By Francis Moran
It was freezing cold, often quite dark, and always utterly decrepit at the Bayview Yards a couple of weeks ago, but it didn’t take an imagination any more potent than the woeful propane heaters that were bravely trying to heat up the chilly space to share the city’s vision that this broken-down and vividly graffiti-tagged former works garage will soon be transformed into a funky, design-rich, entrepreneur-friendly, sunshiny bright and — most critically — welcoming space for Ottawa’s startup and technology communities.
We’ve had a few posts on this blog about the city’s plans to turn the old Bayview Yards into an innovation complex for Ottawa’s startup communities, but earlier this month saw the first chance many people had to eyeball the actual space, as well as the enticing draft conceptual design plan developed by local design firm protoypeD.
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By Daylin Mantyka 
Even though we took our usual holiday break in December, we still covered a lot of ground on the blog throughout the month. Leading the pack was a well-received piece by our resident neuromarker, Bob Bailly, followed by a to-the-point post on improving your presentation skills in the new year.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
December 11: Would you kill the Fat Man?, by Bob Bailly
December 18: Five keys to your presentation success in 2014, by Anil Dilawri
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By Leo Valiquette
Happy New Year.
The holidays are behind us and it’s time to get back to the grindstone. But while routines are a good thing, slipping back into poor habits, biases, and preconceptions that limit our professional success are not. Consider this a time to wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start.
I personally don’t care to make resolutions. Instead, I look back and consider what lessons I learned over the past year and how I can apply these in a positive way to my life and work over the next 12 months.
So in the spirit of a new year, here are some thoughts to guide founders, executives, and managers of any growing concern as they work to bring their technology to market and earn their time in the spotlight.
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From all of us here at Francis Moran and Associates, happy holidays and the very best for 2014. We will resume our regular blog postings on January 2.
By David French
I was recently sitting at a hotel bar and overheard a circle of businessmen talking at a nearby table. I couldn’t help listening in. What I heard spaced over about an hour was strangely familiar:
- I thought I was going to get rich when I put my new patented invention on the market. Why isn’t it happening?
- It seemed like a good idea to copy my competitor’s layout. Why am I being sued now?
- I wrote some code like what I need now at my former employer’s business. I think I will check my old laptop and use it again.
- Let’s put our daughter and son’s names together and use that as our trademark. I’m sure “Mercedes-Ben’s” will stand out in the marketplace.
- There’s no point in checking name registers in the United States; we’re never going to sell product in the U.S.
- Mike is our key man in sales. I’m sure if he invents an improvement to our product that this will belong to the company.
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Great articles roundup: Social media, content marketing, marketing strategy and startups
December 20, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
It’s Friday, yet again, which means it’s time for our weekly roundup. This one happens to be the last of 2013. Over the week, we’ve read great content from Social Media Explorer, Marketing Sherpa and Startup Professional Musings [...]
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Damn it, Beyoncé: Now all the pundits will say marketing is unnecessary
December 19, 2013 by Francis Moran
It didn’t take long after music megastar Beyoncé dropped her latest release onto Apple iTunes with no advance warning or usual hype-fest for the armchair pundits and marketing deniers to trumpet that marketing was now dead [...]
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Five keys to your presentation success in 2014
December 18, 2013 by Anil Dilawri
The good news – 2013 was a good year for most businesses. The bad news – most business presentations delivered in 2013 still sucked. Whether it’s an investor pitch, an elevator pitch, a customer update, or an important sales presentation, here are five ideas to help make your presentations remarkable in 2014 [...]
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Becoming a more successful you in 2014
December 17, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
It’s that time of year again, when pundits and armchair quarterbacks of every stripe offer up their insights on the year past and their predictions for the year to come. This isn’t one of those posts [...]
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Best of: I’m sick and tired of hearing that Canadians don’t take risks
December 16, 2013 by Francis Moran
This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from December 2011. We welcome your feedback [...]
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Great articles roundup: Social media, Gen Y, communications and entrepreneurship
December 13, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
It’s officially the end of the working week, which means that it’s time for the Friday roundup where we’ve compiled a short list of the top articles we read and loved [...]
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Communications by warehouse in the Internet age
December 12, 2013 by Francis Moran
When I moved to Ottawa in the late 1980s to head up the national capital office of what was then Canada’s largest public relations firm, the Internet was not yet even a gleam in Al Gore’s eye [...]
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Would you kill the Fat Man?
December 11, 2013 by Bob Bailly
Over a number of my previous posts, I’ve written a lot about the concepts of Neuromarketing – a predictive model that uses findings from the sciences concerning the brain (neuroscience and psychology) to improve sales and communication skills [...]
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Twitter
Tweets by @FrancisMoranRecent Comments
James LaPalme : Francis Would not say thrived - but close - in spite of geography. 15ish years ago - a group of similar skilled and experience and capable business folks (sales, channel, alliance, business development) all lived in Canada (Ottawa-Toronto-Waterloo). All except for one stayed - that would be me. Well the guys that went to Silicon Valley have thrived well beyond expectations. The others - Boston, Dallas and EU have done very well - thrived. My survival has been predominately based on CEO's from outside Ontario seeing my value. Best to move on to more receptive fertile ground if ambitious. A successful strategy is to move south do a few years and remove the pure northern business experience then come back - which my experience is very few will.
Francis Moran : I'm so glad to see you warming to this idea, Luc. Not that you were ever one of those mindless critics who automatically opposed the proposal; you were properly skeptical and demanding that it contain more of what folks like you and I believed was necessary for success. Looks like the city is listening.
Luc Lalande : Hi Francis, thank you for the steady and keen eye on the development of this important project for the City. I share your view that open spaces in the building’s design will be critical components for encouraging spontaneous interactions between people. Integrating such spaces in the Innovation Complex sends the right signals to the community-at-large and not just the local startup ecosystem: everyone is welcomed! With respect to Patti’s comments about the arts sector, it would be worth bringing back to light that the Hintonburg-Mechanicsville area has emerged as the first Arts District in the City of Ottawa, housing many artist studios, performing arts studios, and media groups. While the 7 Bayview located Innovation Complex may cater to the entrepreneurial set, there is still considerable property on these lands that could, one day, be developed and capitalize on the area’s sizable artistic community. But perhaps the open spaces at the Innovation Complex can be equally accommodating for anyone who embraces creativity and entrepreneurship: artists and innovators alike.