The Gold Quill Awards are a global competition held by IABC to recognize outstanding achievement in communication. Cameco recently received the Merit award for its communication effort at Cigar Lake– Mine crisis calls for journey to the centre of the Earth: Restoring confidence after Cigar Lake floods.

Cigar Lake is the world’s largest undeveloped high-grade uranium deposit. The mine is currently in development and is projected to start producing uranium in 2013.

In 2006 and 2008 the mine suffered severe flooding. Cameco solved the operational issues, improved its processes and kept investors and members informed on the developing situation, by hosting tours of the mine site. Those who were unable to visit the site were kept informed via frequent updates to the Cameco website. The company’s forward thinking earned them the Gold Quill award in the category of Issues Management and Crisis Communication.

Congratulations Cameco team!

When Jeff and I chatted, we talked about his project at Sherbrook, his recent speaking gig at TEDx in Saskatoon, and his life in art.

A: Tell me about your job at Sherbrooke.
J: I don’t like the term Artist in Residence because it implies that it’s someone doing their own work, like a monkey performing at a zoo. When the project originally started, Saskatoon was named the cultural capital of Canada, the Saskatchewan Arts Board had created a program called Artists in the Communities.

Whenever I tackle something, I want to go big. I want to make it a huge success. I saw the potential in health care, and my fundamental belief is that we are ALL ARTISTS. I really believe that. It’s something that we can all communicate if we let ourselves. And I knew that individuals with limited mobility—with a cognitive disorder, dementia, Alzheimer’s—were going to make incredible sh*t, like, blow-you-away stuff.

A: Did they initially bring you in to be an art instructor?
J: They didn’t have a clue. I showed up and asked, “Where’s the studio?” and they said, “What’s a studio?”

Within the 9-month residency, we went from “What’s a studio?” to having that incredible show at the Mendel—which took everything to the next level, because nobody believed it could be that big. And that exhibition, for me, was a wake-up call to health care: Let’s stop treating residents as infants. We don’t need craft rooms anymore. Let’s raise that bar, let’s push the art, let’s see how far we can go.

A: So what does an Artist in Residence do?
J: I’d like to change the name. I spend a lot of my time building partnerships. I want to see community organizations come together. I want to see partnerships happen with local businesses….it’s about what everybody can bring to the table, and perhaps bringing together groups that you would not normally think had anything in common.

I believe there has to be a revolution. There’s got to be a revolution in health care, there’s got to be a revolution in our education system, the art institution needs a revolution. Things have to change.

A lot of what I do at Sherbrook is go out into the community, working with at-risk youth, with high schools, elementary schools…where we’ve got students coming through the studio, where the studio becomes a playground, where you learn skills and you build confidence and you’re able to express yourself visually.

I work with groups of people that feel at a dead end, that didn’t know what else to do. They come into the studio, we work with them, they learn a skill set by working with the resident artist….and then they’re able to move on, they are off medications, they have jobs, they’ve moved out of social housing and have their own apartments, have boyfriends and girlfriends.

The studio is that powerful tool, a powerful place where things can happen. That’s why I’m steadfast in protecting the integrity of the studio and the rules: there are no mistakes, and we never want to create for somebody else.

So if you come in there, you might be very self-conscious [but] you work through that self-consciousness and know that the marks that you make are just as valid as the marks that I make. The point is, that it is your mark and you are the only one who can make it.

A: What are some things you’ve learned while working there?
J: It’s not just about making great paintings—this is what I got to learn in this whole process—I just wanted to see great art made. That’s all I wanted to see. What I learned was that art was the vehicle for change.

It was like, how can I shake all of that up? I want to shake up everybody and let them know how important art can be and that there are people are sitting on the margins of society, who nobody knows exist ’cause they are safely tucked away in their long-term care homes. Who cares, right? We wanted to bring these people into the spotlight and showcase their art and blow everybody’s socks off. And that happened.

I watched the confidence of people who were once contemplating suicide move on to “I can do things again,” “I can teach,” and “I can have a relationship.”
Through something as simple as the art studio, there is this confidence—by being able to create something—that’s huge. That’s fundamental, and—now able to share this creation and to give—that’s human. As soon as we aren’t able to give, I think we lose something. When you become institutionalized, it means somebody else is doing things for you. When you are in long-term care, specifically, that’s a lifetime of people doing things for you. So flip it around, and now you’re able to do something.

A: There’s always someone you can help.
J: It’s not my studio, it’s their studio. I just work there. The studio is an environment where it is safe, you are encouraged to express yourself. Once you did your mark it is about how can make a better mark. It took a lot of your energy to make that one mark, so how can you do ten, or twenty. I’m kind of a coach, a cheerleader.

I don’t like seeing how art has separated itself from the real world. Life is art and art is life. There shouldn’t be any separation. It sounds naïve, but I think it is that simple.

A: You talk about standardized creativity. Can you elaborate on that a bit more?
J: It is the most heartbreaking thing to see. I’ll tell you a story, and I’d like you to point out where the creativity is. This takes place in a long-term care home with an art program. One of the recreation staff members has a ship-building kit and assembles a group of residents around the table. I don’t know if you have seen one of those out-of-the-box, ship-building kits but the instructions are intense and there are tons of very small parts.

What’s wrong with this picture? Who will put the ship together? The rec staff. What have we turned this into? Something that could have been, should have been, a creative act—a creative moment, a moment of expression—has now become a spectator sport.

Standardized creativity begins when we start looking to others to tell us how to do things.

A: You said you were a ditch digger.
J: I am a ditch digger. I’m a pathfinder. I’m not going to teach you how to paint trees the way I paint trees—that’s my way. What I’m going to do is help you dig down to wherever you buried your creativity and help you pull that out.

A: Give us an idea of the setup you have a Sherbrook.
J: It’s like walking into a room where a paint bomb went off. It is a place unlike anywhere else in a long-term care facility. It is loaded from top to bottom, it is cluttered, it is chaos. And it is gorgeous, ’cause as soon as you get into the room, it changes. Your mood changes. When you walk in, you can start breathing.

A: Tell me about TEDx. Your talk was one of the many highlights, some say the TED Talk of the day. Were you a TED fan before?
J: I was. I knew what TED was but I didn’t know the rules. Just that there were these incredible ideas and talks. I like the storyteller aspect, because I think that was what I saw from TED, that…it’s not about dumbing down, it’s about being a good storyteller, being able to express yourself.

I wanted to talk about health care because we will all come in contact with health care at some point in our lives. And that’s a scary place for a lot of people. Let’s face it, if you are going in for cancer treatment, it’s not exactly a fun place to be. But if we can introduce something that will make your stay better…if you are able to create, to express yourself, that’s important. And if it’s diversionary, if that’s all that it is, fine—if it keeps your mind off having that chemo IV stuck in you. Rock on.

A: How is the whole reception of the Ted Talk?
J: You know, it was like this huge orgasm and then it was done. The whole day, the response was great. As an artist you just hide away in your studio but sometimes you just want to get out there and talk. The greatest minds weren’t necessarily on the stage. I mean, that was a roomful of people who are like-minded individuals.

A: Give me a bit of your history as an artist.
J: I’ve always been an artist. My very first art class in University, I had the realization—19 years or however old I was—that I will always be a student of art. I just took it seriously and hit a level of success very young. I had dealers and collectors at a very young age and was selling my work quickly, and I was getting shows in New York and Chicago.

I just began my practice and never looked back. I worked hard. I would have jobs when I lived in Calgary, I was starting a job at 5am as a groundkeeper at Mount Royal College picking cigarette butts up. Just so I had some money to pay for my studio downtown. I put in eight hours there and then another eight at my studio. I was cranking out work and I had discipline, and that discipline paid off. I had faith in myself, some luck, and produced a body of work. I was very fortunate. And the career just sort of took off. What’s interesting is I was so prolific I was doing five solo shows a year and twenty group shows a year. That’s huge, like, that is absolutely huge.

I was just constantly producing and I loved that. But it turned to a grind, and the more successful I became the less rewarding it was. So my prices would go up or I’d have another show, or this critic wrote about it or that collector bought it or this gallery was showing it, and it started to become hollow. I was living in Toronto and…I was feeling empty. I needed to walk away for a bit.

I moved to Saskatoon. I was actually in Saskatoon when I made the decision. It was a really tough thing to do, because you spend a lifetime building a career. I found out very quickly that it’s called a spotlight, not a searchlight, for a reason. When you step out of the spotlight you are done.

So now I am reintegrating myself into the art world. But I am making my own choices about how I want to do it. I’m not hungry to please, I do my work how I want it done, and if you feel you can show it, then we can have a relationship—but I don’t need to do things to impress you.

A: So, what’s next for Jeff?
J: The new work is incredible. I’m working with spray paint and stencils. I’m returning to my roots. It was in Regina in the early ’80s and lot of graffiti culture was making it’s way up through films and music, and there was a group of us that just started expressing ourselves that way, emulating what we saw. We were dumb because we would spray our names. My last name is Nachtigall, there are about three Nachtigalls in Regina and we are all related. I got caught. Now I combine found and salvaged materials with images depicting obvious Canadian stereotypes… they’re big and ugly and fun.

Now I’m working with the City of Saskatoon, specifically the Saskatoon Police Service, and also with the Anti-Graffiti Unit to come up with programmable space—we need some free walls in the city. You would be surprised at how much money is spent on the grey paint they use to cover tags. And, we need to educate people about the difference between gang tagging and Street Art.

In early 2011 I partnered with a local artist and opened up a project space in the Riversdale district in downtown Saskatoon. Make Work Projects is a  2000 square foot store front studio and sometimes gallery/think tank/ residency/ arts incubator. Follow us on Twitter @makeworkproject for updates.

A: Who better than you to do this?
J: Art needs an advocate. The best way to do it is not to run around telling people that this is what it’s like being an artist, what it means to be an artist, what you should do to be an artist. We should go and turn people into artists.

A: I’m speaking to a high school soon about careers and pursuing your passion. Any tips?
J: Stick to your guns. The path of individuality, doing what you want to do, is the most rewarding but it’s the most difficult. And there is no life like it. When you do what you want to do, the payoff is huge. And it’s not always monetary but the quality of life is incredible.

If you are talking to a group of kids, it might be their last stop. There are a lot of incredible kids out there, but they’ve been told that this is the last stop. I think that’s focusing on limitations again. Focus on what you can do. Limitations are everywhere. Get over it. Deal with it. Find how to chart your way around the tree instead of hitting it.

For more information about Jeff and his past and present projects, head to his website. You can also check out an article on Jeff’s most recent piece in the May 6th, 2011 edition of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.

Since the inception of the zu Green Committee last year, we have encouraged the company to take a few simple steps to make our workplace a more earth-friendly place to spend 8 hours of each day.

Completed earth-friendly initiatives:

• Switch to locally made EnviroWise cleaning products, office-wide.
• Encourage recycling in all areas of the office, particularly in the kitchen and printer areas.
• Change printer settings to print double-sided copies to reduce paper consumption.
• Ladies’ night last year included a Swishing party, a place for ladies to swap their little-used clothing for someone else’s little-used clothing. All clothing that wasn’t swapped was donated to a local charity.
• Eco-bonus: a daily allowance for zu peeps who walk, bike, bus or carpool to work.

Upcoming initiatives: paperless timesheets.

EnviroWise
This Saskatoon-based company formed 20 years ago and is still going strong. The company manufactures household and personal cleaning products in Saskatoon, so we feel good about patronizing a home-grown product, knowing the products are environmentally friendly. Another bonus: when you’ve finished using the dishwasher detergent powder or household cleaner, you can take the container back for a refill to EnviroWise’s retail location.

Alternative Transportation
With a company that staffs more than fifty people, we run a little bit short on coveted downtown parking space. However, many staff members live within walking distance of the office and walk or bike to work on a daily basis. Many others are “fair-weather,” human-powered commuters or they take the bus. Many staff members take advantage of zu’s Eco Bonus transportation incentive. Last summer, a few folks started their own “bike posse” and rode their bicycles to work together.

Around the Water Cooler
Okay, we don’t have a water cooler, nor do we really condone the use of bottled water (there’s no specific policy, but nobody drinks it, either). However, in the lunch room, staff members have been known to discuss things like local Pine View Farms, that sells chicken, beef, pork, and eggs (and more), Etomami (Eco Farm), the Good Food Box, and Steep Hill Food Co-op. Please check out these businesses and organizations if you’re interested in knowing where your food is coming from.

Personal Challenges
Challenge yourself this Earth Week to eat a waste-free lunch, carpool, bike or walk to work, or maybe start composting in your backyard to reduce the amount of waste picked up and shipped off to the dump.

Online EcoResources
Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council
TreeHugger.com
EarthDay.org
EarthDay.ca

zu is sponsoring this worthy cause by sending our Creative Director, Albert Jame, to DJ the event. Literacy is deeply ingrained in all zu roles and informs everything we do to create effective online communication.

We also recognize how literacy skills play an integral role in understanding the business strategies of clients, translating objectives into website goals, staying abreast of interactive trends, and communicating daily with clients and internally. For our clients, literacy is typically assumed: they read our recommendations, provide written feedback and understand our invoices. In a booming information age, we often forget that some people don’t have the skills that those of us reading this blog post take for granted—skills needed for employment, banking, public transportation and purchasing food.

The auction goes down March 31, 6 pm, at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, with celebrity packages that include showing Rider Pride, co-hosting Shaw TV’s Stripped Down, and hosting Alice Kuipers and Yann Martel at a book club. Join zu as we support literacy skill development to create a healthier and economically stronger community.

READ Saskatoon is a volunteer organization that provides free literacy development services to individuals, families, workplaces and the community. Purchase tickets for the READ ‘n’ Feed Celebrity Auction.

The Quality Insight tool was featured recently through media outlets across the province, including on CTV news, in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and in the Regina Leader Post.

Cheers to HQC and its insightful new venture!

For more information on the Quality Insight Tool, please see our previous post, Web-based Insights into Health Care.

When we heard that the City of Saskatoon was asking the same question to its citizens, we felt there was a good opportunity to take advantage of all the online communities. A major event was planned to bring citizens of all demographics together for a summit never seen before in Saskatoon. Saskatoon Speaks launched with a full arsenal of event planners, interactive producers and urban architects. Working with the experienced people at Toronto’s Urban Strategies, they looked after the campaign and offline plan, while we took care of the online strategy. Led by a newly formed group formed by the City, we were all under the gun to think, design and produce a socially friendly website to help promote the event and get ideas flowing.

With time not on our side, we originally based on the idea of aggregating social media like StampsConnect, and soon realized that this format wouldn’t exactly fit the needs of Saskatoon Speaks. So, we set out to build something based more on blogs rather than relying too much on public content from Youtube or Flickr. The heart of the site is its blog, which is categorized into the main topics of conversation: City Centre, Economy, Environment, Moving Around, Recreation and Culture, Growth, Social Well-Being. The city has hired special content producers and moderators to ignite discussions around these topics, hoping to get some genuine interest from people who really care where this city is going.

The site uses Facebook’s commenting and liking system, which makes it easy to join in and spread the message. Like StampsConnect, the site pulls in Youtube, Flickr and Twitter, when users follow proper tagging procedures, but doesn’t rely on this content as the main draw.

Once again, policy was always a heated discussion topic. As far as governments go, the City was pretty open to our suggestions as we supplied a guideline for their team, which primarily served as a loose do’s and don’ts list. Everyone involved realized that in order to harvest the most genuine ideas and opinions from the people, we had to insist on a very open and transparent communication policy.

This site is a constant work in progress and should grow as content gets added and the Summit comes to a close. It’s been a while since we last worked with the City. zu developed City of Saskatoon’s original website in the late 90s (pretty sure lots of our people didn’t even know that), and it’s good to see we haven’t skipped a beat.

I’d like to make mention to all the people involved, including Carla, Tyson and Nikki from the City, Tim, Marc, Andrea and Pascale from Urban Strategies, Shad, Kim and Colleen, and Kara from On Purpose Leadership, Daren from Deezine.ca, the guys from Ear to the Ground Productions who produced the video and of course our guys at zu, Andrew(S), Dustin, Levi, and Tyler. Yay teamwork!

One of the main points of my presentation was the increasing pace of change in technology. I cited numbers that showed that radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users; tv took 13 years to reach the same point; the Internet took four years and the iPod took three. Facebook reached 100 million users in only 9 months. The iTunes app store did 1 billion downloads in 9 months. The point is that technology is no longer taking years to develop, only months.

For a computer science student, this is good news as there are more jobs available in more fields. For businesses the increasing speed of technological improvement is something that you cannot ignore.

Organizations need to start spotting the technology trends earlier to remain ahead of the competition. Monitoring hardware blogs will let you know about new advances in devices. Following social media will provide you with real time information and allow you to stay tuned in to the world’s social network.

So as these students enter the work force and carpe diem, they should have faith in the outlook for technology. Maybe one of them will invent the new ‘Facebook’ and vastly impact the direction of information technology. Either way, they have finished their degree in an industry that is always changing and evolving. The future looks bright for these kids and for those of us who employ them.

AJ: How many different published sources are you currently in right now? What are some notable ones?
WN: To be honest, I have no idea who is publishing White Ninja. Perhaps this isn’t the best business move. But, neither Scott nor I have any clue how to run a successful business.

You see, we post a link to the latest comic that is free and open to whoever wants to publish White Ninja. I know that there are independent and college newspapers in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Canada and the USA that are using the link. We also have two published books out that are available at your local bookstore for your reading and purchasing pleasure. And, White Ninja has been affiliated with National Lampoon, Cracked.com, Virgin Airways, and Crave Online.

AJ: Does that blow your mind?
WN: No way. White Ninja is the greatest comic ever written about a White Ninja, ever!

AJ: What’s the weirdest fan mail or suggestion you’ve received? Any good haters out there?
WN: By far the weirdest email we received was a marriage proposal. This girl – this incredibly attractive girl, I suspect – wanted to marry White Ninja and have his babies. It was difficult to break the news to her that White Ninja is not a real person. She must have understood because days later she proposed to both Scott and I.

The second weirdest was simply a photo of a girl wearing a White Ninja t-shirt. The shirt, accidentally, was on a little crooked, and a single naked bosom was showing from underneath. Whoops!

AJ: Walk us through the process of how you guys produce one strip, from idea to execution.
WN: It all starts with a good night’s sleep. Before bed I drink two cups of lavender tea with whole milk. Scott has a warm bath with a glass of red wine. We wake up feeling refreshed and ready to work.

So we each go to work. Me, to my private clinic to do some physical therapy, and Scott to a school to teach children how to learn. When work is over, we’re usually too tired to draw cartoons, and we definitely don’t feel funny, so we put off writing comics until the weekend.

Saturday arrives. At noon or so, when we’ve awoken, we’ll get together over a pot of coffee and stare at blank pieces of paper until an idea strikes us in the brain. Sometimes a half hour will go by with nothing being drawn, written, or even said. And then another half hour. After an hour and a half we’ll pack up our stuff and head to the pub for a “business lunch.”

Magically, by the end of the day, we have somewhere between two and eight comics completed.

AJ: How long have you been doing this? What are your future plans for WN?
WN: We’ve been drawing the comic for fourteen or fifteen years! Holy bananas! That makes White Ninja fifteen years old! Unlike The Simpsons, White Ninja actually gets older with each passing year. When we started, White Ninja was zero years old. We stopped counting his birthday after the first couple years though. All along we said we would stop on the Christmas Eve of White Ninja’s 48th year. In this final comic, White Ninja will die on the streets from exposure. It will not be funny. It will make people re-think the whole White Ninja saga. They’ll ponder, “Was it ever a joke?” “Was there underlying societal commentaries that I’ve been missing?” Bahahahaha! So I guess we won’t be able to retire for 33 years.

AJ: Explain to me how you guys have managed to make money on this?
WN: Well, putting a comic on the Internet, for free, and giving it away to newspapers all over the world, for free, makes us roughly $0.00 a week. Times that by four, and then again by twelve… basically, we make nothing.

BUT, we’ve discovered that people like to wear clothes. Especially clothes which have pictures of animals killing each other on them. Seriously. So what we’ve done is, we’ve used the popularity of whiteninjacomics.com to link to another website that we made where you can buy t-shirts with some seriously dynamic wildlife happening on them. We design all the shirts. Some features Pterodactyls fighting with lazer-beam-eyes…in outer space! And Owls, madly chomping away on a piece of delicious taffy. Heck yeah! And Tigers firing automatic weapons! It has nothing to do with the comic, but we couldn’t sell dumb shirts if we didn’t have the comic first. The website is casasupernova.com, in case you’re interested.

AJ: Is this self sustaining? (i.e. are you working at Starbucks?)
WN: Starbucks?! Just because we draw comics for a living doesn’t mean we don’t have any other skills. For all you know I could be a brain doctor! This interview is over!

But to answer your question, we make barely enough to live on. That is, if we wanted to live on Saskatoon’s dangerous west side. No thanks! Seriously though, I enjoy having a couch, and a box-spring under my mattress, and a variety of cups to drink out of, and all those other novelties enjoyed by the upper-middle class. And for that, we have other jobs.

AJ: What do you have to say to the people who say WN isn’t funny?
WN: “It is too, funny!” Yeah, usually we say that.

AJ: I’ve tried to draw WN before, and I’m horrbile. Any tips for me?
WN: Trace your ‘F’ finger, and then add arms and legs. For the eyes you will need two dots. Practice these on a separate piece of paper first.

We spent 18 months renovating a brick building located in Saskatoon’s old warehouse district. Originally built in 1929, the challenge was to bring it up to modern standards while still maintaining its original bricks, beams, ceilings and the like.

People would often ask why we put so much effort into the building’s restoration. The answer is partly because we needed more space as the company has grown substantially over the past ten years, but part of it was to contribute to the ongoing improvement of the Saskatoon community. The location suited zu because we wanted to be downtown close to our clients, close to transportation and close to amenities for staff. What we’ve brought to the downtown community is a staff who spends money in restaurants and shops, a smaller environmental imprint, an increase in property value and the transformation of an eye-sore building.

When we talk about community these days, it seems to be about social media communities. These social media communities are the new way to network, build brand recognition, increase sales and improve your company’s profile. These communities are growing faster than any form of media has in the past. You need to be using these tools to survive as a business.

As society continues to develop these electronic communities, we have increased our need to “be in touch”. Which brings me back to the Heritage Awards. zu, by moving closer to our clients and friends, has increased our participation in old school communities. You know, the communities where you meet in-person for coffee, lunch or a drink. This in-person community takes more time and effort to develop relationships than the electronic community does. But in-person communities are more rewarding both personally and professionally.

So, while you ask yourself what you should be doing with social media, make sure that you have the fundamentals of your business down. Remember that the community around you is important and will be affected by your presence and outreach. As your company moves forward, keep in mind that social media has a social aspect to it. Call up a few clients and meet them for a coffee in the neighbourhood before trying to reach them electronically.

The evening was a less formal occasion than their previous galas. Architects, engineers, interior designers and graphic designers were treated to the theme “The Evolution of Play”. The room was filled with some great mood lighting and funky house beats. For food and beverages, the du provided a tasty bento box and cappuccino and gelato bar, combined with a full wine and spirits selection. Whether you were standing or sitting, you weren’t far from Lego blocks, play dough, the graffiti wall, or the cotton candy machine.

Big thanks to the Design Council for including us on this party. Hope we can ‘du;’ it again. Check out some photos of the night.

November 20, 2009. SaskTel, zu and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are pleased to announce that Rider Priders from around the world are downloading the Rider App at an astonishing pace.  Since the public launch of the Rider App on October 8, 2009, it has been downloaded over 11,000 times in 64 countries and with the excitement of the Riders hosting the Western Final on Sunday downloads are growing every day. SaskTel estimates that over 8,000 unique users have downloaded the Rider App.

The Rider App is an innovative mobile phone application that delivers game scores, statistics and schedule information to members of the Rider Nation wherever they go. The Roughriders were the first team in the Canadian Football League to introduce a dedicated mobile app.

“This is a success story that demonstrates both Saskatchewan innovation and the passion Rider fans feel for their team,” Minister Responsible for SaskTel Don Morgan said. “Congratulations to SaskTel, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and zu for helping Rider fans around the world stay in touch with Saskatchewan’s team.”

“The Rider App is SaskTel’s first mobile application and the response has exceeded our expectations,” SaskTel President and CEO Robert Watson said. “We’re grateful to Rider fans as well as our partners, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and zu, for their contributions to a successful project.”

“The positive reaction to the Rider App demonstrates that Rider fans are everywhere,” Riders President/CEO Jim Hopson said. “This has already been a great football season and now Rider fans around the world can follow our progress quickly and easily.”

“We are excited not only to be bringing fans closer to the local fan favourite, but also to be helping move technology forward in our province,” commented zu CEO Ryan Lejbak. “Mobile is the future of the Internet and we are proud to be working with the Roughriders and SaskTel to lead the CFL in this new technology.”

The Rider App, developed by SaskTel in partnership with Saskatoon-based zu, is a free download for compatible mobile devices. Fans can download the Rider App now.

About SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation (SaskTel) is the leading full service communications provider in Saskatchewan, with $1.138 billion in annual revenue and over 1.3 million customer connections including over 510,000 wireless accesses, 555,000 wireline network accesses, 216,000 internet accesses and 70,000 Max™ (TV) subscribers.  SaskTel offers a wide range of communications products and services including competitive voice, data, internet, entertainment, national security, messaging, cellular, wireless data and directory services. In addition, SaskTel International offers software solutions and project consulting in countries around the world.  In 2008, SaskTel contributed over $610 million to the Saskatchewan economy through dollars spent with Saskatchewan-based suppliers and sponsorships to non-profit organizations.  SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 5,000 employees.

About the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club
Since 1910, no other team has been a part of the provincial fabric as has the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club. With three Grey Cup championships to its credit, the Riders are synonymous with Prairie football and are one of the flagship franchises of the Canadian Football League. The Roughriders continue to provide quality sports entertainment to their fans, and as a community-owned team, excel in reaching out and giving back to those who support the organization.

About zu
zu is an interactive agency specializing in web strategy, design and development. They are experts in online Investor Relations, social media and mobile applications. zu offers extensive experience in building complex websites, from concept to launch; a proven track record consisting of award winning and nationally recognized websites; 15 years of experience in the interactive industry; and a team of over 50 skilled in strategy, design, and programming. Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan zu’s client list includes globally-recognized brands such as the Calgary Stampeders, Rogers, Areva, PotashCorp, Cameco and CN Rail.

For media inquiries only, please contact:

Andy Tate, SaskTel Corporate Communications
Phone: (306) 777-4548
Email: andy.tate@sasktel.sk.ca

Albert Jame, Creative Director, zu
Phone: (306) 653-4747
Email: albert.jame@zu.com

So how can we support the green team if we’re not going to the game? I say, do it online. Take something like Grey Cup Festival Connect that we built. It pulls everything to do with the Grey Cup and the two teams playing in from YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. So basically, any video you upload to YouTube, any photo you upload to Flickr, or any Rider tweet tagged ‘sskroughriders’ or ‘greycup2009′, will make it onto the Grey Cup fan site. It’s a one stop shop for everything Grey Cup, generated by the fans. So it’s imperative for you Riders fans to take part. Here are some suggestions on how all you at home can participate.

YouTube

• Discuss your predictions or outcomes
• Wish the team well with a personal or group video message
• Send your ‘regards’ to the opposing team

Flickr

• Upload your ideal Rider Grey Cup outfit
• Give some inspiration for fan signs
• Upload custom ‘Photoshopped’ images of the opposing team

Twitter

• Lend Coach Miller some play suggestions (*ahem* Armstead option play)
• ‘Greet’ Allouette fans with a warm message
• Give recipes ideas for what to do with all that leftover watermelon

Don’t forget to join Grey Cup Festival Connect through Facebook. (See top right corner the Grey Cup Festival Connect site.) In addition to joining the fan page, log in and comment on Grey Cup Festival Connect using your Facebook account. Your comments will be shared to your Facebook profile.

And . . . don’t forget to follow live game stats by downloading the Rider mobile app to your iPhone or BlackBerry.

Follow zutweets and catch some of us at the game. Hope to see you there. If not, you know what to do.

twitpitch: Rider fans it’s time to shine. Tips to keep Rider Pride alive online. #greycup2009 #sskroughriders. http://twurl.nl/7yw1y7

That’s what our friends at 3twenty Solutions are proposing. Their new site details all their plans to create modern and affordable living and work spaces—all with an environmental approach. I first heard of this idea about a year ago from Bryan McCrea, one of the founders of 3twenty and was instantly jealous. After winning the coveted I3 Challenge at the University and being featured in every media outlet possible, they recently unveiled their prototype at the Dragon’s Den pitch party.

The site features a very clean and simple design, meant to reflect the nature of their renewed containers. Interested readers can follow all their updates on their blog, which is updated regularly. We encourage everyone to check these guys out—they’ve put in some long days the last few months getting the prototype ready, but once you see it, you’ll get it. When I asked Bryan for a quote, he gave me quite the groaner, so bear with me.

twitpitch: 3twenty creates the future of affordable urban living. @albertjame shares insights on these unique homes http://bit.ly/2QTisM