A planned trip to FanExpo ended up being a day at BuskerFest
Trekkies and superhero fans took over the Metro Convention Centre this weekend. I took my girlfriend down to FanExp on Sunday to meet up with some friends of mine who had some spare passes to the extravaganza. I parked my car at my downtown Toronto office space and took the short walk to the Metro Convention Centre. When we arrived at the convention centre, there were hundreds of fans who had been lined up for hours around a city block trying to get into the convention centre without a prepaid pass. I was not about to join that line up because my friends already had passes for us, were already inside and in the line up to meet William Shatner. Unlike my friends who are diehard super fans of sci-fi and comic books, my interest was only casual and long line ups were not my thing. Also from what I […]
Networking When You Are Not Even Trying
Thursday night I was asked to attend an event that was being held by one of my clients and to take some photographs for their website. The event included a guest speaker Howard Brown, who is the President of Brown & Cohen Communications. Mr. Brown was to be talking about “The Art and Science of Networking”. I picked up some interesting networking concepts from the speaker at this event, including not to be afraid to randomly go up to people and introduce yourself. Another concept Mr. Brown reiterated was to make the introduction of yourself to people about them, meaning to ask questions about them rather than talking about yourself. After hearing the speaker, guests were treated to some hot hors d’oeuvres and encouraged to mingle. While all of the guests were in the same industry (one that I know little about), I was able to have a few interesting conversations with […]
Living and Working Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is really becoming home for so many people. Today I had a meeting not far from the St. Lawrence Market, so I parked my car at the “Green P” parking lot just down the street from the market instead of my regular place behind my downtown office space Toronto. After my meeting, I decided to leave my car at this downtown parking lot and walk to my downtown office. While I was walking this short distance from the St Lawrence Market, I noticed how many condos that were near by, as well as all the ones that were under construction. It used to be they wanted to tear down the Gardner Expressway to open up the view of the waterfront, now that is a mute point due to the condos that are even taller than this elevated roadway. As I was looking at all these downtown Toronto condominiums, I started […]
Need a car downtown? Why not a Zipcar
Who needs a car downtown Toronto when there are Zipcars and Autoshare locations all over Toronto. There is an Autoshare location within a half block of my downtown Toronto office space in the Toronto Star Building. The condominium building called “Pinnacle” across the road is an Autoshare location. There is a Zipcar location on Queens Quay that is only a two minute walk from 1 Yonge Street. For those not familiar with Zipcar or Autoshare, these are car sharing and car club services that allow members to utilize a vehicle on an hourly or part day basis. This type of service is easier than Toronto car rental and car ownership. You simply book the car you want at the time and the pick up location. When you arrive at the location, you simply place your access card on the windshield sensor and the doors are unlocked for you. The keys […]
The view from my Toronto office space
I was in my downtown Toronto office space over looking Harbourfront and the Toronto Islands on Sunday afternoon. I had to pick a file and wait for a call on my cell phone in order to arrange the drop off of the file. While I was waiting for the call, I decided to look out the window and enjoy the view. For a while, I was watching the island ferries crossing the harbour and how the other boats stay clear of them. Then I say something that baffled me, someone in a kayak cut off a ferry boat. Not even the sailboats or power boats tried this. The ferry had to go into reverse in order to give the person in the kayak a chance to pass. As I continued to look out the window of my office space in Toronto, I became amused with how the parking lot across the […]
Her Majesty The Queen’s 22nd tour of Canada
Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s began her 22nd Royal tour of Canada today in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but she has actually visited Canada 24 times (twice as Princess Elizabeth). The Royal Couple had been met by heavy rain earlier when their Canadian Armed Forces plane touched down at Halifax. The Queen will be in Canada from June 28 to July 6, 2010, before heading off to New York City. As part of her itinerary, she will celebrating the Canadian navy’s centenary. The Queen will be unveiling two plaques commemorating the Canadian Naval Centennial and the HMCS Sackville. The Queen also has a personal interest in the Royal Canadian Navy. She is the patron of The Navy League of Canada, The Royal Canadian Naval Benevolent Fund and The Royal Canadian Naval Association. This Royal tour will also mark the first time the Queen has been in Ottawa for Canada Day celebrations. The […]
G20 Summit Planning Guide for Office Space Toronto
Telsec downtown Toronto office space management has been working with the building management, who have been working with federal and municipal law enforcement to provide a safe and secure environment for our tenants during the period leading up to the G20 summit. Here are some of the recommendations It is strongly suggested that tenants avoid scheduling meetings between June 21-28, 2010 and also not schedule deliveries during this week. Large deliveries to the building will require 24 hours advance notice. The Integrated Security Unit for G20 has now announced the security-perimeters and traffic flow patterns which are outlined on the attached map. There will be “Traffic Control Zones” controlled by police within the boundaries of King Street, Queens Quay, Spadina, and Yonge. These are not the boundaries of the security fencing, but rather a security perimeter where there will be increased presence by Toronto Police. Note that 1 Yonge is now […]
International Women’s Day is a day to Celebrate Women
Today (8 March), is International Women’s Day a day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future all around the world. The first IWD was run in 1911. Next year marks the IWD Global Centenary 1911-2011 With International Women’s Day now an official holiday in countries like China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, and colleagues with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent of Mother’s Day status, where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers. International Women’s Day is also a day that we celebrate what women have brought to the work of business. Not only have women achieved so much in the corporate world and climbed to the top positions, they also make up the largest group of entrepreneurs. At […]
How Would Your Company Recover From a Disaster?
With cold Canadian winters, comes broken pipes, flooding, electrical fires, and other unexpected disasters. While the world is looking at the earthquake disaster in Haiti, smaller disasters that effect businesses here at home often go unreported. Some of the recent business disasters I have heard of in the past two weeks were; a small legal practice was forced out of their offices when a pipe burst, a 3 story office building was shut down when an electrical fire destroyed the transformer, the Toronto office space of a company was flooded when a toilet from a unit above overflowed, and even the newsroom of CTV Ottawa was destroyed by a fire. While for most businesses their insurance will cover the damages, the most important thing is the implementation of disaster recovery and getting back up and running as normal as possible in hours, instead of days or weeks. Besides the loss of property, […]
NASA found water on the moon
All the buzz the past few days around the water cooler was the fact that NASA had found water on the moon. This scientific breakthrough does not mean that you will be seeing bottles of Moon Water showing up at a variety store near you any time soon. This news does tell us that at some point the moon could have sustained life or may eventually be colonized. When will the first Telsec office space on the moon be available, I can not say. While Telsec can not yet offer office space on the moon yet, they can offer a great office in downtown Toronto. No, they do not have moon water yet, but they do have cold filtered water available in both kitchens. It may be a number of years until Telsec can offer moon offices with a view of the earth, I can tell you that some clear […]
Being only blocks south of the city core saves half an hour of commute
Today I left my home at the same time as my neighbor and we even took the same route right up until I turned south on Yonge Street to get to my downtown Toronto office space at 1 Yonge Street. I was in my office about 30 minutes when I remembered that I forgot to ask my neighbor if I could borrow his electric leaf blower tonight. So I called his cell phone. It seems that he had just arrived at his Toronto office space in the core of the city, he had been stuck in downtown traffic for 25 minutes. So being only blocks south of the city core saves half an hour of commute. My neighbor is an outside sales representative and works in a satellite office from the rest of the company, just so he can be near his downtown Toronto clients. The funny part of this story […]
Travel to you office by green transportation
Do you travel to you office by green transportation? Have you ever truly wanted to travel to your downtown Toronto office by the ultimate green transportation? While taking public transit is green, bicycling to the office is the truly green way to get to your office. Some downtown office spaces can offer you, but only Telsec Toronto office space can offer a major bicycle route like the Martin Goodman Trail just outside the front door-a bicycle route like no other, an asphalt mostly off-road trail. The Martin Goodman Trail is part of the 730 kilometre Waterfront Trail that connects 41 communities from Niagara to Quebec along the Canadian Shores of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. It was named in memory of the former President and Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Star who passed away in 1981. How fitting that Telsec is located in the Toronto Star Building at 1 […]