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Épisode: plusd'une centainede campagnesde financement 66

Fondation David Suzukiouvre ses portes à Toronto

Le magazine des locataires du Fonds de placement immobilier Allied Properties

Q U É B E C • M O N T R É A L • T O R O N T O • W I N N I P E G • K I T C H E N E R • C A L G A R Y

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UN MÉDIA INÉVITABLENouvel arrivé UB Média élargit son réseau d’affichage intérieur

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BLVD ST. LAURENT, MONTREAL / - Back in 2003, AlexandreRambaud was reading something online and manually entering information into his calendar when he realized there could be an easier way for users to save and share information from Web sites. What if instead of writing information on an easily lost Post-it note,users could just click on a button that would send information by SMS, or automatically save it to their calendar, or address book?Maybe even allow them to contact a business directly.

That’s the thought that spawned Agendize, a simple “click-to-action” tool any advertiser can add to a Web site to turn traffic intoonline and offline conversations.

It’s a matter of conversion, explains Rambaud, a serial innovator who held senior positions in information technology for more than 20 years. Prior to founding Agendize in 2009, with ChristopheBerge, Cédric Peyruqueou and Freddy Mini, he was executive vicepresident for international operations at Mediapps, a leadingEuropean software and portal vendor in his native France.

“You can have millions of visitors on your web site but how doyou convert that visit into a transaction,” he says, eyes lit withexcitement as he details the mechanism he believes will add new rel-evance to the web, which in some ways has taken a back seat to theexcitement surrounding social media.

If you search online for somewhere to eat, for example, a restau-rant’s site may invite you to click to make a reservation, click to call(where users enter a phone number and a server calls the restaurantthat then connects them to your ringing phone) and even click toshare, allowing you to send information about the restaurant toyour Twitter or Facebook accounts.

In an industry that is careful to track its numbers, Rambaud can see that two to 10 percent of visitors on a Web site using histechnology take an action.

“Web banners for example get two percent of users just moving amouse over them. Whereas we are getting people to actually clickon an action and push the interaction to another level,” saysRambaud.

Agendize now has over 20 click-to-action buttons to convertclicks into real actions. Its white-label, self-serve platform enablesonline advertisers, interactive agencies and publishers to customizeand deploy any click-to-action button by simply pasting a short line of code into any Web site, banner ad, video player, newsletter,email, social or business profile page. And Agendize’s platform provides fully detailed reporting on all actions taken.

Since its 2009 start, with Rambaud setting up shop on Blvd St.Laurent in the Balfour building where his studio space accommodatesnine people, the Agendize platform has provided click-to-action buttons to 2 million businesses in 25 countries.

Agendize.com

Agendize permet une nouvelle fonctionnalité aux sites WebEn 2003, alors qu’il entrait manuellement dans son calendrierdes informations tout juste lues sur Internet, AlexandreRambaud réalisa l’attrait que pourrait avoir un système qui faciliterait la sauvegarde ou le partage d’informationsglanées sur Internet. Et si, au lieu d’écrire sur un Post-Itqu’on risque de perdre, on pouvait simplement appuyer surun bouton pour envoyer des informations par SMS ou lessauvegarder automatiquement dans son calendrier ou soncarnet d’adresses? Ou même contacter une entreprisedirectement?

C’est l’idée qui a fait naître Agendize, un simple outil quetout annonceur peut ajouter à un site Web pour que tousceux qui se rendent sur le site puissent directement exécuterles tâches qui les intéressent tels appel téléphonique,rendez-vous ou transfert de données au dossier personnel.

C’est simplement de la conversion, explique AlexandreRambaud, un innovateur-né qui a occupé différents postes à responsabilité dans le secteur des technologies de l’information pendant plus de 20 ans.

« Vous pouvez recevoir des millions de visites sur votre site mais comment les convertir en transaction? »demande-t-il.

Si vous cherchez un restaurant sur Internet par exemple,le site du restaurant peut vous inviter à cliquer pour faire uneréservation, pour envoyer des informations sur le restaurantà vos comptes Twitter ou Facebook, ou même pour passer un appel téléphonique : vous entrez un numéro de téléphone,un serveur appelle le restaurant qui ensuite se connectedirectement à votre téléphone puis déclenche la sonnerie.

CONVERTING WEB TRAFFIC INTO ACTION Montreal’s Agendize adds functionality to web sites with click-to-action buttonsthat make calls, appointments for consumers to connect directly with companies.

BLVD ST. LAURENT, MONTREAL / - Every organizationseeks to understand and meet the needs of its customers.And marketing, explains Domenico Farinaccio, is the science of finding what a client needs and then satisfying the shortfall between need and fulfillment.

Sounds simple enough, but doing it on budget, on time and in scope is the hard part, and that’s the shortfallFarinaccio and his long-time friend and business partnerBenoît Stephenson sought to address when they formedClearGoals in 2007.

Specializing in the implementation of interactive, on-demand and integrated marketing management solutions, the firm essentially applies marketing science to its clients’ projects.

On the interactive marketing management side, for example, it helps organizations collect and leverage customerinformation (e.g., what the customer has purchased and whatare their preferences) so that they can better understand theircustomers and determine the best offer through the variousmarketing channels whether it’s direct mail, SMS, email or a phone call.

From a consulting perspective, ClearGoals also assistsmarketing organizations in the management and implemen-tation of enterprise marketing management infrastructure,as well as interactive marketing solutions.

DELIVERY-FOCUSED EXPERTISE Usingleading products from the Unica/IBMEnterprise Suite, as well as MarketingDatamarts, ClearGoals maintains a delivery-focused approach combined with expertise these two principals haveacquired from their 15-year history ofworking in IT consulting.

The firm found its start whenStephenson moved to San Francisco in1999 and eventually joined Unica, aworldwide leader in marketing software. In 2007, Farinaccio and Stephensonformed ClearGoals, which is now a partnerof Unica, and have offices Montreal andSan Francisco.

The marketing software developsanswers to specific marketing needs such as campaign management. From workingat the planning process and finding the right people, to tracking that processand seeing if sales increased due to themarketing implementation, this is a verytargeted process.

And while generally companies will purchase this softwarefrom Unica, if they want a custom implementation, they turnto ClearGoals, which specializes in being able to properlyidentify customer needs, and implement and control projectsfrom start to finish.

INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS Despite the distances betweenoffices in Montreal and San Francisco, Farinaccio andStephenson are confident working across time zones andwith companies in different parts of the world. Amongsome of the organizations they have helped, you’ll findSouthwest Airlines, Bell Canada, El Salvador’s TACAAirlines and AXA Insurance Canada. With only a couple of organizations in Canada committed to doing the samesort of work, there is room for growth nationally, butClearGoals has its sights set much more broadly.

If there is one piece of advice Farinaccio and Stephensoncould offer in terms of marketing it would be to focus on the end goal. They’ve found that companies tend to get caught up in the technical aspects too early. “Theyshould just focus on what it is exactly that they want toaccomplish,” says Farinaccio with a smile, “and then letClearGoals worry about the technical details.”

cleargoals.com

APPLIED MARKETINGThe specialized world of interactive marketing management is where theory meets practice. And where you need to keep sight of CLEARGOALS.By Micayla Jacobs

Domenico Farinaccio uses videoconferencing in his Montreal office to stay in frequentcommunication with his business partner Benoît Stephenson in San Francisco.

MONTRÉAL

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BLVD ST. LAURENT, MONTREAL / - Every year,Quebecois donate about four billion dollars to charity and it is Daniel Asselin’s job to figure out where it all goes. No, he has nothing to do with Revenue Canada, rather, the energetic 52-year-old is part of a small cadre of consultanciesspecializing in the business of fundraising.

His company, Episode, is one of three such enterprises in Quebec and functions much like a communications or lobbying firm, working for large fundraisers such as universitiesand hospitals to create connections with corporations, foundations, government agencies, small businesses and even individual donors.

Its solid reputation as a key fundraising partner is based on itsability to gather information and understand the marketplace,says Asselin, whose degree in physical education led him fromcommunity work with the YMCA to becoming the ArthritisSociety’s chief fundraiser in Quebec before he opened his firm.

BOTH AN ART AND A SCIENCE “Philanthropy is a reflectionof who we are as a culture because the act of giving money is essentially an emotional act. And that’s important to under-stand,” he says, explaining that this is what makes fundraisingboth an art and a science.

Much of his work is based on gathering market intelligence,understanding where the money is going and planningfundraising campaigns.

There are approximately 25,000 organizations competing for charity dollars in Quebec and about 1,000 are large enoughto engage the services of such a consulting firm.

Studying the marketplace with the help of Leger Marketing,Episode is well known for its annual report detailing trends incharitable giving. And with 30 years in the business, Asselinhas observed the way people give money changes about everyfive years.

Currently, what is most popular, he says, are challenge-oriented programs, where participants push personal limits, like climbing Kilimanjaro or running a marathon, in exchangefor donations.

“But that’s the 30- to 35-year-old demographic that is drivingthat,” he says, explaining that trends are harder to spot nowbecause within each demographic are very different tendencies.

KNOWING THE MARKET Often, Episode clients will alreadyhave in-house fundraising departments, but the firm’s job is tohelp develop strategies that are in keeping with current trendsand that resonate with their target market. And while in-housedepartments might know their marketplace, it is Episode’s job to bring in the broad focus.

The firm runs about 25 major funding campaigns in a yearand its efforts raise approximately $50 million dollars annually.It all starts with a feasibility study, where Episode’s team, most of whom have experience in the not-for-profit sector,examines a given marketplace and tells the client how muchmoney they should expect to raise, factoring in the current climate, competition and the demographics of their targetaudience. (“Clients tend to overestimate their targets onlyabout half the time,” says Asselin.)

Next the firm reviews its database of 4,000 profiles to findthe right CEO or VP to head up a board.

“Always get a corporation onboard,” explains Asselin, “Even if they don’t give a lot of money, being associated with a corporation adds legitimacy to your cause and provides accessto a VIP network.”

It takes six to ten months to build a network, then almost ayear to set up operations. And it’s only in the last six monthsthat an initiative starts to collect funds.

“There’s a lot of work that is done before any money canchange hands,” says Asselin, explaining that a typical campaignwill take two years from start to completion.

Now that his network and reputation have been firmly established in Quebec, Asselin and his team of 22, including an event management firm Episode recently acquired, are setting their sights on English Canada.

“We’ve established ourselves here, now if we want to grow,we need to look at being coast to coast.”

episode.ca

Part art and part science,understanding why and how people give has madeMontreal’s Épisode one of themost sought-after, third-partyfundraisers in the province.

OF GIVINGTHE BUSINESS OF GIVINGBy Yvan Marston

L’alchimie philanthropique : Moitié art,moitié science, Épisode a conduit avecsuccès au Québec plus d’une centaine de campagnes de financement.Chaque année, les Québécois donnent environ quatre milliards de dollars auxœuvres de bienfaisance et c’est à Daniel Asselin que revient la tâche de savoirquelles organisations caritatives en profitent. Non il ne travaille pas pourl’Agence du revenu du Canada. Cet homme de 52 ans débordant d’énergie fait partie d’un petit réseau d’agences de conseil qui se spécialisent dans les campagnes de financement.

Sa société, Épisode, est une des trois agences du genre à Québec. Elle fonctionne comme une agence de communication ou de lobbying et tente de créer des liens entre de grands organismes nécessitant du financement,comme les universités ou les hôpitaux, et les grandes entreprises, les fondations, les agences gouvernementales, les petites entreprises et même les donateurs particuliers.

Épisode doit son excellente réputation dans les campagnes de financementà sa capacité à rassembler des informations et à comprendre le marché,explique Daniel Asselin, diplômé en éducation physique passé du poste d’organisateur communautaire au YMCA à celui de directeur de collecte defonds pour la Société d’arthrite division du Québec avant d’ouvrir son agence.

« Notre attitude face à la charité est le reflet de notre culture parce que ledon d’argent est un geste qui fait appel principalement aux émotions. C’est un point qu’il est important de comprendre », dit-il en expliquant que c’est cequi fait des activités de financement à la fois un art et une science.

L’agence se consacre à 25 grandes campagnes de financement par an et letotal annuel de ses collectes de fonds se chiffre à quelque 50 millions $. Unecampagne débute toujours par une étude de faisabilité, étape pendant laquellel’équipe d’Épisode, dont les membres ont pour la plupart une expérience dans le secteur à but non lucratif, étudie un marché particulier et explique auclient combien d’argent il peut s’attendre à collecter compte tenu du climatéconomique du moment, de la concurrence et des données démographiques dupublic cible. (« Les clients surestiment leur cible dans 50 % des cas seulement »,explique Daniel Asselin)

L’étape suivante consiste à passer au crible la banque de données quicompte quelque 4 000 profils pour trouver le PDG ou le vice-président adéquatpour diriger le conseil d’administration.

« La participation d’une grande entreprise est indispensable même si elledonne peu d’argent », affirme Daniel Asselin, « car le fait d’être associée à une grande entreprise donne une légitimité à la cause et ouvre l’accès à unréseau VIP. »

Il faut de six à dix mois pour mettre sur pied un réseau et ensuite prèsd’une année pour organiser l’opération. Et c’est seulement pendant les sixderniers mois qu’une campagne commence à amasser des fonds. « Il y a beaucoup à faire avant que les dons affluent », affirme Daniel Asselin en expliquant qu’une campagne s’étale généralement sur deux années.

Maintenant que son réseau et sa réputation sont fermement établis auQuébec, Daniel Asselin et les 22 personnes de son équipe, qui comprend l’agence de gestion d’événements récemment acquise par Épisode, ont des vues sur le Canada anglophone.

« Nous sommes bien établis ici donc si nous voulons nous agrandir nousdevons élargir notre présence à l’ensemble du Canada. »

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Quelques campagnes Épisode:

Fondation de l’Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de MontréalCampagne 2008-2012 au profit de la construction du Centre Intégré de traumatologieObjectif : 10 M$Résultat : 10 385 931 $

Fonds de développement du collège Édouard-MontpetitCampagne 2008-2012Objectif : 5,3 M$Résultat : 5 810 000 $

Défi Cardio 25 heuresÉvénement organisé par Énergie Cardio au profit duFonds Josée Lavigueur et d’Opération Enfant-SoleilMai 2010 – 1ère éditionRésultat : plus de 340 000 $

MONTRÉAL

QUEEN ST. WEST, TORONTO / -In 1989, David Suzuki aired a radioseries that took a hard look at whatthe earth might be like in 50 years. It’s a Matter of Survival promptedmore than 17,000 letters from listeners all asking to know how toavert this environmental catastrophe.

The following year, the DavidSuzuki Foundation was formed, and

in the last 20 years it has grown to become a well-recognizedsolutions-based organization with more than 60 employeesand offices in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal and mostrecently Toronto.

At its start, projects tended to be international as the dollars could go further trying to protect indigenous people’s habitats in Brazil and Columbia, but now the focus is on fisheries, forestry and sustainability in Canada as well as health issues and protecting species at risk.

CREATING CREDIBILITY Suzuki leveraged his skills as a scientist and his reputation as a broadcaster to create this

foundation with Dr. Tara Cullis that would provide solid,science-based research to balance groups doing straight public advocacy and activism.

“Over the past two decades the David Suzuki Foundationhas become one of Canada’s most trusted and respectedenvironmental organizations,” says Jode Roberts, spokes-person for the foundation’s Toronto office, just north ofQueen West on John Street.

The foundation had always had some presence inToronto, mainly working out of the Centre for SocialInnovation on Spadina Ave., but wanted to bring a renewedfocus to its work in Canada’s largest city. To that end, FaisalMoola, the foundation’s science director, has taken the helm here and the first order of business will be to examinethe city’s ‘natural capital.’

“Similar to the idea of financial capital, natural capital is where you place an economic value on the benefits wederive from nature,” says Roberts, explaining that the city’stree canopy, for example, creates a cooling effect that can be measured by the amount of energy saved in using less air conditioning.

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David Suzuki Foundation team members (l-r) Jode Roberts, Kathrin Majic and Amy Hu use Cisco System’s TelePresence, a donated videoconferencing system, to reduce the carbon footprint of travel between the national organization’s offices.

NATURALSCIENCEFocused on the science behind environmental issues, the David SuzukiFoundation’s new Toronto office assesses the city’s ‘natural capital.’By Yvan Marston

Science Director,Faisal Moola

STAGGERING ECOLOGICAL BENEFITS In a study released this fall,the foundation conservatively estimated that the natural capital in B.C.’s Lower Mainland (valuing farmland and green space) provides a staggering $5.4 billion a year, or $2,462 per person, in ecological benefits such as climate regulation, flood protection,water regulation, waste treatment and pollination.

While not a new concept (in the early 1990s New York Citychose to invest in protecting its watershed rather than build newinfrastructure to filter its water. In doing so, the city has saved billions of dollars), it lacks exposure and the Toronto office will be looking to inject itself into discussions about how the GTA can accommodate its growing population without sacrificing theregion’s remaining farms, fields and forests.

RECONNECTING WITH NATURE The second part of the founda-tion’s work here involves the softer side of environmentalism, that is, reconnecting urban populations with nature in theirneighbourhoods and communities. Photo contests asking peopleto depict their idea of nature in the city is one such campaign, as is the foundation’s efforts towards making Scarborough’s RougeRiver Valley into a National Park.

All the while, Suzuki helps to maintain the foundation’s profilewith a documentary on his life and work, Force of Nature, in theatres and a book, based on the experiences in the film, due out this winter.

And then of course, there is the Web site. Designed as a resourcefor anyone looking to lower their environmental impact, the foun-dation offers a number of ongoing tips, blogs and free toolkits.

davidsuzuki.org

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TORONTO

In the last 20 years, theFoundation has grown toinclude more than 60employees in offices inVancouver, Ottawa,Montreal and now Toronto.

CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR OFFICE’S ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT? How many people save email attachments in their mailboxes AND file a copy elsewhere on their computer?All virtual files actually take up physical space on a disk drive, which costs money, consumes energy andneeds maintenance. Instead of running out to buy more disk drives, free up space by cleaning up what youalready have. Other tips incude:

• Unplug cell phone chargers, calculators, TVs and anything else with an LED display until you need them.As long as they’re lit, they’re using electricity. Plug equipment into power bars and turn those off untilnecessary.

• Most computers remain idle for the greater part of the day, so get staff in the habit of turning theirs offwhen away from their desks for extended periods of time. Laptop users can change their power savingssettings to turn screens and disks off.

Source: www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/green-your-workplace

La Fondation Suzuki s’installe pourde bon à Toronto et s’intéresse au « capital naturel » de la ville.David Suzuki a mis à profit sa formation de scientifique et sa réputation de journaliste de radio pour créer, avec le Dr Tara Cullis, sa célèbre fondation dont l’objectif est de fournir des recherches rigoureusement scientifiquesdans le domaine de l’environnement, une approche complémentaire à celle des associations purementengagées dans l’activisme auprès du public.

« Dans les enquêtes d’opinion que nous avonsmenées, la Fondation David Suzuki a généralement laréputation d’être la plus crédible parmi les associationsde protection de l’environnement », explique JodeRoberts, porte-parole du bureau de Toronto, rue John juste au nord de la rue Queen Ouest.

La fondation a toujours eu une certaine présence àToronto, où elle était principalement installée avenueSpadina au Centre for Social Innovation. Toutefois,l’équipe a souhaité faire davantage que des projetsponctuels et s’impliquer plus activement dans la plusgrande ville du Canada. C’est dans cette optique queFaisal Moola, directeur scientifique de la fondation,a pris les rênes de l’équipe torontoise et sa toute première priorité sera de faire l’inventaire du « capitalnaturel » de la ville.

« Le but est de donner une valeur économique aux profits tirés de la nature », affirme Jode Roberts en expliquant que, par exemple, les arbres de la ville, grâce à l’ombre qu’ils créent, ont un effet réfrigérant qui peut se mesurer directement à la quantité d’énergieéconomisée en climatisation.

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TELL ME. SHOW ME.LET ME TRY.

TELL ME. SHOW ME.LET ME TRY.

EXCHANGE DISTRICT, WINNIPEG / - From hisArthur Street offices, Brendan Nagle can see the future of eLearning. Though his company Technologies forLearning Group (TLG) has worked at the forefront ofeLearning systems since 1998, taking them from glorifiedPowerPoint presentations to interactive module-basedteaching, he expects teachers and textbooks to continue as a complementary part of online learning.

“People learn more quickly when there are multiplelearning systems,” says Nagle, a former college professorwhose entrepreneurial spirit took hold when his notion of online learning began to diverge from that held by the traditional education sector.

SERVING THOUSANDS Today, Nagle estimates his 10-personshop serves hundreds of thousands of learners through itsprograms every year as it generates teaching systems forclients in aerospace, retail, manufacturing, tourism, healthcare, gaming and government.

TLG has created hundreds of customized, self-directedand self-paced learning modules delivered on the Web,through client Intranets, on CD ROMs, and as print tools.As designers of custom content, it has produced learningon a myriad of subject matters using its “Tell Me, ShowMe, Let Me Try” methodology.

But its focus is workplace, corporate-based learning,explains Nagle seated comfortably in his third-floor office,where he is dressed tidily in jeans and a blazer, a full greychevron moustache covering his upper lip.

MEASURABLE LEARNING “There are learning developmentsand attention to content [in corporate-based learning], but itis also about efficiency and having measurables so that youcan understand the return on your investment,” says Nagle,explaining that by tracking usage, companies can get a veryreal sense of whether a person will be successful, as much in

corporate training as in mission critical situations like themilitary (TLG developed software to manage online examsfor naval officers).

Another area of expertise is in the far more customizedworld of simulation such as how to build an aircraft enginewith all its 30,000-something parts, or how to performemergency room procedures such as defibrillation or chest,throat and nose intubation where users work on 3-Dhuman torsos.

“There is a separation between content producers andlearning software developers and we’re one of the few companies that do both,” explains Nagle.

Always building a learning system from a set of businessgoals they have established through close consultation witha client, Nagle and his team often suggest companies thinkbig and start small.

“Consider how this project can be a part of a larger system,” he says, explaining that every system is an oppor-tunity for a company to learn how its employees learn.

CHANGING LIVES Making employees more efficient maybe a goal of an eLearning system, but often it providesaccess to life-changing learning opportunities.

One of the company’s projects, English Online, is a separate not-for-profit organization Nagle started for theprovincial government to help newcomers with theirEnglish language skills.

Most of the users are adults working survival jobs duringthe day and spending an hour at night honing the skillsthat will help them into more meaningful employment.

“Learning hasn’t changed,” says Nagle. “This is just technology being applied to help people connect with thethings they need to know and do in the real world.”

Tlg.ca

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WINNIPEG

Winnipeg’s Technologies for Learning Group designs online learner-directed content for everything from employee orientation to standards-based certification. By Yvan Marston

““Learning hasn’t changed, this is justtechnology being applied to help peopleconnect with the things they need toknow and do in the real world.”

– Brendan Nagle

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SIXTH AVE. SW, CALGARY / - Despite its elegant oldworld feel and the storied look of its bold Mahogany paneledwalls and rich yellow table cloths, ParkerHouse Bar andGrill’s 9,000-square-foot dining room has more to do withthe future that it does with the past.

Tucked into the Sixth Ave. SW side of Calgary’s LougheedBuilding, a circa 1912 classical commercial building that waslovingly restored and reopened in 2008, this two-year-oldsteak and seafood house is part of the vanguard of servicebusinesses that envision growth north of Eighth Ave.

Mixing New England culinary classics like clam chowder and lobster rolls with Western fare like beef and bison chiliand a selection of steaks from different ranches, ParkerHouseexpects its lunch service to expand considerably once thenearby 58-storey Bow tower comes online.

LUNCHTIME CROWDS “That’ll bring about 6,000 peopleinto the area,” estimates Ron Salverda of CA Restaurants,

which owns and operates ParkerHouse as well as TRIB steakhouse and Murrietta’s, two other establishments a fewblocks to the south on Eighth Ave.

“But people wouldn’t necessarily walk from [First andSixth] down to Eighth Ave, so we wanted to find a locationin this area,” he says, explaining that crowds from Bow Valley Square and the Suncor Centre currently fill the dining room at lunch hour.

But with 220 seats, including a 40-seat mezzanine and a 50-seat private function room, they are expecting the middaydining to simply last a little longer (currently they serve 120 to 200 lunches daily).

GAS FIREPLACES AND CHERRYWOOD FLOORS A mid-pricedoption for both lunch and dinner, ParkerHouse brings Boston-style comfort food to the downtown east office population.With pasta, pizza and sandwich options in the mid-teens and a hormone-and-antibiotic-free 12-ounce rib eye topping out

PARKERHOUSE RULESCalgary dining room serves Eastern seaboard comfort food dressed with Western hospitality (and steaks).

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the dinner menu at $43, it’s easy to see why the place hasgrown so popular, so quickly.

Indeed, its leather chairs, gas fireplaces and cherrywoodfloors make it look like an expense-account-only boys club,but the open layout and lively atmosphere make it an inviting place for an after-work rendezvous.

Salverda says the location itself contributed to the notion of opening a restaurant with an East coast feel.

“This building looks like it belongs in Boston so we started looking at Boston and the food they served there,” he explains.

REVIVING FORGOTTEN RECIPES During his research, hecame across the Parker House roll, a dinner roll invented inBoston’s Parker House Hotel. He and his team, now led bychef Chris Grafton, sought “forgotten food” recipes withroots in the Boston school of cooking that mixed traditional

French techniques with American cuisine to come up with creations like a Sloppy Joe made with beef ragoût.

Steak, of course, has a place on the menu, not once buttwice. Diners have a choice between three cuts from tworanches, one a Reserve Angus aged 28 days (only the top 8% of all Canadian Angus beef receives this grade), and the other from Spring Creek Ranch, which produces a completely natural beef, free of hormones and antibiotics.

Lately, ParkerHouse has been keeping its bartenders busy in the lounge area shucking fresh Glacier Bay oysters flownin from Caraquet, New Brunswick every Thursday.

Indeed, as much as it draws on the traditions of the past,ParkerHouse’s position as a mid-priced dinner option that hosts a full-house at lunchtime leaves it poised to take advantage of the neighbourhood’s future.

Parkerhouse.ca

ospitality (and steaks). By Yvan Marston

CALGARY

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Outfitter Patagonia Opens First CanadianStore on King Street WestOutfitter Patagonia Opens First CanadianStore on King Street West

Interior of Patagonia’s first flagship retail store, Great Pacific Iron Works, in Ventura California.

Photo: Dawn Kish Photo: Brian Huntington

Photo: Tim Davis

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Patagonia seeks nominationsfor Toronto store’s firstenvironmental grant

Each Patagonia store has its own grant budgetin the form of money and product, to help environmental groups in their own backyard. As part of the store’s environmental mission,and in celebration of the first store in Canada,Patagonia Toronto will be accepting nominationsfrom customers for local environmental organizations to be considered for the store’s first environmental grant.

Forms and further information will be available at the store, and store employees will select the group based on the company’s environmentalguidelines. Group selection will be announced in February, 2011.

First and only clothingmanufacturer to recyclecompetitors’ garments

Patagonia’s fleece pullover has long been thegold standard in rugged outdoor warmth and for more than 17 years, the company has manufactured it using post-consumer recycledplastic soda bottles. It is also the first and onlyclothing manufacturer to recycle competitors’garments, as well as its own, through a programthat accepts worn-out fleece, organic cotton t-shirts and Capilene® (long underwear) products. The donated garments are recycledinto new fibers to save energy and reducegreenhouse gas emissions.

KING WEST CENTRAL, TORONTO / - The city’s outdoorretail landscape is undergoing some change as Patagonia, a Ventura,California-based clothing manufacturer and lifestyle outfitter once named ’The Coolest Company on the Planet’ by FortuneMagazine, opened its first Canadian store in December at 500 KingStreet West in premises formerly occupied by Mini Downtown.

“We selected Toronto for our first Canadian store because of thelarge community of outdoor enthusiasts, their passion for outdoorsports and the environmental consciousness of area residents,” said Patagonia’s vice president of Global Retail, Robert Cohen, in a release. “We’re looking forward to introducing Torontonians to the Patagonia brand through this bricks-and-mortar presence.”

OUTDOOR CLOTHING FROM CLIMBING TO PADDLING Patagoniawill occupy the first floor of the facility where it will offer a wideselection of its own line of outdoor clothing, technical apparel,footwear and children’s clothing, including cold-weather layeringsystems, rock climbing and skiing gear, as well as fly fishing andpaddling equipment.

Beyond the appeal of the neighbourhood for this its 28th location, the Patagonia team liked that their store’s presence wouldcontinue to revitalize this heritage neighbourhood. (The space itself is in the former Gurney stove factory, built in 1872.)

A HISTORY OF RECLAIMED STRUCTURES Setting up shop here is in keeping with the company’s philosophy of seeking reclaimedstructures for its retail locations, leveraging historic and culturalvalue of these spaces and providing an opportunity for adaptivereuse that aligns with the company’s emphasis on preservation and sustainable development.

While Patagonia is well known among outdoor enthusiasts for its product quality, it also has a demonstrable commitment to environmental activism. It operates a garment recycling program(many of its products are made with synthetic fibres), and since1996, it has used only organically grown cotton in its clothing line.

It is also a strong financial supporter of environmental causes,donating one percent of its sales (which last year were over $330 million USD) to environmental groups every year. Since1985, it has given away in excess of $38 million USD to more than 1,200 environmental organizations.

patagonia.com

TORONTO

Outdoor retailer’s 28th location aligns with emphasis on preservationand sustainable development

ADELAIDE STREET WEST, TORONTO / - When amultinational insurance company noticed that it was losing a large percentage of its salespeople after their first year of employment, it soon discovered that many of these ex-salespeople reported feeling poorly trained and ill-prepared for the work.

“They had trouble anticipating certain sales scenarios, so we created a virtual environment that mimicked those scenarios, using video actors and 3D imaging to create typical and atypical insurance situations that grabbed thelearner’s interest” says Lonelle Selbo, a producer with SwissVirtual Business School, an international eLearning companywhose 3,000-square-foot studio on Adelaide Street Westserves as the multinational firm’s main production facility.

The numbers are still out on the effectiveness of the insurance company’s new program, but participation wasalmost at 100 percent and the anecdotal feedback is all very positive, says Selbo, who along with 30 others form the Toronto employee base for SwissVBS, as it is known.

APPLIED LEARNING SOLUTIONS Founded in 2001 by professors from the University of St.Gallen, located in northeastern Switzerland, SwissVBS was originally a spin off of the university as part of a bid to provide “applied

learning solutions.” (The founding professors still serve as directors on the company’s board and regularly engage other highly respected professors from Wharton School of Business, INSEAD, and University of St.Gallen in the further developing of SwissVBS.)

While it stands one foot planted firmly in pedagogy, it continues to grow its global reputation as a high-end web-based-training provider in an industry that, in 2010, was conservatively estimated to be worth more than 38 billion Euros worldwide.

To better serve a growing list of North American-basedglobal clients such as World Economic Forum, CarlsonWagonlit Travel and Marketwire, SwissVBS opened its production facility in Toronto, a known centre of e-learning,in 2009 to run in parallel with their fully functioning Swiss office.

Selbo explains that one key to coping with organizationalchange is to ensure consistency across all of the company’simplementation processes, from public service communica-tions to compliance training. As an added benefit to manycorporations, eLearning enables learners to develop or practice some of the technical skills and competencies that are essential in many digital working environments.SwissVBS has been instrumental in providing clients

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 14

GLOBALWORKSHOPFounded by academics and focused onnew technology, SwissVBS produces the bulk of its international eLearning content from its Toronto facility.

with dedicated programs that can fulfill their various strategic training mandates, along with the flexibility to update content as necessary.

ACCUMULATING EXPERTISE SwissVBS’s very first productwas a twenty-hour online module in strategic managementthat proved to be highly successful with executive managers.Soon after, curriculum development in the areas of finance,accounting, and marketing evolved to university certificationprograms with a blended learning approach (a combination of online learning and in-class lectures). As more and moreinstitutions began to incorporate eLearning into their teachingmodels, SwissVBS sharpened its focus on customized corporate training solutions as well as the selling of their own, in-house produced educational courses, which can also be taken by individuals to further their education and advance in their careers.

As the eLearning industry has grown and expanded,SwissVBS has accumulated knowledge and expertise in thesectors of banking, insurance, health care and compliancetraining. Keeping teams up to speed with advances in information, essential skills, and compulsory industry updates is a constant requirement in an increasingly

competitive corporate environment, says Selbo. That’s whySwissVBS puts a lot of emphasis on its high standards of pedagogical integrity, creative conceptual approaches, and cutting edge media—as well as the ability of the medium toadapt with minimal disruption or expense.

“In addition to our team’s experience and talent ineLearning, we have a lot of additional competencies in-house,and those skills come into play when a client needs help developing a fully-integrated online learning solution, tailored to meet their specific needs,” says Selbo, whose own background includes journalism and advertising.

SOPHISTICATED MEDIA And as the demand for eLearninggrows, so too does the sophistication of the product. Witheach leap in technology, SwissVBS’s courses come to use moredynamic 3D, video, and Flash-based solutions to delivermedia-rich instructional design.

“The media we use is cutting edge, but first and foremostit’s about providing a pedagogical solution,” Selbo says.

“In the end, the user has to walk away from the module having learned something. All other competencies we have are purely supportive.”

swissvbs.com

15 • WINTER 2011

TORONTO

From its 3,000-square-foot studio on Adelaide StreetWest, Swiss Virtual Business School develops high-endweb-based training for the international eLearningindustry that, in 2010, was conservatively estimated to be worth more than 38 billion Euros worldwide.

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 16

THE NETWORKMontreal’s UB Media is building its market presence in the indoor advertising frontier.By Yvan Marston

AVENUE ATLANTIC, MONTREAL / - All advertisingseeks to capture an audience’s whole and undivided attentionfor just a few seconds. That’s why washroom advertising hasbecome a very important tool in the marketing mix.

“Every type of media has its advantages,” explains MichaelMinicucci, president of UB Media, a two-year-old indooradvertising firm that, in its short existence, has developed significant networks in Montreal’s cinemas, restaurants and bars, as well as campuses.

Marketers look to indoor advertisingfor its ability to segment by gender anddemographic. Placing an ad for a newrazor in the men’s change room of agym, for example, will ensure that 100 percent of the people it reaches arein the advertiser’s target audience, saysMinicucci, who along with business partner John Caruanaruns UB Media from offices at 400 Avenue Atlantic.

“The ability to target by gender, and the ability to have a longer ‘conversation’ with the consumer are key benefits of our product,” says Minicucci, explaining that indoor advertising, which includes signage and video screens, havehigh ‘dwell time’ during which consumers interact with theadvertising more than in other media.

Restaurants and bars are where the duo first conceived theidea of competing in the indoor ad business and here they hold25 percent of the city’s market share. The smallest of their networks is in the health and fitness sector, but they are lookingto technology and event management as areas of growth.

UB Media made significant inroads into the market bysecuring a network with Guzzo Cinemas, Canada's largest

independent theatre chain with 45%of the Montreal market. (Montreal isthe only major Canadian metropolitanarea where Cineplex has a significantcompetitor.)

“Once we started working withGuzzo, we knew we had somethingdifferent that our competitors couldnot offer. However, they still had oneoffer that we didn’t – so we started

looking to partner with universities,” says Minicucci.

UB Media won an RFP from Concordia University in thefall and launched their newest network, UB Campus.

Using more than 600 basic boards, 40 large-format megaboards, and with a digital board integration underway, UBMedia now holds the second-largest market share in campusmedia in Montreal, marking the first time a new competitorhas exceeded either of the two national suppliers in marketpresence in any major metropolitan area.

““The ability to target by gender,and the ability to have a longer‘conversation’ with the consumerare key benefits of our product.”

– Michael Minicucci

17 • WINTER 2011

MONTRÉAL

Looking to the future, Minicucci believes digital technologywill advance the medium. “Our new screens use state-of-the-arthigh definition that allows the flexibility to have static bannersand video playing at the same time,” says Minicucci, whoexpects to integrate Bluetooth technology to allow informationdownloads to portable devices as well as the use of QR codes(digital barcodes smart phones read to display additional information).

It is the kind of interaction a cinema patron in a line up or a student on campus might undertake because these areindoors spaces where people congregate, explains Minicucci.

It is also why UB Media has undertaken managing promotional events such as their work for cellphone providersKoodo and Telus, mainly in Guzzo Cinema space.

“Cinemas are great for these events because people are there on leisure time, they’re not running downtown to theirnext meeting,” he says.

As for Minicucci and Caruana, they expect to be runningto meetings more frequently in Toronto where they are in the process of establishing another office. “We are at a pointwhere we need to develop a presence in Toronto,” he says.“You have to have a network there because that’s where mostof the national media buying decisions are made – but UBwill always have a pied-à-terre in Montreal.”

ubmedia.ca

LE RÉSEAUUB Media a su se tailler une place importante dans le marché montréalais de la publicité intérieure ainsi que de la publicité cinéma.Les spécialistes du marketing se tournent vers les médias publicitaires intérieurs pour leur capacité à segmenter le public en fonction du sexe et du type de population, explique MichaelMinicucci, qui dirige UB Media avec son partenaire John Caruanadepuis leurs bureaux du 400 avenue Atlantic. Par exemple, afficherune publicité pour un nouveau rasoir dans les vestiaires hommesd’un club de sport permet de garantir que 100 % de la populationciblée, en l’occurrence les hommes, est concernée par le message.

« La capacité de cibler par genre, ainsi que la capacité d’assurer une conversation plus longue avec le consommateursont des avantages clés de nos produits », explique Minicucci. Il mentionne aussi que la publicité intérieure, qui inclue des affiches statiques ainsi que des écrans vidéo, permettent un temps d’exposition fort supérieur à la moyenne – en comparaisonaux autres types de médias – durant laquelle le consommateur se trouve à interagir avec la publicité.

Cela se vérifie notamment dans le domaine du cinéma, où UB Media a consolidé sa place en remportant un contrat avec lescinémas Guzzo, la plus grande chaîne de cinéma indépendante auCanada avec 45 % du marché de Montréal. (Montréal est la seulegrande région métropolitaine au Canada dans laquelle Cineplexcompte un réel concurrent.)

« Cela nous a permis de mettre un pied sur le marché montréalais et de là, nous avons commencé à chercher des universités partenaires», explique M. Minicucci UB Media a remporté l'appel d'offres de l'Université Concordia, et ont lancé à l’automne dernier leur réseau le plus récent, UB Campus.

Avec plus de 600 petits panneaux, 40 méga panneaux, et l'intégration en cours de panneaux numériques, UB Media détientmaintenant la deuxième plus importante part de marché desmédias publicitaires dans les campus montréalais. C'est la pre-mière fois qu'un concurrent direct excède la présence des grandsconcurrents nationaux sur un marché dans une grande métropole.

Caruana Minicucci

T O T U M T I P S

EAT RIGHT. RIGHT THROUGH WINTER.Totum’s nutritionist dishes on the best ways to stretch

your energy when the days get short.

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • 18

5 Rules for winter workout eating1. Eat 5 times. This includes breakfast, morning snack,

lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.

2. Eat good protein. Each meal should include somehealthy form of protein like nuts, seeds, lean chicken,legumes, eggs, yogurt, or wild fish.

3. Carbs BEFORE your workout. Use a low GI carblike steel cut oats, wholegrain ‘spelt’ toast (made fromunprocessed flour), or a piece of fruit.

4. Protein AFTER your workout. You can still havecarbs here if you want but the important thing is protein. It helps regenerate and rebuild the muscletissue you just stressed to make you stronger. Tryyogurt and berries, bean salad, or a fruit smoothiewith a good quality protein powder.

5. Avoid most energy bars. Most of these are justsugar alcohol and artificial ingredients offering aquick jolt with protein but little nutrition. The bestbars, such as the Elevate Me Bar, are made withthings like whey protein and dates “Which are pretty much things you can put together yourself,”opines Maughan.

This winter, try not to fallprey (too often) to the rinkside snack bar and the steamy goodness of its chunky friesand overly rich hot chocolate.Instead, get some produce. It’s easy to become lethargic inthe winter with shorter days

and a lack of vitamin D being major contribu-tors to this sensation. But much of this effectcan be countered by eating properly, whichstarts with making sure you are getting enoughnutrients says Sarah Maughan, a registeredholistic nutritionist with Totum Life Science at King Street West.

In the summer, we crave raw fruits and vegetables more often as we seek their cooling,thirst quenching properties, she says, but in the winter, we sweat less and therefore don’tthink about it naturally.

totum.ca

COLOUR YOUR WORLD Dark mornings andnights that start before the day is done can be amajor downer, so Maughan suggests brighteningthings up by adding as many coloured vegetablesas you can to your meals.

“Look for those bright oranges and reds likesweet potatoes and different colour bell peppersthat are in season, to make your food more

visually stimulating and fun, after all enjoyment is half the reason we eat,” saysMaughan whose background also includes psychology.

“When you’re making a stew, for example, always add extra vegetables,”she says. And “Try sautéing spinach or kale,” she suggests, “cooked spinachactually allows you to absorb more iron and calcium than when it is eaten raw.”

FIGHT THE SPIKE Of course, true high carb comfort food will always enter the picture at some point in the winter because it’s easy to get and feels good in your belly. Just know thatthese refined foods are high in fast-digestingcarbohydrates, which hit the bloodstream quicklycausing insulin spikes that will make you tired shortly after your burst of energy.

“Try not to go for more than three hours without eating, four is the maximum,”says Maughan, who advises her clients to always include a healthy fat or proteinevery time you do eat something (these could include lean chicken, wild fish,legumes, nuts and seeds, and avocado).

HELLO LOW GI Eating foods that have a low glycemic index (or GI) will leave you feeling satisfied and energized longer because their higher levels of protein and fibre will take longer to release from your stomach and into your bloodstream than a processed carb.

“When you have whole grain brown rice, you havethe fibre from the bran. If you remove the bran, that’s when it becomes refined,loses the fibre and releases too quickly,” she explains.

SEE THE LIGHT Above all, getting some vitamin D is going to help ward off the winter blueswith which most of us are commonly afflicted.Getting out into the daylight for 15 minutes a day oreating salmon or eggs, or drinking cow’s milk canalso help keep up your stores, suggests Maughan.

19 • HIVER 2011

MONTRÉAL

CITÉ MULTIMÉDIA, MONTRÉAL / - Les travaux ont commencé enoctobre au quatrième étage du 645 Wellington où quelque 37 000 pieds carrés sont en cours de rénovation pour pouvoir accueillir au printempsMilgram, spécialiste international de la logistique proposant des services de courtier en douane, de fret international et de transport de surface.

Cette entreprise prospère et progressiste, qui a de gros besoins techno-logiques et un désir de rester dans le quartier du port, est installée rue McGill depuis ses débuts en 1951.

Ses 200 employés répartis sur trois étages et demi et son souhait de trouver à s’agrandir tout près de son QG d’origine ont conduit Milgram à s’installer dans ces nouveaux bureaux au coin de la rue.

« Je crois que l’équipe a également apprécié le fait que d’autres entreprisesprestigieuses soient installées ici comme Morgan Stanley et SAP », affirmeAndré Plourde (Groupe Immobilier) qui a participé aux négociations.

Les nouveaux bureaux permettront à Milgram d’avoir accès à quelquesplaces de stationnement situées en face au 700 rue Wellington. Le nom et le logo de la société seront affichés sur le mur extérieur de l’édifice. Lesemployés de Milgram jouiront également d’un ascenseur privé qui lesemmènera directement aux bureaux administratifs alors que l’ascenseur de devant, rénové, sera réservé aux clients et autres locataires.

L’installation d’un générateur de secours (ses clients et partenaires étantinternationaux, sa technologie se doit d’avoir le plus haut degré de fiabilité)et le besoin de renforcer une partie du sol pour son ordinateur central et son système de classement des dossiers ajoute à la complexité du projet de rénovation qui devrait s’achever en mai.

«L’équipe de Milgram emménage dans un édifice rénové de catégorie I,mais elle bénéficiera aussi de tous les avantages d’un grand complexe »,explique André Plourde, « y compris la gestion de qualité qui va avec.»

Logistics Provider Milgram Taking Top Floor of 645 WellingtonCITE MULTIMEDIA, MONTREAL / - Work started inOctober on the fourth floor of 645 rue Wellingtonwhere a 37,000-square-foot floor plate is beingrenovated to accommodate the Spring move ofMilgram, an international logistics outfit withservices in customs brokerage, internationalfreight forwarding and surface transportation.

A fast-growing and progressive organizationwith high technology needs and a desire to stayin the port area, Milgram has held offices onnearby rue McGill since its formation in 1951.

But with its 200 employees spread out overthree-and-a-half floors and an interest in trying tofind contiguous space, the company’s search leadit to this locale just around the corner.

“They’re moving into a renovated Class-Icharacter building but they are getting the benefitof being part of a much larger complex,” saysPlourde, “And that gives them access to thesophisticated management that comes with it.”says André Plourde of Groupe Immobilier, whichhelped put the deal together.

NOUVEL ARRIVANT:Milgram, spécialiste de la logistique s’installe au dernier étage du 645 Wellington

Work continues on Milgram’s 37,000 square feet to bring it up to the caliber of some of the 645 Wellington’s other tenant spaces (right).

al l iedpropert iesre i t .com • HIVER 2011

QUEB

ÉC

www.alliedpropertiesreit.comAvez-vous une histoire à raconter? Écrivez-nous au news@alliedpropertiesreit.com

Rédacteur en chef: Yvan Marston • Graphisme: Gravity Design

NOUVO ST-ROCH, QUEBEC / - Stéphane Dion a passé dix ans à Montréal à divers postes prestigieux du secteur public avant de revenir à Québec en 2007 pour créer Paradigme affaires publiques. Quand il a commencé à chercher des bureaux pour son équipe de six personnes, il avait une certitude : c’était Saint-Roch ou rien.

« J’ai passé une partie de mon adolescence ici. C’est unquartier que je connais très bien. J’y ai connu la mauvaisepériode. Et puis quand je suis revenu, j’ai vu à quel point le quartier avait changé. Il était en pleine renaissance et je voulais participer à cette renaissance-là. »

Plus que de simples locataires du quartier, Stéphane Dion et son équipe ont organisé le premier Sommet Actions Saint-Roch en novembre, une conférence d’un jour qui rassemble gouvernement, entreprises et diverses institutions pour définir des défis communs et trouver des solutions visant à assurer la revitalisation continue et systématique du quartier.

Avec l’ex-maire de Québec Jean-Paul L’Allier, qui a prononcé le discours d’ouverture, les 120 personnes présentes ont entendu parler du problème de manque d’habitations et de l’accès au quartier en autobus et en voiture.

Paradigme, dotée d’une vaste expérience dans les relations publiques, a fait preuve pendant cette rencontre de ses talents dans la gestion d’événements, de son expertise dans le domaine de l’immobilier commercial et de son sens aigu des relations avec le gouvernement.

« Nous offrons des services complets axés sur l’image

de nos clients auprès du public sans oublier leur marché cible. Il est aussi important de tenir compte du public, des partenaires, des fournisseurs et du gouvernement »,explique Stéphane Dion en ajoutant que le contexte compte aussi.

Paradigme se spécialise dans la communication d’entreprise, les relations publiques (relations avec les mediaset conférences de presse), et les relations gouvernementales, un des points forts de son expérience passée.

Bachelier en relations industrielles de l’Université deMontréal, Stéphane Dion a gravité dans la sphère politiquequébécoise, où il a conseillé étroitement les chefs de l’opposition officielle, Daniel Johnson et Jean Charest, de1997 à 2000 sur de grands dossiers socio-économiques.

Il est ensuite passé au palier municipal pour devenir coordonnateur et conseiller du maire de Montréal (2001-2003). Il a agi à titre de vice-président du service Politiques et Partenariats à la Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain, et par la suite, il devient consultant et pilotedes dossiers d’envergure en développement des affaires pour le compte de Viger DMC International Inc, Le Groupe Maurice, la Chambre de commerce du Montréalmétropolitain tout en conseillant les dirigeants de la Mairie de Québec et de différents ministères québécois.

Dans le cadre de ses mandats, il assume depuis 2008 lesfonctions de directeur régional pour la région de Québec de l’Institut de Développement Urbain.

Paradigme-ap.com

ORIENTER, VISER ET VISIONNERPlus que de simples locataires du quartier, Paradigme affaires publiques a organisé le premier Sommet Actions Saint-Roch en novembre.

Le Sommet Actions Saint-Roch en pleine action.

FSC LOGO HERE