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University of Manitoba students showed off musical talents on December 27.
Five students performed and received Women’s Musical Club scholarships.
The winners are Daniel Tselyakov on piano, Ariel Carrebre on cello, Joshua Peters on violin, Charmaine Bacon on flute and singer Dawn Bruch.
Bruch is a UM Grad (M.Mus., 2008). Bacon holds a B.Mus (UM, 2007) and is currently a Masters Student at the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music.
Posted in: Music
A calendar with photographs from the past four years of the University of Manitoba’s storm chasing course is now available – just in time for the holiday season.
“We wanted to raise awareness for the course as well as doing a fundraiser for our coming trips,” said John Hanesiak, associate professor, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources. “We thought a calendar was a good way to do this.”
This is the first-edition of the Storm Chasers Calendar. All photos were captured by students and instructors from trips throughout the Canadian prairies and the United States.
Storm chasing consists of determining (forecasting) where severe thunderstorms will occur and then getting to that location before they become severe.
The calendars are currently available at the U of M Fort Garry and Bannatyne Campus Bookstores, or, at McNally-Robinson (Polo Park and Grant Park).
Hanesiak says having student and instructor-photographed imagery in the calendar gives the product a personal touch.
“The best part is using our own photos to produce a high quality product that everyone can enjoy, especially those of us who think the atmosphere and its phenomena are an exciting part of our planet,” said Hanesiak.
Posted in: Environment, Earth, and Resources
Who says you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure?
Though it isn’t always advisable, the combo has paid off pretty handsomely for 30-year-old Jason Abbott, a Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management grad who’s found a way to market his twin passions: entrepreneurship and the great outdoors.
Having opted to minor in commerce, Abbott now has plenty of opportunity to put his marketing smarts into practice as Director of Business Development for local creative agency Cocoon Branding.
But given his affinity for nature (and his major in Recreation Studies), it comes as no surprise that Abbott has diversified his career pursuits by launching and managing The Toban Experience, a travel tour service of the province’s best beach and lake country destinations, modeled after the highly successful Kiwi Experience in New Zealand.
“At the time (I entered Recreation Studies), I had no idea where I’d end up — I was just trying to spend my time doing things I was genuinely interested in,” says Abbott, who admits he switched from the Phys. Ed. stream to Rec Studies after deciding the former was too “anatomically-oriented.”
“As it turns out, I’m now applying the majority of what I learned in both Rec Studies and the business classes.”
Abbott even credits his degree with helping him land his first job mere hours after he’d completed his final credit hours. The position – as an account executive with UPS – was secured immediately after he’d finished professor Mike Campbell’s two-week tourism course at Banff National Park.
“On my way home from Banff, smelling like campfire and the freezing cold, I had my interview with UPS,” he recalls.
“They hired me, so literally the day after I graduated, the next day I had myself a job, which is rare. But I would never have got the job if I didn’t have my piece of paper.”
After a year and a half with UPS, Abbott tired of being a “small cog in a very huge machine,” so he struck out for a four-month backpacking trip through New Zealand, South Asia and Europe. It was there that he learned of the hop-on/hop-off travel tour bus operation known as The Kiwi Experience, and there that he first considered launching his own version back home.
“What they offer in New Zealand is no different than what the opportunities are for tourism here in Manitoba – we just don’t do a very good job of marketing it or selling it,” he explains.
The first order of business when he returned home, however, was to find a new job. Fortunately, Abbott proved a perfect fit with the team at Cocoon Branding (then Gator Designs), a company specializing in brand development and evolution for businesses and individuals, covering everything from strategy consultations to logo, website and product design.
“My job is to introduce new customers to what we do … to make sure that when they’re ready for a change, that they consider us,” says Abbott of Cocoon, whose higher-profile clients include Scotiabank, CancerCare Manitoba and radio station Curve 94.3.
“We fit best with people who are open to change, open to doing something new … We call it a drastic stretch – when they want to evolve their brand and they’ve got the mindset to be more innovative and to differentiate their brand, that’s when they should engage with us.”
In 2005, Abbott hired Cocoon to develop the branding and materials for The Toban Experience, a travel tour company that provides transportation to a circuitous route of local tourist draws (among them Falcon Lake, Kenora, Minaki, the Mantario Trail, Lac du Bonnet and Grand Beach), coupled with Abbott’s expertise about the various landmarks and activities to be found therein.
“Here in Manitoba, we take for granted how beautiful the open skies are, and all the beaches and lake country and activity that surround that,” he explains, noting the service has attracted backpackers from all over Europe and Southeast Asia.
“We also don’t do a good job of marketing how affordable we are from a travel perspective. Like if you’re a backpacker in Vancouver, you’re paying a heck of a lot more to eat and drink, which is part and parcel of the backpacking experience. There’s tremendous opportunity to further attract the youth demographic or youth traveler to Manitoba. We just have to do a better job of creating experiences and marketing, to convince them not to fly over us, but to make us part of their trip.”
Abbott knows he faces obstacles in attracting the elusive youth market (most notably our cold winters and lack of direct international flights), but while he continues to market the Toban Experience to backpackers, he and his Cocoon cohorts have their hands full with yet another venture.
They recently launched a spin-off company called Oi Furniture, and are about to commence production on a series of modular sofas (see photo) that are packaged and shipped in a 30-inch cube, and can be reconfigured into 120 different shapes and designs.
“We just presold a few of these to customers in Toronto and California, and we were recently in touch with the Manitoba government about providing them for the Olympics,” he says proudly.
“At the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York … we had plenty of people coming up to us to say, ‘Wow, that’s cool – where do I buy it and how much?’”
Perhaps not surprisingly (given the amount of networking he does in the course of carrying out his various duties), Abbott credits one pivotal skill – picked up during his time with FKRM, naturally – with helping him to achieve as much as he has in such a short time.
“Without a doubt, it’s the number of presentations I made,” says Abbott, who in his downtime (what little he has of it, anyway) also serves as President of the Canadian Marketing Association and sits on Hosteling International’s Board of Directors.
“Looking back, that’s what trained me for how to speak in public. My fundamental job for Cocoon is making presentations to CEOs and chief marketing officers, getting up there and saying, ‘Here’s who we are and here’s what we do.’
“The Rec Studies program gave me a great foundation to be able to do that from the get-go.”
For more information about Cocoon Branding, see www.cocoonbranding.com
To learn more about The Toban Experience, see www.tobanexperience.com, and to learn more about Oi Furniture see www.ilikeoi.com
Posted in: Kinesiology and Recreation Management
Construction of an innovative new agricultural education facility that will feature interactive hands-on displays about every aspect of food production, from farming practices to the marketing and retailing of food, is officially underway at the University of Manitoba’s Glenlea Research Station after a special groundbreaking ceremony was held today.The Bruce D. Campbell Farm & Food Discovery Centre was officially announced at today’s event by the Honourable Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament for Provencher, on behalf of the Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, the Honourable Stan Struthers, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, on behalf of the Province of Manitoba, Michael Trevan, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, and special guest and agribusiness community leader Dr. Bruce D. Campbell. The centre was previously known as the Glenlea Farm Education Centre.
The event comes on the heels of a September announcement of $2.3 million in federal funding for the centre through the Community Adjustment Fund (CAF), which is part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan. The Province of Manitoba has also contributed $900,000 towards the facility.
The funding is integral to the construction of the 8,280 square-foot centre that will be an interactive showplace with dioramas and hands-on displays of grain and feed production, viewing galleries for the hog barn with videos relaying scenes from the demonstration barn, food retailing and food safety displays.
“I am pleased to celebrate the start of such an exciting project for the University of Manitoba. With this new centre, students will be equipped with valuable learning tools to assist them in their agricultural education,” said Minister Toews. “This is a great investment and a further example of our Government is helping to ensure that Manitoba emerges from this global economic recession stronger than ever.”
“This research facility will be a centre of excellence for farm and food production practices that stress environmental stability. There are a number of occupations in the agri-food industry and this will be a great place to learn about them,” said Minister Struthers. “Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives looks forward to working with the talented people at the Glenlea Research Station in moving great ideas from research to implementation.”
“Today’s announcement highlights the strong support that our alumni and our partners have committed to this exciting initiative,” said Dr. David Barnard, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manitoba. “The Bruce D. Campbell Farm & Food Discovery Centre will give Manitobans an opportunity to see first-hand how modern agricultural practices are having an impact on food production in our province while exposing them to the important research being done at the University of Manitoba.”
“I am proud and humbled to have my name associated with this spectacular new centre for the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. This new facility will be a wonderful showcase for agricultural production in Canada,” said Dr. Bruce D. Campbell.
With 30,000 visitors anticipated annually, the Discovery Centre will be a valuable food production experience for students of all ages. Construction is expected to be completed by October 2010.
Posted in: Agricultural and Food Sciences
School of Art students Laura Magnusson and Ben Bonner are the winners of the first CPAM (Collaboration to Promote Art and Music) contest, Sculptural Experience. On November 17, 2009 contest entrants and judges convened amid 14 entries installed in GOSA to hear the announcement of the winning sculptures. Magnusson, a fourth year student majoring in sculpture, and Bonner, a special topics in sculpture student, will each receive $5,000 to complete their proposed sculptures which will be installed on campus in early 2010.
Ben Bonner, maquette for Golem’s Pelt
Bonner’s sculpture, Golem’s Pelt, depicts an unthinking creature that mindlessly carries out its assigned task. Magnusson describes her piece, Goodnight Gutenberg, as a repository for the memory of books. It is perhaps an elegy for the loss of book as a physical object. Each sculpture, in its own way, addresses concepts important to education; the golem is the antithesis of the informed, critical thinker universities aim to produce, while the book, symbolizing the dissemination of knowledge, represents the core of learning and communication.
Laura Magnusson, maquette for Goodnight Gutenberg
CPAM is a new partnership between the University of Manitoba Student Union and the University of Manitoba. Its stated goal is to improve the artistic and aesthetic environment of the University in a way that promotes the creative talents of students and encourages celebration and promotion of student engagement. Besides Sculptural Experience, CPAM is sponsoring two other initiatives: Tunnel Vision, the creation of art and murals in the University tunnel system; and Random Acts of Music, performances of music by five soloists or groups around the campus. The winners of these two contests will be announced on December 18.
Posted in: School of Art, Uncategorized
We extend congratulations to music student, Matthew Packer. Matt recently received a $2500. scholarship from the Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation’s “Learning Matters Education Charity”. He was one of six recipients from 530 applicants across Canada. Matt received the scholarship based on his work at “Welcome Home” organization, where he has provided free piano lessons to inner-city children for the last two years.
Matt is in his first year in University, majoring in piano and saxophone. Congratulations Matt.
Posted in: Music
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