Financial Storyteller

Reflections on tele-working and transitions

In recent months I've had the opportunity to 'work from home' rather than go into the office. Doing this comes with some obvious benefits. Firstly, I do not have to commute and consequenly I gain back a couple of hours of my day. Secondly, I can get started earlier - important when time zones dictate my customers are already approaching lunch-time when I start. There are other benefits as well which indicate that this is all good for the environment, good for my efficiency and good for my concentration, good good good.

However, what I have realised is that although the benefits I mentioned are real, there are at least a couple of things to be mindful of. The one I'm going to mention here is the blurring of distinction between work and not work. My defintion of 'work' in this context is any activity which takes me away from anything I want to do personally. I do spend a lot of personal time at the computer, but that isn't work in the same sense. So I present a scenario:

Working at home means I can wake up, turn on my laptop and start responding to email well before breakfast and frequently before I've even taken a shower. Quickly I'm into what I'm working on and time flies - if I'm lucky I might make it to the kitchen for coffee, if I'm very lucky to the bathroom for that shower. Evening comes and if I'm working on a deadline, my wife will insist (usually quite strongly) that I push the laptop aside whilst I eat (the laptop stays on though!).

The above is not, of itself, a problem. Everyone gets busy from time to time, deadlines, meetings etc are inevitable. The problem is when this happens day after day. Again, busy periods are to be expected, but in order to deliver in these periods, there has to be a balance. Much of what I'm writing here isn't, of course, new. However, I do have my own thoughts on how to contribute towards this balance - regardless of whether they are original.

Most work days in a traditional office begin with the worker commuting in from home. Sometimes this commute is stressful, especially if you drive. This commute creates a  transition from the personal world to the business world. It can last anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours, but let's say it's an hour. Of course, some people can't help working while they commute (cellphones and blackberries enable wonderful things, eh?). 

My suggestion would be whether you work at home or in the office, as human beings, we need the transition. At home, get up and walk to the Starbucks for a coffee. If you are more artistic, get up and take the dog for a walk. If you don't have a dog, create one! You're an artist after all. Create some space between waking consiousness and the focus required for work. The transition will ease the mind into gear and ensure that when you do have an important call to make, customer to help, you deliver your best.

My thinking is that life is about transitions. Between work and play, between private and social time, between being awake and being asleep. If you can do these transitions well then you are on the path to a happier, healthier and more rewarding life.

Indishpensable, Fine Dining at Home - Inblinkingcredible!

Tonight in a restaurant I was reminded of a few weeks ago when I learnt of a very interesting alternative to eating out in Vancouver ...

Indishpensable is fine dining at home where you can unleash your inner chef ... anytime!

I was suitably intrigued. So last Saturday afternoon I found my way over to the store in Kits and was met by what must have been twenty kids having a party. I'm not sure what they were doing but it seemed a very jolly affair as I made my way up to a small counter on the right hand side.

Nano (I think that was his name) greeted me and immediately came to my side of the counter where he opened the fridge to my right. Inside a tidy array of paper bags were lined up competing for my attention. Being late in my planning I had to make a decision as I was cooking for three not two (the normal number the bag is made up for). I quickly decided on the two bags you can see in this post. 

If I was a good critic I would go into a lot more detail. However, let's get to the crux of the matter. The idea is that Indishpensable do all the prep for you. The bag contains all the ingredients you need to go home and cook the described dish. What's more they don't use bottled dressings and sauces - they either make them up or you have to cook them from scratch!

I took my two bags home and opened the first to find one double sided piece of paper. On one side the exact instructions for preparing the dish including cooking times as well as how it should be plated and served. On the back a little history on the dish nicely presented. Also suggested was a wine pairing from a local Kits store (address and phone number provided). Lastly on the page was a message about recycling and how you can return the various packaging back to the store for reuse. It was all nicely done.

So how did I get on? Fantastically, as it happens. The instructions were clear, everything came together as planned and most importantly my dining companions loved the result! I could pick holes about the pieces of pork needing to be the same size, so they all cook the same or what IS a high heat, but I'm not going to. It was a fantastic result.

It turns out there was more than enough for three and we saved the second bag for the following day. This was equally successful, despite my personal issue of finding it really hard to get pasta right.

I'm excited because we've only tried two of the 14 items on their Early Fall Menu. I can't wait to try the Shaking Beef with Arugula and Rice Noodle Salad, or the Peanut Panko Herb-crusted Halibut with Mango Coconut Risotto! They also have a Thanksgiving Menu and if you call ahead they will make up the bags for 4, 6 or 8 people instead of just 2. Add to this that there are plenty of vegetarian choices and the majority of ingredients are local I have to say I'm impressed.Very impressed.

I found myself learning as I cooked the dishes - it was very exciting. As I paid my restaurant bill tonight I mulled over the fact that at the weekend I had purchased an amazing meal for two/three people which cost me a little under what I had just paid for a single entree! Check it out, you won't regret it! 

Cleantech Companies clean-up in New Ventures BC Competition

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the Awards Ceremony for this year's New Ventures BC Competition. As in previous years there was a lot of buzz around the room as the final 10 competitors, their mentors in the competition and all the other mentors and volunteers waited for the announcements.

I was very pleased to see the team I co-mentored this year made the final 10. Singular Software have an excellent product which can significantly reduce the time (and therefore the cost) of putting together multi-camera videos. I've talked about this before here and you can see a finished video using multiple angles here and here. Congratulations Bruce and Michael for a great job in the competition it's been a lot of fun working with you.

The winners this year all came from Cleantech, with Saltworks Technologies taking the lion's share of the prizes, 1st Prize and the BC Hydro Sustainability Prize. The other Prize winners were the Small Energy Group and Echoflex Solutions. Congratulations Ben, Josh, David and Shawn for coming to the top of 170+ entrants this year!

For me the competition was a great experience this year and credit should go to Bob and Angie doing a great job. The videos are the Awards Ceremony worked really well but one suggestion I would have would be to hire a trio of trumpet players to announce the awarding of the actual prizes. Strangely that part of the evening was a little bit muted. All in all though a great night and the end of this year's competition. I'm looking forward to 2009 already.

CMA Designation and the foot wide business card!

Back in 1994 in the early days of having my CIMA qualification in the UK I started a new job. On the first day I asked my new Boss, whether it was 'appropriate' to have my letters on my business card ...

Today I had the pleasure of finding out that I have gained my CMA designation here in British Columbia, Canada. This will, in due course (once I have the official letter of course!) mean more letters. Shall I put them on my business card? :-)

It's taken a while but I'm thrilled to be able to say that I am a CMA. I can now lead with that as an opening line! Through the breakfast networking sessions I host each month for the Vancouver Chapter I must have met a couple of hundred different CMAs. These, together with my colleagues on the Vancouver Chapter Board and the members of the Society Office have been a huge motivator for me in seeking acceptance through the Mutual Recognition Agreement.

I've been constantly amazed by the wide variety of roles CMAs have. From Police Officers to CMAs in Charities, Tax Inspectors (boo hiss) to big corporate executives, business consultants to business development, not to mention government and not for profit roles. It's been and continues to be very inspiring. It demonstrates to me that this is a designation with huge potential. It can truly help you achieve you career and personal goals, whatever they may be! 

Back to that old boss mine. "Sure. " he said. "We have these special concertina business cards that fold out from the normal size to almost a foot wide! You can put your accounting designation, your degree, your school certificate, under 15 swimming award, most beautiful baby award ...."

This was the shape of things to come and I learnt to be a lot more humble or at least modest since. Nonetheless based on the CMAs I've met to date and humbleness aside, I'm thrilled and proud to take my place among them!

From New Ventures BC to Toastmasters on film with Singular Software

It's one thing to see yourself in the bathroom mirror it's another to be filmed outside in the wild doing something public.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of chairing the second Mentor panel in this years New Ventures BC competition. I, along with half a dozen or so other mentors, saw eight of the final 30 competitors present their pitch which we then gave feedback on.

The panels are an opportunity for the competitors to practice ahead of hopefully making the final 10 in the competition and presenting to the competition Judges in September. This year one of the pieces of feedback that came out was for one competitor to have their presentation filmed. The idea being that you learn an amazing amount about how you appear to others from watching yourself on screen.

I realised that it had been at least 15 years since I had done this. As it happens the team I am co-mentoring in the competition this year, Singular Software, has a great product for use in multi-camera applications and I was keen to offer the idea of a test application. This week I gave my 11th Toastmaster speech, the first in the Advanced Communicator, Storytelling manual. Bruce Sharpe from Singular came along with two cameras and together with a sound recorder and my digital camera recorded the event.

I've only seen the raw videos as it were, but a couple of things come immediately to mind. Firstly, Bruce's software is quite simply amazing. Basically you load all the video recordings and sound recordings into something like Final Cut Pro and press go. Bruce's software then examines all the clips and synchronises the timing of them. I was able to look at the screen and see three different videos and the sound from the speech all running at the same time and all totally in sync! I was chatting to Bruce while the software did it's thing, but this seemed to take only a few seconds to do.

I'm no expert in video and/or sound recording. However I can see how even with the simplest single camera recording and a soundtrack that getting the two lined up can be a challenge. So to do this with multiple cameras and sound is very very cool. I can see this would save tons of time and as we know, time is money! Additionally of course this enables you to create more interesting videos of an event through using multiple angles. Add to this of course that your sources could be from different people at say, a sports event or a wedding and you can really have some fun.

The second thing I want to mention is that the advise from the mentor panel is spot on. I've only watched myself once but now some of the comments I received from my evaluators make far more sense! I'm really looking forward to seeing what Bruce does with the videos and I'm hoping to put it up on this blog, so stay tuned for some more posts about the experience - it's been a huge learning experience for me.

Looking in the bathroom mirror this morning I saw a different person staring back at me. Now I need to work out who that is :-)

Bootup Labs ... Vancouver ... World renowned Technology Centre

When I moved to Vancouver almost three years ago the city was described to me as a 'branch' town. What this meant then and still does today is that there are not too many big Corporate Head Offices based in Vancouver. Numbers from 2005 suggest that BC is home to a tenth of the Top 500 Canadian Companies [source]. Although I can't lay my hands on the source I was reading that office space vacancy rates are low in the City with the amount of new office space being planned in the next few years minimal. Not exactly easy for a big corporate to relocate to Vancouver, even if it wanted to. So who is here?

In 2006 a staggering 98% of all businesses in the Province of BC were classified as small businesses [source ], i.e. up to 50 employees. Of these 83% were 'micro' businesses with no more than 5 employees! BC and especially Vancouver is the land of the entrepreneur. If we turn to the technology sector, 95% of technology based businesses are small businesses. Which for me instantly raises the question of funding. Much as the big corporates are not here, neither are the big heavy weights in terms of venture funding. So how does a business grow beyond the early stage?

From my perspective I see lots of bits and pieces. Various small business support groups, government schemes, University sponsored programmes, competitions and events, but what is the small business community doing itself to help itself? (see Resources for Founders below!) I've long thought that Vancouver has some of brightest people, especially in technology but the experience or access to resources needed to help them make it big is limited. This is a generalisation of course (there have been successes), but I think the community has been crying out for some kind of leadership. Enter Bootup Labs.

This is a new venture led by Boris Mann and Danny Robinson which aims to take "founders from zero to fundable." I had the pleasure of lunch with Danny last week and shared his excitement about what Bootup is trying to do.  Reading the Bootup labs blog is already a wealth of information, for instance this post of Resources for Founders in Vancouver. What caught my eye though was the post called "Venture Capital is Broken, lets Fix It!" where Danny was responding to a post by Jevon Macdonald on the StartupNorth blog. I won't repeat here but encourage you to click through.

When you do, check out the comments to Danny's post. The post itself is well worth reading, but almost as a demonstration of both the power of blogs to create two way conversations AND a demonstration of how key people in the City are supporting what Bootup are trying to do, it's not only well worth reading, it should be MANDATORY.

As a Vancouverite I am proud of what has fast become my city. What Bootup is doing is an important part of making Vancouver into a world renowned Technology Centre, stay tuned! I'm sure there's much more to come.

Creative Accountants and Financial Storytelling

I've had some interesting responses when I introduce myself as a financial storyteller. The vast majority of these have been very favourable - I help organisations tell their story through numbers. Depending on the organisation, this can mean presenting what their business actually is to an external audience or informing Senior Management internally about what's going on.

So I was thrilled to see the latest CMA Marketing campaign which was launched last week. The new brand platform is "Creative Accountants" and I agree with David Fletcher who is the CMA Vice President, Public Affairs, when he explained "This is about people, not a criminal practice." I think the same can be said for storytelling. The full comments are contained in this article and I invite you to check them out.

As an alternative you can check our the new website, creativeaccountants.org. I applaud this campaign and the thinking behind it. Whether it's easier to say I am creative accountant or a financial storyteller I can't guess but either way we are on the same page.

Strategic and Holistic Leadership in the 21st Century

Tonight I attended a CMABC Lower Mainland Chapter 'Speaker's Series' Presentation intoduced by Michael Brown, CMA at the offices of Visible Strategies. Speaking on the subject above was CEO, Colin Grant a tall Scotsman who moved to Vancouver a few months before 9/11 in 2001.

Colin started off with a very entertaining 3 min summary of the rise and fall of traditional business models. As I undertstand it, the whole idea of $$$ as the goal is long gone. Business has to take a holistic approach to how it manages it's affairs. Naturally this leads into a discussion around climate change, environmental drivers and how these will dictate the way companies will have to act in future.

It used to be that it cost money to go green, one of Colin's assertions is that companies will HAVE to go green as it will cost money NOT to. Of course forward thinking companies have already worked this out. Enter Novex Couriers, a local same day courier company whose CEO Robert Safrata was next up.

Novex are very interesting, a courier company that last week won an award for ecoFreight Transportation from the Globe Foundation of Canada.  It was amazing to hear how environmentally aware this company is. In fact you can see it for yourself on their website by taking a look at how Novex is managed through see-it™; a product/service provided by Visible Strategies. 

I thought this was fascinating and a refreshingly different way to manage a business. Grant explained how when showing this to a potential new client, they can very quickly get something up into see-it™ in a couple of hours. Impressive stuff and judging by their client list something that is growing.

According to Grant the first thing to do is workout where you want your company to be, then work out how you can get there. According to Safrata, one major step in this is an Environmental Audit. Just make sure you don't end up with another glossy brochure style lump of paper that nobody reads and gets filed in a drawer! Some of the challenges of this are difficult, but according Safrata that is exciting! That is why we are managers - we have to work out how to solve these things! Personally having watched Al Gore's most recent presentation over on Ted, this stuff is critical, but we do have a great opportunity.

We can be the generation that really does save the planet, or more accurately, save the human race. The planet will continue come what may.      

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Tags: AlGore, Climate Change, Colin Grant, Public Speaking, Speaker's Series, Visible Strategies, CEO, CMA, cmabc, environment, holistic, man, portrait, presentation, see-it, strategic, strategy, Rob Safrata, Novex, Novex Couriers, Michael Brown CMA

Canadian Financing Forum West

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the closing panel of the Canadian Financing Forum West. The event was put on by Dave Thomas of Rocket Builders. Credit to Dave for what was a cracking event. As the Forum's website says:

"The Canadian Financing Forum matches North American Corporate and VC investors with serious entrepreneurs looking to build world-class technology companies."

Basically a bunch of people looking for money able to present to a bunch of people with money. I was invited through New Ventures BC and the company I co-mentored last year, Teampages was presenting. Alas I arrived too late to see the presentation, but I did catch up with Mike Tan and was pleased to hear his business continues to do very well.

The highlight of the afternoon/evening for me was the Panel who discussed Web 2.0 type questions posed to them by a sad (and sick I understand) Paul Kedrosky. Lot's of healthy stuff here which I must blog about at some point including whether Facebook was done? Reading the press today I see that my favourite application on Facebook, Scrabulous may be under threat! That leaves the status updates as the other main reason I go to the site and made me think I should maybe concentrate on Twitter instead!

The reception to round the event off allowed me the opportunity to reconnect with some faces I'd not seen for a while and meet some new folk. Amongst them folk from Contigo, Chrysalix, Eqo.

This was a good opener for me to 2008, good networking, interesting people and presentations. Next week sees the Vancouver Enterprise Forum kick off, the CMA Breakfast Networking I host for the CMA Members and then Launch Party, which Danny Robinson of Strutta mentioned today.

Vancouver is an interesting place right now and at this time of year there is no shortage of things to take our minds away from the somewhat indifferent weather. Enjoy everyone!

Rest in Peace - Tony Thompson

On this Remembrance day I was sad to receive an email from CIMA Canada President, Kanish Thevarasa which I repeat below.

Dear members and students:

We are very saddened to inform you of the passing away of Tony Thompson. Tony has been the voice of CIMA in Canada for the last 30 years and most of you would have spoken to him, exchanged emails or received mail from him during that time. Tony's commitment to CIMA has been enormous; his recent illness could not keep him away from furthering CIMA in Canada and as recently as two Monday's ago he was at a GO Transit meeting to promote the CIMA qualification. Tony was instrumental in organizing CPD events in Toronto, setting up branches for CIMA across Canada, organizing member events, conducting CIMA examinations in Toronto and so much more.

Our prayers and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tony when he came to Vancouver for a CIMA Meeting back in 2006. I also exchanged telephone calls and emails with him over the months. I can not say I knew Tony very well but I did immediately recognise his dedication to CIMA, his desire to promote the Institute and support members.

I am certain that as BC Correspondent here in Vancouver I have not managed to achieve the standards Tony obviously set back East. I can only say that maybe it's time for me to look at that again and try to contribute more effectively. I will do so in the knowledge that the world has lost a man whose passion and integrity will remain an inspiration to all.

Rest in peace, Tony.

Technorati Tags: CIMA, CIMA Canada, Tony Thompson

A conversation about blogging ... for CMAs

Tonight I had the pleasure of presenting to CMA members "A conversation about blogging." The intention was to give an overview of the subject and give some examples about why a Certified Management Accountant should even care about blogging.

My presentation is below and can be downloaded as a pdf here. When you look at the example slides, double clicking should launch your browser and take you to that page. Of course it may look slightly different as there may be new posts on the blog!

There was a good and attentive audience and my feeling is that the presentation was well received. I am not the world's most experienced presenter so I'm looking forward to receiving feedback from the people in the room.

To get things going my own impression was that the presentation was too long and that I could spend more time making some of the slides with screen shots more interesting. The balance of course if that an internet is not always available and being skilled in 'showing' websites live can be more difficult that it looks!

The presentation was followed by a very enjoyable dinner at a local restaurant. For me it was a very rewarding evening, sharing one of my passions with a new audience. If you are reading this and came to the event I would really value your comments to this post!

Technorati Tags: blogging, CMA, storytelling, technology

Shaw-ly you can't be serious ?

Here's something I really don't understand but sadly have come to expect from such things.

Yesterday I notified Shaw that I was moving, from North Van to Vancouver and I wanted everything transferred. I have the whole 9 yards with Shaw, Internet, Cable TV and Digital Phone.

The fun came when we talked about Digital Phone. For some reason, I can NOT keep my existing number I have to change it because "I am moving to a different exchange".

ummm, what ?

Let me get this straight, I use something called 'DIGITAL' phone. This is VOIP - Voice over IP - i.e. over the Internet. To my knowledge Shaw does not have telephone operators at the exchange who spend their entire life unplugging one physical cable (line) from one hole and plugging it into another hole (another line).

What's with this 'Different Exchange' nonsense? More likely different bits of the same computer hard disk, located somewhere completely different no doubt, such as India, or China!

Add to this the idea of "Number Portability" and the fact that Rogers for instance tell me in their adverts I can take my number with me, I really don't get why I should have to lose my number.

From a business perspective this also strikes me as, what a good friend is oft minded to call 'redtarded.'

You see, what's the point of staying with Shaw? I could simply cancel my Digital Phone Service with them and sign up with Rogers or Telus  (or another). I have to change my number anyway and they all seem to offer the same kind of deal except that if I go with a new provider I would probably get some kind of introductory offer.

Shaw have made no effort to keep my business. They already have me on three of their services - I would have thought 'looking after' me would be part of their plan. Now, not only do I get to think about whether I want to cancel their Digital Phone Service, but this leads me to reconsider their Internet and Cable TV offerings as well.

It's all very sad. I have done what I think makes sense at the moment, I am transferring everything with Shaw to the new place. For now. As soon as we are settled I'll be taking a look around at all the offerings. In other words for Shaw I will be at risk of leaving them completely. It would have been so simple to prevent me even thinking about this.

As I go through my list, I notice Fido are up next - can't wait! 

 

The Starbucks Experience

I wrote a few weeks back about the new Starbucks opening in my neighbourhood.

It's now been open a little while and I wanted to report on my experience to date.

The store is a good size, with more than a dozen car parking spaces (something really important for car-centric North Van!). Everything thing is smart inside and I noticed the area behind the counter is fairly large. This means when they get busy it is possible to get more than just one person making the coffee.

What has been a surprise and a pleasant one is the customer service. Leftantler and I went in about a week ago and started looking at the coffee beans on sale. We needed some more at home. Just as we made our decision a Startbucks staff member ('Partner' I think they are called) came over and asked me if I had smelt the coffee I was buying.

Initially confused I said no. He then explained that if you shake the bag abd press the starbucks logo on the front you can 'press and sniff' as it were! I had no idea. The chap then went on to suggest that I could ask for a French press on my chosen coffee as an alternative to my normal latte. Neat idea.

Next time I went in I ordered some wierd green frappacino drink which the poor girl behind the counter had to make twice. Without prompting I was passed a card for a free drink next time due to the delay. So today I went back in and ordered my french press.

The guy behind the counter was a little surprised, but took my order and explained gravely it would take 10 mins. No problem, if I know it's going to be 10 mins to start with it's very different to waiting 10 mins when I thought it would be immediate.

The same chap who told us about the coffee sniff thing was in the store. Turns out he is a shift supervisor and responsible for 'front of house' and customer service. He remembered the coffee I purchased last time and enquired what I was trying today. Very friendly. He then came back with a cool coffee wheel (think like a colour wheel) and explained that a piece of lemon raspberry cake would go well with my particular choice of coffee. He then gave us a complimentary slice and two forks!

By the way, the coffee wheel was right! The cake was fantastic with the coffee (Ethiopean).

So, I know it's a new store, in a new neighbourhood and the staff are all fresh and highly geared towards pleasing customers, but I was still impressed. It showed an attention to detail I respect and one I suspect Howard Schulz wouldf have been pleased to see.

I will of course continue to go back to the store, but then I needed no conversion to the way of Starbucks. It did though reinforce the thought that even established brands, still have to work really hard to make a good impression and keep it. Well done Starbucks, long may it continue.

 

 

1st day of Summer CMABC Networking

Bright eyed and bushy tailed CMAs shared coffee and muffins yesterday morning. Society staff made the trip up one floor to join us. Vancouver chapter board members were on hand and much friendly discussion not to mention consumption of coffee and muffins was had.

Judging by the weather for at least part of this week, the summer has arrived as has the opportunities for networking. There will be coffee and muffins throughout the summer. Last year was this was a big topic of debate - i.e. do we stop for the summer and restart after Labour Day?

No, is the short answer. I felt then, as I do now, that despite it being a quieter time in the city, there are still lots of CMAs still around. We did run the coffee and muffins in July and August last year and far from seeing lower numbers we had the highest attendance up to that point. I think in August around 40 CMAs came out and the buzz in the room was something to remember.

So I encourage you this summer to come and join us. Maybe it's the warmer weather but last year that translated to a warmer environment to meet, share and connect with fellow members. See you there!

CMA Networking Breakfasts - Coffee & Muffins

Tomorrow morning is this month's Coffee and Muffins Networking Breakfast. This informal gathering of CMA members is an opportunity for members to meet each other, catch up with contacts and generally participate in the wider CMA community.

For my part I get to host the morning, which really involves welcoming new faces, introducing members to each other and keeping my little announcements to a minimum before people head off for the working day. Many staff members from the Society will also be in attendance, including our President Colin Bennett and Sandra Record, it's a great opportunity to meet the folks who represent and support our professional body.

I've met many facinating CMA members from a wide range of backgrounds. Many are working as CMAs in their organisation, others have moved into other fields of work which the CMA has prepared them for. CIMA members are also invited to the join the wider Management Accounting community and learn more about what the CMA is all about.

So if you haven't registered and would like to come, please let me know or register online. You can of course attend unannounced but we would like to avoid running out of coffee!

Finally, a Starbucks I can walk to

ahhh, the memories. Living in a small English village waiting for broadband to happen ... living on North Shore trying to find a decent cup of coffee...

Now I know some people don't like Starbucks for all sorts of reasons, fair play to them - I'm not rattling that cage today. For me I like Starbucks, so I'm pleased to see that they are building a new store down the road from me.

Admittedly, it's probably a 15 minute walk to 29th and Lonsdale, but at least it's a viable option. The other 'close' Starbucks over in Lynn Valley is really awkward in terms of access. That would be a 25-30 minute though.

I do worry some times though. I was in the splendid Take 5 the other day and asked for a Grande, the barista asked 'do you mean a Medium?' and for a split second I had no idea what she meant!

btw I know the photo sucks, I shot it out of the bus window as I went past! Had they been open I might have gone in for a latte!

CIMA Canada's Marquee Event - Celebration of Cricket - June 23rd

This week I received an email from CIMA, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. They are the UK equivalent to the CMA here in Canada and I act as their BC Correspondent.

This coming week see's the Canadian Branch host the biggest event of the year in Toronto. The CIMA Canada Mayor's Trophy takes place on June 23rd at Sunnybrook Park, 1132 Leslie Street and has grown over the years to be a very successful and well reported event.

The event is a Celebration of Cricket and every years succeeds in bringing together people from diverse communities across the Toronto Region. Sponsors have included Bell Canada, Scotiabank not to mention the support of the Mayor of Toronto, the Toronto Police Service and many more. Last year the event won a Global Prize from the International Cricket Council for Best Cricket Promotional and Marketing Event. High praise indeed!

This year Gordon Grant, the newly elected President of CIMA and Glynn Lowth Deputy President will be in Toronto to attend the event next week. CIMA is striving to be an International organisation and the visit of our youngest ever President and his Deputy President is very welcome. It's a shame I can't make it to Toronto, but it does demonstrate this is one very big country - maybe I'll suggest this for next year and the clearly excellent sponsorship team can factor the costs in ;-)

The CMA, at least here in BC had a very successful marquee event of their own in May. Over 250 participants attended the provincial conference, which featured keynote speakers from across North America including international bestseller Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner, Captain of the Canadian Women’s Olympic Hockey Team Cassie Campbell, and award-winning psychologist and Harvard Professor Dr. Brian Little. You can read more about the event here.

CIMA and the Society of Certified Management Accountants have an existing Mutual recognition programme which I was pleased to give feedback on recently. Personally I think the two organisations should continue to increase our links to each other. The global community of Management Accountants can only benefit from strengthening our ties with each other.

I'm told there should be plenty of publicity for the event and for CIMA - CBC is the official media sponsor this year, as well as coverage in more traditional press. The CMA campaigns are also well worth looking at as well. If you click here you can see the online ads. I must ask the office if they can give in a proper link so I can embed on on this blog!

CMABC start to explore blogging

Over the last year I've had the pleasure of hosting Breakfast Networking Meetings for the Vancouver Chapter of the Certfied Management Accountants Society here in Vancouver. Over that time I've had the pleasure of getting to know many of the BC Society staff.

I've also been discussing with the Chapter President how we can have some kind of online tool/community for the Chapter Board/Members etc maybe as an extension of the informal breakfasts I already host.

I am greatly encouraged by these discussions, the latest of which I had yesterday morning over coffee. The subject was blogging. We had a friendly chat over coffee about what this 'blogging' thing is. The subject originally came up when a staff member ran a 30 day trial with Typepad - a service I use to run the BC Floorball Federation Blog. (btw, this blog uses Movable Type, and there are other solutions available, such as Drupal)

The discussion was a good one and amongst other things led me to think running an 'introduction to blogging for accountants' would be a worthy thing to pursue! In the meeting I handed over two of the best books I've read about blogging. These were Shel Israel/Robert Scoble's 'Naked Conversations' and Jeremey Wright's 'Blog Marketing'. Both of these do an excellent job of introducing the subject and have the advantage of presenting a new media subject in an old media way. The books also enable the reader to read about what can be a quite intimidating subject in a more familiar environment.

Both books of course have associated with them which are worth looking at blogs">here and here respectively.

Interestingly over in Ontario they do do a few student blogs following student through their studies. The Society here is thinking from more of a Provincial/Chapter perspective. I'm looking forward to the next meeting and will be sure to keep you posted!