UBC Alumni Weekend

alumni UBC welcomes students past and present, family, and friends to Alumni Weekend– the most entertaining and intellectually stimulating day of the year. Featured events include:

• University Fair, tours, engaging lectures, family-friendly activities, beer garden and live main stage entertainment.
• A show from Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of Discovery Channel’s MythBusters. Jamie and Adam will tell tales of experiments, explosions and hijinks, and the unpredictable occupation of myth busting. (Pre-purchased tickets are required for this show.)
• Hard hat tours of the new Alumni Centre in the afternoon.
• Fun classes with topics such as the science of beer, raw vegan sushi making, the magic of chemistry, and much more.
• Free admission to UBC’s attractions, including the Museum of Anthropology, UBC Botanical Garden, and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

 Alumni Weekend offers something for everyone, kids and grown-ups alike. 

General admission and many of the events are free. However, registration is required. Register at http://www.alumni.ubc.ca/events/alumniweekend/.

WHERE:           University of British Columbia | Student Union Building (SUB)
6138 Student Union Boulevard

WHEN:             Saturday, May 24, 2014 | 9:30am – 5:00pm, with events scheduled throughout the day

To register or for schedule of events visit: http://www.alumni.ubc.ca/events/alumniweekend/

Questions? alumni.weekend@ubc.ca

Vancouver Magazine's Editor-in-Chief John Burns, Dara Young and David Gunawan of Farmer's Apprentice, and Lori Chalmers, Publisher of Vancouver Magazine

On Tuesday, Vancouver Magazine announced the winners of their 25th Annual Restaurant Awards at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel.  This year marked the event's silver anniversary and hundreds gathered to celebrate the city's finest culinary talent. The festivities were hosted by CBC's Gloria Macarenko and Stephen Quinn and saw Gold awards handed out in 49 categories.  The night's big winner? The Farmer's Apprentice, taking home Restaurant of the Year, Best New Restaurant of the Year, and Best Casual Restaurant.

So who else took top honours? Click through for full coverage on vanmag.com.

Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Pemberton looked into how retrofitting older office buildings with geo-exchange systems can reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The article explores how a first-of-its-kind retrofit will be done by Fenix Energy at Cadillac Fairview's 777 Dunsmuir building.

Read the whole story here.

Home-grown technology allows for first-ever geo-exchange installation in existing, occupied building at 777 Dunsmuir

Vancouver, BC; April 16, 2014 – The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Ltd. is today announcing a project in partnership with Vancouver-based Fēnix Energy to undertake Canada’s first geo-exchange retrofit of an occupied, mixed-use high-rise complex in a downtown core. The project will take place at Cadillac Fairview’s 777 Dunsmuir property in Vancouver, which includes a 19-storey office tower, as well as the Holt Renfrew and Sport Chek portion of Pacific Centre.

Fēnix Energy will complete the geo-exchange system installation within 777 Dunsmuir’s existing building footprint, drilling 30 boreholes 400 feet into the earth through the building’s underground parkade.

“Cadillac Fairview is always looking for ways to reduce its impact on the environment,” says Ultan Kampff, General Manager, Pacific Centre and HSBC Building. “We’re proud to be working witha local company that is innovating on a global scale. Together with Fēnix, we’re using home-grown technology to find sustainable solutions, increase our efficiency, and lower carbon emissions.”

By harvesting a building’s rejected heat and storing it underground until it is needed, geo-exchange offers a solution for reducing the energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions associated with traditional heating and cooling. However, until now, geo-exchange systems have primarily been installed in new projects or projects where land is readily available adjacent to a building. Projects with small footprints in operating buildings, such as the one at 777 Dunsmuir, had remained elusive.

Fēnix Energy’s system enables the installation of vertical rather than horizontal piping underground. Fēnix has also designed a unique drilling system to facilitate boring in confined spaces such as parkades with low headroom. As a result of these innovations, the project will have minimal disruption on the surrounding area allowing the building to remain occupied.

“Globally, buildings consume around 40% of our total energy, a significant portion of which is for heating and cooling. So the potential to make a difference through geo-exchange is enormous,” says Edward Smith, Managing Director, Fēnix Energy. “Green is about efficiency and using the energy that’s already there. Geo-exchange does exactly that, and now we have the technology to tackle the large existing buildings which make up our dense downtown cores”

The project is the next step in Cadillac Fairview’s GREEN AT WORK™ program, through which the company looks for innovative ways to reduce its carbon footprint and minimize its impact on the environment. This includes energy conservation and efficiency, with the ultimate objective of net-zero emissions from buildings. The retrofit of Cadillac Fairview’s building is expected to reduce carbon emissions from heating energy by 85%, the equivalent of 900 tons of CO2 or taking 190 cars off the road.

Vancouver Magazine announced today select finalists for its upcoming 25^th Annual Restaurant Awards.  Finalists were named in the magazine’s new Best of Neighbourhood award categories including: Best Downtown, Best Yaletown, Best West End, Best Gastown & Chinatown, Best West Side, Best East Side, and Best Richmond.

These categories join Best North Shore in highlighting establishments for diners for whom location is at least as important as reputation, type of cuisine, ambiance, and price. Click here for finalist restaurants.

“For the past 25 years, Vancouver Magazine has been cataloguing the city’s finest rooms and creating a definitive compendium of all that is delicious, masterful, and of the moment,” said John Burns, Vancouver Magazine Editor-in-Chief. “The addition of Best of Neighbourhood awards reflects our judges’ view that for many people, location matters a great deal when deciding where to dine.”

Finalists in the remaining 42 categories won’t be revealed until the gala, to be held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel on April 22^nd. More than 700 of B.C.’s top chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, and food critics will gather to recognize the city’s best. Vancouverites can follow the event live on Twitter and Instagram using #VanMagAwards.

Vancouver Magazine’s May issue includes a 42-page feature on all the award categories. The issue will be on newsstands on April 28^th and digital subscriptions will be available at vanmag.com.

About Vancouver Magazine:

Since 1967, Vancouver Magazine has been informing, guiding, and entertaining people who engage with the city. Mixing quality journalism and service-driven pieces, the magazine chronicles and reflects Vancouver’s emergence as a dynamic, cosmopolitan urban centre. Vancouver Magazine is available as a monthly magazine, through a weekly e-newsletter, The Fix, online at Vanmag.com, and on Twitter and Instagram (@vanmag_com).

The May 2014 issue of Style at Home magazine is on newsstands now, and the Workbook section includes the Burritt Bros. / Zoe Pawlak rug collaboration. Check it out!

Volunteer Opportunity - Event Coordination Event: Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards

Date/Time:  Tuesday, April 22nd, 10:00am – 6:00pm

Elettra Communications is looking for student volunteers to assist with Vancouver’s premier restaurant industry event. This opportunity will appeal to students who have an interest in public relations, publishing, marketing, or event management.

Vancouver Magazine’s Restaurant Awards event is the biggest of its kind in North America, and this year marks the event’s landmark 25th anniversary.  Twenty of the city’s top food critics form the judging panel and vote on the best dining experience in more than 40 categories. The event itself includes a reception and awards show. The annual extravaganza welcomes more than 800 restaurateurs, chefs, sommeliers, suppliers, and food and wine critics.

Duties: Volunteers will assist with a range of activities including: ·       Event set up ·       Guest check-in ·       Awards presenting/backstage coordination ·       Coat check ·       Gift distribution

Benefits to volunteering: ·       Event coordination experience. ·       Exposure to the behind-the-scenes workings of a large event. ·       Opportunity to build contacts in the PR, marketing, and publishing industries. ·       Lunch will be provided.

Dress code: All black. No jeans; no running shoes/sneakers.

How to apply: If you would like to volunteer for this opportunity, please contact cassandra@elettra.ca.  In your email please provide a brief introduction of yourself, and include a description of your current course of study and your contact information. 

Pacific Centre has made the top-10 list of “most-productive” shopping malls in North America, meaning they have among the highest sales per square foot on the continent. The 2013 list, compiled by Retail Insider, pegged Pacific Centre at No. 4, with $1,335 sales per square foot.

Check out the full article and list via The Province.

Vancouver-based Meetingmax selected by renowned festival to provide hotel reservation software

Vancouver, BC; February 24, 2014 – In keeping with its mission to support industry innovators, South by Southwest (SXSW) has signed a contract with Meetingmax Systems, provider of the travel industry’s most flexible online housing reservation system. Through the agreement, Meetingmax’s online accommodation platform will handle hotel room bookings for SXSW’s roster of events and conferences. The companies expect the system to process more than $15 million in hotel transactions during the first year.

The Canadian company’s technology has gained popularity in the United States amongst meeting planners, conference organizers, and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), however this agreement marks the first time Meetingmax will work with an annual festival on the scale of SXSW.

“Since 1987, SXSW has been a standard-bearer for independent business and independent thinkers," says Mike Shea, Executive Director, SXSW. "Meetingmax is cut from that same cloth and we think their housing technology is the right system at the right time."

Discussions between the two companies began in 2012 when SXSW started researching options to replace its previous system, developed internally more than 20 years ago. That software was not designed to handle the increasingly complex requirements of SXSW’s ever-growing line-up of events. After considering its options, including internally redeveloping the software, SXSW decided to engage Meetingmax.

“Meetingmax’s core competency matched exactly what we were looking for. They know housing inside and out,” says Michael Brown, Technical Project Manager, SXSW. “Rather than building a system with similar capabilities, working with Meetingmax means we know the system will function at the level it needs to. We’re now free to focus our energy on innovation in other areas.”

Recognized for its stability and ease of use, Meetingmax’s software also allows for customizable features. For SXSW this will mean special comprehensive billing and refund options and an integrated logic enabling the system to provide unique options to guests based on their role at the event. The housing technology began testing with smaller SXSW events starting in fall 2013, with the full launch projected for August 2014 with registration for the SXSW 2015 Austin conference.

“This contract is a long term, significant investment for Meetingmax and SXSW. Ensuring the fundamentals of our organizations aligned was important to both of us,” says Jeff Duncan, COO and Founder of Meetingmax. “It feels great to be working with a team that will benefit from our software and that also functions like ours in terms of goals and culture. We’re excited to develop this relationship in the years to come.”

First held in 1987 in Austin, TX, SXSW was founded as a conference and festival for the music industry but has since blossomed into a tool for creative people and organizations from different disciplines to share ideas. In 1994, SXSW added film and interactive components, and has since added events spotlighting education (SXSWedu), sustainability (SXSW ECO), and entrepreneurs (SXSW V2V). Today, the SXSW flagship event attracts more than 40,000 registrants to Austin every March, with a local economic impact calculated at more than $218 million in 2013.

Congratulations go out to the Vantage Airport Group.  Yesterday the Airports Council International announced the recipients of the prestigious 2013 Air Service Quality Awards, and Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport has been recognized for Best Improvement in the Latin America-Caribbean region. The full list of winners can be found here: http://bit.ly/1eYn8mi

Vantage currently operates the airport and broke ground in 2009 on a $410 million dollar redevelopment, leveraging its expertise to build a world-class airport that would align with the expanding tourism industry on the islands. Two other Canadian firms, Ledcor and Stantec, were also involved in the construction and design of the redevelopment, which was completed on time and on budget.

The infrastructure project was one of the largest in the Caribbean and was officially completed in October 2013.   Improvements include:

• A 24% increase in airport size.
• Ability to accommodate 50% more passengers (now over 5 million).
• Upgraded and expanded options for food and beverage, retail and other amenities.

Sounds like a great place to start and finish a trip to The Bahamas!

PR, Vancouver, Pacific Northwest, public relations, agency, firm, media, magazines, design, decor, Burritt Bros., Zoe Pawlak

If there's one thing that makes coming home from a beautiful, sunny vacation a little easier, it's finding something awesome like this on your desk when you get back in the office... Gray magazine's February issue has a beautiful cover feature on the Burritt Bros. / Zoe Pawlak Over Oceans Rug Collection. The piece highlights the inspired collaboration between artist and retailer, and describes the process of transforming a painting into a series of five hand-knotted Nepalese rugs.

Congrats to Zoe and our friends at Burritt Bros. This is been a fantastic project to work with you all on!

Gray's February issue is on newsstands now. A couple more pics after the jump....

It's been a busy week for the Burritt Bros./ Zoe Pawlak Over Oceans Rug Collection. On Thursday, Zoe sat down with Fiona Forbes on Shaw's The Rush to talk about the Rug Collection. Watch the whole segment here.

BC Living magazine's February issue came out with a lovely piece on the Collection in their Home Trends section.

BC Living'sFebruary issue is on newsstands now. And Western Living editor, Anicka Quin, chose the rug collection as her Pick of the Week.

magazine, PR, public relations, decor, deisng

Landmark complex’s new look features redesigned food court, lower level

Vancouver, B.C.; January 22, 2014 – This week, Harbour Centre Complex Limited is marking the official opening of its lower level and food court after a multi-million dollar redevelopment. The extensive interior upgrades began last spring and focused on creating a brighter, more welcoming space through higher ceilings, open-concept lounge spaces, and a fresh colour palette

The expanded eating and common area occupies approximately 17,500 square feet, and features seating for more than 600 patrons. 13 vendors in the redesigned food court offer a variety of options ranging from healthy fare to selection of world cuisines, including local concept Rice ‘N Spice and the first Canadian retail location of popular New York based chain Famous Famiglia Pizzeria.  A full list of retailers can be found here: http://bit.ly/1dPjtMY.

“There’s a daytime population of 130,000 within one kilometer of Harbour Centre. We saw an opportunity to create a more contemporary and inviting atmosphere to better serve existing customers and attract new patrons to the Centre,” says Richard Lui, General Manager, Harbour Centre Complex Limited. “We’re thrilled with the finished product and look forward to welcoming customers to the revitalized space to experience all we have to offer.”

Other new amenities include complimentary Wi-Fi zones, larger washroom facilities, and digital directories. The redevelopment was designed by SSDG Interiors Inc. in conjunction with project architects, DA Architects + Planners.

The building’s exterior façade is also currently undergoing improvements that are scheduled for completion in late spring. Wider entryways, new canopies, and improved signage will add colour and light to the building, improving street presence for pedestrians.

About Harbour Centre Harbour Centre is home to a 28-story office tower, a nine-story office building with historic origins, Simon Fraser University Downtown Campus, The Vancouver Lookout Observation Deck, Top of Vancouver Revolving Restaurant, and two levels of shops and services. Recognized as the Information Technology Hub of Western Canada, Harbour Centre houses 5,000 office workers, students, and faculty. Located at the junction of Vancouver’s key transportation arteries, it is easily accessible from anywhere in the Lower Mainland, by road, bus, train, floatplane, Seabus, or Helijet. For more information, visit www.harbourcentre.com.