In The News

As reported on NewsWise two Torontonians were among those recognized but they American Institute of Physics, when they announced the winners of the 2009 AIP  "Science Communication Awards" last week. Toronto-based writer Dan Falk was recognized in the Science writing category for an article published in COSMOS magazine in 2008 entitled "End of days: a universe in ruins".  Toronto's Gillian Oreilly won the Children's Category for a 2007 book she co-wrote with Vancouver's Cora Lee entitled  "The Great Number Rumble: A Story of Math in Surprising Places.

"The American Institute of Physics (AIP) announced the three winning entries in the 2009 Science Communication Awards today. The winning authors -- a freelance science journalist, a TV and film director, an author and screenwriter, and two children's book authors -- will split three prizes of $3,000. They will each also get engraved Windsor chairs and certificates of recognition. "These outstanding science communicators have each improved the general public's appreciation of physics, astronomy, and related sciences through their wonderfully creative endeavors," says Catherine O'Riordan, AIP Vice President, Physics Resources. "We are pleased to be able to recognize such excellent work."

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original source NewsWise

Toronto in the best city in the country for artists, and Parkdale the best neighborhood according to the results of a recent study. As reported by The National Post the study, conducted by Hill Strategies Research group, in cooperation with the City of Toronto, found that Toronto's percentage of "cultural workers" surpassed that of every other over large city in the country.

"Toronto is Canada's top destination for artists, easily besting Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal, according to a new study. And in Toronto, Parkdale is top neighbourhood."

"About 22,300 artists lived in Toronto in 2006, according to a study released this week by the Hill Strategies Research group, in cooperation with the City of Toronto. Montreal was home to 13,400 artists; 8,200 in Vancouver; 5,100 in Calgary and 4,600 in Ottawa.

Toronto's most popular neighbourhood for both artists, 6%, and cultural workers, 16.3%, is Parkdale, moving up from sixth place in 2001.

Phil Henderson, a photographer and gallery director at Gallery 1313, said Parkdale has always had an artistic community.

"There's a very strong sense of community and it's almost like a small village on its own," Mr. Henderson said.

Toronto has long been trying to draw people to the city based on cultural and artistic projects, said Terry Nicholson, the city's manager of cultural affairs.

"This is not a new phenomenon. The city of Toronto, as well as the federal and provincial governments, have been investing in cultural activities for 25 years and this is the end result."            

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original story National Post

The National Ballet of Canada's upcoming season is already generating lot of interest. As reported by Music Magazine Craw Daddy a particularly innovative piece entitled Chroma, will be making it North American premier in Toronto next season; designed by Wayne McGregor, of England, the dance piece is set to the music of Detroit's The White Stripes.

" The White Stripes may be from Detroit, but it's Canada that's proving its love for Jack and Meg. The National Ballet of Canada has announced a collection of works to be performed this season, with an emphasis on more innovative pieces. Among them is Chroma, a ballet designed by Wayne McGregor, of England. From CBC News: "McGregor was hailed as a breath of fresh air in dance circles with Chroma, a piece for five couples in flesh-coloured dancewear set to music by the White Stripes."

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original source Craw Daddy

Toronto chef-extraordinaire Susur Lee continues to make his mark internationally; in an article published in the New York Times last week wrote Lee related his experiences traveling the world with food. After successful expansion of his restaurant enterprise to New York and a first place finish on America's Iron Chef means Susur Lee is now recognized as much south of the border as he is here.

"Probably the worst experience I ever had with flying was when I was headed from Canada to the United States for an episode of "Iron Chef America." I was going to do battle with the chef Bobby Flay. "

"I like to cook with my own things, so I brought several ingredients with me. The ingredients were packed on ice in my luggage. I also had a letter from the television network, which explained the nature of my travel. I was really excited about the opportunity. And then I got to immigration. Despite my letter, the officials spread all of my ingredients across an inspection table. I had a bag of special corn starch. Corn starch is white and powdery. Of course, it was assumed that it was something illegal. It didn't help matters when the corn starch went flying everywhere when the bag was opened. It passed the illegal substance test, which I don't pretend to understand. But most of it was no longer usable."

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original source the New York Times

An education from Toronto's Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University pays for itself quickly according a survey conducted by the Ted Rogers School of Management. The survey, which tracked graduate salaries and employment rates found that after completing a program that costs approximately $13,000 "students who were employed within six months of graduating earned an average annual salary of $85,327".

"The topic at hand is Ryerson's Master of Business Administration program, which has Brailovski perked even before he's had his coffee."

"It's a much more cost-effective program," he contends, championing the school from which he graduated just two years ago, after which he landed a job at Scotia Bank."

"The Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University is seated in the heart of downtown Toronto, cushioned close to Yonge and Dundas Square. The location was one of the primary factors that drove Brailovski to complete his MBA at Ryerson, but it's the cost-benefit analysis he insists elaborating upon."

"The tuition is comparatively inexpensive to other schools," he says. "The flexible program is of great, great value: a one-year model, for people wanting to jump-start their careers."

"A common threat of any program is putting up the money, time and energy to study, and then not being able to find a job immediately after. The problem has become increasingly prominent in this wavering economy. Though there is an increasing number of students enrolling in MBA programs, there are fewer and fewer jobs as firms cut back. However, Brailovski says the employment rate for Ryerson MBA students is "phenomenal."

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original source Toronto Star

A recent feature in the Globe & Mail looked at the successful hiring practice of Toronto-based beer brewing company Steam Whistle. The company's adoption of inclusive hiring practices has resulted in a management team that is 50 percent foreign born.  According to the Steam Whistle co-founders, the willingness to take a chance on new Canadian has been integral to the company's success.

"[Immigrants] have risked everything to build a new life," Steam Whistle co-founder Greg Taylor says. "They take their jobs very seriously and are very passionate, and at the end of the day that helps your bottom line."

"Since its inception in 1998, Toronto-based has made inclusive hiring a priority, says Mr. Taylor. And while the practice is clearly good for the community, and adheres to the company's determination to be good corporate citizens, Mr. Taylor insists it has also aided the business. Today, 18 per cent of the company's 115 employees - and half of its management team  - hail from other countries, including Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic, Cuba, Portugal and Russia."

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original source Globe & Mail

Toronto-based Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund has reported record earnings for the past year according to CBC News. Due in large part to the giant blockbuster Avatar, Canada's number one movie theatre exhibitor, saw 37 per cent increase in their fourth quarter over last year.

"Earnings for the three months ending Dec. 31 were $9.5 million, helped by early results from James Cameron's Avatar, which played for 13 days of the quarter."

That was 37 per cent more than the $6.9 million it earned in the fourth quarter of 2008. Net income for the year was $53.4 million, up more than 84 per cent from 2008.Cineplex units rose 17 cents to $18.39 on the Toronto Stock Exchange near the end of trading, after briefly touching a two-year high of $18.60 earlier in the session."

"These results were driven by the strong performance of Avatar, which was the No. 1 performing film in the quarter, generating 11.8 per cent of total box-office revenue," said president and CEO Ellis Jacob in a conference call with analysts."

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original source CBC News

The National Post recently ran a feature on Toronto entrepreneur Som Seif. The Canadian president and CEO of Claymore Investments in Canada, Seif is credited with building the company, (a subsidiary of Chicago-based money-manager Claymore Group Inc), "into one of the most innovative financial firms on Bay Street".

"[Seif's] core strategy: exploiting investor's appetite for exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, as they're commonly referred to. ETFs - typically baskets of equities and bonds that passively track a benchmark and trade like stocks - account for 95% of the $4.1 billion in assets that Claymore controlled as of the end of November. Although the market is led by Barclays Global Investor division, iShares, Claymore's book still accounts for about 14% of the industry."

"This year alone we've almost tripled our market share in Canada on ETF assets and we're growing quite dramatically in terms of sales flow," Seif says. "We're capturing over 27% of the actual market flow that is going into the Canadian ETF industry right now. That's pretty impressive coming from nothing three years ago."

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original source The National Post

Online Trade and exchange magazine, Mondovisione, recently reported on the "TSX Venture 50": a ranking of the 50 top performing companies on the TSX Venture Exchange. The list was chock-full of Toronto success stories; the highest honour going to Toronto-based mining company, Romarco Minerals Inc. (R), recognized as the top performing company on the TSX Venture Exchange .

"The 2010 TSX Venture 50 companies have an impressive track record," said John McCoach, President, TSX Venture Exchange."
 
"We are pleased to offer a unique market that facilitates and encourages emerging companies to meet their goals."

"The 2010 TSX Venture 50 is comprised of 10 companies from each of five industry sectors � Clean Technology, Diversified Industries, Mining, Oil & Gas and Technology and Life Sciences. They were selected based on four equally weighted criteria: return on investment, trading activity, analyst coverage and market capitalization growth."


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original source Mondovisione

The recent closure of two well-loved Toronto bookstores, Pages and David Mirvish Books, has left a void in the city's independent bookstore scene. But thankfully, as BlogTO reminds us, future of the city's neighborhood bookstore is not necessarily bleak. In a profile on Kensington Market's "This Ain't the Rosedale Library", a Toronto mainstay for over 30 years, BlogTO finds lessons for surviving Toronto's increasingly competitive (and big-box dominated) bookstore scene.

"...as important as the ability of the staff to interact with customers and recommend titles is, a bookstore is nothing without an excellent selection�.Although they have well-stocked sections of fiction, auto/biography, magazines, urban affairs and books on art, the reward of shopping here is finding the gems you didn't know existed�.

"Not only that, but they encourage a community of artists and literati to frequent the store (as buyers and sellers). I can't stress enough how important this community-creation is. Beyond the chapbooks and small-press magazines, the [the founders of the store], the Huiskens, have taken to hosting events at the store two or three times a month. To some extent, this is one of the ways to remain competitive with internet giants like Amazon. By taking steps to turn the store into a hub for creative-types, they might just be able to make the sympathetic customer think twice before buying online."

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original source BlogTO

The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters' innovation awards recently recognized a number of Toronto businesses. As reported by the Toronto Star, Toronto-based bicycle frame-manufacture Cervelo and Kitchener-based Christie Digital were among the 7 companies recognized for the prestigious national award this year.

"Five of the seven companies being recognized are from Ontario, including one to be honoured for hiring practices and another for philanthropy."

"It has not been a great year, but I think the companies we have in Canada that are still in business are very resilient," said CME spokesman Jeff Brownlee."

"Between August 2008 and August 2009 Canada's manufacturing exports fell 32 per cent, with sales down 20 per cent and job losses topping 200,000, according to a CME report. "

Despite having to adapt, many CME members are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, Brownlee said. "It is not all doom and gloom, there are some great stories out there."

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original source the Toronto Star

As reported by Exchange Magazine, two professors from Hamilton's McMaster University have started a new community program to help combat childhood obesity. Called Adventure Running Kids, the program employs a variety of running activities (i.e. night running, snowshoe running) to get kids, aged 8 to 16, excited about physical activity.
 
"Mike Waddington, professor of Geography and Earth Sciences, and Mark Tarnopolsky, professor of Medicine, both of them world-class athletes when they aren't conducting research in their labs or in the field, came up with the idea of Adventure Running Kids when they witnessed an increase in child obesity and a decrease in children's knowledge of their environment."

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original source Exchange Magazine

A feature in the Globe & Mail looks at the career of successful Toronto entrepreneur, Howard Lindzon. Lindzon's most recent venture StockTwits, a twitter-powered site for traders and investors, has already reached 100,000 registered users within its first year.

"As soon as I realized that the Twitter thing was probably breeding some good stock commentary, I found StockTwits in February, 2009," said Mr. Gomez, who has a website with his trading partner called Todaytrader.com. "The idea flow is great, and just like in a real room you can start to get the personality of people after following them. You can't fake it on there. So the cream really rises to the top and that's fun to watch."

"StockTwits is the embodiment of social media, the empowerment of the basement day trader or the small-time money manager. It's a platform where users get judged on the quality of their picks, links and views, not by the names of the too-big-to-fail banks that employ most of the experts given exposure by the mainstream media."

"Mr. Lindzon started this "Facebook of finance" in 2009, and today it has 100,000 registered users and receives more than 8,000 tweets per trading day. It was the seemingly natural next step of a career that has so far seen him dabble - often to great profit - in technology, finance, his leisure-time passion of golf, and even little squeeze balls with corporate logos. "

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original source Globe & Mail

Corporate Knights Magazine has awarded Toronto the number one spot on their annual list of the country's most sustainable cities. Judged on "ecological integrity, economic security, governance and empowerment infrastructure, built environment and social well-being" Toronto was deemed the nation's most sustainable big city.

"Toronto knows well that two (million) heads are better than one. Diverse people bring diverse approaches, contributing to the city's Big City bracket win. Toronto overpowered last year's winner, Edmonton, with corporate GHG emissions currently 40 per cent below 1990 levels, regional trade initiatives strengthening the local economy, and a growing middle class. The city reaps the benefits of its density, with more citizens choosing green commuting options and consuming less energy residentially."

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original source Corporate Knights Magazine

As reported by the Toronto Star, the city of Hamilton is being recognized, both nationally and internationally, as a prime movie-filming location. In the past two years over 100 different productions were shot in the city, bringing significant revenue to the local economy.

"Thanks to a mix of favourable tax credits, an enthusiasm for making filmmakers welcome and a chameleon face that lets the city stand in for anywhere from the Middle East to Washington, D.C., the Hammer is turning a tidy profit making movies, TV shows and music videos. All of it, of course, amid a serious industry-wide downturn that has seen many Toronto film and TV workers idled."

"While it may be a while before the city erects a Hammerwood sign on Hamilton Mountain, there were some 100 productions in the city in the past two years, including about 800 prep, shoot and wrap working days in 2009, says Hamilton's Film and Television Office manager, Jacqueline Norton. "

"That's not a fortune by any stretch � Norton says the city made $6.5 million in 2009 from production, compared to the $610.5 million for Toronto in 2008. But she's quick to point out that Toronto attracts more big-budget features than Hamilton, which does more smaller films, TV shows, music videos, student productions and commercials. "

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original source Toronto Star