group nationally, which has an extremely cost-effective budget of about $165,000 per year for the past several years. None of our funding comes from government and very little from business- we are almost entirely grassroots funded, with every dollar helping to leverage millions going to programs for the poorest.

I would like to invite you to the RESULTS CANADA 11th Annual fundraising Breakfast on Saturday November 12, 2005, from 9:00-11:30 AM at the Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom, 700 Centre St SE. Keynote speakers are Calgary's own Rev Bill Phipps and, from Zambia, Winstone Zulu, one of Africa's leading TB and HIV activists.
We would be thrilled and honored if you would consider being our guest at the breakfast this November 12 and, if possible, bringing friends and colleagues to help us achieve our goal of filling 750 seats.

Tickets this year are $20 to cover the cost of the breakfast then we ask for tax receiptable donations at the event with cash, personal cheque, or credit card to finance our work for the next year. I look forward to hearing from you and will be happy to arrange for tickets. If you are unable to attend the breakfast but wish to make a donation, I would be happy to make those arrangements with you as well.

Thank you so much for considering this invitation.

Respectfully
Cathy

WE'RE TALKING RESULTS!

RESULTS Canada works to eradicate hunger and the worst aspects of global poverty.

So what has this small group achieved over the past 12 months, with its $165,000 annual budget from donors?

· · A $20 million grant from CIDA for bed nets for Africa, estimated to prevent 750,000 cases of malaria and save 30,000 lives a year.
· · Successfully lobbied the World Bank to fund a new global malaria prevention program worth at least $100 million a year for the next 5 years.
· · Worked alongside other groups to get a $140 million increase in Canada's funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
· · The Mayors of 6 cities proclaimed Fair Trade Weeks, encouraging the purchase of fair trade goods.

NET RESULT: each $1 donated helped to generate over $1,500 for global health programs.

2020Network/AB Chamber of Technology/Knowledge Management WIKI Potential Questions To Start Things

Having just watched my White Sox take a 2 game lead in the series, I am in a jolly mood. Like the Sox I have a weak spot for this idea of a 2020Network/AB Chamber of Technology, and believe it is an idea who's time has come.

It can work if done right.

Hence, I have taken the liberty to put together a list of questions I would put on the WIKI and lead the discussion and path to conclusions and answers you will need to move forward.

There WIKI could be used, or a blanket e-mail to all on your circulation list, with someone appointed to administer the answers from people who do not want to go on the WIKI for what ever reason. The answers could be compiled, and assumptions or directions distilled from them, for a map of the work needed for the group to get launched.

This is something that needs to be done by someone that can look at the answers with a cold eye, and is not afraid to make some assumptions and boil the answers down to a usable document. The final document cannot be used to justify a preconceived idea, but to lead you and the group to the answers that are needed.

Questions that need to be asked on the WIKI:

If you were given three wishes for a group to represent the needs, people, and issues of the high technology sector in Alberta what would that group look like.

What would its primary purpose for being, be?

If this group had three goals to achieve within its first three years, what would those be in your opinion.

What three issues in government policy would the group need to help address for the industry?

What three issues does this group need to address amongst the stakeholders in the high technology sector in Alberta?

Who should this group be for, and how do we attract them to the group?

When those people get to the group how do we assure we engage them to help the group make the wishes of yours come true?

What should the name of the group be?

Of those who you think should be a part of the group, where are they?

How would a group like this reach them with information on the group?

If we wanted you to be a member of this group what do we need say to you that would make you join?

Yes, you circulate this to one and all, or trash it as you see fit.

Embattled minister supported

I don't expect the writer of the little one liners at the end of the letters to understand why I support Stephen Boissoin who wrote that homosexual rights activists and those who defend them are as immoral as pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps.

He does ask his government to enact laws to treat homosexual rights activists and those who defend them under the law as we do pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps.

He is not asking any level of government to treat a particular group of Canadians any different under the law, than the next Canadian.

He has the right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and equal treatment under the law just like every other Canadian has. Whether they are gay, straight, or even an editorial writer

Mr. Boissoin has the right to teach from his pulpit to the members of his congregation or anyone else that will listen, what his religion believes is a sin or not right.

Help - then watch and learn!

To those stunned at the inability of the USA to respond to the needs
of their citizens in the recent hurricane disaster, please don't
forget, the hurricane was expected, the failure of the levees was not.

When you give an evacuation notice, you must also follow it up with
the tools and aid for those that cannot just pick up and leave. 40%
of the people in the affected area were below the poverty line and
had not the ability to pick up and leave. They had no where to go, no
way to go, and when they got where that place might be, no way of
renting a room, buy food, or such.

Consider the fact that all of the infrastructure of a modern large
city was gone as well. No phone, no water, no electricity and no hope.
Our government should order a train CPR to travel across Canada
picking up the goods and supplies that will be needed for the
refugees of the hurricane and deliver it to the nearest shipping dock
to New Orleans and unload it. At no cost. That can be water, food
stuffs, plywood, portable housing, solar powered water purifiers,
blankets, canned meat, canned or fresh fruit, mobile hospitals, and
all of the rest of the normal things a person with nothing needs.

Canada should do this because we can, we must and not because it is good PR.
After providing whatever the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, or
Georgia need, we must watch. We need to watch and learn.

Our large major urban centres may not fare much better in a major
civil disaster. After all, when was the last time any city practiced
an evacuation?

When did we put our system to the test? Could Calgary, Edmonton,
Vancouver, or Toronto evacuate 1,000,000 people?

RE: October 6’s Scholarly Advice on CBC

RE: October 6’s Scholarly Advice on CBC

It is obvious by the ideas put forth in Professor Peers column on how he would fix CBC, he has missed the point of why CBC has fallen into such disrepair.

It is preciously because the deep thinkers at CBC retreated to special groups such as those in colleges, city councils, and other special interest group, that the CBC has fallen hard.

Why not try a novel idea, instead of talking hand picked groups, usually picked because they agree with a predetermined goal, go out on the street and see what the average Canadian wants from the CBC?

Why not set up a page in the CBC web site for a WIKI for all to comment, good, bad or ugly?

Why hand pick a group of people?

Put the management in the places where the listeners and viewers are, and have them listen to the people who the CBC is suppose to be serving.

Not the special interest groups.

Why not have the people who want to sit on the board at CBC come to Canadians and tell us why they are the best to be entrusted with a national treasure, and an international gem, like the CBC?

Why not have the person who is appointed to Chair the board of the CBC vetted by Parliament?

Why not have the person who is to be the President of the CBC, vetted by Parliament?

The governing party of the day, should not treat the CBC as a pasture where they can send their political hacks to live out their days.

Vatican is considering refusing Holy Communion

I applaud the Vatican for considering to withhold the communion wafers and sacramental wine from those big mean old politicians who have decided to treat every Canadian equal under the law. At least it shows they have decided to apply their rules to a group they don't like.

From there, I wonder if they will add to that list, their own priests, and nuns who have delivered physical and sexual abuse on their flock, tried to erase cultures that disagree with the Catholic doctrine, or have just got in the way of the Vatican's expansion plans.

I doubt it.

Is this just another case of the Vatican being hypocrites?

There is one thing you can not say about the Vatican, they never stop being consistent in their hypocrisy.

Film Festival At A Crossroads

Despite the technical difficulties, which are not uncommon to any sort of film or music festival that brings movies, performers and film in from a variety of international locations, the Calgary International Film Festival was a success, if you are comparing it to other small regional film festivals.

No one can ever say the Calgary International Film Festival was innovative, controversial, or even worth the interest of any national or international media, let alone film industry media.

The CIFF has come to the 'crossrod,' if it wants to go big, it must stop being run by a small circle of friends of the Executive Director.

The CIFF must throw off the white bread attitude of much of Calgary, and look at making its mark in the film world, from around the world.

Show truly international provocative innovative films.

Show truly locally made innovative provocative films.

Show films that challenge the status quo.

Look to bring in some truly international film stars, innovators, and creators.

The Calgary Folk Festival has built a place in the music world, as a must play at festival.

The Edmonton Fringe has built a place in the live and innovative theatre world, as a must be in theatre festival.

The Toronto Film Festival has built a place in the international film world as a must be in film festival.

Now the Calgary Film Festival must either stay at the regional also ran level, or reach for the top.

That means need for new blood in the organization. With new blood, the Calgary International Film Festival could be much more than it is today.

RE: Network 2020 - Marketing & Communications

In the traditional marketing philosophy of the auto industry where the seeds of 'branding,' can be found, a brand was nothing more than the name plate on the car. Nova, Impala, Grand Marquise, Malibu, Biscayne, Mustang, Dodge. What you have here under the heading of Branding, is actually the start to the definition of your audience or market. I would suggest what Mike has stated in his definition of the product, your target market, 'technology intensive industries.an organized constituency.'

I agree with Mike that Technology Chamber of Commerce is an outcome and might well be the name of the group to get started on, with secondary tag-line to it being, 'Network 2020.'

Why?

Sometime you need to use an iconic set of words or phrases to draw someone's attention to an idea, and then move them on to the deeper reason for why they should be there. Everyone knows what a Chamber of Commerce does, not everyone might know what the purpose of a 'Network 2020,' is.

It is based on the concept of rhetoric first discussed by Aristotle.

When I talk of the Communications Strategy, there are two sides to this. One is the marketing message, to attract the attention of the people that we think would be interested in the idea of the 'Network 2020.'

There is a need for another Communications Strategy for the 'Network 2020.' That would encompass for want of a better term, the internal communications, once we get the attention of the people who come to the web site, events, or publications. Both need to have a sound base in the marketing philosophy. We must know who we are talking to, and what they want to hear, and what they need to hear.

It maybe perceived that I am splitting hairs here, and banging an old drum to death, but I have found when I stray from the old 4 P's, or 5 W's in my work, I get off track and find I am losing ground.

Anyways, it is time for my movie marathon at the Calgary International Film Festival to begin for the weekend, and my mind is now switching to world of the unreal.

RE: Network 2020 - Marketing & Communications

In the traditional marketing philosophy of the auto industry where the seeds of 'branding,' can be found, a brand was nothing more than the name plate on the car. Nova, Impala, Grand Marquise, Malibu, Biscayne, Mustang, Dodge. What you have here under the heading of Branding, is actually the start to the definition of your audience or market. I would suggest what Mike has stated in his definition of the product, your target market, 'technology intensive industries.an organized constituency.'

I agree with Mike that Technology Chamber of Commerce is an outcome and might well be the name of the group to get started on, with secondary tag-line to it being, 'Network 2020.'

Why?

Sometime you need to use an iconic set of words or phrases to draw someone's attention to an idea, and then move them on to the deeper reason for why they should be there. Everyone knows what a Chamber of Commerce does, not everyone might know what the purpose of a 'Network 2020,' is.

It is based on the concept of rhetoric first discussed by Aristotle.

When I talk of the Communications Strategy, there are two sides to this. One is the marketing message, to attract the attention of the people that we think would be interested in the idea of the 'Network 2020.'

There is a need for another Communications Strategy for the 'Network 2020.' That would encompass for want of a better term, the internal communications, once we get the attention of the people who come to the web site, events, or publications. Both need to have a sound base in the marketing philosophy. We must know who we are talking to, and what they want to hear, and what they need to hear.

It maybe perceived that I am splitting hairs here, and banging an old drum to death, but I have found when I stray from the old 4 P's, or 5 W's in my work, I get off track and find I am losing ground.

Anyways, it is time for my movie marathon at the Calgary International Film Festival to begin for the weekend, and my mind is now switching to world of the unreal.

This week's question

It is obvious there is a problem.

Why not stand up yourself when you can and give praise to the man, or say something to draw attention to the fact it was your colleague's idea, suggestion, or work that brought something to the forefront for the department or company.

If he is indeed a colleague, then stand up for him. Stop waiting for the management to, they have proving their support of the man.

The resort planned for the Crowsnest Pass is prime opportunity to show the world how a resort of this nature can be built, and have a zero impact on t

The resort planned for the Crowsnest Pass is prime opportunity to show the world how a resort of this nature can be built, and have a zero impact on the environment.

This can be a perfect project to draw the various agencies and projects of environmental sustainability research and development funded by both the Federal and provincial governments together to show the world our 'green technology,' and to spark the building of a green industry base in Alberta.

Both level of governments have poured many dollars into various alternative energy processes and it is time to use them in a commercial venture.

There are processes that can help the developer put in a water and sewer system that has a zero impact on the environment, air, water, soil, and animals.

It is also an opportunity for the Federal provincial governments to work with both the civic and provincial governments to develop an example of how new technologies can be used to help the environmental impact of a development like this.

It is an example of how targeting the GST collected on fossil fuels can be redirected to help reduce the use of fossil fuels in such a development.

This project will also help the area build an alternative environmental science industry base in an area that has to date depended on the traditional hewers of wood industries.

If done right, and if the two levels of governments put their heads together this project can be a world class example of how Canada is learning about the environment.

read the entire document, you will find you can use it to base some educated assumption on it,

If you read the entire document, you will find you can use it to base some educated assumption on it, for working in the game of politics, and getting someone elected.

If you say that the reasons are too varied, then one can make the same assumption about the small number of people you use to base your assumptions on people being too busy to get involved. I am looking at the larger number of people who are in Canada, that the GPC has to draw from.

Yes people are busy, it has not changed since 1867, but those that really are interested, will make the time. What the GPC needs to do, is change the way it does business so we can create a method for those people to get involved on their own time, and when they can. When people are inspired and can see that they can make a difference they will make the time to participate in a political party, in whatever way they can, no matter how small that is.

Process is very important. It allows a group to make decisions properly. A central office is also important, not for directing the EDA's so much, but to make sure all in the canoe are paddling in the same direction and not working at cross purposes as it relates to the principles of the party.
The process should be determined by the constitution and its by-laws.

The meetings should be concentrating on working on the matters at hand, via the process already set down.

As for my involvement. I am helping the Alberta Organizer as the Calgary organizer and arranging the leader's visits, and communications of our message. This means I am working to create five EDA's in Calgary and the riding of Wildrose.

Before the city makes another colossal mistake on moving the Tourist Bureau stop and think

Before the city makes another colossal mistake on moving the Tourist Bureau stop and think.

Who thought that putting a tourist information centre in the back of a store on Stephen Avenue Mall was a good idea, never stopped to think where the majority of people who visit a new city, go for their information and when they do that.

Where does the bulk of the visitor traffic go to stay in Calgary?

Where does the bulk of the visitor traffic enter Calgary for the first time?

Where does the bulk of the visitor traffic go after they have decided what venues or attractions to visit?

They do not come into a city, and head downtown to find out where to stay, go to dinner, or find a movie to see.

Calgary has got to show the world we have grown up and out of the small town old boys way of doing things, and harness the technology in such a way the city shows the visitors what the city has to offer where they enter the city.

With the internet, high speed hook-ups, virtual worlds, and computer kiosks, we can put an information centre on all four sides of the city, and at the airport, at hotels, or even in the palm of people's hands.

An idea I proposed to the people looking at informing people of traffic problems, evacuation notices, and other important city information, is to have the city have their own radio station. Similar to the one used in Banff.

Let's not repeat the screw up of the last move of the Calgary Tourist bureau.

Let's show the people we got it right this time.

Talk about same sex marriage making for strange bedfellows

Talk about same sex marriage making for strange bedfellows. To see the new strange marriage one just has to look at the leader of the Separatist party, Gilles Duceppe, in the House of Commons saying Ottawa should mount global campaign against U.S. on softwood lumber, followed by the Official Leader of the Opposition coming out with similar strong language.

It does make you wonder why Martin and Harper are even rearranging the deck chairs on their sinking ships at this time.

They have no people on deck that can come to their aid while wallowing in mediocrity. Neither have any vision. Both play catch up to the public instead of leading.

Canada is in deed at a loss from any solid leadership from the people in positions that should have it, except maybe the leader of the Separatist party. GO figure.

If anyone asks, I am for hire. Will work for either side of the House if they promise to get their heads out of the sand.

By the way, with such strange bedfellows, who puts out the cat?

In Reuters dispatches is an interesting story

In Reuters dispatches is an interesting story that should form an entire
cabinet committee, or opposition inspiration to show the country that
someone in Ottawa has vision.

It is a story entitled, 'Congress May Help Grain Exports - House Speaker' -
By REUTERS filed 7:44 p.m. ET, September 2, 2005.

The lead paragraph says, 'Congress may have to examine ways to help
American farmers export their wheat, corn and soybeans because Hurricane
Katrina devastated the Port of New Orleans, a key shipping point, House
Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Friday.'

Most Gulf ports were closed on Friday, the sixth day that grain export
traffic was stalled. The shutdown sapped market prices.

With U.S. farm losses from Hurricane Katrina being estimated at roughly $2
billion and up, depending on how long farm exports from New Orleans are
delayed, what could Canada do to help this situation in the long term so
that North America is not held hostage to either mother nature or terrorism?

I think a party that advocated for the fast tracked upgrades to our ports
that already have the grain shipping infrastructure in place, as well as
rail upgrades the situation in the Mississippi and Gulf Coast could be
alleviated to help all agricultural producers.

Why not allow the port of Prince Rupert, Churchill, and Thunder Bay to play
a large part in the game of exporting grain to the world, for all of North
America?

Hitler had plans of debilitating the American's ability to fuel and feed
themselves by an attack on the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans' ports, so
why not take a page from history.

I am sure an offer to help the American agricultural producers by shipping
grain through our ports duty free, to their customers would show a much
better light to the heartland of American than any public relations
campaign could.

If we have the ability to improve or increase our oil production to help
the Americans meet their needs with the shut down and destruction of the
oil processing plants in the Gulf Coast region, can we do the same for
helping supply the American's with wheat, and other crops to help them meet
their export commitments?

Could we do the same with our poultry and livestock industries to help with
the reported $1 billion losses with an additional $1 billion in lost export
sales and higher fuel prices? I know for a fact we have excess dairy
products sitting in warehouses across the prairies that cannot be sold due
to quotas and such. Why not ship that. I am a glass of milk, brick of
cheese, or a dozen eggs would go a long way right now for someone who needs
a meal in Louisiana.

Canada has had the ability to ramp up productions of airplanes, ships, food
stuffs, and other such things when we were called on in the first and
second world war.

Isn't Mother Nature waging war right now? Can we meet this challenge?

the day the Presidency of George W. Bush came to a stop

August 25th is the day Hurricane Katrina came ashore in the United States Gulf Coast states, and it is the day the Presidency of George W. Bush came to a stop.

In political theory the leader of a democracy cannot lead or put their agenda forth without the support of the people.

With a President that did not win the election with a majority of the popular vote either in his first term or second, he has seen what little support he had left, blow away in the winds of Hurricane Katrina.

Yes Katrina is a tragedy, but it can also be looked on as a light that has been shown on the fragile nature of the American society, and that Americans need to start to elect their leaders, based on substance, rather than the sizzle.

Yes, Canadians should not let politics get in the way of helping out our neighbours to the south.

We must do that because that is what is right.

We must be prepared for two years of uncertainty in the world, because the President of the United States cannot get his agenda through, nor can he stand in front of either the USA or the world, and say it is the United States’ brand of democracy that should be exported to the world.

It is the United States’ brand of democracy that has seen a chasm between the haves and have nots become a national disgrace, and bring light to the fact there is still a huge difference between what it means to be a white American, and what it means to be a black American.

Hopefully, we in Canada will see that we must work towards persuading people of substance to run for election, and to elect good people based on substance and vision that is based in reality and not in the clouds of rhetoric and dogma.

I am thinking

I am thinking that there needs to be some background on the ability or inability of Canada to adjust its infrastructure and such things for events such as Katrina.

Are our ports at the point where we can offer excess capacity to the agricultural industries in the USA, in the light of the ports on the Gulf Coast being taken off line, and the problems of the Mississippi Delta being impeded for shipping traffic right now.

Is there an opportunity in Prince Rupert and Kitimat to increase Canada's seaport capacity in a short period of time, to ship both grain and containers quicker and more effectively?

Can speeding up the approval process of the Port of Prince Rupert's rebuilding, help east coast American shipping interests? Is this in Canada's best interests, either domestically or as a part of the North American economy?

Does Canada need to take a look at our refining capacity, in light of the problems being experienced with the shutting down of a third of the US's refineries in light of Katrina?

Can Canada survive a natural disaster such as Katrina? Do we need to rethink our decisions to move all land based army units to places like Edmonton, from the west coast?

Should we look at moving the Search and Rescue Air unit back to the coast?

Should we look at the rational for moving the specialized equipment the army has in the event of an earthquake to Edmonton from the coast?

We have seen in the recent past that Canada is not immune to natural disasters, whether they be floods, fire, or pollution.

You asked an interesting question last night.

You asked an interesting question last night. You asked me what I wanted to do with the Federal wing of the party. My disillusionment is growing rapidly.

My best position would be Communications Director for the Federal party. At the very least the Chair of the Communications for the GPC. The latter would be the worse case scenario.

Canada's voters have stayed away from the polls in droves (as have Albertan's in provincial elections) and that is where the potential of the Green Party of Canada lies. In a study done by Canada's Chief Electoral Officer the people who do not vote, have never voted, or stopped voting have a variety of reasons. The consensus of those opinions boil down to three themes. The current politicians have no vision, look or act all the same, or do not represent the views of the voters.

It is my contention that the Green Party of Canada has glimmers of vision, and glimmers of innovative ideas and policies, but we do not have a communications plan that represents the new reality of communications in Canada, nor to attract the disillusioned voters to us. We do have the tire kickers looking at us, sniffing around us, but no plan to bring them into the fold.

Especially when you want to talk to the people under 35.

The party has $1.4 million. The party has at least four or five people all working in the communications area, yet the party has no media profile, nor a web site that reflects a comprehension of the new realities of communications in Canada and the big world, nor a communications strategy to help the regions.

We do have reasons for not having that media profile being proffered. None are legitimate.

The party reaped the benefits of having a talented leader putting the party on the political map in the last election, but have since managed to have that position erased since. The party now needs to decide whether they want to start to play for real or just sit on the sidelines and whine about what could have been. It will take heart to play the game of political communications or politics period with the big boys and girls.

Since there is no budget document open to the membership to see where the money that the party is receiving is going, nor a report of any kind to see the progress of the secret and unknown communications strategy, it is very difficult to know what is going on, and what is being achieved. This makes it difficult to make certain assumptions.

With 32 years of experience in all things political, communications, media and government relations, social activism of all sorts, and the 18 hours a day I spend in this area for my living, I can only base my assumptions on educated guesses and experience.

I can tell you that with a Google or Yahoo search, there is very little mention of the Green Party of Canada in the media.

On the other hand there is a rich collection of issues and policies that the Green Party of Canada and grab on to and build a public agenda on.

My plan will include moulding in the experiences I have learned in when I started my education in 1973 working at the start of Greenpeace and political communications for the future for what we need now.

I see the Communications Director as someone who will build a web of communicators through the country, educate them, and then supply them with the information and tools to tell their story and the story of the Green Party from the ground up.

Did you know we can have that same communications person as a part of the media scrums asking questions? Asking the questions of the politicians in front of the media, so we can work to turn the media's attention to our issues and the Green Party.

We need one person in Ottawa doing nothing but monitoring the business of Parliament, and working to put us on the media and political agenda, through new and old media.

Ever read the Party's newsletter? Ever see anything in it to tell us what is going on in Ottawa, and what we should be taking an interest in, in the regions?

In the regions I would hire part-time students or whomever to monitor the news in the regions to be used to feed in to the communications plan, and find out the reactions to what Ottawa is doing, and use that to form some of the plan of the person in Ottawa. These people can be assigned a piece of the Ottawa scene to monitor via the internet and CPAC. They can supply such information for the formal part of the web site's media and communications area, and through blogs.

The evolvement of the virtual world means we can have a Communications Director not headquartered in Ottawa, but anywhere. We have that now, but it is ineffective and has failed. It means we should have a Communications Director that is out and about teaching the various regions how to get their message out, and in fact helping them get their message out with the star power of Jim Harris.

Why do we not see Jim or the Deputy Leaders commenting on the budget, on bills before the House, or anything to do with Parliament? We can do this in a positive and innovative way. This is but a small part of my plan but an integral part.

Mike Nickerson the Ontario GPC representative has an interesting concept which he is floating. It is called Grass Roots Communications Network which is much like what the Greenpeace group started with. It involves in part, a web based inventory be made of articles, cartoons, speakers and information sources (web sites, books, audio visual programs, workshop formats and other communications techniques), that can be used in a community context, and that a staff position be assigned to collect such communications media and encourage their use.

Anyways that is my idea, for what it is worth. The above also can be used to base the Provincial Party's plan for the next election. Both wings of the Party have two more elections until they can either be in the House of Commons or Alberta Legislature in a real and meaningful way.

The possibilities are with in our reach.

Remember, Ralph Klein is Premier because he got about 27% of the popular vote.

Remember, there is only 2% points between Paul Martin's minority government and the three majority governments that Jean Chrétien enjoyed.

I understand the Globe and Mail must toot the horn of anything Toronto does.

It might make more sense if the fawning over the appointment of Sara Diamond to the head of the Ontario College or Art and Design was followed with some real journalism. Simple Journalism 101 would tell the reporter to check the facts with someone other than the topic of the story being written. It looks like the story was written by someone like Diamond's, or OCAD's publicist.

As someone who is personally involved in the new media industry in Alberta, I would suggest there are few people in the new media industry in Western Canada who could point to anything that has benefited the industry; created, implemented, or helped by the Banff New Media Centre under the tutelage of Sara Diamond.

In fact if any one in the new media industry in Western Canada, actually knew what the centre has done, would be news.

Sara Diamond is and will be a very good artist and educator. She may very well be the best choice as the new president of the Ontario College of Art and Design.

All anyone in the new media industry in Western Canada can figure out is, she was able to add to her air miles accumulation.

In fact I doubt it if your local Calgary reporter could find anyone in the new media industry that even has heard of Sara Diamond, or tell you what benefit the Banff New Media Centre has brought to the industry.

If you want to see the leading edge nature of the Banff New Media Centre, go to their web site at http://www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/.

Not really much there is there? Certainly not for a supposed new media centre open to the world and students from around the world.

Re: Article 15

Just an aside to this issue of borrowing for a political party.
Many of the 'old line,' parties do have assets they can borrow
against.

The assets have been bequeathed to thier fund raising organization.
In the example of the P.C. Party BH(before harper) they had the PC
Fund. To that was bequeathed a piece of property in the core of
Toronto. Although it was not a cash donation, it was a donation with
a concrete value to is, against which loans were taken.

Some of the problems involved in the marriage of the Reform and PC
Party were directly connected to that issue, as well as some of the
assets bequeathed to the Reform Party. The issue of the PC Fund and
all bequeathes, is that you must follow the directions given in the
will or estate of the donor. That means if the asset is donated to
the PC Fund for a particular purpose, then you must go back to the
estate and ask for permission to change the use of the piece of
property or whatever was donated.

Both the Liberals and NDP have such an animal. In Alberta the
provincial Liberal Party has a fund called the Rutherford Fund.
It would be for this reason, that the Green Party of Canada should
look at setting up a fund raising organization that is seperate from
the Green Party of Canada, but with the Green Party of Canada being
the benefactor.

This does two things. One, a non-profit RevCan registered
organization cannot give out tax receipts for a group that is a
political advocacy group. Two, it allows people to have a place to
beqeath to in a variety of ways, either upon their death, or before,
in a way that benefits their tax position upon death, and the Green
Party of Canada.

Setting up the seperate organization allows people to purchase life
insurance policies with the GPC as the benefactor, or donate property
to the GPC, while still using the property. Why do this?

It means a farmer can donate their land to the GPC, live on the
property until they die, and the Green Party of Canada has an asset.
They get a tax issue solved, and the GPC gets an asset.

In the area of life insurance, a person of substantial wealth can
purchase a life insurance policy of say $20,000, pay the entire
premium up in one check, get a receipt for that, and the Green Party
of Canada can then cash the policy in for $20,000. Both sides get a
benefit, and this allows someone with a burning desire to see the
Green Party of Canada become the government, to help in a small way.

I am finding in my work and associations with the Green Party of
Canada, a mind-set of thinking small and not much past the next
election. We must be looking as a party, past the horizon and how we
can set up the party, its finances, and governance that has thinking
of the GPC being a real live player on the political field of Canada.

We must go at all we do with the belief we will be the governing
party sooner, rather than later, or god forbid, never.

Some thoughts on A Chamber of Technology for Alberta? - Please pass along

I thought I might put some of my thoughts and ideas to paper, or the Ethernet in this case.

We can all agree the road to creating a Chamber of Technology for Alberta, will be long and uphill both ways.

Yes, there is strong agreement that Alberta needs a vibrant science and technology sector. The issues that the sector or sectors have been compartmentalized by getting dribs and drabs of funds from the various levels of government funding programs to special Industry Sector Groups, with no real measurement of successes, no measurement of income and benefits actually realized to the province, and no real synergy in the industry so that it might combine certain sectors with others to benefit from new synergies.

The fact that the various industry sector groups are receiving funds from the Provincial and Federal governments means they may also be reluctant to step outside of them and embark on a new and action oriented group like the Chamber of Technology for Alberta.

As well with that funding and the strings attached, many of the Industry Sector Groups are reluctant to speak out, or actually shake the tree for real substantive changes to the way the Industry Sector Groups receive money, and market themselves. It might mean a real or unrealistic paranoia of losing ones own sphere of influence.

The two large Chamber of Commerce's in Calgary and Edmonton just don't get it, when it comes to the technology industry, as most of their membership comes from the traditional established industries and businesses and not the small types of businesses that are traditionally the engines in the Technology industries in Alberta.

Or they consider technological innovation to be a new way of pumping oil out of the ground, faster and cheaper.

I have yet to meet anyone on the two chambers' board of directors that actually are responsible to signing the pay checks and making sure there is money in the bank to cover the checks and pay the withholding taxes each month. Most of them are in large companies and are far removed from the day to day issues of running a small operation.

It would be my proposal to go counter to this thinking, ' If the major task is to influence government, then a Chamber would make little difference – Government has made its choices and is quietly executing them. Technology, other than in relation to energy (AERI and their six programs) or health, is sidelined.'

I can see the Technology Chamber being an advocate for change, changes that are substantive and make sense to those guys who are responsible to signing the pay checks and making sure there is money in the bank to cover the checks and pay the withholding taxes each month.

The Chamber of Technology for Alberta could work to provide its members with services such as group insurance, virtual training, virtual networking, and advocacy at the government level to buy local first.

The Chamber of Technology for Alberta could be the organization to be asking the hard questions of the governments before, during and after the implementation of funding programs for technology to make sure they are structured in such a way as to benefit the small operation.

Many of the programs require a business person to focus too much of their scarce resources on the red tape, for little in the way of real substantive financial help.

The Chamber of Technology for Alberta can make sure each and every government person involved in any way, with the technology industry what we actually have to offer, and make sure they are selling Alberta Technology and understand that Technology in Alberta is more than a better way to move oil from one place to another.

The Chamber of Technology for Alberta could be a group that is run virtual, with pods of real people to host and run local events. The key will be to be able to invite as many people to the events through some sort of virtual method as possible, so the many in the province can find out what the few of us are actually doing in technology in the province.

The Chamber of Technology for Alberta should advocate for the location and direction of funding and programs or projects involved in the high technology sector to the areas outside of the two big cities, to help keep the kids in the smaller centres after they have graduated from places like GPCC, U of L, AU, or Medicine Hat Community College, or such.

The Chamber of Technology for Alberta should not be reliant on government funding or populating for membership or funding. As soon as a group has been lured to the government teat, they are then at the whim of the government and must not deviate from the song sheet.

I can see a three to four year time frame to get the Chamber of Technology for Alberta up and running with a proper structure for management and growth, and finding its feet.

AB Chamber of Technology

By reading the notes prepared in his e-mail of today (2020Network/AB Chamber of Technology/Knowledge Management), describing the meeting today by Perry I am unsure it was the meeting I was at. If I had known the people from CTI were going to attend I would not have, as I could have written their entire presentation.

Someone has to explain to me if CTI, and all of the other little niche SIG's are talking to the government and the provincial government is not hearing, and the changes that were mentioned today are changes that need government policy implementation or change, how a new group that is not going to Lobby, is going to be anymore than what is now out here as a group.

It seems the need for the new AB Chamber of Technology was answered not by the expressed answers but by the implied idea that you have a group of 300 some odd people who have found the AB Chamber of Technology and no other group, and most if not all don't know CTI or other niche technology SIG groups exist. Nor does the Minister hear the message being spoken to him by the CTI.

So it behoves me as to why we want to work to set the group up if it is going to be just a mirror image and operate as an umbrella, of the groups already in existent. It gives no visible benefit to attract members, provides no new impetus to change the way things are done at the government level, and does not want to work to change things.

If we don't get policies changed, or the current policies properly funded and implemented, then we can sit around the table bitching and whining, but that is what people can do in their other SIG groups.

All I can see is you got the completely expected response from CTI. They don't like the idea because you will be taking from their turf. A turf they do not work at very well. They like the status quo, because they get to continue down their chosen road.

So I guess I am feeling this is just another good idea, being watered down to be just like many of the other groups that have started.

Next time you are travelling around meeting with your technology colleagues, ask them to tell you what the EDI does, and to name two other technology groups that actually make a difference in the lives of small or medium sized technological companies outside of the major centres of Edmonton and Calgary, and in fact outside of the CEDI and EDI?

CEDI serves its purpose well. The purpose is narrowly focused and does not serve many who are just starting up.

No one asked John Majors out of the last angel financing event they held, how many projects moved to the level of talking turkey.

The fact is the industry SIG's have been divided up into small pieces all getting just enough money from the provincial or federal government to barely get by, and to be afraid to make public hard hitting comment about the lack of substance behind the rhetoric of their policies.

We need a group that will work to get policy changes to the way small technology companies are treated in the tax regime, and how little is done to help them stay in rural Alberta to hire the students that graduate out of the over crowded post-secondary IT education market the province keeps pumping money into with no idea as to who will hire them.

We need to form a group that forces the Alberta government to source locally for all of their IT needs.

We need to form a group that makes sure the core purpose of our MLA's and Ministers who travel on trade missions is to know the technology sector inside and out, and more than just what is in the CTI and ETUI buildings.

I must say I was disappointed in the meeting.

I can sit around the table listening to people in the technology industry in Alberta bitch and moan about the provincial or federal governments' inertia for free, I don't think we need another group formed to just increase the number of people sitting around the table.

RE: 2020Network/AB Chamber of Technology/Knowledge Management Presentation I Could Make - Due to Work in Calgary

Although I wanted to attend your dinner tonight, work and life conspired to keep me in Calgary while your group discussed the exciting possibilities of an Alberta Chamber of Technology.

As someone who spends much of their time in political, corporate, and marketing communications for firms in the new and old media industries, as well as e-learning, e-government, and e-democracy technologies, I am acutely aware of the issues that are not being addressed for the people involved in the technology industries in Alberta, especially the SME's or basement based dream and ideas.

Through my various past associations as a vice president in one of the new media associations in Alberta, and a charter board person who helped to form a national E-Learning association in Canada, I also understand the ineffectiveness of the current Special/Industry Interest Groups' government relations has been in both Edmonton and Ottawa, to have a comprehensive, logical, and workable technology strategy created, that is more than ribbon cutting, and handing out envelopes to many, without a reality based plan to make sure the projects being funded are needed, and feed into a big plan for the future.

Our province is a prime example. Do an 'Alberta Technology Strategy,' Google. Not much but a look at what has been done, not what is over the horizon twenty, thirty or forty years away.

Nothing to tell us how much will be allocated, a timeline, and measurement tools to find out if we are on the right course, if we need to change course, and what sort of human resources we will need. Will need now, and will need to grow for the future.

To that end I have attached the PowerPoint Presentation I would have given if I could have been there in person. It is rather blunt, and offers some food for thought as we look down the road to see where we want to go with this Alberta Chamber of Technology idea.

Comments and corrections to my presentation are always wanted.

Film Festival At A Crossroads

Despite the technical difficulties, which are not uncommon to any sort of film or music festival that brings movies, performers and film in from a variety of international locations, the Calgary International Film Festival was a success, if you are comparing it to other small regional film festivals.

No one can ever say the Calgary International Film Festival was innovative, controversial, or even worth the interest of any national or international media, let alone film industry media.

The CIFF has come to the 'crossrod,' if it wants to go big, it must stop being run by a small circle of friends of the Executive Director.

The CIFF must throw off the white bread attitude of much of Calgary, and look at making its mark in the film world, from around the world.

Show truly international provocative innovative films.

Show truly locally made innovative provocative films.

Show films that challenge the status quo.

Look to bring in some truly international film stars, innovators, and creators.

The Calgary Folk Festival has built a place in the music world, as a must play at festival.

The Edmonton Fringe has built a place in the live and innovative theatre world, as a must be in theatre festival.

The Toronto Film Festival has built a place in the international film world as a must be in film festival.

Now the Calgary Film Festival must either stay at the regional also ran level, or reach for the top.

That means need for new blood in the organization. With new blood, the Calgary International Film Festival could be much more than it is today.

RE: Network 2020 - Marketing & Communications

It would be my considered opinion that we need to take a breath here, stand back and figure out what we are building here. Is what the Steering Committee wants to build, what our customers/market want?

Branding is not marketing.

Communications is not marketing.

Marketing is branding.

Marketing is communications.

Marketing is nothing more than 4 P's: Product; Price; Place; Promotion. Branding is part of the P's, as is communications.Marketing should be at the heart of all communications and branding, both play a major role in your success and failure. Unfortunately 'branding,' has come to the fore front of the marketing gurus of today, giving all the idea that it is the magic pill to all of the woes of business. May I remind you of the Edsel; Coke Classic I (which can be construed as a marketing failure or a brilliant marketing ploy), and fruit in beer.We need to know the product we are trying to put out in the marketplace.

We need to know who we are after with it. We then need to know how we are going to reach them, where they are, and with what message we will use.

The name of the organization will be an important part of that.

The name of the organization is part of the brand.

The name of the organization if chosen well, can be the catalyst for the organization.

The product with just a brand to it, is like a balloon with just air in it.

When someone pokes around to see what we have to offer and finds nothing behind the 'balloon,' the balloon and brand go pop, and the people kicking the tires go away as well, and are damned expensive to lure back.In today's virtual world, the web site will play an integral part in the whole equation, if produced with the customer in mind.Put the wrong material in the balloon that people are not looking for, the balloon may not explode, but the people will not be back for a second look.

Put the wrong website up that is not customer friendly, or with what the customer wants, we lose momentum.Yes, there is a lot of "Ready, Fire, Aim," on any new battlefield.

It usually leads to many of those so called, 'friendly fire issues.'

So my suggestion is to stand back take a breath and lets do this right get this right, and then launch it.

Network 2020 - Marketing & Communications

In the traditional marketing philosophy of the auto industry where the seeds of 'branding,' can be found, a brand was nothing more than the name plate on the car. Nova, Impala, Grand Marquise, Malibu, Biscayne, Mustang, Dodge. What you have here under the heading of Branding, is actually the start to the definition of your audience or market. I would suggest what Mike has stated in his definition of the product, your target market, 'technology intensive industries.an organized constituency.'
I agree with Mike that Technology Chamber of Commerce is an outcome and might well be the name of the group to get started on, with secondary tag-line to it being, 'Network 2020.'

Why?

Sometime you need to use an iconic set of words or phrases to draw someone's attention to an idea, and then move them on to the deeper reason for why they should be there. Everyone knows what a Chamber of Commerce does, not everyone might know what the purpose of a 'Network 2020,' is.

It is based on the concept of rhetoric first discussed by Aristotle.

When I talk of the Communications Strategy, there are two sides to this. One is the marketing message, to attract the attention of the people that we think would be interested in the idea of the 'Network 2020.'

There is a need for another Communications Strategy for the 'Network 2020.' That would encompass for want of a better term, the internal communications, once we get the attention of the people who come to the web site, events, or publications. Both need to have a sound base in the marketing philosophy. We must know who we are talking to, and what they want to hear, and what they need to hear.

It maybe perceived that I am splitting hairs here, and banging an old drum to death, but I have found when I stray from the old 4 P's, or 5 W's in my work, I get off track and find I am losing ground.

Anyways, it is time for my movie marathon at the Calgary International Film Festival to begin for the weekend, and my mind is now switching to world of the unreal.

Having chosen a career in the government

Thanks for the note. You mention having chosen a career in the government. That is a noble choice, it is my contention the political side of Ottawa and Edmonton have dumbed down so far, that when they make policy, the ka-ka that hits the fan from poor policy or law, hits the poor bureaucrat square in the face.

Over 32 years of involvement in all things political, either in communications, campaigning, or organizing, I am seeing a trend to have studies, reports, or reviews tailored from the beginning to meet a particular preconceived policy matter or view of the government of the moment, and not for the future. Or the studies, reports, or reviews are expected to solve a problem right now, with no vision to the future, that is just over the horizon.

I have seen many innovative studies, reports, or reviews written and produced by many people both inside and outside for government that would have put Canada at the top of the heap when it comes to being an advanced technology, exporting, and visionary country. You must know of a handful of ideas that have gone elsewhere because Canada is just not friendly to an idea is not related to one of our traditional industries, especially in Alberta.

They get shelved because the political side of government has lost their vision and spine for innovation.

The story I like to tell to illustrate this, " is what do you think would have happened, if Ralph Klein or Paul Martin were Prime Minister instead of Sir John A. McDonald, when someone said, 'hey lets build a railroad across Canada!?'"

What would happen if someone in Alberta came up with the idea of a space industry? A launching pad for rocket ships? Alberta is perfect, and it has the brain power. Think about Kazakhstan before you giggle at this idea.

There is also the issue of Canadian's not liking to brag of our achievements.

The message that Network 2020 must use to sell itself, is that Alberta and Canada are fast becoming the loser in the race to be innovators, creators, and adopters of technology in the world. If we keep on the trend, our children will only have McDonald's, Wal-Mart and 7/11 jobs.

We also need to show parents, that with a true visionary technology strategy for both Alberta and Canada, we can assure them that the technology programs the governments are funding at post-secondary schools, will produce graduates that can compete in the world, and that those jobs can be found in the smaller centres of the country as well as the large urban centres.

Take a drive out of Edmonton and take a look at the small towns that are dying because the good paying jobs are leaving for Edmonton or Calgary and leaving little for highly trained kids to return to work at. This also goes for the towns, villages and hamlets near St. Johns, Newfoundland.

That is also where the nub of my thrust is, when working in the political communications and government relations area. Turn to the common denominator that all politicians understand. The voters in their ridings, who are the moms and dads of those highly trained students.

As I mentioned before the government can do this without spending anymore money, but spending the money they do spend, smarter.

As a complete change in subject, I just saw a film at Calgary's International Film Festival this week called, Souvenir of Canada. If you want a giggle while you are having your brain tweaked and your nostalgic bone tickled, go see it if it gets to Edmonton. IT is a film by Douglas Coupland, a Canadian writer from Vancouver. Very good.

e-learning industry

I am involved in the e-learning industry, and was the Vice President of the Alberta New Media Association, as well as one of the founding members of the CeLEA group.As someone who works in government and media relations I do have some faith that one can influence government. How it is done is the key, and most don't do it right.The 'issues we are talking about just aren't vote getters,' is that most doing the talking are in the ivory towers, or buried somewhere in a lab. There has been no concentrated effort to take these issues out and explain how they related to the people on the street. The problems with the way our provincial and federal governments have been able to ignore our post secondary schools for so long, are exactly the same. Not many outside the halls of the ivory towers, realize the contribution to a vibrant society that a university or college makes to a country or community.Government always hinders when they are not working from a place based in reality. That includes bureaucrats too. Governments can be steered to help, if all that includes is getting out of the way. There are several things the government at any level come to the table with. One is land and buildings not being used, or not being used to their potential. The other is the ability to reduce and erase taxes on specific targets, so that the people in that budding industry can get a footing. There are many areas in the world that do this. Specifically exporting countries. Something Canada use to be very good at.
The other area, would be to make sure the touring politicians can be effective salespeople for the technology industry back here in Alberta, and not just for our oil and gas.
One small thing I have been working on is getting the City of Calgary to consider hiring a futurist. It is moving slowly as it is radical idea. Mind you, Columbus or Drake both had radical ideas, and both achieved them, and that is why we are here today in North America.
We must stop looking at this situation with a rear-view mirror, and look ahead.

We must also stop using all of these alphabet soup things, because those of us in the real world and not in the halls of the ivory towers or bureaucracy don't know what they mean and wonder if we should, if the only ones that do, are those that wrote them.
I never say die.

Incubators

Incubators are a great idea in principle. What I see in Alberta, especially the ones funded and located in either a university or at the Banff New Media Centre is that they are usually populated by well meaning people from either the inside or because they meet some sort of bureaucratic set up of criteria. Most have no background in operating a business for profit, or are too tightly focused on their own area of interest or research, they tend not to see the forest for the trees.

The incubators we need to advocate for, should be accountable for their progress and business developed. It must be measurable.

Currently there are no measurement tools in place to find out what economic benefit is accruing back to Alberta and ultimately into the general revenue of the provincial and federal government's general revenue through taxes.

That is after all the end result all want to see happen. I for one, am not looking for a handout without the expected result of building a venture into a going concern where we can employ Alberta trained and educated high-technology people. As well as provide a diverse economy so that trades people can look at adapting their skills for the new economy.

A talented welder is always in demand. If they can be retrained for high end welding, and actually have a high-technology job to take that training to, we all win.

As well, if the provincial government is to fund them, they need to be located outside of the two large urban centres. Too often now, the funds put into innovations such as this, seem to flow into the larger centres leaving the smaller centres to live on the scraps, or trying to get the attention of the big city guys and girls.

You may find that there are three or four themes to my advocacy here. One is less thinking like the traditional halls of higher learning in the area of technology, more attention spent in spreading the benefits of the growth of clean technology based industry and jobs through out the province, more business like decisions made by all which does involve thinking like a marketing salesperson, and the combining with this incubator concept, the idea of including them in a tax free zone. This concept is based on the idea of all things related to a small business that is trying to create a new technology, new product or service using a technological process or product developed here in Alberta or Canada, would pay no taxes at any level until it is put into the marketplace, and then the profits are taxed at a fixed rate.

An example:
I want to develop a new robotic system to allow healthcare providers to deliver mundane goods and services throughout a hospital. The incubator in Rocky Mountain has buildings and land funded through a government program, and I set up shop there to develop this idea. I pay no business tax, no income tax, no GST, and no civic taxes. No import duties on any imported component as long as it does not make up more than 49% of the entire input in hardware to the project. Then I develop the product or service, and sell it. If I turn a profit, I pay 25% to 40% of it in taxes.
This would be designed with the smaller centres in mind, and would be designed for the small to medium sized businesses. The incubators would be directed with a combination of local people, professionally trained people, investors, and technocrats.
The purpose is develop marketable products and services, and have them developed in Alberta.

Marketing is probably one of the last things I find being considered when the government either funds or helps in someway in the technology industry.


Anyways, that is my theory on reality. For this small part of the world.

Massive resort OK'd for Pass

The resort planned for the Crowsnest Pass is prime opportunity to show the world how a resort of this nature can be built, and have a zero impact on the environment.

This can be a perfect project to draw the various agencies and projects of environmental sustainability research and development funded by both the Federal and provincial governments together to show the world our 'green technology,' and to spark the building of a green industry base in Alberta.

Both level of governments have poured many dollars into various alternative energy processes and it is time to use them in a commercial venture.

There are processes that can help the developer put in a water and sewer system that has a zero impact on the environment, air, water, soil, and animals.

It is also an opportunity for the Federal provincial governments to work with both the civic and provincial governments to develop an example of how new technologies can be used to help the environmental impact of a development like this.

It is an example of how targeting the GST collected on fossil fuels can be redirected to help reduce the use of fossil fuels in such a development.

This project will also help the area build an alternative environmental science industry base in an area that has to date depended on the traditional hewers of wood industries.

If done right, and if the two levels of governments put their heads together this project can be a world class example of how Canada is learning about the environment.

Background and Numbers for Adler on Line - Wednesday, September 28th at 2:30 p.m. (Mountain time)

Jim Harris, leader of the Green Party of Canada will be calling into you from Olds College in Alberta.

Basically Jim Harris will traveling Alberta to visit and talk to Albertans, to let them know the Green Party wants to start looking at issues through a new set of eyes. He will also be addressing the issue of the agenda that the current political parties want to adopt in the fall sitting of the Parliament. The Green Party of Canada believes that agenda is not what Canadians want their politicians to be doing. The Green Party of Canada believes Canadians want real issues to be dealt with. Issues that have larger vision of the future of Canada at their heart.

o Alberta puts $1 billion into the fund, the Feds match it with $1 billion taken from the GST realized from the increased prices of fossil fuels.

o Rapid and public transportation projects, help to lure manufactures of new environmentally friendly products to areas of Canada, outside of the traditional manufacturing centre in Ontario, funded with the GST realized from the increased prices of fossil fuels the GST realized from the increased prices of fossil fuels.

During Mr. Harris' visit he will be using a 2004 Toyota Prius Hybrid car, supplied by CATCO here in Calgary, www.catco-op.org.

CATCO is a member-owned democratic co-operative, incorporated to promote, develop and operate transportation alternatives in Calgary. Our purpose is to:

Promote and encourage the use of more sustainable modes of transportation
Develop and operate a car sharing co-operative
Assist members is developing alternative transportation methods
Develop educational strategies focusing on more sustainable transportation
Develop opportunities for lobbying on issues affecting transportation

Letter To The Editor - Typos on Marketing Web Site

I get it.

There is a contest.

Spot the typos, and spot the places in the Current Edition posting on the Marketing Magazine where there mistakes.

Let's start at the top.

May 16, 2005 under the Current Issue Feature, through to the bottom of the page.

Do we get a free subscription if we point out your spell check has been turned off, or the intern was left with the password for the content management for your site?

Craig Chandler? Why waste the time and effort to comment on anything he has to say?

Craig Chandler? Why waste the time and effort to comment on anything he has to say?

It would be better to look into the future, and not use the same rear-view mirror both Harper and Chandler seem to want us to use in planning for the future.

The policies and ideas that Canadians want from their political leaders are for what is over the horizon. That means they want leaders that don't still believe in the theory that the earth is flat.

If I am wrong, then why aren't Chandler, Manning, Day, Levant, Byfield, or Morton sitting on the benches to the right of the Speaker of the House of Commons?

In fact the current party that sits there, is holding on by their little pinkie finger nail.

It shows that Canadians don't want the vision or ideas of either of the current political parties in the House of Commons as their government.

No comment will deny the attention that Craig Chandler so eagerly salivates for both himself and his ideas for Canada.

The Booze Book Battle

David Chilton is of course right when he asserts that The LCBO and NSLC is unfair competition for the private sector's magazines.

The concern of the private publishing industry, should be directed in another way though.

It should look at why the LCBO and NSLC needed to look at doing their own magazine if the private magazines were in fact reaching the readers the private magazine say they had as readers. A magazine's advertising is only effective if it sends the right customers to the advertisers, motivated to buy. The advertiser then has the job of converting that motivation in to coins and paper in their tills. If the magazine publisher has the readers they say they do, then the latter will happen. If the latter happens then the advertiser will have no reason to publish their own magazine.

The in-store situation in the four Western provinces seems all sweetness and light in comparison, especially in Alberta where we solved the problem of a government owned retail liquor store system publishing their own magazine. We privatized the system so we can run the retail sector as the customer wants, and how the owner of the liquor store saw fit.

If that mean a magazine being put together, the industry got together with private printers and risked their own money.

The last time I heard, we have a wide range of wine selection from around the world. We are not forced to drink the mass produced bland beers from the big two previously Canadian, now American owned, breweries.

We can base our purchasing decision on either our own tastes or what we have seen advertised in our local media, be it a printed magazine, a newspaper ad or review, or even an electronic newsletter.

Maybe Chilton should advocate that the LCBO and NSLC be implored to use modern ways of promoting its wares, and not kill so many trees to show they are still rooted in the past.

I would think the effort needed here from the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association should be a call of the privatization of the LCBO and NSLC.

Maybe they are chicken to say what really needs to be done.

It would have been even better if Chilton took a real look at what is happening in Alberta with the retail liquor sector.

Alas I bet he doesn't even know it is privatized.

Alas it is not surprising.

Smoking ban burns clubs

The groups and bingo halls blaming the smoking ban in Edmonton for the drop in bingo revenues are looking in the wrong direction.

A drop in attendance and revenue can be blamed on complacency and lack of vision for growing the game so people would not leave to go somewhere else that is more interesting or entertaining for them.

It is my experience here in Calgary, that the bingo industry thought they had no competition and did not need to improve their product to keep their current audience, and did nothing to grow it.

The competition that probably does the biggest damage to the bingo world outside of the industry lies with the provincial government, which allowed the uncontrolled growth of casinos and VLT's that have sucked the audience away from bingo.

The province also sucks the money put into the VLT's into its general revenue pool, and then doles it back out to their friends and their pet projects.

If the bingo industry wanted to grow, then it should not look to bringing back smoking, but to bring the much larger non-smoking customer base to its facilities.

When a company is losing its customers there is really only one reason. They have rested on their laurels and not paid attention to improving, changing, or fixing the product or service they have offered, and the customer has found someone else that will do this.

This would be much healthier for both the players, bingo workers and the groups working the bingos' bottom lines.

The other solution would be for the provincial government to grow a spine and put in place a province wide smoking ban in public places.

If the city council gives into this plea to allow smoking back into the bingo halls, they truly will be showing the province they lead with their heads in the sand.

One voice or a cacophony?

I am ambivalent on this issue until I have had a chance to see all sides and arguments. It is definitely something the Martin government will be tempted to trade away just to stay in power during their minority government issues.

It is something that needs to be discussed by Canadians.

Personally I can see why the provinces need to be a part of the process in negotiating trade and commerce deals and pacts on the world stage. Some directly impose on the provinces. NAFTA is one, as is immigration, and even the Great Lakes international group that Canada belongs to. We have seen the issues involved in Manitoba with the river that runs up from the US.

Immigration and having the people resources for Canada and its provinces to continue their growth and prosperity are critical issues that do not seem to be met by Ottawa.

If the oil sands in Alberta, the pipeline out the NWT, B.C's offshore energy industry, Saskatchewan's oil and gas industry, and the Maritimes off shore energy industry all come on line at once, we don't have the people resources to do it all.

Canada just does not have the people we need to make all work.

Since the provinces except for Quebec have no power over immigration, they must rely on Ottawa. Immigration, is one area I think needs to be managed by a Federal Minister with the provinces each having a Immigration/Human Resources Minister that are intimately part of the process as well. Not as an afterthought.

A return to the baby bonus system such as we had in the past, and as Greece is now trying, may need to happen. Yes, pay people to have babies.

Canada is not an easy country to govern. It never was, and I don't think anyone envisioned it would get as hard as it has come.

It might be time for Canada to take another hard look at how it is organized and governed. Not only is it time to bring the level of provincial involvement in international issues to an integrated one with the Federal government, the major cities should also be at the table. The major cities in Canada are the ones that take the brunt of the immigration problems with little access to the tax base of the Federal or Provincial governments.

The civic government needs to be a third level and backed up by the constitution.

Since the cities also live and dye the quality of their water, which can be affected by another province/s or states use of the water in the river that supplies the drinking water, the federal government must also take back the responsibility of the waterways that cross provincial borders.

I know that the C word is a sin to mention right now, but I think we need to take a close look at the Constitution again and see if there aren't areas that can't be improved or changed.