Thornley Fallis & 76design are demo-ing a Starbucks office coffee machine in our Ottawa office. For more info, go to www.betterofficecoffee.ca.

IT GRINDS FRESH BEANS FOR EVERY CUP!!!

So far the new machine (we currently have one from another company) is getting rave reviews. Here are a few of the comments we received when we asked our team in Ottawa what they thought:

• Best thing since sliced bread.
• It is the ray of sunshine that I look forward too while on the long bus ride.
• It’s like a triple rainbow.
• I selected “Max Buzz” 12 oz feature and I just stopped vibrating. My teeth—which are still humming—feel like I’ve been chewing coffee grounds most of the morning.
• I think we could use the starbucks machine as a hiring perk. It’s that good.
• It’s uber fantastic, and you know I mean business with a word like uber!

 Looks likew we’ll be keeping it and looking at getting one for our Toronto office.

In a move reflecting the agency’s growth and commitment to client service and the seamless integration of off-line and on-line communications, Thornley Fallis Communications has added senior consumer marketing communications talent to its leadership team.

Jo Langham, ABC has more than 20 years of marketing communications experience spanning the agency, consulting and corporate environments and joins Thornley Fallis as Senior Vice-President & General Manager, Toronto.   With an award-winning reputation for planning and leading innovative, high-impact strategic communications campaigns, Jo will share responsibility for the overall performance and strategic direction of the agency, provide senior client counsel and manage professional development for Toronto staff.

“Thornley Fallis & 76design has established an excellent reputation built on our commitment to provide smart thinking, deliver creative solutions, achieve spectacular results, and exceed our
clients’ expectations. The company has the ability to do this because we have assembled an exceptional team of senior counsellors, strategists, project leaders, designers and developers with a wealth of communications expertise and experience,” said Joseph Thornley, Chairman & CEO of Thornley Fallis Communications Inc.   “In hiring Jo we reiterate our commitment to providing truly integrated communications solutions to our clients.”

Prior to joining Thornley Fallis Jo spent the last four years with a leading independent communications company where she managed the consumer marketing practice and was a member of the senior leadership team. She has experience in a broad range of industries including food & beverage, health & wellness, financial, leisure, beauty and energy and has worked with a variety of internationally recognized brands including Coca-Cola, CIBC VISA, Kellogg Canada, International Schizophrenia Foundation, Toronto Hydro and Unilever.

Jo is an accredited member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), serves on the Accreditation Council of the IABC and is Secretary to the Board of Central Eglinton Children’s Centre.

Thornley Fallis is an innovative, full-service public relations, communications and marketing agency that helps organizations reach, connect with, and build and sustain positive relationships with their communities through the integrated use of on-line and off-line communications tactics.

76design is a creative services and web development agency that conceptualizes, designs and develops brands, identities, print materials, website applications, videos, widgets and tools that enable organizations to reach, connect with and create value for their communities.

In the past few months, Thornley Fallis has added a few new members to our team in Ottawa: Pierre Killeen, Vice-President, Public Engagement; Carrie Croft, Consultant; and Samantha Hartley, Account Coordinator.

Pierre Killeen, LL.B, LL.L. – Vice-President, Public Engagement
Pierre is a leader and innovator in the field of online public engagement. Trained as a lawyer and fluently bilingual, Pierre has more than ten years of business experience with online communities, public consultations and crowd-sourcing. Since 2006, he has been conducting large-scale online public consultations for cities, public agencies and government departments across Canada. Pierre joins Thornley Fallis from Nanos Research, where he co-created and then led the development, sales and marketing of Nanos’ online consultation service to a range of clients, including the City of Ottawa, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Industry Canada, the City of Edmonton and Waterfront Toronto.  Prior to his time at Nanos, Pierre served as the Vice-President of Business Development at Jobshark.com (now jobserve.com). From 2000 to 2004, he helped ePALS Classroom Exchange (epals.com) become the world’s largest K-12 online education community. Before that he was the Government Relations Officer for the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.

Carrie Croft, Consultant
Carrie is an experienced communications, media relations and event management professional. She joins Thornley Fallis following her role as Supervisor of Operations Communications for the Vancouver Organizing Committee at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Carrie’s other professional experience includes Regional Event Director for the Mitsubishi City Chase and Campus Chase, Press Manager for the FIL Veissmann Luge World Cup, Media Services Manager for the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships, and Consultant with Interplay Creative Media.  Carrie volunteers her time for numerous organizations and charity events, including the 2011 Canada Games, The Hill Fights Hunger, Capital Fashion Week, the Ontario Summer Games, the FIFA U20 World Cup, and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Ottawa Chapter, where she has been instrumental in the organization and execution of the annual awards gala. She was a 2009 YMCA Women of Distinction nominee.

Samantha Hartley, Account Coordinator
Samantha joins us from the Public Relations program at Algonquin College. She did her co-op placement with us this winter and now we have hired her on full-time. A social media enthusiast, Sam maintains a personal blog. She also enjoys writing about communication practices, social media, health and lifestyle, and has had articles appear in several local print publications and online news sources.

I enjoy newspapers and still read—or at least scan—a few each day. The content is as interesting to me as the advertisements can be. Savvy readers today will note that there are fewer advertisements for high-end jewelery items and that car prices have dropped. Precipitously.

The Globe and Mail for Monday March 23rd (Globe Life Section; page L1) published an article outlining the pitfalls of social media tools used injudiciously. Net-net: Share judiciously. One citizen of the Twitterscene slagged a client (not a good idea) and another insulted a city that happens to be home to his client and their head office; also a bad idea.

Careeristinas with a past will recall—perhaps fondly—a time when office deportment was more strictly outlined. There were definite expectations for “professional” and “personal” spheres of life. It was not uncommon to know little about the private lives of colleagues; one woman I worked with some years ago kept her engagement and subsequent marriage so carefully under wraps that knowledge of both escaped notice until she arrived at the office on Monday sporting a wedding ring.

Social Media tools have changed how we communicate and how we expect to communicate with one another. Immediate communication tools, strategies and needs trump the now charming, decorous professional demeanour of yesteryear. There are no secrets on the Internet and exposing your life—in all its normal glory—is now commonplace.

The concept of the much-dreaded “personal phone call” at work is obsolete. Never mind a call from your physician, sibling or family lawyer: wide-open work spaces and team-based cubicles mean that co-workers often share intimate details merely by having ears. (Personal phone calls, fyi, are obsolete because cellular phones take up the slack.)

Social Media tools—from MSN as an inter-office yakker to the Biggies like Twitter and Facebook—enable people to indulge in sharing, posting, commenting and more from the relative comfort of their keyboard and an ergonomic chair.

Social Media tools are, however, forever. Each tweet, update and notification is a public announcement.

The ability to instantly communicate is wonderful. It is also powerful in more than one sense of the word and it includes the ability to have your thoughts spread like wildfire across a digital network of untold numbers of people. Publish for sure, but don’t publish and perish because you hit “send” before reflecting on your post.

The Ottawa office of Thornley Fallis & 76design has been selected as a finalist for Ottawa Professional Services Firm of the Year in the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Awards.

Winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner on Thursday, November 20th at Tudor Hall.

Other finalists in the Professional Services of the Year category are:

• Gansen Lindsay Design Consultants Inc.
• Genivar
• Gladstone Aerospace Consulting
• Hendry Warren LLP Chartered Accountants
• Herzing College
• Royal LePage Performance Realty
• Stevenson & White Inc.

As you can see from the photos below, expansion of the Ottawa office of Thornley Fallis & 76design is progressing well since my August 7^th post.

All the new walls and doors are up. Electrical is in. Drywall has been taped, mudded and primed.  Basically, all that remains is painting, carpeting, trimming and any final finishing touches.

Everything looks great and is on track to be completed by the end of next week (Friday, August 29^th).  Furniture and equipment will be moved into and set-up in the new space over the long-weekend, so we can be up and running on Tuesday, September 2^nd!

…but are still looking.

This is by far the busiest summer the Ottawa office of Thornley Fallis and 76design has had since I joined the firm more than 6 years ago.  The usual summer slow down simply has not happened.  Expansion of our office, due to be completed mid-August, can’t happen quickly enough.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve added Nicolas Ruszkowski as an Account Director and Bradley Moseley-Williams as a Senior Consultant on the Thornley Fallis side of our business, and Shaun Scanlon joined 76design as a Senior Developer.

Nicolas’ more than 15 years of experience in the communications industry includes:

• Director of Communications for the Leader of the Liberal Party Stephane Dion, 2007-08
• Vice-President at Fleishman-Hillard in Ottawa, 2005-07
• Director of Communications to the Government House Leader, 2003-04
• Director of Communications at the Forest Products Association of Canada, 2002-03

He is also trilingual in English, French and Spanish.

Before his recent move to Ottawa, Bradley had his own public relations consultancy in Toronto since 2001.

His more than 20 years of experience in the communications industry also includes:

• Public Relations Professor at Algonquin College, 2007-08
• Director of Public Relations at Interactive Media Group, 1996-2000
• Public Relations Manager for KL Group (now Sun Microsystems), 1995-96
• Public Relations Coordinator at Unisys, 1990-95

Bradley has authored more than 150 magazine, newspaper and feature articles on various business themes related to public relations and lifestyle.

Our firm, Thornley Fallis, is actively recruiting experienced public relations and communications consultants for our growing Ottawa office.

Candidates should have a consulting, agency or journalism background and/or significant experience in conceptualizing, planning and executing public relations programs and activities for government organizations, private sector companies and/or national associations.

Successful candidates will demonstrate the ability to:

• Build and lead teams, allocate resources, and manage multiple projects and budgets simultaneously.
• Deploy a broad range of leading-edge communications methodologies and tactics.
• Manage relationships and provide clients with effective strategic advice.
• Integrate new media, web and social media tools into communications programs.
• Develop and close new business opportunities, including proposal development and presenting to clients/prospects.

Candidates must be highly-motivated and thrive in a fast-paced team environment, possess superior communications and exceptional writing skills, and deliver outstanding client service.  Bilingualism is an asset.

The Thornley Fallis team prides itself on working collaboratively, and we are looking for consultants interested in joining a group of fun, dynamic professionals who are committed to providing clients with the best possible counsel, service and results.

CVs can be submitted to me:

Keelan Green
Vice-President & General Manager
Thornley Fallis Communications
55 Metcalfe Street, Suite 730
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6L5
green@thornleyfallis.com