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Arts

Environmental Awakening Fusing of Science, The Arts and Sea Ice

January 10, 2018

Even though a life-long environmentalist, my transformative experiences up north in Canada’s Arctic regions onboard Canada C3, moved my environmental consciousness to a whole new level.

My own journey began as a teenager in the 1960s. Being a voracious reader with a strong scientific bent, was a perfect fit for me to embrace the fledging environmental consciousness of that era.

Clearly the …

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Arts

Canada – A Nation Built by (Extra) Ordinary People

December 5, 2017

In a previous post, I spoke about my involvement with Canada 150 and also the Canada C3 signature project. The latter is an epic journey divided into 15 “Legs”, on a former Canadian Coast Guard Ice Breaker vessel (the MV Polar Prince, ca 1958) refitted to sail from coast to coast to coast for 150 days, and provide an ideal platform …

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General

Canada at 150 – What is Your Gift to Canada and the World?

June 29, 2017

As we approach Canada Day of our 150th year of Confederation, I am compelled to share my personal reflections on where our country is headed, how the lessons of history (positive or negative) are shaping our future journey and the contribution we, as Canadians, can make to our world. Beyond celebration, our nation urgently needs our care and attention. As a result, …

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Arts

Middlebrook Prize on the Move

September 10, 2015

The Middlebrook Prize for Young Canadian Curators has named Adam Barbu as its third winner and is moving up to a whole new level. Founded in 2012 by John Kissick and me, with initial investments from Middlebrook Social Innovation Fund, to support and mobilize Canadian creative talent, the Prize aims to inspire positive social change through creativity and connectedness in a time of unprecedented economic, environmental, social, and cultural …

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Entrepreneurism

The Group of Seven – Nation Building for the 21st Century

January 14, 2014

Last year, I signed up for a wonderfully ambitious initiative spearheaded by our Governor General, His Excellency David Johnston. I was invited to join a Group of Seven who will serve as catalysts to rolling out David Johnson’s vision of a Smart and Caring Nation built by a set of Smart and Caring Communities, ultimately aimed to be a major …

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Arts

Social Innovation – Can Social Sector Learn from Tech Startups?

April 3, 2012

It is notable that much of the recent trend towards Social Innovation has come from people who began their careers in technology startups, in Silicon Valley or other technology clusters. Some notable examples include:

Bill Gates, partly at the instigation of Warren Buffet who added his personal fortune to that of Gates, left Microsoft, the company he built, to dedicate his …

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Business Strategy

Technology Visionaries in the 1990’s: A 21st Century Retrospective

January 1, 2010

“It is sobering to reflect on the extent to which the structure of our business processes has been dictated by the limitations of the file folder.”

-Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering Your Business

Recently, I unearthed a 10 year old book by Bill Gates, Business @ the Speed of Thought and took a bit of time to re-scan that 1999 book. …

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Arts

A “Rare” Tasting Menu by R Murray Shafer

May 5, 2009

“Dawn itself is the most neglected masterpiece of the modern world.” – R Murray Shafer

For those who don’t already know him, R Murray Shafer is the legendary superstar of the Canadian Musical avant garde – a great thinker, teacher, composer and all round renaissance man.

Having been a fan for over 30 years but with little local exposure, it was …

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Entrepreneurism

Who Killed Canadian Venture Capital? A Peculiarly Canadian Implosion

March 15, 2009

“Fortes fortuna adiuvat” – “Fortune favours the bold” – Latin proverb

The current economic meltdown has unleashed brutal forces acting on all aspects of the business world, but certainly innovative startups in fields like software, web, wireless, green technologies and life sciences are at grave risk. In Canada, our startups have generally been world class innovators, but severely underfunded when benchmarked …

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Business Strategy

Fail To Understand the Net Generation at Your Peril

March 6, 2009

The Net Generation (born 1977 to 1997), also known as Generation Y or the Millennials, is an ill understood lot. Don Tapscott, noted thought leader on digital technologies, is a real cheerleader for them in his recent book Grown Up Digital.

However, while some of his examples may represent the bleeding edge thought leaders of this generation, almost everything he says …

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