Does your .CA change the world around you? Enter the 2012 .CA Impact Awards and take your place in Canada’s digital history.

The 2012 .CA Impact Awards are now open for entries.

Winners will receive $5,000 and promotional visibility in .CA communications. That would go a long way to helping a good cause!

We are looking for people who use their .CA websites to make a positive difference. Impact can be social, cultural, political, technological or economic.

There are four categories you can enter:

• Public Sector and Not-for-Profit
• eLearning
• Small Business
• Applications, including gaming and mobile

Visit our website to enter today.

On January 27th, my son Peyton and I will be participating in the Ottawa Senators Foundation first ever Energizer Night Skate along the Rideau Canal as part of the NHL All-Star Weekend. Thousands of skaters wearing Energizer LED Headlights will light up the Canal as they skate 5km from Somerset Street to Bank Street and back.

All funds raised from this event will assist the Senators Foundation (the sole benefactor) with their plans to construct outdoor, natural NHL sized ice rinks in priority neighbourhoods throughout eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

The Senators Foundation believes in creating community resources, delivering programs and funding charitable organizations that provide healthy and safe sport & recreation opportunities to children and youth so they learn and grow outside of school hours.

You can show your support for this initiative by sponsoring me here: http://energizernightskate.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1003640&supId=350029343

If you don’t like me (highly possible), but still want to support the initiative, you can sponsor my son Peyton, who is 3 and will spend more time in a stroller than skating, here: http://energizernightskate.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1003640&supId=350029344

Any contribution you can make is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for supporting this great community initiative by the Senators Foundation.

When Ford of Canada’s Vice-President of Sales, Scott Cauvel, was in Ottawa in late September to speak at OCRI’s ExecTALKS event, Thornley Fallis Account Coordinator Samantha Hartley (@msshartley) arranged an interview between him and CTVs Kate Eggins, which led to this great report on the health technologies for drivers that Ford is putting in its vehicles.

[Ford of Canada is a client of Thornley Fallis]

Dear Very Good People,

I am sorry it has taken me this long to write to you. As most of you know, I type very slowly. Many of you probably believe I did not make it. And if it wasn’t for my great teammates, including Jack, pictured below, I don’t know if I would have. Who would have thought that such a young, bright, good looking guy like me would also turn out to be such a good athlete. Okay – none of you. But, by some miracle (and a little incentive) I actually ran a total of 8.7 kms (or 870,000 centimetres) on Saturday – without any crying or nosebleeds….okay, without any nosebleeds.

Pre-Run “Warm-Up”

Thanks to YOUR INCREDIBLE GENEROSITY, we raised an amazing $10,703! You are all very, very, very good people! And, because you are such kind and munificent souls, EDC has decided to contribute an additional $2,500! So in total, you have helped raise $13,203, which will go to the Oncology Department at CHEO and the Sears Childhood Cancer Fellowship.

Thank you, Merci, Grazie, Dziękuję, спасибі, хвала, Danke, buíochas a ghabháil leat, 감사합니다, A sheynem dank.!!!

Your very grateful pal always,

John / Jake

We will be running on our client’s team, the Textron TAPV Team.

Here are pics of the team shirts that we designed and will be wearing.

The families who stand beside and behind those who serve Canada in uniform often sacrifice much and carry an enormous load in anonymity and without asking for anything back.

The event raised more than $35,000 for the Guild which will give its family programs a transformative boost.

A unique feature of this particular golf tournament was that the Canadian Forces arranged to have a variety of vehicles and equipment (listed below) on display around the golf course, with soldiers stationed at each display to provide participants with information on what it does, how it is used and what it is used for.

• Leopard C2 tank
• Coyote Reconnaissance light armoured vehicle
• LAV III LORIT armoured vehicle
• Ferret Scout car used by the Royal Canadian Dragoons from the 1950′s to the 1980′s
• Staghound, an American armoured car produced during the Second World War
• A number of weapon stands throughout the course

It was a great day for a great cause!

Thornley Fallis and CIRA won an Award of Excellence for Brand Communications

As Agency of Record for CIRA since August 2010, Thornley Fallis worked closely with the CIRA team to develop and launch a brand awareness campaign around the .CA product. The campaign included print and online advertising, an online brand video, an awards program and a community engagement program. The campaign launched in November 2010 at the meshmarketing conference in Toronto with the announcement of the .CA Impact Awards via video produced by Thornley Fallis.

Thornley Fallis and CIRA also won an Award of Merit for Publication Design

To ensure CIRA members are engaged and value being a member, Thornley Fallis worked with CIRA to create a New Member Kit. The kit includes a printed booklet with a branded USB card adhered with removable glue. On the USB key (which pulls out from the USB card) is an interactive PDF. The kit is filled with information on benefits for members, the value of .CA, background information on CIRA, and a QR code that takes members to the newly created CIRA member web portal.

I purchased my Playbook from Staples last week and, to date, have been thrilled with it.

Here I am reading a document on my Playbook in my office this morning.

First off, it was really easy to set-up, figure out and start to use right out of the box. Setting up Internet tethering and a bridge to my Blackberry Torch was also really easy – I was able to access my business email on my Playbook within minutes of taking it out of the box.

Here is what I like about the playbook so far:

• The interface and navigation are great, as is the touch screen.
• The screen delivers super rich images and pictures.
• The audio was very clear and loud, surprisingly so in fact.
• The Browser is fast and easy to use.
• Downloading and installing apps from App World takes only seconds.
• I have never been able to type effectively on smartphone touch screen keyboards due to the small screen size and my fat fingers, but typing on the Playbook (with the larger screen and very responsive touch screen keyboard) has been a breeze.
• The 3MP 1080p HD forward-facing and 5 MP 1080p HD rear-facing cameras take great pictures and video.
• The HDMI port.

Great screen, interface and navigation!

One of the frequent criticisms I have seen about the Playbook is the lack of apps currently available from App World. I find this to be an odd criticism given the Playbook launched less than a week ago. Obviously, more and more apps will come. That said, there were already quite a few apps in App World. In fact, more than I expected to find given this frequent criticism.

[as stated above, RIM is a client of Thornley Fallis, the communications agency that I am President of]