e-HomeWork

Bumpy Wheel Suggests Where To Look For Balance

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:38:00 -0500

The ideal "business life wheel" shown by speaker Grace Attard at the HPCA meeting Feb. 21 should be round and full. Slices of our time devoted to strategic planning, new business development and finances, for example, should be offset by equal time spent on team relationships, health, personal growth and fun.

Talking Trademarks & Copyright

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:34:00 -0500

Copyright is the right to control how our product is used, photographer Brian Boyle (brian.boyle@sympatico.ca) told the group. He noted that people in photographs are covered by copyright legislation, which is also linked to Canada's privacy laws. That means every photo with a recognizable face requires a model release from that person, or else the photographer must blur the face.

Getting Up To Speed On Mobile Tech

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:29:00 -0500

By chance, presenter Renée Brisson-Khan created the perfect start to the November 14 session about mobile technology.

Renée had forgotten her iPad in Mississauga, but that first panicky moment of discovery turned into a rush of adrenaline. Borrowing her colleague's tablet, Renée quickly went to "the cloud" and pulled up her presentation and notes.

That's exactly how fellow presenter Sean Jennings of CIM Solutions says mobile technology should be - "simple, like a toaster: it just works."

Are you working too hard for too little? Time for better sales strategies

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:24:00 -0400

Are we all working too hard for too little? At the HPCA meeting on October 12, Mike Draper said that's a candid question we should ask ourselves as we try to bump up both client prospects and revenues for our small enterprises.

Donna Inspires Us With Storytelling

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:20:00 -0400

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Karen. She was part of a group of really smart folks like Donna, who teaches others about storytelling in a most informative and entertaining way. Perhaps that's not exactly what I learned to do after hearing Donna Papacosta's presentation at the September HPCA meeting, but if you can get past the beautiful princess part, you'll get my point!

Branding is NOT Simply a Logo

Wed, 11 May 2011 16:17:00 -0400

For Rhonda Page, moving into the art of branding from graphic design was a natural segue. The guest speaker at HPCA's May 11 workshop, Brand Impacts Business, Rhonda knows that having a "nice-looking" brochure that looks like so many other "nice-looking brochures" just doesn't cut it. It's really a matter of having a clear and persuasive message, which should also align with good design.

You area project manager - Whether you know it or not!

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:02:00 -0400

Here's my confession. I used to think project management was simply the play toy of the engineer. When I worked at GO Transit, these folks loved to send me spreadsheets with multiple pages and complicated charts and graphs and timelines and my head would explode and I just wanted to know what the heck I was supposed to do. Sometimes I wondered if there was any doing at all!

Bring & Brag Night

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:57:00 -0400

Our first Bring & Brag meeting, which replaces the former Portfolio Night, certainly lived up to its name and theme. Members brought portfolio samples -- both print and digital -- but they also presented informative backgrounders on themselves, benefits they offer and case studies of their client successes.

Richard's Path to the Vineyard

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:45:00 -0500

Tracing the arc of an accidental career is a tricky business. It often involves surprises and setbacks, but in the case of Frugal Oenophile Richard Best, it also involves countless mouthfuls of wine.

At HPCA's February 17 meeting, Richard described how he became one of Canada's most respected wine experts and he tested the olfactory capabilities of HPCA members with eight different aromatics commonly found in wine.

Survey Results, and Let's Talk Rates

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:39:00 -0500

You can have it fast, you can have it good, you can have it cheap; pick any two.

If these are words for independents to live by -- reflecting the value of what we do -- then why do so many of us buckle when a prospective client balks at the price we propose?

A lively discussion about how to respond to "low ball" clients was just one of the benefits of attending HPCA's January 12 meeting. A capacity crowd of members and guests collected great ideas and advice from panelists Renée Brisson-Khan, Donna Papacosta, Val Sanna and Diana Spremo, led by moderator Anne Von Rosenbach.

However You Watch TV, Content is Still King

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:18:00 -0500

Screens are everywhere - in the food court, on the GO Train, in the palms of our hands. And because of this, Steve Rayment of TVO says we're going to be talking less about traditional "TV" hardware and more about "content." With 23 years of experience in the TV biz, Steve was able to give us an insider's view of the industry at our meeting November 10. He started with a look back to the mid-1980s, when specialty TV was born. Movie channels launched first, then TSN and MuchMusic, but all were suffering with low adoption rates.

Wizards of the web Rob Clark and Kyle McKeown unmask web analytics

Mon, 31 May 2010 18:46:00 -0400

In the right hands, passion can magically alter a necessary but dull topic into something relevant and fascinating. How could we otherwise explain a researcher's life commitment to the study of an obscure insect only found in an equally obscure corner of the globe?

Meeting Report, New Members, Share Your Thoughts...

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:59:00 -0400

Mark your calendars for another don't-miss event the evening of Wednesday, May 26. This one features our social media expert Rob Clark, who will help us understand web analytics, and Rob's colleague Kyle McKeown, who will talk about inbound marketing and search engine optimization.

What’s Your Behaviour Style?

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:14:00 -0500

Who knew that I would have the same behaviour style as the famous Donna Papacosta, and some other guy named Donald Trump?