This week, I had the pleasure of promoting my colleague and friend, Aimee Deziel of 76design. 

Now I am not what anyone, particularly those who know me, would call a sensitive, emotional or coddling guy.

However, in promoting Aimee to the position of Vice-President of 76design, I really shared her excitement.

Three years ago, Aimee was the first person I hired in my now five year career at Thornley Fallis & 76design.  So (and not to sound condescending) I take pride in her success and the contribution she has made to our firm since joining us in 2004.

Her leadership has really been a driving force in 76design’s growth, particularly over the past 18 months and she will be a key element of the continued success of Thornley Fallis & 76design going forward.

Below is the email message that I sent out to staff earlier today announcing her well-deserved promotion.

On behalf of Joe and Alex, I would like to announce the appointment of Aimee Deziel to Vice-President of 76design.

 

Aimee has been with us for close to 3 years and was the first hire I made with the firm, so of course I am particularly excited for Aimee and very proud of her success.

 

We have a great team that is consistently delivering better and better work, and except for the odd March Meltdown, has fun along the way.  This is resulting in more work from existing clients and regularly winning new assignments from new clients in new sectors.

 

Aimee Deziel has been a very big and very important part of our success and growth.  She is a very smart, talented, passionate, creative and dedicated individual that brings a lot of enthusiasm to both the work we do and our office environment.

 

Originally hired on the TF side, Aimee’s advertising background eventually led her to start getting involved in more and more of 76design’s creative projects. 

 

Last year, we formally transitioned her fully to 76design.  Since then, she has been leading the design and creative team, and has been integral to 76design’s continuously growing reputation as a firm that does really creative and smart work, provides excellent service, and is great to work with.

 

Today’s announcement of Aimee’s appointment to Vice-President of 76design not only recognizes the role she is already playing, but is an indication from Joe, Alex and I, as well as Brett and Steve, that we believe her and her leadership are key to the ongoing and future success of not only 76design, but the entire firm.

 

Congratulations Aimee, you have worked hard, you have been successful and you definitely deserve this! 

Le Journal de Montréal nous annonce ce matin que la Cour d’appel confirme le jugement de Sophie Chiasson contre CHOI FM (Jeff Fillion).

Bravo.

Jeff Fillion ne méritait que cet ultime pied de nez. Une femme, de qui il est s’est permis de rire éperdument en utilisant des insultes plus basses les unes que les autres, lui remet la monnaie de sa pièce. Que dire de plus que : bravo.
     

Tory blogger Stephen Taylor is the guest speaker at Third Monday tonight.

I’m looking forward to hearing more about this incident where Press Gallery officials and Hill Security removed him from Parliament Hill on Budget Day.

I was talking to a veteran journalist about this incident last week.  He had an interesting take:

We’ve seen this before on the Hill, with radio and then with TV.  This is the next form of media.

Last night on the Coach’s Corner segment following the Leafs win over Montreal, Don Cherry threw any remaining thread of non-Leaf bias on Hockey Night in Canada right out the window.

In order for the Leafs to qualify for the 2007 playoffs, New Jersey needs to beat the Islanders this afternoon.

Don opened the post-game segment saying it “wouldn’t be fair” if Devils Head Coach Lou Lamoriello didn’t start Martin Brodeur against the Islanders.

Martin Brodeur is the Devils best player and the best goalie in the NHL.

Today’s game against the Islanders is meaningless to the Devils in terms of their regular season finish and playoff position.

So what reason would they possibly have to start the 35 year old Brodeau who has already started 78 of the Devils 81 games this year, which is the most starts by any goalie in the league.

Come on Don… that was a pathetic plee for the Devils to try to help Toronto get into the playoffs.

I don’t know who is responsible for determining the TV schedule for coverage of the Masters golf tournament — CBS, Augusta National or both.

Whoever it is, for golf’s first major (of 4) of the year, the TV schedule really sucks.

Thursday, April 5: 4pm to 7pm on USA (TSN in Canada)
Friday, April 6: 4pm to 7pm on USA (TSN in Canada)
Saturday, April 7: 3:30pm to 7pm on CBS
Sunday, April 8: 2:30pm to 7pm on CBS

Only 3 hours on Thursday and Friday when the entire field is playing.  Not starting until 3:30pm on Saturday.  Come on?!?!

Yesterday being Good Friday made matters worse as I was home from work and could have watched the tournament all day.  I’m sure I wasn’t the only golf fanatic that wanted to watch, but couldn’t.  Instead, I had to watch the Golf Channel telling me, rather than showing me, what was happening.

I even tried to watch CBS’ live feed of Amen Corner on the web, but was informed its not available outside of the US. Why the hell not?  Isn’t the Internet borderless?

The Masters does not need to worry about people watching the tournament on TV instead of buying tickets.

The patron list for tickets to the Thursday to Sunday rounds has been closed for 35 years, since 1972.  A waiting list began in 1972 and was closed in 1978.  The waiting list re-opened briefly in 2000, but is now closed.

The Masters does not need to worry about selling tickets and millions of people want to watch every shot.

Why not do a deal with the Golf Channel, like the PGA Tour did this year and let them provide early coverage each day before CBS / USA takes over?  I’m sure the Golf Channel would do it in a heart beat.  They’re already broadcasting from and about Augusta basically all day, all week, they are just not able to show any actual golf.

Or why not just broadcast the entire tournament, from first tee time to final putt, on the Internet?

We’ve been having this discussion around the office for a few weeks now and yesterday came across this post on Joan Tintor.

Why are the Liberals wasting so much of their air time in Question Period and in the media begging the Tories for apologies?

I simply don’t understand.  They can’t possibly think they are going to get an apology, can they? 

Maybe Stephen Harper will stand up in the House, walk across the floor and serenade Stephane Dion with the chorus from John Lennon’s tune…

I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a tory guy

Would this be a win for the Liberals?

The way things have been going, Harper is more likely to walk across the floor to give Dion a wedgie.

The Prime Minister’s quip during QP, “I can understand that the leader of the Opposition and members of his party feel for Taliban prisoners. I just wish occasionally they’d show the same passion for Canadian soldiers.” is the source of one of the Liberals more recent apology requests.

Why?  Because it was clever? 

Or maybe because the Liberals didn’t foresee that by worrying about the treatment of Taliban prisoners (who last time I checked were killing Canadians) they could be said to be supporting them and now want a apology for the PM having pointed that out.

Lucienne Robillard a annoncé hier qu’elle quittait la scène politique après avoir été à la tête de plusieurs ministères fédéraux et provinciaux. Elle créera certainement un vide important dans le paysage de la représentativité féminine en politique. Voilà le moment idéal pour nous interroger sur la place des femmes dans nos institutions démocratiques. Le paysage démographique de nos représentants politiques change à chaque élection et si l’on en croit les journalistes, nous sommes à la veille de voir ce changement sur la scène fédérale. Combien y aura-t-il de candidates? Combien de candidates auront la chance de représenter un comté « prenable » par leur parti?

Je lisais hier soir, dans le dernier Elle Québec, l’article de Richard Martineau. Selon lui, les femmes n’arrivent pas à s’entraider, elles sont compétitives et concurrentes entre elles. Pourquoi? On est plus exigeant envers les femmes qu’envers les hommes. Peut-être vrai. Une chose est certaine, lorsque les femmes sont en position de pouvoir elles accomplissent de grandes choses. Demandez-le à Lucienne Robillard, femme de tête qui a mené de front des dossiers d’importances partout où elle est passée, à Hélène Scherrer qui avec son dynamisme et sa fougue peu commune a, en peu de temps, réglé des dossiers d’importance au ministère du Patrimoine canadien, et à Liza Frulla dont la passion et l’expérience sont connues de tous et qui a d’ailleurs fait un travail formidable à RDI lors de la dernière campagne électorale provinciale.

J’ai aussi une amie qui fait un excellent travail pour les femmes en politique avec l’organisme À Voix Égales (Equal Voice). Cette lutte de longue haleine est d’importance première pour une société comme la nôtre qui se veut juste et équitable et qui se distingue par sa volonté de respecter les droits de tous.

Femmes, je nous dis: travaillons ensemble, soyons une équipe et soyons prêtes !

Sharp Electronics of Canada has chosen our firm Thornley Fallis as its Canadian agency of record for the Consumer Products Division after a competitive review of the account. 

Congratulations to the Thornley Fallis and 76design team who contributed to winning this account, particularly Michael O’Connor Clarke and Tamera Kremer.

Sharp said we stood out because of our, “truly innovative approach and valuable insights into the factors that drive our market.”

Thornley Fallis will help promote the full range of Sharp LCD TVs, as well as a number of other consumer products in Sharp’s line-up, including Plasmacluster Ion Air Purifiers, Calculators and Electronic Dictionaries.

As a golfer, even before winning this account, I loved the ‘Nothing is Lost’ Aquos ad campaign – very clever, particularly the TV ad.