Note:  Original article posted on OAK Computing on October 25, 2011. When we moved to our office in the Byward Market last April,we were excited about all the food options that were now available to us.  Italian, Indian, Mexican, Thai, BBQ, fast food, fine foods, etc. – finally, we had choices galore. But what we quickly realized was that not many of the plethora of restaurants surrounding us...

Sonia R. & Ashima K. Post by Sonia and Ashima, from OAK Computing. Apt613 has partnered with OAK to create a new website that is set to come out in a few months. Throughout the year, folks from OAK will be guest blogging on Apt613. A young startup with a new office in the market – of course our first reaction to the move was mmm mmmmm, the food. With lots of restaurants and lots of choice, the...

I thought this was a really interesting mix of resources coming together for a tourism campaign.  Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has posted a twitvid promoting a contest:   Twisit Jordan. The premise of the contest is simple – it’s a tourist swap.  Two foreigners to Jordan will be chosen to visit Jordan, and two Jordanians will win trips to the foreigners’ home countries....

Earthquake hits Ottawa.  Bulding is evacuated.  I have three reactions: #1 – stand in doorframe  (instead go outside due to advice of  @sharamamanu), #2 – call friends and family (phone in building, scratch that), #3 - check twitter for news (luckily @sharmamanu has iphone :0) ) Twitter – not the radio, or cbc, was my go-to source. Never to disappoint, there was already a twitterquake...

The long-awaited TEDxCarletonU has come and gone, and it was definitely worth the wait! I had an exam earlier in the day, so I had to rush right from the exam room to the Gladstone Theater. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the initial networking event, but thankfully I was able to be there for all the speakers. I have to say there is some really interesting research going on at Carleton...

market2world recently prepared a series of PDFs for OCRI’s global marketing group that benchmarks Ottawa against four major U.S. “tech consideration cities”: Boston, New York, San Jose, and Washington.  When international companies consider locating or expanding in North America, they often forget the “North” option. The research, which leads with results from the Martin...

Here’s a great story of collaboration between the City and TalentBridge. Step 1:  The City Engages Youth in the Economic Development Steering Committee The City of Ottawa has organized an Economic Development Steering Committee in which they have unprecedentedly invited youth participation. Through TalentBridge facilitation – on the recommendation of Manu Sharma, Founder and Manager of...

The more I travel, the more I appreciate Ottawa. It’s easy to knock on Ottawa as the boring conservative city, a city of brown shoes, a city of beaurocrats. It’s also easy to assume that what is found here is replicated in all Canadian cities. I found that’s not the case. There are many things about Ottawa that I appreciate. I for one enjoy its size: a small city where going downtown takes...

Last Friday Manu Sharma came in and gave us a review of Richard Florida’s talk in Ottawa.  Manu came with high praise for Richard Florida as a speaker and a starter of thoughtful and controversial conversation, which is high praise coming from Manu as he is not easily impressed. One of the points that hit home from Florida’s talk was that research universities as we know them today will become...

I found this video really interesting – all 53:47 minutes of it.  So good, that now, many months later after I first watched it (and if you know my terrible memory you’d be even more impressed) I still remember it and quote some of the examples.  Chris Anderson, author of the book Free: The Future of a Radical Price goes to Google to speak about pricing from Jello to RCA transistors to...