Latest

At MFX we are pleased to welcome a new member to our team. Bryson McLachlan is interning at Machteld Faas Xander this summer to facilitate Design Thinking projects with Rebecca.

Raised in the Yukon and currently being educated in Ontario, Bryson just finished his third year of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo. Passionate about design thinking and collaboration, he has garnered practical experience through the Shad Valley summer enrichment program and the creation of a museum exhibit for the Knowledge Integration Exhibits project.

Bryson has been working with Rebecca on two different projects. The first project involved working with the City of Waterloo staff to help City Council identify its top priorities for Uptown Waterloo. Thirty-one distinct project areas were presented to the Mayor and Council in a facilitated session. Mayor and Council rated each one on a matrix of low-impact to high-impact and low-effort to high-effort. The top eight projects will be implemented in the City’s plans for Uptown in the years to come.

The second project involves working with the Guelph Region and Waterloo Region to facilitate the completion of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation’s Self Assessment Workbook. The goal of the project is to better understand the current entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ontario, define challenges facing entrepreneurs, and map regional assets and develop ideas and actions to enhance regional collaboration. At this point, facilitation sessions have been held with representatives from both regions. The Ministry will receive and review the workbooks before the Provincial Workshop on June 12th and 13th, an event that MFX facilitators been invited to attend and help facilitate.  More sessions are planned in mid to late June to complete the Regional Self-Assessment Workbook.

Bryson is looking forward to seeing how the theory behind design thinking is put into practice in the real world. He is enthusiastic to apply the skills learned in KI to best facilitate his current projects.  We are all excited to have Bryson join our team and eager to work with him in the upcoming months.

 

The winners of the 2013 Moonshot Awards were announced on May 14th, 2013 and we are thrilled to announce that Axonify Inc. has been named as the Digital Media Globalizer of the Year. Presented by the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN), the Globalizer of the Year award aims to recognize a company that demonstrates the greatest increase in international sales, investments, or other contributions to the Canadian digital media industry. We are especially proud of Axonify’s accomplishments as it was founded by Machteld Faas Xander’s very own John and Rebecca.

Based out of Waterloo, Axonify’s mission is to provide corporate education to employees in a way that is engaging, fun, and meaningful. Their software, built on principles of behavioral learning, is designed to reflect and keep up with the dynamic nature of the business world. Axonify works to help companies meet their financial goals by providing easy –to-use, personalized learning tools to employees.

Other big winners were Magnet Forensics Inc., Miovision Technologies, and Desire to Learn. This was the inaugural year of the Moonshot Awards, which were created to recognize Canadian companies contributing to Moonshot’s goal of having anyone be able to do anything online by 2017.

For more information about Axonify visit their website here.

 

At Machteld Faas Xander, “Sharing Authentic Stories Makes our World a Better Place,” is more than just our motto or a saying that we throw around; it is our reason for being. We repeat and share this thought often because it is at the core of everything we do here at MFX.

Because of this background, we are deeply interested in communication and how individuals and brands tell their own unique stories. One key area of interest involves people in our region who are a part of different communities, as well as those that speak different languages, tell their stories.

One of our MFXers, Jessica, has recently started learning American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate and volunteer in the Deaf community. She has been sharing her experiences at our daily Stand-Up. We wanted to share her story because we think her personal efforts are making the world a better place!

 

Jessica’s Story: Learning American Sign Language

Previous to my recent experiences, I knew virtually no ASL. I could finger spell my name and awkwardly stumble through 70% of the alphabet but that was the extent of my signing ability. I had been exposed to some ASL but hadn’t serious considered learning the language myself.

Six months ago, my husband and I heard that a free ASL course was going to be held in Cambridge to help teach the Deaf about the Bible. We decided to put in an application to join the class.

Growing up, I had assumed that the Deaf would enjoy reading in English but was surprised to learn that this is not the case. Although some can read English, especially if they lost their hearing later in life, the majority find reading English difficult because it is not their primary language. ASL is not simply gestures or a visual form of English. ASL (and other sign languages) is its own language, with different grammar, expressions, and sentence structure from English.

I was also surprised to learn the complexity of ASL. Although the basics are easy to grasp, it is considered to be one of the most difficult language to master, along with Chinese and Arabic. Secularly, it is considered an eight-year-language, meaning that it takes eight years of study to become fluent. Honestly, I was intimated after hearing this.

In February, we were accepted into the course and classes started at the end of March. We were excited but nervous. The class is an extremely accelerated ASL course that lasts five months. Each Saturday, we have a two-hour class along with the other 26 students plus approximately 5-10 hours of homework per week. In addition to this, every week we attend two ASL meetings (with absolutely no English) that are two hours in length each, and volunteer with the Deaf community between 6–16 hours. The meetings and volunteer work also require preparation that can be lengthy.

I am now five weeks into the class and although it is difficult and sometimes overwhelming, I am thoroughly enjoying this unique experience and am completely committed to the program. I’ll keep everyone updated on how my new means of communication and story telling is progressing in the upcoming months.

As a related aside, after years of hard work, time, resources and energy sacrificed by willing volunteers, the Bible is now being made available in full ASL (along with 62 different sign languages) in video format and is available to all, free of charge, on the website: www.jw.org. People are being asked to share this information with friends and family who may know Deaf members of local communities to let them know that this provision is now available.

 

Sunday, May 26, will mark the 25th anniversary of Arts Awards Waterloo Region. Culture and arts enthusiasts from across the Region are counting down the days until this milestone event.

This year, the ceremony and performances are being held at the Centre in the Square. Doors open at 5:45PM with the Arts Awards presentations beginning at 7:15PM. They have rolled back ticket prices to $10.00 in honour of the 25th anniversary and 1990s pricing. This remarkable steal of a deal also includes food tastings in the lobby from 8 delicious caterers.

Everyone here at Machteld Faas Xander is eagerly anticipating this memorable night and we hope to see you there!

For more information and to buy tickets, check out the Arts Awards Waterloo Region website.

 

 

Lately, there has been more than the usual amount of cat talk around the office. The culprit behind this welcome change is no other than N2 the Talking Cat. N2 is an Internet star who embarks on adventures, creates music and even brings attention to social issues through episodes of his YouTube channel, created by our friend, Clayton.

Clayton is the latest trainee in our Social Media Fun-Damentals in Business program. He, however, is no newcomer to the world of social media. N2’s YouTube channel has 12 000 subscribers and his Facebook fan page can boast over 31 200 likes. One of N2’s videos even has over 1 800 000 views.

All this talk of furry friends gave us an idea for the May Storytelling Contest. We had such a great response with March’s winter photograph submissions that we wanted to hold another storytelling contest that featured photographs and visual stories. During the Month of May, we want you to send us a photograph of your pet. Is your animal friend beautiful, loving, smart, hilarious, quirky or adorable? Send us a photograph that best shows their personality and you could win $100. Any and all pet pictures are welcome.

Tweet (@MachFaasXan) or e-mail (Jessica@machteldfaasxander.com) the photographs before May 31, 2013, to be entered into the contest. Our favourite will receive a prize of $100.00. The winner will be announced on June 3, 2013.

We will post your pictures on Pinterest and Facebook. Images that are submitted through Twitter will be retweeted and images submitted through e-mail will be tweeted. If you include your full name with your submission, we will credit you as the photographer. With your photograph, we encourage you to include description or the story behind your photograph but it is not required.

Rules:

• You must have taken the photograph yourself.

• Photographs must feature a household pet.

• Photographs must be appropriate for all ages.

• You may submit more than one image.

• Winner must respond within 48 hours after we contact you.

• Winners will be contacted via the medium used for submission.

• Submitting photographs shows that you agree with these rules and that you have given us permission to post the photographs on our social accounts.

 

If you haven’t already, check out N2’s videos or connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

 

We are thrilled that local company, Axonify, founded by our John and Rebecca, has been nominated as a finalist for the Canadian Digital Media Network’s “Moonshot” awards. These awards recognize Canadian companies that create jobs and wealth for Canada through innovation in digital media.

Axonify is Waterloo based and has created a revolutionary online employee training process. The company is dedicated to changing the way employees learn and retain knowledge through the continuous delivery of personalized, bit-sized content in a fun, social and rewarding way.

In addition to Axonify, the other great finalist companies include Desire2Learn, Vidyard, Miovision, Magnet Flowers, Voices.com, Nionik Labortories, TalentEgg Inc. and Zighra.

There are four categories in the competition and Axonify is nominated for two:

CDMC Digital Media Globalizer of the Year
An award recognizing the Canadian company that has contributed the greatest increase in international sales, investments or other contributions to the growth of the Canadian digital media industry (2012/2013).

CDMN Digital Media Company of the Year
An award recognizing the Canadian company that has made the greatest contributions to the growth of the Canadian digital media industry (2012/2013).

We eagerly anticipate the May 14, where the awards will be presented for the CDMN Moonshot Awards at the Toronto Convention Centre and look forward to seeing what Axonify has in store for the upcoming year!

For more information about Canada 3.0 or the Moonshot awards visit their website.

 

We want to send out a big thank you to everyone who submitted a winter photograph for the March Storytelling Contest. There were so many great entries that choosing a winning photograph was difficult.

Congratulations to Joe Martz for having taken our winning photograph!

When asked about the story behind the photograph, Joe Martz shared:

“I remember it being a very mild day and we had a dose of hoar frost in the morning. That stuff is pretty sensitive to temperature so I knew it wouldn’t last very long at all so I just wandered around in the backyard with no coat on photographing it. I tried a bunch of different compositions and even used my macro lens to get real close to some of the detail. For the winning shot I purposefully used a shallow depth of field to give it sort of a surreal look. I thought the frost on the branches and thorns had an interesting look and the little bits of red added just a bit more interest to the photograph.”

If you want to check out more of Joe’s work, you can find him here. Or you can tweet him.

 

THE AFTERMATH – BLAMING SOCIAL MEDIA

Some have argued that examples, like the situation with Hamilton, show that Twitter and other social media are dangerous and a liability to use.

IT’S NOT SOCIAL MEDIA; ITS THOSE THAT MANAGE IT
We disagree. In the wrong hands, poorly managed social media campaigns can be disastrous. But a well-educated, well-thought out, engaged social media campaign can be an incredibly rich and effective way to interact and engage with your audience.

Social media is not inherently good, bad or evil; it is a tool–a tool allowing people to connect and share information. In this case, social media was used poorly. You cannot blame the hammer if a table is poorly built. The hammer is the tool that was poorly used.

This comment to one of the articles accurately sums up the feelings of many regarding the City of Hamilton situation :

“I’d say the majority of the backlash was because the campaign was incredibly shoddy and poorly executed. Rampant use of jargon, a poorly designed website, and no apparent connection to the community it purported to engage understandably raised people’s ire, especially when we saw the price tag…”

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
The Internet loves to speak up when they sense that something is wrong. And in this situation, they were justified to raise their concerns. It is in no way social media’s fault that the firm did not maintain a professional campaign. It was the firm itself who wasn’t professional and proficient in their use of social media, or their engagement and knowledge of Hamilton. For example, the Pinterest page had images from other Hamiltons, rather than the Hamilton in Ontario that they were representing . A main image on the website was of a bike trail in Ottawa.

Yes, it is true that people are more open on social media and can say more pointed comments than they would while talking face-to-face. However, claiming that Twitter and other social media cannot be used to share insightful thoughts or engage a community is untrue. One only has to look at the incredible success in Newark, New Jersey, where it’s mayor, Corey Booker, uses social media as one of his primary communication vehicle to his constituents, helping them to be heard, and in real time. “I’m on it!” is his Twitter catch phrase.

TWITTER DOUBTERS?
Still people doubt the validity and worth of social media. Some Hamilton councilors have shown their ignorance towards social media: “It’s great for saying ‘Oh, I went to the concert tonight,’ but that’s about it.” In a CBC Hamilton interview, one councilor said that he prefers online discussion to take place through a blog or personal website, “because they can be controlled very carefully.”

You cannot control people’s thoughts or opinions. It is their right to speak up and say that something is wrong. From this statement, it sounds that this councilor is afraid of accountability. Trying to hide the true feelings of the community and only showing what you want others to see makes people angry. This is not new and it is not only true of social media.

Without Hamilton’s Twitter account, I’m confident that people would have still talked negatively about the campaign on and off the Internet. People used the hashtag that had been created for the campaign (#TellOHEverything) because they wanted to be heard. And whether it was on the @ourhamilton Twitter feed or not, their opinions would have been shared…in 140 characters or more.

Sincere tweets would have continued to be sent to Hamilton–valuable contributions to improve their social services, had residents had confidence in the folks managing the campaign and their ability to react to their comments.

One of the saddest aspects of this situation is that the campaign could have been great. Citizens had tweeted the @ourhamilton account to express their excitement that their city was now using social media to engage the community.

They wanted feedback; they got feedback. The fact that it wasn’t the feedback that they wanted is their own fault. Social media is not responsible for people being upset about a campaign. A company distant from, unengaged with and uninformed about the community, and poor social media execution is responsible.

Oh Hamilton…it could have been so good.

Hopefully other communities can learn from this unfortunate incident in Hamilton. When you (or the company hired) are truly engaged and knowledgeable of the community you are responsible for and are proficient to properly use social media, your campaign has all the ingredients to be successful.

In the past month, there has been controversy around the use of Twitter and other social media to represent regions and municipalities. In our opinion, there are two issues that led to the demise of the Hamilton campaign.

1. The people managing the social media campaign did not follow basic rules of engagement for the medium
2. The people responsible for the Hamilton social media accounts, did not have an accurate knowledge of the city they were representing

For those of you who have not heard, here’s the story of the Our Hamilton social media campaign.

WHAT HAPPENED
The city of Hamilton hired a firm near Ottawa to collect information about city services from the community, and invested over $350 000.00 to develop the campaign which included a website, Twitter and Pinterest page.

STARTED GOOD
When the campaign launched, residents of Hamilton were excited about the fact that there was going to be a social media forum where they could be heard. People tweeted such comments as “@ourhamilton very exciting project! Great opportunity for #hamont citizens!” and “Hey #HamOnt check out our City (finaly!) using social media to engage residents on municipal issues: @ourhamilton”.

Eric Gillis’s tweet, which served as the catalyst to mass amount of criticism, tweeted @OurHamilton with a valid and sincere remark about the community and what mattered to her:

“Noticed the project hasn’t officially launched yet– but still: The continuation of voluntary pay for disabled on the HSR.”

The campaign was engaging and exciting residents even before it was officially launched.

WENT BAD
However, very quickly this excitement turned to discord. The day of the launch, January 8, 2013, a tweet sent from the @ourhamilton Twitter account in response to Eric Gillis tweet enraged the Twitter community, who claimed it showed the company was out of touch with the community with which it was being paid to engage. The tweet involved the @ourhamilton account asking what HSR stood for. HSR, is an acronym for Hamilton’s transit system… and one of the services they were responsible for reviewing. Obviously, they should have been well aware of what it was.

After the initial reaction to that tweet, others began to criticize other areas of the campaign. The community was upset that a local firm had not been trusted with the campaign. Others complained that the Pinterest page had images from other Hamiltons, rather than the Hamilton in Ontario that they were representing . A main image on the website was of a bike trail in Ottawa. People were concerned over the layout of the Twitter page and the tone that was being used to engage upset Twitter users.

WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE
We believe that the new version of the term “Think before you speak” should be “Google before you Tweet.” The initial catalyst to this situation, the HRS situation described above, happened because the employee handling the Twitter account was not properly educated before he engaged with the community his firm was supposed to be representing.

It would have only taken a minute or two to research the term “HRS”, but instead chose to publicly admit that they did not know what it meant…and mass criticism ensued fueled by this initial tweet. Furthermore, had the employee managing the Twitter account been from the area, there is no doubt that he would know exactly what the HSR was. A local firm would also have been familiar with the city and its landmarks.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, what story does your photograph tell? We have seen some beautiful shots from this winter – and want to see more.

For the March Storytelling Contest, we want to see your winter photographs. Tweet (@MachFaasXan) or e-mail (Jessica@machteldfaasxander.com) the photographs before March 31, 2013, to be entered into the contest. Our favourite will receive a prize of $100.00. The winner will be announced on April 3, 2013.

We will post your pictures on Pinterest and Facebook. Images that are submitted through Twitter will be retweeted and images submitted through e-mail will be tweeted. If you include your full name with your submission, we will credit you as the photographer. With your photograph, you may include a description or the story behind your photograph but it is not required.

Rules:
• You must have taken the photograph yourself.
• Photographs must have a winter theme.
• Photographs must be appropriate for all ages.
• You may submit more than one image.
• Winner must respond within 48 hours after we contact you.
• Winners will be contacted via the medium used for submission.
• Submitting photographs shows that you agree with these rules and that you have given us permission to post the photographs on our social accounts.

« Newer PostsOlder Posts »