foodiePrints at Schmoozefest ‘09
Last week the foodiePrints team, under our day job guises, attended the United Way (Centraide) Ottawa’s Schmoozefest charity fundraiser for 2009. A “schmoozefest”, as is described on the United Way’s website, is an “opportunity to network with leaders from local businesses, government, and community.” Promoters on both Twitter and FaceBook billed it as the networking event to attend of the year.
It is no wonder, that evening, organizers gathered together a large variety of VIPS (Very Important Persons) to feature. Here is a subset from the list given to attendees:
- Ion Aimers: Founder and Owner of The Works Gourmet Burger Bistro
- Michael Blackie: Executive Chef of the National Arts Centre
- Jason Burke: Directro and CFO of IBM’s Analytics and Performance Management IBM
- Candace Derickx: Co-owner Best Tools for Schools
- Max Keeping: Vice President News and News at 6 Anchor of CTV Ottawa
- Robert Lane: Co-Founder of Overlay.TV
- Jame McCracken: Director of Education and Secretary Treasurer of the Ottawa Catholic School Board
- Tuan Nguyen: President of Ottawahealth.com
- Darren Nippart: Managing Director of Accenture
The event was held at Lago Bar-Grill-View at the Dow’s Lake Pavilion and was hosted by the United Way’s “Next Generation Cabinet.”
After the event was announced, approximately a month ago, I decided to buy a ticket. I wanted to take the opportunity to meet Candace Derickx, half of the amazing business team who launched and operates Best Tools for Schools. Best Tools for Schools is an ingenious concept that creates a much needed service for parents of school-aged children to supply them with an approved set of school supplies. Inside a Best Tools for Schools “kit” is a year’s worth of writing implements, art supplies (crayons, markers and glue), rulers (geometry sets for older children), notebooks, and paper that a student will need. Best Tools for Schools literally eliminates the anxiety and frustration that come from wandering in the back to school “war zones” at large retail stores.
Jenn eventually decided to join me to promote her work in an evening math school, Spirit of Math. Spirit of Math is devoted to equipping children with effective problem solving skills and reinforcing concepts taught in regular day school. I have found the program actually expands on the regular Ontario curriculum, filling a much needed gap when it comes to developing an approach to solving word problems and learning more complex math. Having attended several open-houses, I am continually amazed by the sheer enthusiasm the program cultivates in students and the abilities students as young as 6 years old develop. Had I been enrolled in such a program as a child, I think it would have given me the tools to have struggled less and learned more as I went on to high school and university.
When we arrived at Lago, Jenn and I were literally shocked by the sheer number of young professionals seemingly mingling together. Besides offering the opportunity to “mix it up” with others in our respective fields and exchange contact information, there were also silent and live auctions of donated items from local United Way supporters. Items included sessions at various spas, gift certificates to fine dining restaurants, weekend stays at hotels, author signed books, tickets to sporting events, signed sports memorabilia, rounds of golf at local courses, and bottles of wine.
Lago provided complimentary hors d’oeuvres and a $100 gift certificate for the silent auction. Hors d’oeuvres included vegetarian Vietnamese spring rolls; skewered tandoori chicken; chopped tomato caprese tarts, topped with feta; and phyllo wrapped spinach and cheese packages. There was also a cash bar where a glass of coke and red wine ran us $13, $3 and $10 respectively. Happily, the bartenders were very pleasant to deal with, even though they were often overwhelmed by the large number of “schmoozers” going to the bar.
All in all, I found the experience positive, coming home with a dozen business cards, scribbled phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and twitter handles. I did however find that attendees grouped themselves clique-ishly, spending the majority of the evening banded together. Several VIPS like James McCracken also came late and spent their time with United Way staff. To fill the gap, a number of equally recognizable non-VIPS made themselves accessible. They included Susan Murphy, one of Ottawa’s social media luminaries and co-owner of Jester Creative; Sean Fitzpatrick, co-owner of Petit Bill’s Bistro; and Dennis Van Staalduinen, brand expert and founder of Brandvelope Consulting.
After the event, attendees were given a “swag bag”
Mine included a Schmoozefest branded waiter’s cork screw, an Accenture branded pen, Royal Bank branded post-it notes, United Way branded anti-bacterial hand sanitizer and a $10 gift certificate to Lago. The ringed notebook is a United Way Journal that most of us who participated in a balloon draw received.
Jenn bid on and won the Stephen Beckta gift certificates in the silent auction.
Gift Certificates Signed by Stephen Beckta
You can expect foodiePrint-style reviews of both Beckta Dining and Wine and Play Food and Wine in the near future.
Speaking of which, Jenn and I are excited to attend next year’s Schmoozefest. Though, next year, we encourage United Way Ottawa to add ice-breaker activities and include Twitter-handles on name tags. The ice-breakers can encourage more intermingling. The Twitter-handles will allow more of us to put faces to some of the tweeps we follow. In fact, Jenn and I spent a portion of our time trying to match faces to Twitter avatars from memory.
Particulars:
1001 Queen Elizabeth Dr
(613)235-5246
Tag(s):
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
Tags: Food & Drink, foodie prints, Schmoozefest
