Landing in Toronto and driving into downtown it looked as though Yaletown had gone and given birth to hundreds of offspring along the lake. The cab ride to the hotel was pretty steep (luckily it’s coming out of the tax payer’s pocket) and our hotel is actually rather lovely.

It’s “Monster Truck Jam” night at the Rogers Centre (aka the Skydome) and you can view all the action from our hotel lounge since it’s actually built into the side of the stadium.

Wireless in the hotel room works (thanks to John lending me the Airport), the king size bed looks inviting and the curtains are stapled to the wall. Looks like the only thing standing between downtown Toronto and my bare bum is a thin draping of sheer fabric.

I have no problem waking up at a the crack of 5:00am. John and I were out the door with plenty of time to get meet up with our chauffeur, Duane, and get to the airport so I could check in for my flight.

Photo credit: Duane on Flickr

Arriving at YVR we were all looking forward to some coffee and a wholesome breakfast at Milestones before I took off. I proceeded to the Air Canada check in area and noticed that not one single “check-in” station was manned by airline staff. The point here is to encourage travelers to check-in using the computer/automated kiosks, then they would proceed to a booth and talk to personnel about their checked baggage. Two issues arose for me, a) my reference number was not working at the computer kiosk and b) I wasn’t checking any luggage. Air Canada left me no option to actually speak to a person, face to face, when I was having issues. I tried several more methods of locating my ticket/boarding pass through the computer and nothing worked. It also didn’t help that the ticket wasn’t purchased on my credit card AND my credit card is still in my maiden name. After all this frustration I realized my flight had been CANCELED. A CBC rep was nice enough to give me a ‘heads up’ call and inform me that I would now be on a later flight.

Breakfast was delightful.

I went back to the computer kiosk thinking maybe it just couldn’t reference my ticket before since my flight was cancelled. No go. I finally went over to the “ticket purchase” counter for Air Canada at YVR (since the only other staff member I spotted was rude and less than helpful). The representative at the counter was pleasant and I was finally able to check in.

It’s been about five years since I’ve flown Air Canada and now I know why I avoid it.

We’re in the air at 12:30pm PT (when my original flight was supposed to depart at 9:00am PT). I’m writing this on my tray table as the man in the seat in front of me just reclined, all of a sudden (at lightning speed) and crunched my laptop against the ‘in flight entertainment screen’ on the back of the seat. Great.

Speaking of the ‘in flight entertainment screens’, they seem like a neat idea – and everyone’s got one – but since they’re touch-controlled everyone in the cabin is getting a little confused. Upon plugging in their headsets passengers are reaching down to the side and trying to adjust the volume. Thing is, the volume is also on the touch screen and what they’re doing is caller the flight attendant over and OVER again. It sounds like I’m in a super-fast elevator right now that’s stopping at every floor due to the call buttons going off all over the place.

This first leg of the journey has gone a bit rough, although I managed to grab about 20 minutes of sleep while they were de-icing the plane at YVR. The call button tones are keeping me a amused.

Update: The kid beside me keeps playing an unusual drum beat on his arm rests. I went to plug in my standard issue earphones and I couldn’t figure it out. The woman beside me helped me. I felt like a jackass. I turned on an episode of The Office. I chilled out. It was smooth sailing from there.

In 1986 he was named Vancouver’s “Citizen of the Century” and he was pretty much just a regular guy who happened to spend most of his time saving lives.

You’ve probably seen the restaurant that’s famous for its seafood and that yellow cab out front, and maybe you’ve been to the library named in his honour, but do most Vancouverites these days know much about the man Joe Fortes himself?

VPL Number: 21746. Photographer / Studio: Dominion Photo Co.

Joe Fortes was born in Barbados in 1865 and by way of Liverpool, England he ended up in Vancouver after surviving a shipwreck. He held many jobs – as a bartender, porter, shoeshiner, etc. – but fell in love with English Bay and soon became Vancouver’s first self-appointed, un-paid lifeguard, living in a tent on the beach. Shortly thereafter he was given official lifeguard status and overlooked what soon became known as “Joe’s beach.” He would go on to teach hundreds of children to swim, to save over 100 lives and to become a legend and inspiration for the city.

(Left) 1910 – VPL Number: 39420. Photographer: White, J. Studio. (Right) 1918 – VPL Number: 649

… scarcely a tyke who was raised in Vancouver in the 1890’s or 1900’s but learned to swim with Joe’s ham-like fist gripping the back of his or her cotton bathing suit and that deep, mellow voice ordering, “Kick yo’feet, chile – kick yo’ feet.”…Mothers confidently shooed their children away to the bay for the long summer days with the simple command, ..’and don’t go away from where Joe is..’ ” [History of the West End]

In 1922 when he passed away his funeral at the Holy Rosary Cathedral was the most-attended to date in the city.

Photo credit: SqueakyMarmot on Flickr

The people in Vancouver held Joe in such high esteem that ever since 1926, when a memorial fountain was placed for him near English Bay, we’ve been naming things in his honour. He would later have a branch of the Vancouver Public Library (on Denman) named after him in 1976 and a famed oyster bar restaurant on Thurlow street would open in 1985, bearing his name one hundred years after he came to the city. In 2003 the National Film Board of Canada even produced an award-winning short film called, “Joe”.

The fountain depicted in the photo above resides in the West End’s Alexandra park. It’s the perfect height for youngster and on it is inscribed, “Little Children Loved Him.” Next time you pass by the fountain, the restaurant or the library, now you’ll know about this great man who changed the lives of many in Vancouver – from all walks of life, young and old.

Joe, Jill Haras & Jill Haras, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

Facts from this post were gathered with help from my favourite Vancouver history website, VancouverHistory.ca more can also be read on the Black Historical and Cultural Society’s website.

It’s been several months in the making and now we’re less than two weeks away from the first ever Facebook Awards that will take place at the Vancouver Facebook Developer (and Design) Garage.

The ever-fabulous Megan Cole (who was also named as one of Vancouver’s Tech Women to Watch in 2008) will be moderating the event and the following companies have signed on to do live demos:

All applications are homegrown, right here in BC. Remember, to present a demo your app doesn’t even need to be completed so give us a sample and get some valuable feedback from this test audience of your peers. Sign up here if you’re interested in being a speaker.

One of the most popular applications that was shown at the first Garage was Social Signal speaking about Green Gifts, which was created and designed for BC Hydro as a part of the PowerSmart campaign. Not only can you send friends a gift on Facebook, they include energy-efficient and eco-friendly tips, providing valuable information for those looking to be more environmentally conscious.

Also from Social Signal, Rob’s created a series of Facebook-themed cartoons – check them out on ‘Noise to Signal‘.

And even though they’re not Facebook related per se, I have to include these because they made me chuckle.

This next one is *SO* John and I.

You can read more about Rob and his company’s work with BC Hydro and the Green Gifts application in this bio.

If you have or know of a Facebook application OR a Facebook cartoon that would fit into the new awards category, nominations will be open until the event on January 28, 2008. I previously introduced some nominees for the Facebook Awards and it’s not to late to get your submissions in.

Bloggers have the power to publish their opinions and information to the internet and with a good following and decent readership traffic, they have a lot more influence than you’d imagine. They can promote causes, spread news like wildfire and even catch a thief so why is it that it’s super tough for a respectable blogger to find a corporate sponsor for a contest or event?

First things first, not all bloggers are created equal. For instance if a “monkey knife fight blog” wants to get the SPCA to sponsor an event, that may not be the best idea. However when a Vancouver blogger wants to promote restaurants and businesses in the city, what does it take to get a company to hop on board? For example, I’ve personally been told by at least thirty people that my (unsolicited) blog post recommendation to visit a certain butcher shop/deli turned them into faithful regulars of the establishment – score! Blogging equals links equals customers.

Photo credit: Roland Tanglao on Flickr

Recently I’ve been asked twice about finding a sponsor for an event. The first being CaseCamp, which you’d think would be an advertising exec’s DREAM. A packed house of marketing professionals all dialed into social media? What better way to get visibility. The second is Duane’s StartupWeekend. Dozens of tech-minded, career-driven entrepreneurs getting together to build a product or even a new company – why wouldn’t you want to have your business or product showcased for these people?

I know I had a heck of a time finding sponsors for my blogiversary contest. Without going into too many details about my site traffic per month (let’s just say it’s probably close to the population of White Rock), why wouldn’t companies want to get their name in there? It would be FAR cheaper than placing an ad in a newspaper and you’d get a) instant traffic to your own website and b) new customers, should people enjoy the product. Also if it’s as a part of a contest, we all know the benefits of a gift card or gift certificate; you get that person in the door and spending and they’re likely to come back and spend.

I’m grateful to Mount Seymour and the Vancouver Giants for embracing this and their openess to sponsor my past contest. Because of such, I feel even more encouraged to go to Giants games and to carve up Seymour. A positive experience with an organization can go a long way.

Now I don’t know the legalities of some situations – I don’t claim to know much about anything, really – and I personally don’t have any contests going on so this isn’t a plea for my own gain. This is pretty much just to find out… why not ? Why are companies so hesitant to sponsor anything to do with blogging when it could mean hundreds or thousands of hits to their website and have the potential for so many new customers (which we all know equals $$).

Leave your thoughts in the comments below. I’m looking for a little enlightenment and a bit of a discussion here although maybe we all just need to sit down and read the Social Media Marketing Playbook.