The Great (Edmonton) Airport Debate
The debate between closing and maintaining the Edmonton City Centre Airport (YXD) has heated up as of late. With City Councilors set to make a decision on July 8, opinion is still widely divided between the two view points.
With that in mind, fusedlogic will be hosting the “Great Airport Debate” at our studio in Sherwood Park. We currently have Mack Male (creator of notmyairport.ca) and Dave MacLean (creator of saveourairport.ca) lined up to continue a discussion they began last week, but were unable to continue due to time restraints. Well, we don’t have any of those here. As well, we may be adding a few more guests to sit on the discussion panel – we’ll update this post as soon as any are confirmed. Read more
Small Business Week in Alberta
October is the month for Small Business Week festivities here in Alberta and across Canada for that matter. In years past there has always been lots of events to attend and people to meet and this year is no exception. Speaking of events across the province, here’s a list of many of the events as provided by the Business Link. Being that I’m a (proud) director of the Sherwood Park and District Chamber of Commerce I’d like to suggest to everyone in the Greater Edmonton Region that they consider being a member of this great organization which has over 900 members and 30 years of history. There’s nothing in the books that says you can only belong to one chamber. fusedlogic inc., has been a long-standing member of the Edmonton Chamber and I have friends that like me belong to both. Sherwood Park and the surrounding area of Strathcona County is a thriving northern Alberta business community and one that you should strongly consider doing business with.
In the spirit of sharing some business news during Small Business Week (and condensing posts because I’m so busy lately,) here’s some interesting new information for you. Some of you may remember a video I shot earlier this year with Peter Urban of Smibs (featured below.) At the time, SmibsNet (a collaboration and networking software for businesses) wasn’t ready for public beta. That all changed last Tuesday with the launch of the public beta and Peter asked me while on Twitter the other day if I’d blog about it. Peter provided me with a personal invite to sign-up for the beta and fusedlogic is now listed on the site. This software is very cool and helps to solve the business development collaboration issue that many companies have. I suggest that you consider signing up and trying it out.
Sidenote: Peter did agree to call me so I could asked him some specific questions as prep for a more in- depth blog post but if you know Peter, he’s hard working and a beta takes a lot of effort. I’m sure he wasn’t going out of his way to ignore me. 
Besides we bump into each other all the time at events and around the neighborhood. Maybe he’ll bring his SmibsTV crew down the Web 2.0 meetup and present SmibsNet there on Nov 6th. Below is the video interview with Peter some months ago on Whyte Ave in Edmonton.
Also, Peter if you’re reading this and I know you are, Smibs needs to be a Sherwood Park Chamber member right away…expect me to be relentless on this point.
James Ford CAN win in Sherwood Park!
Really I’m talking about the constituency of Strathcona County but I live in Sherwood Park. I took my friend Ken Chapman’s advice and went down to visit James (Jimmy) Ford this evening at his campaign office. To be honest with you, up to now I’d missed out on all the “Uppal-Gate” hoopla out here in the Park mostly having my head down building my company. That said I did some digging and there’s definitely some history here to be aware of.
First, politically you should know that I’m a right of centre conservative. Having said that, I wouldn’t call myself a political activist at all, certainly not like Ken’s daily routine that’s for sure. My wife and I vote and we judge people on their character, morals, what they stand for and actions. Jim Ford is a salt of the earth kind of guy, very experienced and I agree with him that election reform is absolutely required in this riding. There’s no doubt that he’s a conservative given his history with the PC Party and beyond that he lives out here and knows our community. A community that myself and my family have only just embraced a few short years ago. This kind of Uppal-Gate thing (more here) really frustrates me and for that reason and many others I found out while talking with Jim tonight I’m voting for Jim and hoping that many folks in Strathcona County will do the same. This is an election reform decision, it’s a pro-conservative philosophy move as well. I just won’t endorse a candidate that’s parachuted in. I certainly won’t vote Liberal, Marijuana (NDP) or Sierra Club Green either…that said, just to spin this, if I was an American I’d vote for Obama in a heart-beat but that’s another blog post and another country. There’s a reason why James Ford’s Facebook group:
James ford for MP – Edmonton-Sherwood Park
is open to comment and his opponent’s group is not…Jim wants to hear from you, talk with you and even debate with you if required…yes he started his Facebook group late and still you should join and start a discussion. Better yet, meet Jim in person, I know once you do you’ll most certainly vote for him.
