Welcome to the 4th Canada 9-5 Carnival, the last one for this year. This carnival collects the diverse voices of Canadians who blog about their work and public affairs – from small business to corporations to not-for-profits of all stripes.

 

Many of our neighbours to the South have latched onto the power of Web 2.0, a truly connected internet, but here in Canada, business and work related blogging is still something that happens very rarely. The blogs you find here are truly pioneers.

 

Construction Marketing
Construction Marketing Ideas is a blog that understands the power of blogging to disseminate ideas quickly and easily. It’s chock full of marketing tips that are useful not just for the construction industry but for all business owners.

 

Don’t you hate it when you get a marketing call and the person on the other end just reads from a script, no matter what you say? In an article on cold calling, there are some very useful suggestions for connecting with strangers in a respectful way:

 

For Successful Phone Calls:
* Plan, but don’t memorize, your calls. Think about what you’ll cover and how. Have a specific objective in mind like getting an appointment or determining the extent of any upcoming construction program.
* Don ‘t start with the trite “how are you?” Instead, say, Hello, my name is….”
* Concisely cover vital information in the first several seconds of the call. Explain who you are, who you believe the other person is, why you’re calling, how you heard about this project, what possibility you see for working together and how long this should take.
* Assess how the other person sounds. Ask if this is a convenient time. If not, suggest that you call back at a specific time. Showing respect for a prospect’s time builds your credibility.
* Establish what the other person knows about you. (“Perhaps you heard Bob talk about me, I’d like to tell you more”).
* Help people visualize you, (“I’m calling from Vancouver”).

Blogging
Lincoln McCardle has a neat idea – he thinks every blog should have a theme song. I find that intriguing. On the one hand, I have to admit it bugs me when I go to a site and it assaults with with some awful muzak – but if it’s good, like here, for example (great site if you like philosophy and Chopin), it’s a real joy.

 

Foodiescranberries for vegan cooking
Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen is the kitchen journal of Bryanna Clark Grogan, a vegan food writer. It contains “ideas and recipes I am working on; culinary flights of fancy; opinions; passions; discoveries; and more.” In Cranberries, and a short rant she asks why people dish out huge amounts of money for exotic juices when they can have the same effects from home-grown fruit, like the cranberry.

 

Civic affairs – Vancouver: The mayor
This is the blog of Vancouver’s mayor Sam Sullivan, of all the blogs here definitely the most “corporate” one. This just shows the wide variety of uses a blog can be put to. Sam Sullivan’s blog has the format of what one might call an “interactive press release”. Discussion and deep interaction – a la Liz Strauss’ Open Mic for example – is probably not what is sought here. Rather, I would say that this blog is meant to spread information, to solidify the idea of Vancouver being leading edge, and to give citizens an opportunity to voice their opinions. The Millennium Line Survey is a good example of that.

 

Civic affairs – Montreal: The UN?
Spacing Montreal chronicles what happens in Montreal, for example, in this article about the possibility of the UN moving its headquarters:

 

Last week, La Presse reported quite breathlessly that the federal government, which owns the Port of Montreal and much of the land along its waterfront, has been lobbying the United Nations to move its headquarters from New York to Montreal. The rationale, apparently, is that the UN’s current headquarters, housed in an iconic complex built in 1949 along the East River, needs nearly $2 billion worth of renovations over the next couple of decades. It would cost a lot less to simply pack up and move to Montreal, where a state-of-the-art new headquarters would be waiting on the site of the Silo No. 5 and on adjacent piers.
You have to admit, as outlandish an idea as this may be, it would be pretty cool to have the United Nations in Montreal.

Civic affairs – British Columbia: A NAFTA superhighway conspiracy?
C.I. Bennett, erstwhile leader of the Green Party of British Columbia, has candid thoughts, green political ideas and new leadership thinking on his Victoria Bound | Green Political Ideas by C.I. Bennett. Here he presents rumours of a plan to build a superhighway:

 

You’ve heard the rumours for months. Most have chalked this up to a stupid conspiracy theory with no truth to it. Yet yesterday, 2351 people ‘dug’ this story on digg.com. A secret NAFTA Superhighway being built between the US and Canada.

That’s all, folks! Join us again next year, on January 18, for the next edition of Canada 9-5. Anything written by a Canadian blogger that’s work-related is fair game. Have a blog post you want to submit? Click here.