In The News

The Torontoist looks at the benefits of urban bee hives and profiles the small, but growing, Toronto bee-keeping community.

"The Fairmont Royal York hotel got much buzz when they kept rooftop honey bees in creatively named hives and used the homespun honey in various dishes served at their restaurant."

Last year, New College at the University of Toronto enlisted the help of Brian Hamlin, beekeeper extraordinaire�Hamlin's the one leading the workshop, at the Toronto Portlands Energy Centre, in the photos accompanying this article�to install some hives on the rooftop of their 45 Wilcox residence (seen here getting the New College bees ready for winter). Krishan Mehta, director of advancement at New College, is enthusiastic that this simple act of food sustainability could rev consciousness among students.

"Having hives in our unit shows students how an urban landscape can mesh with sustainable food production," says Mehta. "The bees are pretty low maintenance to keep and yield such a great return."

"With such a positive outcome, Mehta thinks it would be great if U of T would consider expanding the project."

"Still, newfound beekeeping knowledge can't do Torontonians much good when we're faced with the restrictions of the Ontario Bees Act, which would cancel out the many fantasies of urban rooftop hives. Just as those city dwellers without a backyard sought out public space to grow vegetables, though, so too should those without legal space to tend honey bees seek public areas to keep hives."

read full story here
original source the Torontoist

True North, Toronto's newest indoor-climbing gym, is the most recent sports facility to open in Downsview Park. As reported by the Globe & Mail, not only is True North "one of the coolest-looking climbing gyms in the province", it also boasts 14,000 square feet of walls and the "largest indoor-climbing stalactite in North America."

"Although rock climbing is rightly associated with the outdoors, indoor climbing has become much more popular in recent years. And, as climbing is likely to become an Olympic sport in 2020, you're probably going to hear a lot more about it in the near future. Indoor gyms have also become especially popular in climates such as Canada's, which force hands squarely into mitts half the year. In Toronto alone, there are five high-quality indoor facilities, including True North Climbing, which just opened its doors last month."

"We showed up at True North on a Monday night to try it out. After getting over the feeling that we were standing in an airport (we were, sort of), we found a well-designed - if still under-populated - gym."

"Downsview Park is already home to myriad sports facilities, including basketball courts and soccer fields, all housed in a former hangar. Now it also boasts one of the coolest-looking climbing gyms in the province, if not the country, with 14,000 square feet of walls and a unique terrain that includes the largest indoor-climbing stalactite in North America."

read full story here
original source the Globe & Mail

With the addition of Chicago and Boston to its route map, Toronto's Porter Airlines' "stateside profile is about to rise in a serious way". In light of Porter's most recent expansion in the Untied States, the Washington Post runs an in-depth feature on the 3 1/2-year old airline's continued success.

"Porter has also carefully crafted a quirky personality. Its much-hyped Toronto departure lounge feels more like a hip coffee bar, with iMacs, an espresso machine, free newspapers and mod furnishings. Its fleet consists exclusively of 70-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes, quiet new-generation aircraft that cost less to operate than jets on short hauls. Everything from the napkins to the understated plane interiors to the mischievous raccoon mascot has been conceived by a single branding agency, London-based Winkreative."

"But the real killer app is its home base. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is a tiny facility on a picturesque island at the foot of downtown Toronto. Porter is, for now, the only commercial tenant. Rivals such as Air Canada, American and Continental fly in and out of sterile, gargantuan Lester B. Pearson International Airport, about 20 miles northwest of downtown. Once you navigate your way out of that terminal, highway traffic puts the city a dreary hour and $60 cab ride away."

read full story here
original source the Washington Post

The Huffington Post's Marissa Bronfman interviews Toronto fashion designer (and Project Runway Canada contestant) Jessica Biffi on "her entry into the Canadian fashion industry, designing for real women and her big plans for a bright future". An excerpt:

"There's pressure for everyone in the fashion industry, not just models, to be quite slim. Is this something you grapple with?

There is pressure and I think I'm one of the few actual plus-size designers that's designing plus-size and regular lines. It's the beauty industry, it's the fashion industry, there's always been that pressure to look good and be a certain way. I like that the industry's opening up a little more and accepting that there are different body types and that everyone wants to be fashionable and be represented on the runway and be presented in the magazines because the woman that buys the magazine is not a size 2 model! The women buying the magazines want to be represented and be fashionable as well so I think it's about time that the industry has kind of opened up a little bit."

read full story here
original source the Huffington Post

In September of last year, former figure Skater turned entrepreneur, Lindsay Smith, launched Toronto-based "Slush Kouture". The sports apparel company, recently featured in the Toronto Star, designs and sells customized sports clothing to girls' and young women's sports teams. Due to low startup costs and a quality product Slush Kouture has grown quickly; it was profitable within two months and is currently selling to teams both within Canada and internationally.

"Slush Kouture designs team clothing specifically for female athletes, which means the clothes fit even the tiniest girls. Sizes begin at youth extra small, which would fit a small 3-year-old girl and go all the way up to adult extra large. The clothes are made of soft fabrics that allow athletes to move easily."

"Last fall � when the company officially opened � Smith sent emails introducing Slush Kouture to various Canadian and American sports teams and followed up with phone calls."

"The strategy worked. In the first six months, Slush Kouture filled orders for 12 teams, including a gymnastics team in Alliston, Ont., and two Florida figure skating clubs. For the First Coast Skating Club of Jacksonville, Fla., Smith customized fleece jackets in the club's colours of yellow and black. The team's logo � a skate with six stars � was embroidered on the back."

"While Smith draws a small salary from Slush Kouture, she reinvests the majority of the profits back into the business. Some of that money has funded a ready-to-wear line of yoga-style jackets, pants, shorts, capri pants, a T-shirt and a soft shell jacket. The clothing is to be launched next month at athletic competitions and boutiques."

read full story here
original source the Toronto Star

Soho Vfx, a Toronto-based visual effects provider for film and television, claims The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Chronicles of Narnia among its many film credits. As reported by the National Post, Soho Vfx's trajectory provides lessons in successful business management.The company, which started in 2002 with its 4 founders working out of an converted elevator shaft, now boasts 150 employees and headquarters in Toronto and Los Angeles.

"Berj Bannayan and his partners founded soho vfx, a visual effects provider for the TV and film industry, in an elevator shaft. "There were four of us and we took space in what was an elevator shaft of an old carriage works from 100 years ago at Queen and Peter streets in Toronto," he says. "They boarded up the floors in this big freight elevator and stuck us there. Our ceiling was 28 feet high. It was freezing but it was home for one and a half years."

"We are on track for more growth," Mr. Bannayan says. "Each step is deliberate, exciting and a little bit scary."

"That is exactly how it should be for a company that has set a path for sustainable rapid growth. Sustainable rapid growth is a fragile thing and relies on dynamic management strategy -- not necessarily tried and true best practices, notes a recent study that will appear in Small Business Economics Journal later this year."

"Soho vfx knows it can't afford to get attached to one way of doing things, that it must remain agile, outwardly behaving like a small company, but internally acting like a corporation, with the systems and infrastructure necessary to ensure efficiency."


read full story here
original source the National Post

BlogTo recently featured The Tampered Press, Dundas West's newest coffee shop. In addition to a good espresso, the two-week old coffee shop provides free wi-fi, board games, and Sunday night seminars on food trends and health.

"The Tampered Press is a hybrid caf� combining health with hot cups of coffee. Mismatched wooden chairs in a sea of soft green line the different sized tables, while bookshelves hold board games and empty glass water bottles. The space has lots of natural light, WiFi and a comfy, homey feel. Owner Caitlyn Pask opened shop about two weeks ago and runs her own business with the help of her mom, boyfriend and friends."

read full story here
original source BlogTo

According to the Globe & Mail, the story of Toronto-based startup Shirtpal Co. provides a lesson in successful entrepreneurship. The company, which allows customers to order custom-made dress shirts online and at live purchasing events, owes much of its success to the co-founders' commitment to extensive industry research. Western University graduates, Winnie Cheung and Noorneet Singhwas studied the best practices of Maxwell's Clothiers--a world-leader in the customized shirt industry--before building their own business model.

"Winnie Cheung was studying at University of Western Ontario to be a chartered accountant when she discovered several of her classmates were ordering customized shirts and suits from vendors who measured customers on home soil but manufactured their products in Asia."

"Ms. Cheung and a colleague from university, Noorneet Singh, started doing some research in January, 2009, and investigated probably the best-known player in the market, the first travelling tailor to come to Canada, Hong-Kong based Maxwell's Clothiers."

"Based on the Maxwell model, Ms. Cheung and Mr. Singh, now both 25, came up with the idea of starting Toronto-based Shirtpal Co."

"Our sales and marketing initiatives come from Toronto, our digital and Web development from Singapore and manufacturing from Thailand," Mr. Singh said. "And we shuffle in between. But we are all Canadians."

read full story here
original source the Globe & Mail

Toronto soccer fans get a chance to be front and centre at the Major League Soccer's championship game this year as the city has been selected to host the MLS contest. As reported by the New York Times, the game, scheduled for November 21 at BMO Field, "marks the first time the final will be played outside the United States".

read full story here
original source the New York Times

According to a report in Business Week, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), continues to make inroads into the United States. Canada's second-largest lender, the bank already has 1,000 branches in the U.S. and just recently bid on 'a number' of U.S. bank assets. While none of the bids ended in a transaction this time, Edmund Clark, TD's Chief Executive Officer, noted "the bank doesn't need to make any more acquisitions to expand south of the Canadian border," as TD is expecting to open about 30 new branches in the United States every year.

"Toronto-Dominion, which has spent more than $15 billion on U.S. acquisitions in the last five years, reiterated that the bank would consider buying banks assisted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as well as non-FDIC deals for banks with assets of as much as $10 billion."

"Clark said last week that Toronto-Dominion, which has 1,000 branches in the U.S. under the name TD Bank, doesn't need to make any more acquisitions to expand south of the Canadian border, and will add about 30 new branches there a year."

read full story here
original source Business Week

Toronto firm AddMirror is continuing the latest advertising trend: infiltrating the public washroom. As reported by the Toronto Star, the new Toronto company sets itself apart from the competition by advertising directly on the washroom mirror.

"Printed on film behind two-way glass, the ad images appear vividly when backlit by strong LED lighting and the custom software runs the sequence of images on a 20-second loop. The whole thing is dormant until a person moves toward the sink and the mirrors. Then a motion sensor starts the ad storyboard."

"A great ad is all about telling a great story," says AddMirror president Elliott Atkins, who bought the Canadian rights to the mirror product in 2008 from the U.K. parent company (he has an option on the U.S. licence as well)."

"Since then, AddMirror has placed 160 mirrors in 80 restaurants and lounges in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver."

read full story here
original source the Toronto Star

100 emerging entrepreneurs received expert lessons in innovation last week, through a conference hosted by Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada. Held March 27 and 28 at Metro Hall, the two-day re:Vision conference conference brought together a group of mentors to educate  young innovators.

"The goal of the re:Vision conference is to leave participants with "practical know-how, new lenses for project design, and a wealth of earned knowledge that can be applied to their initiatives."

"Cheryl May, advisor and practice lead of social innovation at MaRS, describes re:Vision as "a tremendous force because it brings youth into the realm of social entrepreneurship, and when I see the enormous movement of people who are embracing social entrepreneurship, I am buoyed by the knowledge that the future is in good hands."

read full story here
original source CTV News

LG fashion week's Women x Women exhibit, featuring the top female fashion photographers in Canada, opened this week at Queen's streets's Thrush Holmes Empire. In light of the event Eye Weekly profiles 8 of Toronto's most promising female fashion photographers.

"The glossy world is edited largely by women, so why are most of our imagemakers men? I can think of nary a female photographer at the pinnacle of the Toronto fashion game. Hearteningly, however, I know at least a half-dozen young lenswomen who might just leapfrog there -- or, if we're not careful, elsewhere -- very soon."

read full story here
original source Eye Weekly

Toronto-based mobile-marketing company Adenyo is creating its own niche in the advertising world by helping companies to advertise their products on cellphones. The Globe & Mail interviews Chief Executive Officer Tyler Nelson on "why his company is set to change the way advertisers reach their consumers".

"In a tight capital market, Adenyo's recent $26.9-million financing stands out as much for having happened at all as it does for the company's technology."

"The Toronto-based mobile-marketing company, which was formerly known as Silverback Media and has about 95 employees, helps companies advertise their products on cellphones. It's a broad-based approach that targets the masses, serving up content-rich interactive ads on devices such as BlackBerries and iPhones."

read full story here
original source the Globe & Mail

The New York Times recently profiled the Toronto culinary scene's obsession and expertise "with all things meaty." With mainstays from Caplansky's Delicatessen and Kensington Market's Sanagan's Meat, to newer ventures such as Dundas West's Hoof Cafe, Toronto has become a meat lover's dining destination.

"In my first hour in Toronto, I ate these things: stewed rabbit, blueberry-buckwheat pancakes, crisp ribbons of translucent guanciale and billowy mounds of smoked ricotta. And this was all just the first dish. Brunch at Hoof Cafe -- the new offshoot of Grant van Gameren and Jen Agg's Black Hoof, across the street -- is a decidedly meat-focused affair. Stranger than this strange assemblage, which also included more blueberries and some syrup and -- why not? -- candied celery and which seemed to suggest the chefs were smoking more than cheese, was the fact that it all sort of worked. Not brilliant, but sweet and smoky and meaty and an oddly comforting way to begin the first meal of the day. The lines out the door should have tipped me off: Toronto is in the throes of a serious love affair with all things meaty."

read full story here
original source New York Times