Connecting people in their “Thanks a Million” efforts around the world
Recently the team at fusedlogic inc. joined in with others on TinyChat to coordinate efforts around the Thanks a Million Food Bank Challenge and A Million High Fives (#AMHF) with @BJMendelson. We chatted and exchanged ideas with @sedonapies, @ckieff, @third_age, @suzviews and more that joined in during the conversation. It was somewhat surreal sitting in a TinyChat room with others across the planet who are passionate about collecting 1 million Food Bank donations for those less fortunate. For me it confirmed the power of social media and simple conversations between like minded people. Often people think of social media as just another marketing tool, but it can be so much more than that and it has the power to change the world.
My personal goal is to give at least $5 in Food Bank donations every week until December 15, 2009. For me, that’s the price of a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks. I’m lucky enough that I have that option in my life — that I have the discretionary income to spend on luxuries like fancy coffees from Starbucks. Maybe for you that’s riding your bike to work rather than spending $5 in gas to get there. Maybe that’s one less drink at the bar on a Friday night. Maybe you borrow that book from the library, rather than buy a brand new one (and it saves paper too!)
Donating!
While $5 doesn’t seem like much to some of us, for many it’s the difference between life and death. Reading the statistic that every six seconds a child dies from hunger or related causes reminds me that I have a choice. And my choice is to make a difference. So we invite you to make a difference with the rest of the world. The fusedlogic “Thanks a Million” campaign isn’t really about us as a company at all, it’s about the community –worldwide – and how if we all work together, we will make a difference in the lives of millions around the world.
We are looking for local ambassadors — those who are excited about giving back in their communities and who want to lead the way and gather donations, documenting the journey by snapping pictures. By posting the photos online at www.thanksamillion.ca you join a worldwide initiative to see change take place. Or you can tweet the picture on Twitter and tag it with #1MPics or #thanksamillion and we’ll add it to the page. This project is meant to inspire hope, to show that you aren’t alone in your desire to help others, but that millions around the world hold that same dream, that same passion for change.
Are you interested in getting involved? Email us at kelly@fusedlogic.com or genoa@fusedlogic.com or leave us a comment. I love feedback and I look forward to starting conversations with you and with others around the world.
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
Edmonton 2009 Neighbourhood Census Data – Extended!
Today, the city released their 2009 Municipal Census data which can be accessed from the City of Edmonton website here.
There was some online discussion about the city’s choice to release the information in .pdf form instead of the more accessible .csv format. While .pdf is probably more than sufficient enough for most people, check out links to the .csv versions below.
The one thing that the .pdf versions lacked were any pretty graphs. As an accountant, a pretty graph is about the only way I can express my deep-rooted love for spreadsheets, and as such, have included some for you to enjoy below. Read more
What did you eat for breakfast?
The folks that attended fusedlogic’s latest event digested something of the social media variety.
Held on Tuesday, June 2 at the World Trade Centre Edmonton in the wee morning hours, Twitter for Breakfast was a micro conference for business professionals looking to learn the basics of the popular social networking site, and specifically how to implement it into their marketing and communication plans.
Wrapping up MacEwan BlogCamp: Success!
Friday April 3 was the culmination of a big project for fusedlogic: MacEwan BlogCamp. It was Edmonton’s and, as far as we know, Alberta’s first blog contest. It was a unique opportunity to combine business, social media and education in one cool package.
We’d like to congratulate the top three MacEwan bloggers:
1. Carla Putnam
2. Patrick Finegan
3. Peter Jaffray
The prize for first place was an Apple MacBook. In addition to the contest winners, we’d like to congratulate everyone who participated. Blogging for nine hours is not easy under the best of circumstances and blogging for nine hours in a busy cafeteria would be even tougher.
But, our bloggers persevered and we had a lot of interesting posts. We gave them a variety of topics to blog about and we were impressed with the results.
Judging
The winners of the blogging contest were chosen based on a number of factors. We had a voting system in place that ranked posts based on the cumulative net difference between a thumbs up and a thumbs down rating given by blog post viewers. In addition, we also judged the blog posts based on originality and quality of content.
Sponsors
Our sponsors came through for MacEwan BlogCamp in a big way. We can’t say enough about how happy we are that they sponsored our contest and made a huge contribution to the success of BlogCamp.
The team
We would also like to thank Jana Clarke, Sarah Parker, Laura England, Joseph DiFabio and the rest of the Grant MacEwan College team for giving us the opportunity to help put on this event. It was a lot of work but it was a blast! Grant MacEwan College really put on a good show for everyone involved.
And to the fusedlogic team, thank you as well: Walter did a great job hosting BlogCamp and all the other tasks he had; without Evan and Paul we wouldn’t have had the website or the video running virtually glitch-free; Genoa did a great job keeping everyone organized; Doug kept everyone on track with his project management skills; Krysta did a great job with her video as well.
Ultimately I think we succeeded in our goal of helping to raise the profile of the MacEwan School of Business and we’re confident that will result in more inquiries about the School of Business. MacEwan School of Business really is a good choice for a business degree in Edmonton, Alberta and beyond. We’re looking forward to the next BlogCamp!
MacEwan BlogCamp photos
If you’re interested in having a look at some great photos of MacEwan BlogCamp, have a look at Bruce Clarke’s Flickr photos. He has 166 photos there to look at. Bruce made my job tough to decide on the best photos to post here because they were all good.
Alain Saffel
