The (Half-) Year in Recap!

OK...

Bad side, I have not had a chance to update this blog since August.  Therefore, I have a lot of back-writing to do.

Good side, time in the past four months has been tight in so many great ways!

Updates to follow!

One Ring...

Coinciding with my class' convocation from McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business MBA program, this past June, was the commencement of a new tradition that seeks to further define the identity of the DeGroote MBA, and what they stand for.

This tradition revolves around the gifting of a special, DeGroote MBA legacy ring to each successful graduate of the program.  The idea for this tradition first originated as a conversation between myself and two others (Mark Stewart, Derek Chan), while returning from an MBA Leadership conference in fall 2009.  Though the idea for such a project had been tossed  around in previous years, nothing had ever truly taken shape.  As we discussed the idea in the car, our conversation began to focus more on how to actually get it done, essentially, the steps needed to implement the program, and then the ways in which it could successfully be brought to fruition as a fully fledged tradition.

As such, between that fall 2009, and winter 2012, on the behalf of, and with the support and assistance of, the DeGroote MBA Association (particularly President, Geoff Reiner), I worked ensure that the idea became a reality.  This process included everything from the design of the ring's face, and the sourcing of the rings themselves, to designing a ring fee schedule that would be incorporated into each student's regular tuition, and then holding a student wide referendum to approve this schedule (and the effective launching of a continuous, self-fulfilling tradition).

Therefore, on the evening of June 12th, with the referendum successfully passed, rings ordered, and Graduation the following morning, the first-ever recipients of this DeGroote MBA Legacy Ring gathered at the McMaster University Alumni House, for the inaugural ring conferring ceremony.  This was both a casual affair, but also a significant one, as it marked the initiation of what is sure to be a long and fruitful tradition.

You can read more about this new tradition here.

And see below  for the statement of purpose, explaining the symbolism and motivations behind this initiative:

As the DeGroote School of Business’ MBA program enters a new era, with its new home at Burlington’s Ron Joyce Centre, the school is afforded a reinvigorated opportunity to continue to build upon its already renowned reputation, and the reputation of the degree that it confers.
To this end, the DeGroote MBAA has introduced a new tradition that will accompany each student’s completion of the DeGroote School of Business’ MBA program.  

This tradition is a symbolic token; a gift awarded to each student for their successful completion of the program.  Moreover, it is intended to be a reminder of their commitment to principles of ethics and integrity in all their future endeavours. 

This token is the DeGroote MBA signet ring.  In times past, when pressed in wax, a signet’s seal would serve as an individual’s mark of identity, representing the individual and their reputation on all official documents and correspondences that bore their name.  As such, the symbolism behind this project is that, as we as students move on in both our professional and personal lives, we carry with us the experience and education successfully attained at the DeGroote School of Business and ensure that in all our future actions we have “stamped and sealed” our commitment to integrity.  In other words we impress the lessons that the DeGroote School of Business has bestowed on us into the rest of our lives.

Gifted to each DeGroote MBA graduate, this tradition will be a proud and public showing of support for the DeGroote program, its significance, and the excellent reputation that it continues to build on our behalf.  This ring, with the corresponding DeGroote seal, though seemingly a mere token, will poetically represent the program, and the devotion that all DeGroote MBA graduates maintain upon their successful completion, towards the principles of ethics and integrity, both professionally and personally.  

At the Ceremony... Just a little proud of myself. (See ring on right index finger)

Hamilton Economic Summit 2012 - Hamilton HIVE Update

Each year the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce hosts a regional Economic Summit that seeks to encourage dialogue on regional development, and inspire new initiatives that both boost the profile of the Greater Hamilton Area, as well as the lifestyle of its citizens.

Being that the Hamilton HIVE was a project derived from the 2010 Hamilton Economic Summit, each year an update is presented on its work and progress to date.  This year, the update was presented as a video, filmed, and produced by Mindy Tweedle of Tweedle Productions, and featuring myself, speaking on the behalf of the Hamilton HIVE.

Hamilton Employment Crawl

In early April I had the pleasure of participating in the production of a video introduction for the Hamilton Employment Crawl, coordinated by McMaster University's Student Success Centre.  This was done both in my capacity as Chair of the Hamilton HIVE, and as a young McMaster alumni who has chosen to remain, and to live, work, and play in the Hamilton community.  

This was a fantastic initiative.  A long overdue attempt to bridge the education that students receive at McMaster with the experiences, opportunities, careers, and life that they can then pursue in Hamilton, Ontario, following their studies.  Special thanks go to Gisela Oliveira and Kathy Woo.  

You can find more information about the video and employment crawl below, in the excerpt copied from the McMaster Youtube page.

On April 25th and 26th, a hundred and fifty students participated in the Hamilton Employment Crawl (HEC). Students and team leaders traveled to organizations around the city to uncover why Hamilton is their city to live, work and play. 

As a project of HEC, a video interview was conducted among employers and young professional in Hamilton. The video asks interviewees about their living and working experiences in the city, as well as their relationship with the community slogan, "You Can Do Anything in Hamilton".  

Thank you to the Student Life Enhancement Fund, Sponsors (The City of Hamilton, McMaster Innovation Park, CoBALT Connects and the Hamilton Police Services) and Strategic Focus Group members (Brent Kinnaird, Cyndi Ingle, Dave Mossman, Gina Robinson, Gisela Oliveira, Kathy Woo, Michael Marini, Ruth Liebersbach, Steph Seagram, Jeremy Freiburger, and Paul Berton) for making HEC possible.  

The video was directed, produced and edited by Kathy Woo     

Photo courtesy of Melissa Height, Bee Bodies courtesy of... We're still trying to figure that out

Tuesday, April 3 saw the publication of the second issue of the Hamilton Spectator's new monthly business magazine.  The headlining feature for April's issue was all about the swelling activity of Young Professionals, Leaders and Entrepreneurs in the city of Hamilton, with a specific focus on the groups that they maintain, connect, network, and seek to further various community agendas through.

Given this focus, a large portion of the feature discussed the Hamilton HIVE, and specifically profiled Melissa Height (Vice-Chair), Matt Terry (Secretary), and myself (Chair).

This feature was a very welcome sign of both recognition of, and encouragement to, continue to push forward with all thing incredible things that Young Leaders are making, building, developing, and doing in Hamilton, Ontario.

Congratulations to all my fellow Young Professional, Entrepreneurs, and Leaders, keep up the fantastic work!

The article can be read here. 

"Ryan Moran is chair of Hamilton Hive, the umbrella organization for the growing number of YP groups in the city and was one of a team of two who just won Canada's Next Top Ad Execs. He said these YP networks are encouraging young professionals to stay here and build careers. They have also encouraged others to move here from Toronto and other urban centres. 

'It's been about bolstering each other and encouraging each other at the same time, showing other YPs outside the city what's going on here.' "

Canada's Next Top Ad Exec - And the winner is...

Warning... small novel ahead.  Would have made it more of a blurb, but it wouldn't have given the moment justice.  Plus, with the communication strategy we presented now property of General Motors, I had to fill space with something...

After three months, gallons of coffee, plenty of pints, good times, cold stares, and a lot of work, the Canada's Next Top Exec journey came to a thrilling, and entirely surreal climax for Kailee and myself.

On Sunday, March 25th, Kailee and I ventured to Toronto, Ontario for the three-day Top Ad Exec finals, hosted at the Toronto centre Intercontinental Hotel.  On Sunday we met our amazing fellow contestants, took pictures, and had a group dinner.  Monday we went to advertising agency MacLaren McCann for a tour and internship interviews, except for Kailee, who soldiered back to Hamilton to write an exam, only to come back in time for the Ad Exec industry and alumni dinner (and announcement of our victorious Quest to Win challenge).

Our wreck of a room, the night before

Tuesday, of course, was the big, huge, important day.  As much as I would love to say that we had been prepared for ages, got a great night's sleep, and woke-up bright and early and first in the prep room to learn the order of the day's presentation, none of that would be quite true.  We were working on our presentation into the wee hours of the morning, when we finally decided to go to bed, and by go to bed I mean lay down in an anxious/sleepy haze.  That is of course until we were awoken by a phone call asking where we were, and why we weren't with everyone in the prep room, which we promptly arrived at in pajamas, to find everyone else in suits.

We returned to the room, knowing that we were presenting 4th (roughly around 11:00am), got ready, had breakfast, and kept plugging away, practicing and refining our presentation.  We did one final practice, and proceeded to the presentation room, feeling both as prepared as we would ever be, and ready to be done with it all.

Upon setting up, we were waiting nervously to get started in a room of 23 academic, marketing, auto, and consumer packaged goods industry judges, when one of the judges, Mike Speranzini, Director of Advertising and Communication at General Motors, casually started chatting with us, he told us that he also went to McMaster University, and wished us luck.  Days after the presentation, we emailed him to thank him for everything, particularly for that casual chat, because it really helped to calm us down and restore some confidence prior to presenting.  He, modestly, said that it was nothing, and that we were obviously well prepared and ready to make an amazing presentation, and also said that he had been in similar positions in the past, and that he knows the value of that sort of calming, casual connection, and to be sure to pay it forward whenever we might be on "the other side of the room," so to speak.

Of everything that we might of learned throughout the entire contest, we both agreed that this was one of the most important.

Pre-presentation chat

The presentation went off amazingly well and we left the room feeling that we had done the absolute best that we could have done given everything that we had prepared, and were prepared for.  Essentially, we were satisfied.

Not being allowed to see the other presentations, we had lunch, and went out for a post-presentation, afternoon drink.

In the late-afternoon/early-evening, we re-suited up and went the pre-Gala reception being held in the lower level of hotel.  It was a blur of conversations with judges, photo-ops, and commiserating with our fellow contestants over the day's presentations.  Eventually, the Gala room opened and we were invited to take our seat for dinner.

Between well wishes and reassurances of the quality of our presentation, conspiracy theories on our seating location, and the sense that some of the judges kept indicating in our direction, Kailee and I began to get a good feeling that we could possibly end up in the top three.  Although, of course, every time either of us suggested this to the other, it was quickly returned with a "SHHH!  I don't even want to think about it!!"

After dinner, the mixture of anxiety, wine and water at the table reminded us how much we had each neglected to visit a washroom in the past few hours, and the only thoughts on our minds were, "could we possibly make it before they announce the top three?"  Of course, it was at this point that the MC invited up the presenter who would announce the top three, Mike Speranzini, the judge that chatted with us before our presentation.  At this point, any thoughts of a bathroom break left our minds for what would be another long time.

As I said, we received many reassurances of the quality of our presentation throughout the day.  However, I don't suppose you ever really expect someone to tell you that you sucked.  We had also heard that both a team from Queen's University, and the team from University of British Columbia had also really done a great job, and so, we had a chance of at least making third place.

The announcement started.  "Third place is..."

Internally, "us... us.. us.."

"The Team from UBC, Christopher Larryant and Veronica Yeung!"

In my ear, Mark Scattalon, a previous first place winner from McMaster University, a great help to us, and seated directly beside me, kept excitedly repeating, "you guys are going to be second, maybe first!"

Kailee and I could only give each other wide-eyed, nervous glances, gasping for air as though we were fighting for the last remaining traces of it in the room.

"Second place is..."

Internally, "us... us... us..."

"Queen's University's Emily Dimytosh and Elizabeth Harris!"

"You guys have just won the contest!" shouted Mark, elatedly.

"Shut up!  You'll jinx it!"  I nervously stammered back.  Kailee and I were no longer breathing, the room could have just been sealed air-tight and we would not have known otherwise.

"And the winners of Canada's Next Top Ad Exec 2012, are from my Alma Mater..."

That Alma Mater is McMaster University... if you didn't catch that

If the pre-Gala reception passed like a blur, then we might as well have been absent of all senses in the hour that followed next.  A steady stream of congratulations, hand-shakes, hugs, pictures, applause, trophies, keys, impromptu speeches, misunderstood jokes used in impromptu speeches, interviews, and returned keys (as they were just for the show of it, production had yet to even start on the cars we just won), poured forth.

When it was all done, after we called those important to us, and after we had finally gone to the bathroom, we proceeded back up to our room, popped some champagne, laughed, listened to music, jumped, and sighed incredulously for at least a solid hour, and then re-joined the festivities of the finale.

The funny thing, is that you typically assume such achievement-related elation to come from something that you have toiled over, have sweat over, have fought over, and have put every ounce of your effort into.  And although I can easily say that Kailee and I, undoubtedly, did each and every one of those things, I am much more happy to say that at no point, did it ever feel that way.  Kailee was a wonder to work with, we are better friends for it, I would work with her again in a heartbeat, and I look forward to racing our Chevrolet Sparks.  As for the project itself, even though it was a campaign for "just a mini-car," if I can find as much fun in my career as I did in this competition, I'd likely be found a skeleton, suited up, and still seated at a desk in some agency, copy and sketches in front of me, and a 1/5 full tumbler of scotch clutched in my bone-fingers, still trying to pull off my best Don Draper.

This was an incredible experience, thank you to the judges, thank you to everyone that helped along the way, and of course, thank you Kailee Jamieson.

Canada's Next Top Ad Execs 2012, Kailee Jamieson and myself

The Glass Menagerie

Me as Tom Wingfield

As I mention at some other point on this site (I believe in the About Me and Resume sections), being a Theatre and Film undergraduate, I do enjoy taking part in community theatre productions, typically in an acting capacity.

Generally, I try to do one or two plays a year.  Theatre is a fantastic creative outlet, I have always found the combination of working so intimately with a group of people, the inventiveness of staging a show, and the rush of being on stage before an audience, to be an exhilarating experience that I do not like to go long without.

As such, back in December, I was cast a Tom Wingfield in a Black Box Fire production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.  This production was directed by Lauren Repei, and jointly stage managed by Stephanie Yantsis and Danielle Dean-Alton.  Also appearing in the production was Gail Edwards as Amanda Wingfield, Andrea Adcock as Laura Wingfield, and Michael Anania as Jim O'Connor.

Having worked with a number of these great people in prior productions, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to do so again.  The production ran with 10 shows, from March 16th until March 30th.

The show was also reviewed by both The View (local free paper), and The Hamilton Spectator (municipal newspaper).  While the former was actually quite glowing, the latter proved less so.  Regardless, this was a fantastic experience and I look forward to the next production I might get the opportunity to participate in!