Tag Archives: vancouver

Journey into the Wilds of New Westminster on the Greenway

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This Monday, intrepid Gumboot illustrator/photographer Phil Skipper and I embarked on a journey to ride from East Vancouver to New Westminister along the vaunted Central Valley Greenway, a bike route that weaves through the “Vancouver specials” of East Van, along the flat Skytrain route to Boundary and then into the forest and lake district of Burnaby all the way to the heart of New Westminster.

The trail runs past a wide range of interesting sites (neighbourhood library, awesome cycling bridge, old New West prison, gorgeous lakes, angry looking Canada geese) which we were sadly unable to spend too much time observing due to the pouring rain that buffeted us throughout the day. Below are a few photos that chronicle the journey – which despite the weather, was a very good one. To learn more about the Greenway and other associated routes – visit Translink’s website.

This is a little “library” alcove buried off Lakewood in Grandview Woodlands. Talk about a neat little concept for the community to share books.

Despite the rain, we enjoyed a brief picnic of nuts, strawberries and raisins in Burnaby's lake district as we watched Canada Geese give us the evil eye.

Amazingly tasty meal at the Dublin Castle Pub in New West. I got the soup and beef dip. Skipper enjoyed the very British Shepherd's Pie

Whitecaps FC Community Asset Review – Part 3

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Editors’ note: Kurt and John are firm believers that Vancouver can and should be the Canadian epicenter for growing the sport and culture of soccer football soccer. This is a self-described healthy community. We can play outside year-round, as fields are rarely closed due to snow and/or freezing. And, most importantly, Vancouver is the place to expertly develop the sport of soccer because our city’s team, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, shares this goal and so demonstrates this vision through its Club Structure and the Whitecaps Foundation, which aims to create the fittest generation of BC Youth by 2020.

As Vancouver Whitecaps FC season ticket holders, Kurt and John are well-positioned to evaluate how the franchise showcases its commitment to “be a significant community asset” – so, following every match we will reflect on this commitment by answering two questions, which are below. Sometimes we bring friends and/or family-members to the game. And sometimes those awesome friends and/or family-members write awesome blog posts about the experience.

Here is our brand-new (and youngest) Correspondent, Josie Buter’s, take on Vancouver Whitecaps FC being a significant community asset.

Josie Buter - current and future world changer

How is the team a significant community asset?

The Whitecaps FC games bring people together, for example I went to the game against Kansas City and before the game I got to take part in a parade to the stadium with the Southsiders. They had chants and giant flags with the players’ faces on them, some people knew the chants and others didn’t, but it didn’t matter because you could still clap along to the rhythm of the drums they brought with them. The cheering didn’t stop outside the stadium though, throughout the whole game there were ringleaders that lead all the cheers. The whole experience was very exciting and I’ve never experienced anything quite like it before.

WHAT COULD MAKE THE CLUB AN EVEN BETTER ASSET?

Now that the men’s team has success in a higher level of soccer, where are the women? When I was younger I went to many of the women’s Whitecaps games and looked up to the players on the team, they were role models for me. For young girls it’s important to have role models, and when playing soccer it is good to have a picture in your head of what a player who plays your position or plays on a competitive team looks like. Having a local team, that would play all year ‘round would give many young soccer players hope that they can achieve their goals as well, no matter the size of the net.

Claudia Garcia – Soulfully Photographic

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Who are you?

Claudia, a.k.a. “cgg”. Mother, photographer. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay & exiled to Canada in 1977.  My parents arrived with $450 in their pocket, 2 suit cases & 2 young children under the age of 7.  Through hard work, they were able to provide us with a happy home and education.  I have learned so much from all of their sacrifices.  Although I have lived most of my life in Canada, my roots and that “pull” to my culture has always been very much alive & raw inside me. This has inspired me to raise my girls as little Uruguayan Canadians. I only speak Spanish to them.  Spanish books and music are a big part of our lives. Thanks to YouTube we can watch different cultural events that happen in Montevideo, such as the yearly Carnival and various festivals and Skype keeps us connected to our family.  My husband (being East Van born and raised) has embraced this and has learned a lot of Spanish along the way. It is fascinating to watch our 2 ½ year old switch back and forth between Spanish & English depending on which parent she is talking to.

What do you do for fun?

Photography.  I love it.  When I was just a kid, I was fascinated with my father’s camera and would get in so much trouble if I touched it, but I didn’t care – I just HAD to hold it and sneak in a few pictures.  Those were the film days when film and processing was expensive.  At 14, I finally got my own camera and did black & white dark room photography for 5 years.  I have lugged my camera all over Cuba, Jamaica, North & South America through my travels. I love to document life – people working, people having fun.  I also have a thing for buildings.

What is your favourite community? Why?

My favourite community is the one we are submerged into right now.  We moved to the TriCities last year and our children attend a Parent Participation Preschool which is just amazing.  The group of families that run the preschool really walk-the-walk.  When one of the teacher’s husbands broke his leg, everyone got together and cooked up a storm and delivered meals to the family.  We put on a successful coats & toy drive this winter for our local food bank. The fund raising committee that I am part of has done a great job in raising the money that will keep the school up and running for next year.  Next month we are holding a big fair which will give back to the local community with bouncy castles, pony rides, and entertainment, all for a very nominal cost.  Thanks to this community and preschool, our children are in a positive play-based environment and it gives you the warm and fuzzies to watch them discover, thrive and gather confidence.

What is your superpower? People look at me and tell me stuff.  My skin must emit some kind of “truth serum” pheromone or something.  I am like the bartender in all the movies that you see working behind the counter and people come and sit down, order a drink and then tell them things their best friend doesn’t even know.

How do you use it to build community? Of course, this new discovered truth that people share now comes with a sense of responsibility because people often want words of wisdom.  This superpower helps me to build community one person at a time.  Someone once said “pretend that everyone you meet has a sign around their neck that says ‘make me feel important’”.  Every person is different, but fundamentally, people just want to feel accepted and we also want to feel hope.  By listening, it gives them permission to feel vulnerable which is very powerful.

My Three Favourite Things About cgg Are…

1. She’s Really, Really Nice. To make a long story short, Claudia played a very big role in getting my career to where it is today – when an opportunity came up at UBC’s Sauder School of Business it was with Claudia’s recommendation that I made it to (and through) the interview process and into the role. To this day, I am both incredibly grateful and also very much in her debt. Thanks, Claudia!

2. Photographic Awesomeness. Claudia has a wonderful eye that spectacularly captures the soul of people and places (see awesome photos of Uruguay). She’s creative, poetic, cool, and super-classy when it comes to the pictures she snaps, sure, but especially through how she presents her work – a knack for powerful storytelling is reflected by Claudia’s words and images above. Even through a lens people seem to tell her things! Oh, and any great photographer must have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, which totally shines through in cgg’s story of how her family grew a happy and healthy life in Canada while staying connected to their roots in Uruguay.

3. Intercultural Community Building. The fact that Claudia’s toddler can flip back and forth between Spanish and English – depending on the parental audience – will serve the child/children well in our hyper-globalized world. I love cgg’s stories about using technology (YouTube and Skype) to maintain a healthy cultural connection between the national/local communities of Uruguay and Montevideo as well as the very important connection to family.

Special Bonus Reason! URUGUAY! I love Uruguay. So does Michelle. We wrote about Montevideo a lot during our month in South America and, well, I can simply say that Montevideo is on of my “favourites” list of global cities. One of the reasons that we had such a great time is because Claudia gave me some great insider tips – because, like I said, she’s really, really nice!

–

All photos courtesy of the lovely and talented Glaudia Garcia aka cgg.

Vancouver Port Boat Tours Part #1.

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I recently started a new job working with Port Metro Vancouver. For anyone who knows me, they’d know that working for a Port is pretty much my dream. And so far, that wouldn’t be far off. Other than a cool working environment, interesting people and snazzy offices, there’s the added perk of getting up close and personal to port operations. In the last three weeks I’ve been invited out on the Port’s patrol vessels for tours of both Burrard Inlet and operations on the Fraser River. Seeing the Port in action from the water is really impressive. Here are some pics from my most recent adventure today on the Fraser River, showing a more humble side of the port (Massive Auto carrier aside.)

FRASER RIVER

This is a view back toward New Westminster from earlier today. Port operations along the Fraser River are some of the biggest in terms of surface area on the North American West Coast. Log volumes along the river are booming recently with pine beetle lumber being snapped up in Asia like it’s out of style. In the background here are several mid-sized gantry cranes used for moving anything from steel, lumber, heavy machinery and pallets of lumber on and off of ships.

ROLL ON –  ROLL OFF

The Fraser River is the main terminus for all Asian import vehicles into Canada. This Vessel is docked at WWL Vehicle Services Ltd. Which handles on average over 250,000 new cars a year. This weird Roll on Roll off vessell or “RoRo” can carry up to 6,500 cars. Today it was unloading mostly Mazdas and Nissans.

TUGS!

These little guys make it all happen. Whether in Burrrard inlet flanking super tankers or in the Fraser hauling barge after barge of dredged sand, Tugboats are the workhorses keeping the Port chugging along.  We were lucky to get up close to this one.

Stay tuned for my next post with pics from Burrard Inlet. Massive conatiner ships galore!

No Fun Couver Revisited

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Thanks to Rena Warren at Capricornucopia Artworks for sharing!

We had what I call a Tipping Point party in Kelowna the other night: a party where groups of people got together who normally wouldn’t associate simply because they work and play in different social worlds – accountants, employment counsellors, computer programmers, urban planners, landscapers, sales managers and teachers – and I told a story I read through John Horn’s post about Joel Plaskett. Apparently Joel Plaskett refuses to come back to Kelowna because the crowds here are dead.

Here are some important disclosures about me: 1) I’m not from Kelowna, I’m from Vancouver, so I bring an outsider’s perspective and ask lots of annoying questions; 2) I meet exceptional people everyday in Kelowna, but on the whole often agree with Joel. A friend once asked me whether someday I will ever tell people I’m from Kelowna (I always say, “I live in Kelowna, but I’m from Vancouver”). My answer was “Not yet”. But someday I hope I feel differently.

Several years ago, I went to a groundbreaking show at a downtown Kelowna pub where local hero Shane Koyczan opened for Danny Michel.  I’d never heard Danny Michel before and I was stunned when he walked on stage, just him and an electric guitar, and provided the most sonically cool and rip-rockin’ show that one man could make.  Absolutely unbelievable. I’ve been a Danny Michel fan ever since.

Unfortunately I was also very drunk on the occasion – I had chosen to drink stout beer all evening which results in heavy lips and heavy feet – and my most vivid memory of the concert was of me falling on my face on the way to the bathroom. Unfortunately, it was also the loudest noise from the crowd that evening. No cheers, no catcalls, no song requests. And yet, the music that Danny Michel performed that night would’ve started a riot in Montreal, it was that good.

Thanks to Rena Warren at Capricornucopia Artworks for sharing!

So I shared Joel Plaskett’s comments at our party, and instead of angry responses, I got sheepish ones.   Apparently it’s a well-known fact around here that Kelowna has reserved crowds. If you want to go to a great concert, you make plans to leave Kelowna, you go to Vancouver or Washington. Even at hockey games, no one cheers very hard until the playoffs.

A friend of mine who moved to Revelstoke told me an interesting story about the Junior B hockey team there which regularly scored low attendances.  A funny cultural shift happened when Revelstoke became a destination of choice for sports-obsessed Australians looking to work abroad at a ski hill. Australians quickly learn that junior hockey is hard, fast and violent – all the things that Aussies love in their sports – and they’re permitted to drink lots of beer at games. The Aussies started buying up all the tickets along the boards and would stack their beer cups against the glass. They would cheer hysterically when a body check would send cups flying into the crowd in all directions. People around the entire rink would cheer (it’s possible that some betting was involved) and even the players and local fans were getting caught up in the excitement. Attendance at games has never been better.

I now realize that culture has a tipping point. Cities change, sometimes very quickly. When I lived in Vancouver, I remember locals complaining that the city was too boring (this was pre-Olympics) and the media had dubbed it “No-Fun-Couver”. (Even as recently as last spring, I read that UBC was making changes to admissions procedures to accommodate cultural as well as academic variables to make for a more diverse student body.) But I don’t hear as many complaints these days about Vancouver – every time I visit I have a blast – so things must be turning around. For Kelowna’s sake, both economically and culturally, I hope that shift is headed this way or tough times lie ahead.

For discussion, I’m throwing out a licentious thought: that the key driver of well-being in any city lies within your population of 25-35 years old, single, college or university graduates. If you lose more of these people than you attract, bad things are ahead. Because these are your future entrepreneurs, movers & rump shakers. It’s also what keeps your town from becoming a boring place. Kelowna has been failing on this metric and it’s something that desperately needs to turn around. In fact, it’s a key variable that every city should watch.

–

Masthead image courtesy of Adam Jones, PhD

Jane’s Walk 2012 – Find your ‘Hood!

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[Editor's note: a few years ago, one of our Correspondents - Phil Skipper - led a Jane's Walk tour of the Cambie-King-Edward-Queen-Elizabeth-Park-The-Mayor's-House neighbourhood in Vancouver. The experience was community-exploration at its finest. And it's happening again this coming weekend!]

Devon Ostrom / Jane's Walk 2011 Press Gallery

On Saturday, May 5th & Sunday, May 6th, thousands of people in metro Vancouver and around the world will take to the street to answer Jane Jacobs’ famous call to “get out and walk. The 6th annual Jane’s Walk is a chance to explore metro Vancouver’s neighbourhoods with fresh eyes and curious mind. This year in Vancouver, there will be a special focus on learning what makes’ our neighbourhoods unique.

Created in 2007 in Toronto by friends of the urban thinker Jane Jacobs, the free, volunteer-led urban walks have grown exponentially from 27 walks the first year to over 500 walks around the world – from Burnaby to Brisbane and Sao Paulo to Surrey – in over 75 cities and 16 countries.

Courtesy of Pukar / Jane's Walk 2011 Press Gallery - Mumbai

Walks are as varied as the people taking part, and they create the time and space for people to connect, share, and develop ideas about where their communities and cities are at and where they are headed.

Ask yourself – what kind of Jane’s Walker are you? From the Curious who wants to get behind the scenes, the Green at Heart, the Urban Gardener, the friendly Neighbour, the Aesthete roaming the open-air urban museum, the Active moving about the city and the Citizen fascinated by the past and future of the city, its public space and institutions, there are walks for all city-lovers.

Find detailed walks at janeswalk.net, look out for posters with walk details in local shops, select favourites on the free iPhone app and get out and walk on Saturday May 5th and Sunday May 6th!

Community Dialogue with North Van Urban Forum

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michaelnugent / flickr

[Editor's note: the transcript below is from an email exchange with Ben Woodyatt, President of the North Van Urban Forum - enjoy the awesome, folks!]

1. Tell us about your organization.

We are the North Van Urban Forum.  We are a group of local (North Vancouver) residents and business owners from diverse backgrounds with a shared concern for the shape of our community.  We are interested in transparency, dialogue, and meaningful participation in the development of the public realm.  We believe that the creation and development of our neighbourhoods must not be a passive activity, but rather should be wildly participatory, a process that fosters enthusiasm and creativity and allows inhabitants and visitors to feel proud of their surroundings, and create a sense of community.

2. What do you do for fun?

We hold events that try to get people talking.  Great ideas and insights come from all quarters, not just the people that are paid to come up with them.  Transformative imaginings often come from silly places.  We invite people to submit their thoughts and fantasies of great public spaces, to share their experiences from around the world.  If we want people to use a public space, then (I mean really, you’d think this was obvious?!) we have to build a public space that the public wants to use!  Great public space is too important to leave to the official actors alone.  The official process should be augmented (infiltrated, even) by parallel processes of community conversation.  Democracy is not, or should not be about simply turning up on polling day.  It is about turning out to voice concerns, and give vitality to discussions along the way.  This is not about protest (you asked about what we do for fun!).  A truly functioning democracy should in fact be so collaborative that protest becomes unnecessary.  Protest occurs when people feel disconnected from the ongoing creation of the communities they are a part of.  It occurs when people feel that all other  attempts to be heard (or really listened to) are exhausted.  We think it’s fun when people want to discuss their community.  When they want to come out and be a part of the community.  When they want to participate in its construction/constitution.  Rabble-rousing is vital.

3. How do you build community?

By engaging in conversation with everybody.  When you develop cordial relationships with all inhabitants, policy makers, community leaders, visitors, business owners, even when you disagree, magical things happen. Especially when you disagree!  Conversation, dialogue and participation take all forms, and different forums appeal to different people in different ways.  The question is how to spark the imaginative spirit, build wildly engaged communities to be a rich part of.  Constantly striving, and pushing for dialogue, transparency and collaboration is key to our goals.

4. Who are some of the people that do this building?

It is the whole community that builds a neighbourhood.  As an organisation (we are a registered non-profit society) we are actually a small group of key organisers, coming from different backgrounds.  Our key group of founders and organisers includes:

  • Benjamin Woodyatt
  • Tony Valente
  • Elena Giorgetti
  • Tyler Russell
  • Kevin Lee
  • Sandra Grant
  • Marianne Ketchen

Check out our profiles on our website here.  

5. Why should people get involved with your organization?

If you live in North Vancouver, visit North Vancouver, own a business in North Vancouver….. or are just interested in the process of community building, urban design, or municipal politics, then you should get involved.  We want to hear your ideas, and we want to build a bridge between the voices of the community and the voices of those paid to create it.  What makes this a great place to live, and what would make this an ideal place to live? We want to hear from you!

My Three Favourite Things about the North Van Urban Forum are…

1. Rabble Rousing. I love the description of how the organization is “wildly participatory” – managing a community dialogue while accepting/creating/inspiring a culture of dissent is difficult to say the least, so my hat goes off to you folks for being so collaborative.

2. Topical Conversations about Community Building. How our communities look, feel and behave – especially in the Lower Mainland – represents one of the most important topics being discussed from dinner tables to City Council meeting rooms. Reconciling density with green building with vibrancy with fairness and equity is not an easy thing to do. It will take transformative dialogue, creativity and collaboration to imagine, create and play with a shared, positive vision for our communities in the 21st century – the North Van Urban Forum is a wonderful part of this conversation.

3. Tony Valente and Elena Giorgetti are Members! And this Italian-Canadian power-couple is all kinds of awesome!

Social Media and the Power of Crowd

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jdn / flickr

[Editor's note: below is a press release about a very cool and community-minded event taking place in Vancouver on Thursday, April 19 from 8-10:15am. If you think that there's a future in crowds then we recommend that you check it out].

Vancouver, BC – April 16, 2012. Ideavibes CEO, Paul Dombowsky, and PlaceSpeak CEO, Colleen Hardwick, will be speaking at a workshop in Vancouver this week focused on social media and the power of the crowd to make change happen in our communities and with community organizations as well as brands.

Understanding the power of the crowd and its ability to solve problems, engage citizens, build stronger market driven products, and fund change as well as start-ups, is necessary in this social media driven world. Crowdsourcing, although not new, is something organizations as diverse as global brands, startups, social enterprises and governments can use to make things happen with the reach of social media connections.

Ideavibes, based in Ottawa, and PlaceSpeak, from Vancouver, have both developed web based platforms for citizen engagement that allow cities, provinces/states, and federal governments the ability to effectively open their consultation process to the opportunities that social media and the web offer. During this workshop, both Dombowsky and Hardwick will demonstrate how their platforms are helping cities such as Ottawa and Vancouver broaden and enhance their engagement strategies to be more inclusive and effective.

According to Paul Dombowsky:

Consultation options that involve broader sections of our community benefit the process enormously. Often public consultations draw the same people who represent a narrower, less diverse sector of society. This can intimidate many ordinary citizens.

Adding online consultations through crowdsourcing to the process gives governments and brands tremendous richness and insight from a diversity of perspectives that can make for a more meaningful process.

The workshop will look the changing nature of public interaction with both cities as well as the brands citizens use on a daily basis. Willingness and desire to use online channels for this engagement has both positives and negatives for organizations and this workshop will help participants understand best practices and hear about the successes and challenges others in Canada and elsewhere are having.

According to Colleen Hardwick,:

Many people don’t want to go to a public meeting or have much to do with traditonal civic processes per se; being able to bring discussion online—and make it easy for people to connect with consultations online—will have a profound impact on the way we make decisions and develop public policy.

A July Forbes Magazines article by Haydn Shaugnessy noted that “Crowdsourcing will become top of mind for most companies as 2011 turns into 2012.” As an open innovation tool for not only companies, but also governments, crowdsourcing and social media together make social product development possible for organizations in the business to business or business to consumer spaces.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

Date: April 19, 2012
Time: 8:00 to 10:15 am
Place: TIDES Canada at #304 – 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Price: $20 includes breakfast – Registration Required
To register and for more details, please visit: http://ideavibesvancouver.eventbrite.com/

–

Masthead photo courtesy of kevinbeijing’s photostream on flickr

Joel Plaskett’s Microcosm of Community

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rebecca / flickr

It’s Sunday morning. Last night Michelle and I saw Joel Plakett Emergency (Joel Plaskett’s band is an/the Emergency) play at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver, which is a big deal because Joel Plaskett almost never comes to Vancouver.

Reflectively poetic interruption:

I love Maritimers. In fact, Maritimers are probably my favourite kind of Canadian folk. Fun fact, Martin Renauld is probably my favourite Canadian, mostly because he’s from Quebec and won’t know exactly how to react to this comment. Anyway, like I was saying, I love Maritimers. One of the greatest years of my life unfolded in Lennoxville, Quebec during which time I lived with three fantastic gentlemen from Halifax (Cole Harbour), Nova Scotia. Jon, Justin and Adam were/are in possession of the sort of mischief, poetry, kindness, storytelling, and intangibly-unique-sociability reserved for folks from this part of the world. For years I have enviously listened to their stories of The Plask’s performances in person, over the phone and watched their posts/videos online – my theory is that he plays in either Halifax, Moncton, Charlottetown, or somewhere in the woods of Cape Breton once a week. And I’ve been jealous because I love Joel Plaskett almost as much as I love Maritimers. So last night was a pretty big deal for me. For all of us in Vancouver.

Here are my three favourite things about the Joel Plaskett Emergency show in Vancouver:

1. “Joel Plaskett: What a Beauty!” This was an overheard from the guys behind us, which was inspired by Joel (I feel like I can call him Joel) laying on his back as he sang, told stories and nearly killed himself by getting tangled and electrocuted (“electrangled” ©Copyright John Horn 2012) in what he described as an “overly ambitious stage show” – the show included red-light-rock-n-roll-monkeys and they were/are awesome. Also included on the list of things that make Joel Plaskett “a beauty” are the following: Canadian unpretentiousness (he arrived on stage wearing jeans, a jean jacket and, you guessed it, a jean shirt), soul of a poet, friggin’ hilarious, weird quirkiness (best evidenced by some of the most amazing hand gestures I’ve ever seen), and the stage presence of a truly gifted showman Showman.

2. “Do not deviate from the set list.” Following multiple requests for certain songs from certain audience members, Joel responded to the group (he was brilliant with his fan-engagement throughout the evening) with this quotation. And then he told a story about why he thought that this was the funniest thing anyone has ever yelled at him during a show. Fantastic.

3. Diverse Musical Stylings. Joel Plaskett can rock with the best of ‘em (“Lightning Bolt”), he can make you tear-up with a love song (“I’m Yours”), he can make you dance with a catchy pop song (“Through & Through & Through”), and he can make you laugh with some of the most creative lyrics this side of K’Naan (“North Star” or “Come on Teacher” or “Extraordinare” or “Fashionable People”). Oh, and he’s got some sentimental gems that get to the heart of community (“I Love This Town”).

In conclusion, from his Canadian Tuxedo to his storytelling to his balls-out rockin’, Joel Plaskett is a community-builder (unless you’re from Kelowna) through and through and through.

His cross-Canada tour just kicked-off and you should check out when he’s coming to your town. Because Joel Plaskett is all kinds of awesome.

4/13 Victoria, BC – Alix Goolden
4/14 Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
4/16 Banff, AB – Banff Centre
4/18 Calgary, AB – MacEwan Hall *
4/19 Edmonton, AB – Winspear Centre *
4/20 Saskatoon, SK – U of Sasks, Louis Pub *
4/21 Winnipeg, MB – Garrick Centre *
4/25 Montreal, QC – Corona Theatre *
4/26 Ottawa, ON – Bronson Centre *
4/27 St Catharines, ON – Brock Centre for the Arts *
5/18 Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre *
5/19 Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre *

* with Frank Turner

Alex Chuang – Philanthropist 2.0

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Who are you?

Hello! My name is Alex. I am the Founder and CEO of Weeve, an online social fundraising platform for nonprofit projects. I have an unquenchable thirst for learning new things and figuring out the better ways of doing things. I am a big fan of Disney, Apple, and the Canucks. I have a bunny who thinks the universe owes her its origin.

What do you do for fun?

Board games! I love strategic board games such as 7 wonders, Pandemic, Small World, and Dominion. Board games are awesome mental workouts. From reading the rules and understanding them to being able to explain them to your friends and apply them during the course of a game, you become more well-versed in communicating your ideas across. Here at the Weeve HQ, a lot of our team-building exercises involve boardgames.

What is your favourite community? Why?

I am very fortunate to be living in the most livable city in the world-Vancouver. I have been to many cities in the world and I must say that Vancouverites are the friendliest and most generous people.

The word community literally means “giving among each other” and the Vancouver community definitely fits that definition. Through my work at Weeve, I have connected with many local nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit organizations are an integral part of the society who provide a wealth of services that many people are urgently in need for. The people who work in the nonprofit sector are amazing. They are so passionate about what they do! I have a lot of respect for that and I really admire the work that they do. That is why the Weeve team is working so hard to help them have their stories heard.

What is your superpower?

My superpower is my ability to spot pain points and devise solution.

How do you use it to build community?

I noticed a pain in the nonprofit sector where thousands of nonprofit organizations are struggling to meet fast-climbing demands for their services due to lack of funding and exposure. My solution -Weeve – helps local nonprofit organizations raise money for their community projects through our free, simple and secure funding platform. At Weeve, our goal is to build sustainable and resilient communities across the globe.

My Three Favourite Things About Alex Are…

1. The way he pitched the idea for Weeve. I can’t describe it here, because I’m not Alex. So let me just say that when he presented me with the idea for Weeve the young man showcased one of the stickiest pitches I’ve ever seen. He drew pictures with voice-over (I’m sure that some Ken Robinson or Daniel Pink whiteboard-cartoonery will be coming down the pipe with Weeve’s pending launch) and, by the time he was finished, Alex had articulated a simple and elegant solution to some of the funding challenges that non-profit organizations face by connecting philanthropy, social shopping and technology – Alex is a Philanthropy 2.0 changemaker for sure.

2. Board Games! Fantastic stuff. Little else need be said about how cool liking board games makes Alex. All that’s left to say is this: well played, sir.

3. Passion for Positive Changemaking. Alex cannot hide his goodness. His persistence in aligning his work with the communities’ pain points is a true realization of the kind of creativity, positivity and drive (call it a sense-of-urgency) that it will take to untangle our planet’s problems and put them back together as solutions. Best of all, Alex is a master-connector who will be able to create and sustain the necessary buy-in to ensure that his ideas are transformed into tangible results.

Special Bonus Reason! Alex has a keen sense of style and, more than anyone else I know, he emulates the fashion sense of The Vancouver Tech-Startup Entrepreneur with impeccable precision. Lovin’ the hat-vest-combo, Mr. Chuang!

- As told by John Horn