07

May

Media and Polish Day: Challenge Accepted

There are about a million Poles in Canada (one in every thirty people you meet), who have been contributing to Canadiana for about 150 years. My name gives it away – my family is Polish, we moved to southern Ontario from Germany in 1989, and count ourselves amongst that large Polish diaspora who moved to North America at that time.

Though until recently, I had never been too interested in supporting my Polish-Canadian heritage.  So for some unknown reason, I decided to try my hand at media relations, for an event I’ve never attended.

Polish Day in Waterloo

I volunteered myself to be the Media Co-ordinator for Polish Day 2012, an event that runs every two years and sees a packed arena in Kitchener-Waterloo enjoying food, dance, art, and hopsy beer. Having never worked in  media/marketing I thought it’d manageable: a couple of emails, phone calls, hand shakes, and all would be fine.

Boy was I wrong. Managing the media activity for an event like this was a challenge in patience and persistence. Making connections with newspapers, TV and radio stations proved … fickle, to use a better f-word.

I sent hundreds of emails to ask for in-kind sponsorship or deliver a press release, and got only several responses. Following up with those responses via phone during business hours proved to be the big difference, and if I were to do it all over again I’d spend my time doing phone calls and office visits instead.

As far as some personal “wins”:

  • Raising money for the Grand River Hospital – Paedeatric Unit.  I reached out to the hospital foundation and Sandra was super happy to work with us, which lent the whole event more street cred.
  • $9,000 sponsorship offer from Rogers Radio (570 News, Kix 106, and CHYM FM) which included an awesome ad that they produced, and great airtime.
  • Rogers TV appearance on Daytime, which was actually fun thanks to the hosts, Jay and Isabela.
  • Great “event calendar” coverage.  If you were looking for something to do in any event guide, Polish Day was there.
  • Tweeted the living hell out of the event. Those pictures and tweets live on, well after the event is over.

The local newspapers, The Record and Chronicle, did run short pieces before the event, and proved to be very influential.

The Facebook event ended up being a driver of non-Polish attendees.  If I were to do that all over again, I’d set up a Facebook Page before the Event, and take advantage of the ads and metrics Facebook has to offer.

All in all – an awesome professional experience. Media communication is nuanced, realistic campaign plans are key, focusing energy on influential media beats broadcasting to everyone.

Four little boys, dressed as gorale, dancing on the main stage.

Little Gorale @ Polish Day, Stealing the Show

Gzowski Club

I was happy to see my friends from Gzowski Club at Polish Day. Tomasz, Kacper, Paul, and myself started Gzowski Club in December 2010. The goal was to create a social club to help young adults party in the company of their Polish peers.

Three epic events later, I’m no longer part of the organizing committee. But the club is well established, has great T-Shirts, and is pretty unique amongst other Polish clubs for not having any sort of heritage angle: it’s fun, and purely for socializing.

I probably shouldn’t be associating with a bunch of young punks throwing sweet keggers to support their international love ambitions – but night life is synonymous with culture. These guys have done an excellent job encouraging young Poles and their friends to celebrate, and elevate the “cool factor” of that cultural association.

Now that’s a great feat: make Polish cool in your circle of influence.

PISK, Gzowski Club, and ISKRA at a table @ Polish Day

11 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Personal Stuff

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15

Sep

First attempt at a 5 year Career Plan

Full Speed Ahead by Nikolay Dolgorukov, 1931
Five year plans, hmm …

My manager recently asked me to develop a five-year career plan. He suspects that my career challenges are going to hit me hard, heavy, and soon. If I’m not prepared I’ll end up doing something I’m not any good at, or passionate about – and I’ll be a victim of the Peter Principle. I don’t even know what I want for Christmas, let alone how I want to make a living in five years.

But being a computer scientician, I’m taking a structured approach to this problem. Break it down to a series of questions I can actually answer: what am I doing now that I’m good at/enjoy, what do I want to develop, and who does something I’d like to be doing (someone who is about 5+ years my senior).

Continue reading →

246 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

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14

Jul

My brother has a blog!

Hi everyone, my brother Krzysztof has a great personal blog:

kgrabka.wordpress.com

This is notable because a) he doesn’t have Facebook or Twitter …. awkward b) he is a very eloquent writer. He’s in Poland with dad right now, so feel free to check out his adventure.

309 days ago Short URL Comments

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03

Nov

Explain your job to someone in 1950

Sometimes my mind is blown about what I actually do for a living, just based on the fact that I have a really hard time explaining it to people. Despite being in a world where cell phones, the internet, and Microsoft Office are part of the daily fabric of life, how many of us are aware of the finer points of creating this software?

So as a fun little exercise, a colleague of mine at work (Michael Swart) was wondering how one would explain their job to someone in 1950 – a time before computers.  His explanation inspired this post.

Explaining it in 1950

Grandma and Grandpa Suski in 1953

Grandma and Grandpa Suski in 1953

All of us use some sort of tool to help us with our jobs -  a sewing machine, a reciprocating saw, or a typewriter. When you use that thing, you can tell if it has been well designed. Does it do what it’s supposed to do, and does it in such a way that makes that task easier? Does the spindle move without jerking, does it stop on a dime, do the keys mash or click gracefully?

It’s a little more abstract, but think about reading a book. The form of the book itself makes a big difference in how you you read – are the pages a pleasure to flip, is the print too small to read on the trolley, does it stay open or force itself closed, does it look rich, cheap, well worn, or brand new?  All of those things are part of the design of that book, and that’s what I do – but not for books.

In the future, reading and writing will not be done with printed books and pens, but with a device called a computer. Computers will have  television screens that can show words and pictures (rather than printed paper), and be hooked up to typewriters. This is how schoolchildren will read and write, teachers teach, and most of us send letters and notes to one another.

Computers can do many, many different types of things – each one of these things is called a program. I work for a company that makes computer programs for Universities. My boss tells me “improve this program where people write mathematics equations”, or “make sure that Chinese people can use this as well.”  I work on a design for a program, that runs on a computer.

I work with a small team of people: I figure out how a program is supposed to look and behave. Others work on the nuts, bolts, logic, and engineering. Others make sure it works how it’s supposed to (quality inspectors), others write the manual, and others still deliver it to the client, and help them use it. It takes months, sometimes years, for a program to be “done.”

Believe it or not, someone pays me good money to do this. :-)

563 days ago Short URL Comments

Personal Stuff/User Experience

02

Nov

Hey I found your purse

When I came home from vacation a couple of days ago I found a bag / purse lying near my driveway.  Today, I decided to ruffle through it in case it wasn’t garbage.

Sure enough it had a large set of keys in, some gum, two digital cameras, and some stuff that obviously belongs to a young woman. I’m sure this person is upset about losing their stuff, so I’d like to help!

If you know any of these people (most likely from the Kitchener/Waterloo area), please leave a comment and help me return her stuff.

1.

2.

3.

4.

So yeah, please circulate amongst your friends and social circles.

563 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

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26

Jul

Spelled the Same, but Opposite?

I just had my mind blown by the English language, yet again.   There’s actually a word whose opposite (or close to it) is the same word, spelled the same, but pronounced differently.  That word is: resigned.  “Jon resigned his position on the basketball team.” vs. “Jon resigned his contract with the team for one more season.”   As in, that BP CEO who resigned and got an $18 million bonus.

Not knowing if I was using resigned incorrectly, I had to look it up.  Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com demonstrate the disparity on the front page of Google. Pretty cool – I feel like I just won the word nerd lottery.

resigned! sign again, or quit.

663 days ago Short URL 4 Comments

Personal Stuff

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11

Jun

Little pictures, big ideas

I subscribe to this one photo blog on my work laptop.  Updates don’t come often, but regularly, and always with a well-written synopsis of what’s going on, and a little biography of the photographer.  The writeup is usually just enough to get my interest piqued, something else to look up online, something to share and discuss with friends.   This is one from a few months ago:

three gazan women

“Women in Gaza”, 2008 by Tanya Habjouqa

“The girls tell me that this is the only space they have to be creative publicly in an increasingly conservative and difficult Gaza.” No shit, eh.

Just felt like sharing.

708 days ago Short URL Comments

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24

Apr

Vimeo and Puerto Rico

I know I’m probably pretty late to this bandwagon, but I never realised just how much amazing content there is on Vimeo.  YouTube may be the king of video quantity, but sometimes (often? all the time?) I want to see original videos on interesting topics, in HD.

The artist community on Vimeo is really strong, as are the corporate entities (such as The White House) that publish on that site.  About an hour into exploring, I’ve watched a half-dozen mini-documentaries and some really great visual stories.  The one below is my favourite today.

Look around from kokooma on Vimeo.

Uploading Puerto Rico

As far as uploading, I’ve read that the video quality/colour/sound  is much better for free Vimeo accounts than YouTube, even in 480p. Judge for yourself, I put up a hastily edited video from my Puerto Rico trip on YouTube, as well as Vimeo.  Take a look, we had a pretty sweet vacation.

755 days ago Short URL Comments

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03

Mar

Final thought on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics

As much as I was extremely happy for all the Canadian athletes at the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympics, especially the speed skaters, I’ve had this nagging feeling I want to get off my chest.

Maybe it’s too early to say it, but I didn’t like the blatant Canadian nationalism on display at the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. I would have been offended if the Americans had acted the same way in Salt Lake City, or the Italians in Torino. Or any other hosts.  Let’s collectively consider the nature of hosting for a second …

I’m glad Canadians were happy, friendly, involved, and by many accounts
created the most engaged Olympic atmosphere ever.  But we were hosting an international event that specifically doesn’t include the word “Canada” in its title because of a long history of global fellowship in sport.  This isn’t the FIFA World Cup, where mini-wars are fought between historical enemies, and players get shot by their own fans.  Nor should Vancouver be some American dollar store that’s draped in red, white, blue, and whatever colour soaring eagles are.  But I digress.

Hopefully I’m not the only person who feels this way, and these Olympics don’t set the bar for future shows of nationalism.

808 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Activism and Politics/Personal Stuff

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21

Jan

Lunch and Adventure, my new blog: loudlunch.com

Hey all, I’ve been busy blogging at work behind the firewallz so I haven’t been so keen on updating my personal blog.  But I have been pretty passionate about lunch-time lately.  So in that vein, I decided to start writing about it on a new blog, Loud Lunch.

Loud Lunch will be dedicated to my favourite meals and adventures that I have in that one hour of midday primetime.  Starting small, but maybe one day I’ll have a couple of co-writers, preferably one in Guelph and one in Waterloo as well.  If you’re interested, please let me know.  All of the graphics and the setup are all pretty experimental, and up for a complete re-design once I get into a writing groove and the idea flushes itself out.

So yeah, feel free to check out what I have to say about pizza from a local good-cause cafe and a mango-rich rice dish from the local chinese place.

xo, d$

848 days ago Short URL Comments

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