The Olys

When the case studies were almost finished, James suggested doing an Olympic ad contest over the course of the Olympics and asked me if I was interested in running it. Of course, I agreed. I thought it was a fantastic idea. So that is how the Oly Awards came to be.

The Flickr Group of Ads

The first thing we did was start a Flickr group to collect some of the advertising surrounding the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. There was a ton of advertising around town, far before the Olympics even started. We organized a photowalk to get some of the initial photos in the pool. Our goal on the day of the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics was to have 50+ members and 500+ photos. We wanted to make sure there were enough people interested in the Olympics ads project, and would be willing to submit their photos. Well, we rocked it. The Flickr group now has over 80+ members and 800+ photos.

The Brands

I started writing a blog post or two a day during the Olympics on the major brands that were Official Sponsors of Vancouver 2010. We got some feedback from some of those brands too, which was great!

The Photo Contest

The next step was creating a photo contest at OlympicAdAwards.com. We set up a Strutta-powered contest for people to submit their best photos of Olympic Advertising. Our goal was to get 100 entries by the submission deadline. We got 115 entries and knocked it out of the park again.

The Judging

We enlisted some great judges to help us out with choosing the Best Brand and the Best Photo. They were:

• Stephen Bailey, Marketing Director at Fluevog Shoes
• Mark Busse, Partner / Design Director at Industrial Brand
• Jim Southcott, Chief Strategic Officer at TBWA\Vancouver

We gave them a detailed scorecard to fill out on each of the brands. They are all Vancouverites, but they also had our Flickr group of Olympic ads for a resource in their judging. By the way, a HUGE thank you to the Judges who took the time out of their day to do this for us. They gave great feedback in the comments on some of the brands as well.

The Prizes

The 2 Prizes we sourced out to give to the winners, were original artwork by local Vancouverite Rachael Ashe. She alters books and turns them into the most unique and stunning pieces of art. The Best Brand was to receive “Swimming in a Sea of Words,” and Best Photo was to receive “The Butterfly Effect.”

The Winners

In the end, it was a tight race, but Coca-Cola with their Open Happiness campaign beat out the Hudson’s Bay Company by three points! Congratulations Coca-Cola, you did a fine job.

For Best Photo, there were 10 finalists chosen by public voting, from the 115 entries. In the end, Kim Werker’s photo of the Hudson’s Bay Company won the popular vote. Congratulations Kim!

View AdHack’s announcement on the blog, or view the official press release.

Well, that’s that. My Olympic project has come and gone. It was a blast, and so interesting to see what developed over the 17 days of the Olympics. Not only in regards to local, national, and worldwide advertising, but in being a Canadian, and a proud Vancouverite, and witnessing the best party Vancouver has ever thrown. I am so lucky to have taken this role and to have been a part of the Olympics while they were here in Vancouver in 2010. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

And now… a new adventure? I think so!

It would have been much easier if I did a few posts throughout the Olympics, but alas, I am doing it all in one long post now that I have no plans taking up my evenings. This means that I will leave out a lot of details, but that’s okay.

I am not alone in my depression of the Olympics being over. My Facebook, Twitter, and blogging friends feel the same way.

Wow, where to begin? 7 years ago? Okay.

July 2, 2003. I would have been in Boston, Massachusetts working on a yacht at the time when the IOC announced in Prague, Czech Republic that Vancouver won the bid to host the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I gloated to my American, British, Czech, Australian, and South African co-workers. Mind you, my South African friends later on won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, so we both had reasons to celebrate.

Let’s bring things up a little closer to the present. June 12, 2009. My Mom e-mails myself, my two brothers and my sister-in-law with the subject line “Olympic Torch Bearer!” At the time, I don’t even think I realized what this meant, but I was so unbelievably excited for her. I wrote a blog post about it even!

Okay a little closer. February 3, 2010. Myself, my 2 brothers, my sister-in-law, and my nephew all made the trip from Vancouver, up to our hometown of Powell River for their Torch Relay Community Celebration. We had a few family members who performed in the Ceremony – Cousin Monica & her husband Max, and our Aunt Christine.

We then woke up at the crack of dawn to watch my Mom be the first torch bearer on February 4th, 2010 at 6:00am.

What an experience! Of course we have numerous photos (mine are here) and lots of video footage, and my brother Jordan even threw together a great video that still puts a lump in my throat everytime I watch it.

After my Mom carried the torch, it was just a few short days until the Olympics. And what a blur.

On Thursday, February 11th, I got to see the torch for the second time with some good friends, as it was carried into David Lam Park at LiveCity Yaletown. We also saw the first of many fireworks displays.

The next morning, February 12th, I walked to work taking photos along the way, and I got to see the torch relay for the third time as it traveled east on Hastings St. A lot of security was was traveling with it, as it had to divert a protest at Cambie and Hastings.

Friday night I stayed in to watch the Opening Ceremonies. I thought they were a great representation of our country from coast to coast and terrific way to welcome the world to our fine city.

The rest of my time was spent hopping around town trying to get into venues, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. I didn’t always have my camera with me, but did manage to snag a few shots here and there. Here’s a few of Sheralyn and I on February 14th on Granville Island where we visited the Atlantic Canada House.

February 16th, I’m pretty sure I went to the Irish House, but there’s no photographic evidence to share. I’m kidding. There is, just not on my camera.

On February 18th, I watched Canada beat Sweden in men’s hockey with my friend Erin and some of her out-of-town friends at Ceili’s. This was not one of them.

I was lucky enough to see two medal ceremonies. Unfortunately though, both ceremonies were ones when Canadians were not getting medals! Of all the luck! The first one I saw on February 19th, was the night Theory of a Deadman performed. Not a big fan of them, and our seats were waaaay up in the nosebleeds. We did see Aussie Torah Bright get her gold medal for snowboarding, though – sorry Rob! And we met up with more friends afterward at Dix Brew Pub where we watched John Montgomery win gold in Skeleton!

My friend Seanna invited me to go to the Russia vs. Slovakia women’s hockey game with her and some family friends on February 20th, because her friend Natalie plays on the Slovakia team and left her four tickets at will call! W00t! Lucky me.

February 21st was the day Team Canada played against the USA in men’s hockey and lost! My friends and I watched it at Shark Club, which was a crazy, crazy scene. We didn’t lose hope though, and even made friends with some Americans.

Photo credit: Amanda Haines

I had a few quiet nights after this, and I even skipped watching the semi-final men’s hockey match vs. Slovakia (because I knew they would win anyway), and went to my second medal ceremony on February 26th to see Great Big Sea perform. And I’m so glad I did, because they were fantastic. I think there a lot of Newfoundlanders in the audience because everyone was singing, clapping, and stomping along to the music. For some reason, this was a really happy moment for me. Maybe I should have been born on the East Coast…. Nah.

After the ceremony, my friend Erica and I snuck into Library Square to share in the celebration of Team Canada making it to the gold medal match for men’s hockey. There were a few Swedish girls who had the same plan, and they were nice enough to let me take their photo.

Finally, February 28th was the gold medal men’s hockey game of Canada vs. USA, and the day of the closing ceremony. My friends and I were up bright and early to watch the game at Earls Yaletown. We drank mimosas and had a delicious buffet breakfast, then sat back to watch the best hockey game ever.

Photo credit: Stacey Parsons

I have more Olympics photos that I still have to update here.

It was a great couple of weeks Canada (& the world!), and I’m never going to forget it. Thank you Vancouver for throwing such great party.

I have had this version of O Canada by Classified running through my head for the past month – I blame my brother Wes, because he posted the link to it on twitter. I downloaded it too, so I hear it on my iPod every once in awhile while I am commuting to and from work on the bus. Nothing gets me pumped up more than hearing O Canada. I’ve always liked it; it gives you a feeling of pride, or even a bit of a chill when you hear it, especially before a hockey game.

I have another version of O Canada in my iTunes by Big Sugar, an instrumental version. This got me thinking, “I wonder how many versions of O Canada I can find.. just on YouTube?” Well, there are a ton, but these are the ones I narrowed down to being the coolest, and most share-worthy.

First things first, here is the one by Classified. I bet it’s going to be stuck in your head, too.

The instrumental version by Big Sugar (the only one with good sound quality I could find):

O Canada – a rock version by the DuBay Band

Sung ‘a cappella’ by a group of boys called the Hojas:

Sarah McLachlan at a Montreal Expo’s game in 1996:

Deborah Cox at the NBA All-Star game in 2008:

Canadian Idol Eva Avila at the Grey Cup in 2006:

We need at least one French/English version, so the obvious choice is Celine Dion (she screws it up at the end!), but there’s no real video, just a bunch of pictures. Boo. It’s all I could find.

And just for fun – Stompin Tom Connors’ Hockey Song, because I’m in that kind of mood:

There you have it folks. Some pretty awesome versions of our National Anthem! Get ready to sing it, and sing it proud in the next couple of weeks, because I’m guessing you might hear it a few times.

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Ta Ta for now.

My first project as Wes’ new Marketing Manager (I totally just gave myself that title, btw), was to create a simple flyer targeted towards people living in his own building (above).

The next step was to create a Facebook fan page for Wes. Since we’re talking about it, why don’t you go ahead and become a fan of Wesley Behan, RE/MAX Crest Realty (Westside) right now? This is another medium, besides Wes’ blog, where people can re-connect with Wes, or find out what he’s up to. It’s not going to be Wes updating the page himself, tooting his own horn all day long; it’s going to be more about family and friends sharing links, photos, and video that pertain to Wes.

And, while we’re on the topic of social networking, if you’re a fan of twitter, and you’re not already following Wes, head on over to Wes’ twitter page and give him a follow. This is one of the best ways to see what Wes is up to on a daily basis. He updates his followers on new listings, open houses, market trends, when he’s celebrating a deal gone through, or even when he’s catching a Seahawks game. :)

I’m very excited about this new endeavor, and to be working alongside my big bro. I think that our family makes a great team, and things can only get better from here!

So, I had been debating on whether to go on this evening photowalk or not, and finally decided to stop thinking about it and just do it. I’m very glad that I did.

There was a large turnout for it, more than I expected. We met on Granville Island, and there were 3 models there to shoot, which I also wasn’t totally expecting.

I took some shots of one of the models, Barbara, in front of these lights boxes (after some coaxing from Scott) and this is probably my favourite one of the bunch.

Meanwhile, the guys were all shooting using flash triggers, which I don’t have any experience with, but Jeremy loaned me his remote trigger and Peter helped me get the correct settings to get a good shot. He got me to shoot using manual settings, which I’ve never done; I always just shoot in either shutter priority or aperture priority, but this is what these photowalks are for, learning! Below you will see my beautiful subjects for my first “off-camera flash” experience.

Afterwards, we walked around Granville Island a little more and John let me borrow his tripod for some shots. I really have to thank all of these guys. I was pretty intimidated at the beginning, but they sure made me feel welcome. It ended up being a total learning experience for me, and I look forward to more photowalks like this in the future.

Here’s another one of my favourite photos from last night – John showing the models one of the shots on his camera. To view the rest of my photowalk set, click here.

What the heck is an un-conference? (Am I right?)

Well, it’s basically an event that doesn’t get organized until you show up. Although, it is planned by a small group of people who actually attend BarCamp, my brother being one of them. Anyone who attends has the opportunity to pitch an idea for a session, in under 30 seconds, and then it gets scheduled into the day. There were 5 rooms with 5 sessions happening at once, in the Discovery Parks building on Great Canadian Way, and you just got to choose which ones you would like to go to.

Last year, my brother shot a short video of me as we were leaving BarCamp, to ask what I thought of it. Check it out below.

This year, I think I was a little more into doing my own thing, and not just following Jordan to whatever sessions he wanted to go to. In the morning, I went on the photowalk session with a bunch of photographers whom I know and admire, and after lunch went to the photography-related session that talked about using programs like Aperture and Lightroom to manipulate your photos. Now, of course, I need to out and buy one of them, because you can do all kinds of crazy stuff with your photos, and tag them and organize them in so many different ways. It’s nuts.

There were many other great discussions yesterday, and I learned a lot from some very cool people who are doing amazing things in the tech world.

I will leave you with a few photos I took yesterday during the photowalk.

I was amazed at how few cars were there. Most people chose to carpool, cycle, or take transit.

Thank you everyone, and hope to see you all next year at BarCamp!

My Grandpa is the king of gadgets. He’s the hardest person to buy gifts for, because when he sees somethings he wants, he just buys it immediately. He’s also the first guy to get anything, whether it’s a satellite dish, digital cable box, handheld GPS, iPod Touch – you name it, he’s got it. Although, the iPod Touch surprised us all. He one day complained that everyone had an iPod and he didn’t, so he went out and bought himself the latest and greatest thing on the market – just days before Christmas. Mind you, he had no idea how to set it up and put music on it, so my brother Jordan had to do it for him. Once he had music and some pictures on there, though, he was showing anyone who would pay attention to him. He’d throw on a Johnny Cash song, and then show you pictures of his fishing trip. It was hilarious.

So, I was going to just put this photo on Facebook and tag my Grandma Dot, who yes, actually is on Facebook, but Jordan suggested putting it on my website so that he’d always know where to find it (at least I hope!). So here’s my Grandpa Glenn, with “Grandpa’s girl,” at the BC Lions game.

Anyway, rather than waste my time explaining what I’ve been doing for the past couple months, I thought what better way to write a quick post about everything summer related, than with a bunch of photos that can speak for themselves? They do say a picture speaks a thousand words.

And without further adieu, here is Summer 2009 in pictures:

JUNE:

Dale & Jerra’s wedding in Las Vegas.
(The rest of this set is here.)

Volleyball Saturday’s on Jay’s rooftop.

My running club.

JULY:

Dale & Jerra’s “Powell River” wedding reception.

Taking a break on the drive up the Sunshine Coast.

What I LOVE about Powell River. Momsie, you da best!

Liz + Chris’ wedding in Powell River.

Our cabin, “Kokanee Cedar,” on Powell Lake, a.k.a. Paradise.

AUGUST:

Trip to the Okanagan.

Catching a Canadians game at Nat Bailey stadium.

Pool party at Uncle Bill and Auntie Joanne’s.

Thursday night Urban Rec soccer champs.

SEPTEMBER:

Wedding shoot in Kelowna with Emily.
(The rest of this set is being updated and is located here.)

Well, that’s it – the highlights, anyway. Here’s hoping that Autumn will bring some more new adventures my way…

Posted in Family, Friends, Fun Stuff, My Life, Weddings ]]> http://janisbehan.com/2009/09/27/summer-2009-in-pictures/feed/ 0 Janis IMGP3292 IMGP3303 IMGP3623 IMGP3760 IMGP3785 IMGP3790 IMGP3840 IMGP3849 IMGP3950 IMG_1799 IMG_1819 IMGP4062 IMGP4093 IMGP4292 IMGP4318 IMGP4429 IMG_1922 IMG_1924 IMGP4465 IMGP4495 IMGP4536 IMGP4569 IMGP4587 IMGP5015_2 http://janisbehan.com/2009/06/26/blubird-royale/ http://janisbehan.com/2009/06/26/blubird-royale/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:56:56 +0000 janisbehan http://janisbehan.com/?p=601 ]]> On Tuesday, June 30th, I’m going to helping out at a really exciting event called Blubird Royale. It’s a ladies only casino themed party, sponsored by Blubird Clothing and hosted at V Lounge at Earls Yaletown.

My sister-in-law’s good friend and professional female poker player, Lacey Jones, will be in attendance and giving poker lessons to any ladies who are interested. (If you’re looking for me, that’s the table where you will find me!)

Tickets are $30, and can be purchased at Blubird – but rumour has it that the gift bag you will receive, will be worth even more than your ticket! Blubird has a lot of little treats in store for this special ladies night. There will be poker prizes, and even a grand prize draw for a trip for two to Las Vegas, with 3 nights accommodation at Caesar’s Palace. (I’ve been, and Caesar’s is absolutely the best.) Proceeds from the event will go to Big Sisters of BC’s Lower Mainland.

So ladies, put on your hottest heels and your best poker face, and come on out to support Big Sisters! It’s going to be a blast.