This will be the conclusion on how Vancouver Fashion Week went. It has been a really amazing experience to be involved in the week as well as to see how such a large scale event is planned and executed.

Saturday and Sunday were the final days of Vancouver fashion week and the shows provided a very dramatic ending. On Saturday I showed up for hair and make up and fittings at 1pm and the show which was supposed to start at 3 ended up starting much later. I was cast to be in the show for Christopher Bates’ new line Ultra and this was one of the shows that I was the most excited about. This was the fourth show that I have done with Christopher and I really love his clothes and shows. His line ULTRA was inspired by his partying and traveling through Europe and is based on the “eurotrash” style that he loves. In any case I was stoked about this high energy show that was going to be on the big stage at VFW. In this show I was wearing torn up jeans and a German print tank top. The show ended up going very well and the clothing was well received by the audience. The final show on Saturday was the Parasuco show which featured models strutting down the runway in just jeans. Some men wore scarves and certain shirts while most of the girls used their hands as their tops. Needless to say the show was well received by the audience, especially since some of the models threw clothing samples into the audience.

Sunday proved to be another great day for VFW. The day started off with a gangster clothing show featuring URSUS clothing wear. My outfit was a difficult one for me to pull off as i had to wear a green toque and wide rimmed glasses. Basically I was the ultimate gangsta nerd. My second show of that day was for Pacific Thorn in which I featured shotgun destroyed jeans and a target print tee.

Pacific thorn is art fashion from BC that challenges the US occupation of Iraq and pokes fun at gun issues. During the show as models walked behind them was a video of the designers shot-gunning the clothing was shown.

The night was finished off with a dramatic show by Roca Wear and Mark Ecko clothing in which models would walk and then perform dance moves on the stage.

From November 6th-10th it will be Vancouver fashion week here in Vancouver and since I am participating in it I thought it would be appropriate to share about the shows and the parties as they happen. Wednesday night was the opening gala and party for VFW which is trying to raise its reputation to the level of other famous fashion weeks like Toronto or New York. At the opening gala and party POP OPERA night club was filled with all the industry professionals in Vancouver. The Vancouver based hair salon “blo me dry” had their promo girls in attendance as well and they enthusiastically pinned a “just blo me” pin on me. The party was great and everyone was talking about the shows that were coming up in the next few days.

Last night, the first runway shows to start off the week began at the exciting venue of a woodworking garage in one of Vancouver's most dangerous neighborhoods. The entire runway was made of giant slabs of timber that proved challenging for the models, especially the girls in heels. The venue had a very unique feel to it as it had high ceilings and wood work examples all around and even the seating was on timber benches. Although the shows started late, the excitement was felt by models, photographers and audience members alike. The shows for VFW on thursday featured clothing by Papillon and leatherwear by Hirad.

Papillons spring collection included a variety of women's long flowing spring dresses. Hirad, on the other hand designs for men, women and children and models showed of black, brown and black high quality Italian leather. I myself was in Hirads show and wore a beige coat over a silk shirt whilst carrying a light leather satchel. My second outfit was a dark brown alligator skin jacket which was worn on my bare skin which made for an interesting show when my zipper wasn't working.

Behind the scenes at a fashion show tensions are high. The space had a limited back stage area and male and female models have to make quick outfit changes without any privacy whatsoever. Getting in order for the shows and constantly being told where to go or not go makes for a stressful time. The biggest problem we faced last night was that the runway was so short that the models (with their long legs) sped through the runway without giving photographers a chance to get any good shots.

VFW is still quite new but its a privilege to be part of something that is really trying to progress to the next level. With MUUM productions providing most of the male models and some of the female ones I have been able to be a big part of it and see my fellow agency models take part too. Tonight the shows continue with eco style clothing and more after parties that Vancouver will be sure to remember.

A couple of days ago,Dolphin Entertainment announced that they just scored $100million in financing from Continental Entertainment Capital (CEC) for some flicks they're planning to make - six, to be precise. In the past, the company's made a bunch of made-for-TV movies as well as a couple series on Nickelodeon. Some basic research would tell me its not such a bad deal - except for one big flaw.

Apparently, the investment into Dolphin was based on the big successes of the High School Musical movies. The third movie grossed about $86million since it opened a couple of weeks ago, and had a total budget of about $11million. Those numbers aren't to shabby (although I don't know what kind of cut the studio would end up taking on $86m). Dolphin has had some success with their television series and some of their movies up to this point; it looks like they're ready to take on the big screen and make some mad cash.

Here's my concern with this $100million investment; you've established that there's a market for these High-School Musical-esque movies and all their hype; so what? Big blockbusters like this are hit and miss - For every one tween blockbuster out there, there's got to be fifty tween flicks that do nothing... "Drive Me Crazy" anyone? (the odds are stacked up even worse if you want High School Musical success)

All those odds of success aside (because that's not unique to the film industry and pretty difficult to control), the investors must be questioning the six movies to be financed with this $100million. The first flick is about a girl who gets her arm eaten by a shark, spends time in a hospital and then keeps on surfing when she gets out. There's a movie I definitely want to see as a tween (because I can't wait to be reminded that the main character was a horrific shark attack victim every time she can't high-five her friends and carry her surf board at the same time). I have to give the company some credit for putting something original together.

My concern is that one of the key strengths of this deal is their partnership with Sony Distribution; the caveat being that Sony maintains first right of refusal. If this first movie is a total bomb and Sony says "not interested", that might mean the flick won't be hitting the silver screen. It would be a bad precedent to set. The last thing Dolphin needs is CEC losing trust in their creative discretion - I could imagine them calling for a bunch of creative checks and balances if the first movie gives them any indication that they won't make their cash back.

Any thoughts on the ingredients to the perfect tween blockbuster?

Yet another part in a series about producing your own short film. In this video, I looks at the production binder, and how it is a necessity to creating a short film, or any video production.

It's no secret that the Venture Capital scene in Canada is... well, less than impressive. Some say that its because Canada hasn't yet recovered from the 2001 bust (I think that argument worked in 2003). Its true that Canada's Venture Capital industry is below levels it achieved in the mid to late 1990's, but there's a litany of other issues the market is facing that are keeping it from being as big and bad as our southern neighbours.

I mean, your first instinct has got to be our proximity to innovation; We don't really have any thing the least bit similar to Silicon Valley that attracts the same, copious amounts of cash that the they do. What few innovative clusters we do have spitting out potentially successful innovations (i.e. Waterloo, maybe some stuff coming out of MaRS) , Canadian Venture Capitalists have been known to - for lack of a better phrase - screw it up. They end up buying into the idea too soon, the firm burns through the cash just in R&D and... that's it (or follow-up financing, but if you're a Canadian Venture Capitalist, chances are you don't have a lot of cash to play with in the first place).

Canadian VC seems pretty dismal; Its probably not as bad as I'm making it out to be; Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) publishes an interesting report that outlines the million and one things wrong with Venture Capital in Canada and gives some suggestions on how to fix it.

On the lists of Why VC just isn't flying here:

1) Government doesn't dole out enough cash money to finance R&D; VCs end up paying for it.

2) Each round of fund raising (that's when a VC firm raises money from people to invest in business) is A LOT smaller than the USA. So that means less time spent on good investments and more time spent fund raising (not good).

3) 4.1% return on average (according to McKinsey, its -2% over five years and 2% over 10, versus 2% and 20% respectively in the US). I don't think the risk justifies the reward.

What does it come down to? Canada's VC scene is just a reflection of it's entrepreneurial scene; I don't think Canadians make great and innovative entrepreneurs. The BlackBerry Fund (in which RBC Ventures has a big stake) just forked out over $16million this past week - but not in Canada. I just don't know if we're innovative enough.

Thoughts? (and don't try telling me the zipper is innovative)

Today is "Take our kids to work" day in Canada, and if you can remember the experience as I can, it is a day where grade 9 students accompany a parent or family member or friend to their job for a day.

Between 1:30pm and 2:30pm, I hosted a group of grade 9 students to talk to them about what RBC is doing to relate to students, things like RBC p2p, RBC Bankbook (Our facebook group) and various other initiatives.

We've spent the 2nd half hour writing a blog entry together, and this is the result...

Planning for the Future

In speaking with the group today at take your kids to work day, we talked about about goals for the future and what happens when you get to the end of high school and beyond.

It's apparent by Aziz's comment, "studying hard and getting a high paying job is to me" and by Sophia's comment about being about "how much university costs" that students are quite forward thinking.

"When you're in grade 9, not really thinking about stuff like that, it's in the back of your head, and you're not really thinking about it, but you still have to get prepared for it." says Anthony, who is also concerned about future transportation costs, "like your first car, and paying for car insurance".

When asked about how they will afford the costs of university, Eric advised that he would "look to [his] parents" while Caroline noted that "government and bank loans are available to help students out".

We talked about where students would get their advice. "I think school is a good way to get advice. Going to your guidance councelor really helps" Kortney advised. "I would look towards my brother, because he's 8 years older than me and he knows what it's like." says Adrian, seemingly not concerned. "Your parents have already been there and they would be a good place for advice as they might tell you what to do and what not to do" mentioned Anthony, to which Aziz threw in "and it helps that they're bankers too!"

All in all, I would say that these students are well prepared to look towards the future, and know where they need to go to get information about their finances.

If you think back to where you were in grade 9, what were your major concerns about the future?

It was a strange noise. I knew it couldn’t be a good thing, but I didn’t want to deal with it at one in the morning. So, I shut the computer down and told myself I’d take care of everything in the morning.

After a relatively good night’s sleep, I picked up the laptop and got set to fire off some emails.

Click. Click. Click.

It wouldn’t start. And it wouldn’t start again until I got it back from the repair shop with my very own brand new hard drive.

I lost everything. I didn’t back up my files. I have to start all over again.

But, I did learn a lesson—a less, I hope, not everyone has to learn they way I did… especially students. Who wants to lose pictures, music, essays, projects or presentations? You could graduate without potential portfolio material.

It’s Cheap

The ironic thing in my situation is that I’ve been eyeing external hard drives for some time now. I didn’t want to spend the money on one, but the cost of an external hard drive is nothing like it used to be. I’ve seen 500G of space for as low as $150. Compare that to the $1,500 the repair shop wanted to retrieve my information, and you’ve got a deal.

It’s Easy

Call me dumb, but I didn’t know that you can set your computer to automatically back itself up everyday. It makes sense—your computer can do everything else on its own. You can download software that will copy whatever specified folders you wish at whatever time of day you prefer.

It’s Online

It’s true… you can find everything online—including space to store all of your files. There are some sites that offer free online storage, but it’s usually limited. If you’re willing to pay for space, you can often get an unlimited amount. You can have your computer automatically back up your files this way, too.

It’s Over

I was told that because I wouldn’t be trying to retrieve any information, I had to send my old hard drive back to the manufacturer in order to get the new one. This is how the warranty works. This seems unfair to me because it’s not my fault that the computer died. Moreover, just because I can’t afford the retrieval now, doesn’t mean I can’t afford it another day. I explained this to the Call Centre, but it was to no avail.

THEN, I read about another blogger who was able to keep her old hard drive, while walking away with a new one. Now I’ve gained back my sense of loss…

Any sad hard drive stories out there?

Another great show from the nation's favourite broadcaster is back at it for another season; Dragons' Den is back on the air and chock full of great startups, negotiations and some good laughs.

I highly recommend checking out the Dragons' Den website! You can watch past and current episodes (CBC is on the ball), read some of the blogs on there and check out the audition videos for these really innovative ideas.

From an entrepreneur's perspective, I think this is an amazing resource and totally worth checking out. It may give you some insights into your own business ideas and some reoccurring themes, angel and venture investor insights and business negotiations.

Watch Episode one here; what's the red thread that seems to run through these deals, good and bad?

Proper valuations - don't ask for too much; investors will laugh you out the door if you do (and you won't be able to negotiate your way back)

Sunk costs - if your business idea sucks, then concede to it and move on. You aren't doing yourself or anyone else a favour by relentlessly pursuing a bad idea

Substantiating advice - there's more value in the advice and experience of the Dragons than any amount of money could ever buy. The Kickspike founders saw this, but many don't. I think this goes to substantiate the need for many startups to have mentors.

Check it out now. And if you think you're at the point where you're ready to strike a deal, then watch some episodes of Deal or No Deal and taking considerable note of the psychology of dealmaking.

I'm producing a series of videos on the making of a short film for students. This one is about breaking down your script for production.

Opportunities abound, all of them nestled neatly around you. Your very own campus, for example. Take for example, the very recent startup www.UniGo.com, riding the wave of online user generated content and the owner's recognition of a the lack of useful information and copious amounts of bias information, as provided by the University, for incoming and prospective students.

UniGo.com, only covering universities in the states (but hey, maybe you can start reviewing your own University) is not a completely unique idea. www.uTours.ca, currently under construction, but was live not too long ago, was very similar. Comparatively speaking, the content of uTours is slightly less user generated, although there are some ranking services, but their business model is also slight different from UniGo.com.

uTours implemented a pretty diversified strategy that went beyond just the internet. The forged some alliances with big name companies in Canada because they offered value to students, a really lucrative market. Further, they had a variety of revenue streams in different places, notably a "uTours DVD" that contained lengthy videos about your favourite university.

I don't have their financials, so I can't comment on whether or not their products were successful. But there's always a lesson to be had: for any given business idea, there can be six or seven revenue streams. Don't limit yourself to any one in particular. In many cases, chances are you won't end up being dependent on the revenue stream you first came up with.

It's also worth noting that you don't want to diversify your efforts too much. If making DVDs and pursuing that distribution channel isn't performing or growing at the rate you need it to, it may have a negative effect on the rest of your business. There's a lot to be said about a niche (or specialization strategy); your efforts are focussed and your customers are happy.

And other high school reunion-related questions

As I sit in the backseat listening to some home-grown (Cheticamp, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) country music, I can’t help but look back at the weekend that has just passed. You see, it was my 10-year high school reunion, and with this momentous event comes a mixed bag of emotions, thoughts and questions. It’s fairly safe to assume that many of you have yet to reach the age of reunion, so allow me to give you a sneak peek, as you live vicariously through my experience. Hang on. The ride may be as bumpy as the Cape Breton roads that are currently destroying my penmanship.

Some of the typical worries that accompany reunions include, but are not limited to:

• Am I successful?
• Am I where I thought I would be?
• Will I look better than my former classmates? (don’t worry, Henry, you will)
• Have any of us changed drastically?
• How many people will show up?
• Will I be the only bachelor without a house, family, car or money? (but WITH a cat)

For the purpose of this entry, I’m going to focus on the first question (as tempting as the last one is to delve into). Everyone’s definition of success varies, right? By some standards being in a position where a person would ask question #5 would mean a resounding NO to question #1. When examining whether you’re successful, it helps to know whose definition you’re using. Are you asking if OTHERS will think you’re a success or are you the one determining it? By others’ standards I might be the farthest thing from successful, and based on where I thought I’d be by now (10 years ago, when I envisioned this day) I might be inclined to agree. Something about listening to My Girl, as sung by my friend and her British rockstar boyfriend, makes a guy yearn a little. Oh universe, why’d you make me go to my reunion as a bachelor? I kid; it wasn’t the depressing situation you might think.

Success is one of those hard-to-actually-define concepts, like justice, freedom, or talent (a quick listen to the radio will prove my point about that last one). But seriously, it’s tricky to evaluate whether you’re successful, overall. Many of us have achieved our high school goals and others among us have gone off the beaten path altogether, forging ahead on our own journey of personal exploration. Make a list of some of the things you’re most proud of and see how many of them are unique to YOU. Maybe you haven’t done some of the things your former classmates have, but it’s entirely possible you’ve done plenty that they haven’t. And they might even be a little envious.

I may not have the house, car, family or money but I’ve tried spoken word, beatboxing, stand-up comedy (all on stage, including Yuk Yuk’s), received a scholarship to create a short black-and-white silent film (that was then featured on CBC Radio 3’s website) and now I blog for a national bank using words, videos and comics to reach out to all of you. The point is, we’ve all done things that contribute to our “success”. If you haven’t achieved certain goals (whether they’re yours or someone else’s) by your 10-year reunion, it in no way means you NEVER will. I never aimed to become a blogger in high school (in fact they didn’t really exist). Right place, right time. We don’t all work on the same success schedule, and new goals will present themselves. Something about the bickering of my friend and her beau in the front seats makes me perfectly happy to be single. OK, it was playful, but bickering nonetheless alright? And yes, I’m trying to justify my bachelor status. And the 50lbs I’ve gained since graduating from high school IS intentional! *gulp*

Having people on both sides of the counter can help

So it's good to understand your customers; This, I agree with. Full and proper understanding of the people you're serving involves a lot more than demographics and statistics and yes/no purchase decisions. Not that those are unmistakable observations, but I think one would accept them as being fairly cornerstone.

It's all about the little nuances when it comes to properly serving people; if you've ever worked in a sales position, you know what I mean – being able calibrate people's interest in a purchase and act accordingly to those little things that go left unsaid; things like body language and tone speaks volumes.

It's tough to see what isn't said when an endless expansive space lies between you and them. I don't know why e-commerce has been made void of all human interaction, with live customers interacting with – code? (unless, and I stress from experience, it's a matter or damage control "oh, you're right that's not what you ordered")

Those little nuances are the make or break, and if you can't react properly, then your toast.

With hoards of students running businesses online, what can they do in order to better gauge those little customer nuances; when to pounce, offer a discount, put on the hard sell, back off or not approach the customer at all (not everyone is worth your time)?

There are some big leaps in helping online entrepreneurs better serve (and understand their customers) in the online space. Live salespeople is one new one, but not too extraordinary. There are some other really interesting tools, which I find a bit more impressive.

One is chat analyzers that detect that which is not said, taking into a consideration a huge variety of factors that simpletons (i.e. non-robots) like you and I just don't grasp. What's more is that these puppies actually learn over time.

If a customer arrives at your online jewelery store from an affluent area, then they'll take the live online sales-person's precedence over the window shopper from another, less-affluent geographical region.

Is it worth it? Absolutely, when you're dealing with large numbers of customers. Not to mention that I think a program like this would really compliment an entrepreneur's decision to serve a niche market. So be proactive. Hire a live salesperson! Anyone know companies that specialize in this?

What if you can't afford this, you aren't dealing with high customer traffic and it's just not reasonable to set something up like this?