Last year, I had an ambitious list of new year's resolutions. Here's a recap and a report on how I did: 1. Get fit and lose weight. Partial success - I got fit for a part of the year, but then a stressful term and many preoccupations caught up to me and I gained it …
Gave a talk on social media metrics at #OHASM11
Today I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon at the Ontario Hospital Association Social Media Conference at the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto. What a great group of communications leaders. There were a couple of speakers before me. Lee Aase from the Mayo Clinic Centre for Social Media, gave a great workshop on a …
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Students don’t read anymore. What does this mean for democracy?
I have spent most of the last week marking papers. As professors, we sometimes grumble and complain about this task, but it is important to consider how vital evaluation and feedback is to student growth. The thing is, marking work is a two-way street. I have been thinking a lot about the value of assignments …
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The last day of class
Yesterday, I had my last day of class. This is always a bittersweet moment, since I love teaching and look forward to it as one of the highlights of my week! This has been a big term! I have been busy working on many different projects: a new journal, a program review, an election campaign, …
LAUNCHED TODAY: The Journal of Professional Communication (JPC)
The long wait is over. I am pleased to announce the launch of the Journal of Professional Communication (JPC) - the first international journal of its kind. After announcing the birth of JPC at the Canadian Public Relations Leadership Summit 2010 at the Old Mill in Toronto, we have spent over a year developing the journal. From …
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Happy news: ADFW Ted McMeekin Campaign Team wins advertising award
I was very pleased to learn that our Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale Ted McMeekin Campaign Team won the "Ontario Liberal Party Province-Wide Riding Advertising Award." We nominated our entire communications committee (Alex Sévigny (chair), Peter Curtis and Peter Hargeave (campaign managers), Tom Aylward-Nally, Melonie Fullick, Nathan Shaw, Zac Spicer, Mark Ungar) which really worked wonderfully together. We put …
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Cool breezes, fresh thinking
The cool breezes of autumn are upon us, and I couldn't be happier. This is my happiest time of year - as nature falls asleep and we have to bundle up to keep warm. I find that the coolness keeps my mind crisp and focuses my thoughts on what is important. Last weekend, I went …
Life-Love 47: On the ties that bind
We spend an incredible amount of our time trying to make our mark in the world. We fight to define our role in an organization, to make other people recognize our contributions to a creative art project, or to mention us when they recount how a successful deal was made. It's interesting to note that …
A new position, a new challenge
Today I took on a new responsibility at McMaster University. I will be the new Director of Professional Communication Programs - this is a diverse portfolio that I will explain in several blog entries. In this blog posting, I will focus on the flagship Master of Communications Management program, which is the jewel in the …
Time passes, life passes us by. What’s important?
We are sometimes confronted by the reality of the progress of time, aren't we? I have spent my precious few free hours the last week watching a series of documentary programs called the "Up Series". This series was brought to my attention by Melonie Fullick (@qui_oui), who wrote a very thoughtful blog post about it. …
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