Top 3 reasons to love Vancouver

This is the crummy view I get to look out on each day from our ConnectionPoint office in Gastown.
I know, how unlucky am I! Since spring arrived there’s been a new cruise ship to gaze out onto daily, and with that brings lots of tourists and a hive of activity to Gastown. When we started leasing office space down here in December it was like a ghost town. The financial crisis had killed many tech companies or forced them out of the area. The homeless were tucked away in alcoves and alleys trying not to freeze, and the rain and snow added to the bleak picture.

Not so now. Spring has also bought the cherry blossoms which I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing before, not with this much magnitude. Arching over streets and raining blossom petals on the ground, paving everything with pink, it was like one long wedding celebration! I’ve been even more appreciative of how beautiful Vancouver becomes when the good weather arrives as I now have a bicycle. My shiny new Brodie (Canadian made) hybrid is built tough and for 6 weeks has been getting my ass in serious shape and transporting me to places I’d never even visited. I love the freedom of cycling, I forgot how much from when I had my bike in London.
It’s less crazy cycling here and the cycle lanes are pretty decent and take you on quieter streets. So it’s allowed me to see some stunning houses and streets that this city has to offer. Thanks to now attending a total of 8 tryouts for 2 women’s ultimate teams I’ve seen far east to far west and beyond and embarked on 5 plus hours of exercise an evening!

So what are the top 3 things to love about Vancouver:

1. The abundance of outdoor activities that exist right on your doorstep and tempt you to partake in each and every one (like 6 of us ladies trying out windsurfing last weekend and rocking at it – even if the mast hit my head and we into the water constantly and collided too)
2. The wonderful friends and networks - this ultimately has been up to me to initiate but there’s more networking events in this city than in the world combined! Plus people have generously invited me into their lives and activities so I now have a wide variety of friends to do anything and everything with
3. The entrepreneurial nature of the city – probably a little bias here as it’s all I’ve immersed myself in since arriving. Taking the route of growing a start up with my fantastic business partner and boss Daryl who I’m too lucky to have in my life, and becoming more entrepreneurial has opened up a new world for me. Work (a dull name for what we do) is a never ending source of fun, stimulation, steep learning curves, excitement, challenges and the thing that keeps me up late and night and the first thing I wake up to in the morning- but in a totally good way!

It also helps that I recently got accepted for the BC Provincial nominee program – essentially a fast track to permanent residency, a big relief as it means I can stay on and continue to enjoy this city and discover Canada.

And one more thing, networking is the best thing in the world, you just never know who you’ll meet, how they’ll effect you and vice versa and what opportunities that may bring. Such as the opportunity I get to embark on tomorrow morning at 5am as I head to Costa Rica. Yes I’ve somehow managed to get an invite to hang out with up to 10 over achieving young entrepreneurs for 10 days and discuss how to change the world for the better. Their bios were outstanding and I paled in comparison but I do get to teach them Ultimate Frisbee!  They won’t know what hit them – literally…..

Smiling in Seattle

I’d never been to Seattle until last Friday. In many respects it was like driving for 3 hours to be in Vancouver!

Just as many carpet/ rug shops, the home of Starbucks and good coffee joints, Pudget Sound on one side and Lake Washington on the other, pot smokers on the street and the same issue of the homeless population.

As the picture on the left shows it’s not a bad looking city… I can’t profess to having taken this shot. In fact I totally forgot my camera ,which for a traveller is a poor sign.

I was picked up early in the morning by Adam, Derek and Mike from TeamPages – who no doubt have google alerts on so hi guys! We’re working on a potential business alignment with them and they kindly invited me to attend Soccer Palooza to get some customer/market insight and get to know them and their business better.

It turned out to be one big bundle of fun from start to finish, we laughed, we joked and we smiled so much our cheeks were sore on Saturday morning. It helps that these guys are as crazy as me and can handle mocking and sheep shagging jokes and give it back just as well!

I spent the morning wandering around the city with my tour guides Derek and Adam, who were lacking in detailed city knowledge and took me on a lovely tour of the non-seafront seaside walkway right by the noisy freeway. I made up creative stories on the history of the famous fish market and we simply walked the streets and took it all in. We met Mike after his business meeting and all had lunch with the lovely Laura aka Apples, fellow Iso team member from my London days and all round great gal.

After a trip to REI – the equivalent of MEC here in Vancouver, I felt like I’d been to some mountain chalet and hung out in a natural park. They’ve tried to emulate the outdoors with a waterfall, mountain bike path and climbing wall to test out all their sporting gear. I somehow escaped without buying anything!

The guys left me in some dodgey part of town armed only with a small cowprint suitcase to defend myself. Whilst they set up their booth for the event on Saturday, I took myself off to a quality cafe and enjoyed the rare pleasure of 3 hours to read my business book, some People magazine goss and write down my rules to live life by (more on that next post).

I spent the evening near the water enjoying a drink in the sun with Laura and friends and then heading off to play my first official Disc golf course. I can tell you that arriving slightly drunk and continuing to drink  cider from a brown paper bag like a bum is not a great recipe for frisbee golf success. That game made me feel that I had to unlearn all that I’ve learned about throwing. Apparently it was one of the more technical courses, but I can’t blame that for hooking every throw, hitting more trees and poles then I care to remember and reaching par only a few times!

The evening was filled with us meeting the guys again to watch some entertaining jazz in a bar filled with an average punter age of 50+. Apparently when us ladies walked in they switched to playing romantic Marvin Gaye jazz numbers (one of my all time favourites) and turned to face us.

We finally decided to call it a night and I was treated to stay with Laura’s at her folks huge house. It stood proudly atop a hill with stunning views over the water and back to Seattle, pretty special to wake up to that.

The soccer event was an intelligence gathering exercise in most respects, and a chance to connect with potential advertisers and grab some free swag. Mike and I noted my first ever sales pitch attempt for FundRazr during a workshop on sponsorship was treated with dead silence and looks to kill from the presenter. Naturally I took that as a positive sign

The trip home was filled with more laughter, silly games, fantastic Thai food and no border crossing stunts.

I loved the impromptu trip and the connections made with my new friends that was way too much fun. Life’s short, laugh often!