Constraints

Guest: Dave Bidini

Industry: Newspaper Publishing

Project: Creating the West End Phoenix

On this, the inauguration day of President Trump, I speak with Dave Bidini, founder of the West End Phoenix- a Toronto local print newspaper- about the constraints of funding and promotion in an age when the importance of alternate news outlets from reliable sources is more important than ever. Recorded on site at the WEP headquarters, I could feel the sense of community that is the foundation of all that WEP represents. Subscribe to the West End Phoenix wherever in the world you live; and if you're in Toronto, join their town hall on The Future of the Continent on January 25, 2025.

Instagram: @westendphoenix

www.westendphoenix.com

Guest: Karuna Scheinfeld

Industry: Fashion

Project: Clothing Brand

Sometimes the drive for creativity is bigger than the satisfaction of attaining great heights and accolades in your creative industry. For Karuna Scheinfeld, this meant leaving her role of Chief Product Officer at Roots to pursue not only her own unique line of clothing, but a business model that challenges the way the fashion industry operates.

https://fourobjects.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fourobjects/p/C12qgIQMZnK/

Guest: Jenn Doan

Industry: Gaming

Project: Fall Cry 6 Stranger Things Extension

For a podcast about project management, we don’t actually have a lot of project managers on the program. That’s why it is a pleasure to have Jenn on, who is not only a PMP (project management professional), but works in a newer sector that had to determine its own optimal project management approach. Part story-telling, part software development, part movie-making, the gaming production process is fascinating not only from a project management perspective, but for anyone wondering how this multi-billion dollar industry manages itself.

Guest: Pierre Alexandre

Industry: Performance

Project: Self-Identity

Whether he’s on stage with legends like Gloria Estefan and Cher, performing across Europe in various Broadway Musicals, or on RuPaul’s Drag Race Holland as Love Masisi, Pierre Alexandre, known as Pierry as a child, has always looked for the play in his performance career. On this episode of Constraints, he shares an exclusive, inspired by an epiphany that unites him with his authentic self and marks a new trajectory in an already impressive career.

Creative Industry: Software Development

Project: A Software Project with a Hard Deadline

It was very cool to speak with one of the co-authors of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, Jon Kern. As I argue in this episode, he is a true rock star of project management and he proves it as he explains how agile project management is a true art of balancing the constraints of scope, time and budget by understanding the client’s vision - sometimes better than them. He is based in the U.S. and we spoke through Google Meet, so the sound is not studio quality, but I hope that’s overshadowed by the content. Find out more about Jon, who is a consultant at the Adaptivist Group, on LinkedIn:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonkern/ and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonkernpa/ 

Creative Industry: Fashion

Project: Entrepreneurship

To kick off Toronto Fashion Week, we present Toronto fashion pioneers, Jennifer Halchuk and Richard Lyle. Constraints have constantly shifted over the more than three decades that these two have been partners, but they have successfully navigated the landscape of the Toronto fashion scene by keeping various pies in the air from starting their own label, to opening an iconic boutique shop, to working in the film & television sector. They carved their own unique path from their days at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, and they’re not done yet.

Creative Industry: Charitable Organization - Film

Project: Implementing a Vision

At its November 13 to 15 meeting, Toronto City Council will vote on whether to adopt Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto (2025-2035). This episode’s guest, Maxine Bailey, was on the city’s external advisory panel for the action plan’s development. She also co-founded the Black Artists Network in Dialogue (BAND), which showcases Black cultural contributions nationally and internationally, and is on the advisory board for the Luminato Festival Toronto. She shares with Louis her many insights on the challenges she faced establishing and realizing her vision as the executive director of the Canadian Film Centre, in the wake of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd.

Creative Industry: Documentary Filmmaking

Project: Mbira Talks

It’s no secret that time constraints can help motivate the creative process - a deadline is often a great motivator. But as Adrienne Amato learned, sometimes value can come out of time extensions. In her case, set-backs allowed aspects of her documentary about the Zimbabwean traditional musical instrument, the Mbira, to reveal themselves and enrich the film in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if everything had gone to plan. Also, since working as a therapist gave Adrienne the freedom and flexibility to pursue her love of film-making, it is fitting that we release this episode four days after the UN’s World Mental Health Day. 

Creative Industry: Outdoor Public Art Festivals

Project: Ai Weiwei Installation at Nuit Blanche

How do you stay true to an artist’s vision when tasked with rebuilding one of their works? Well, that’s a tricky question given the best of circumstances. What about when the art piece is a sculpture made up of thirty-two hundred bicycles assembled outdoors? Let’s also make it thirty feet tall, about twice the height it’s ever been. And let’s say the artist is under house arrest on the other side of the world and you don’t speak the language of the install crew that’s been sent to work with you. That and more is just what Joe Sellors was up against in 2013 when Ai Weiwei’s sculpture Forever Bicycles was featured in front of Toronto’s City Hall as part of Nuit Blanche. The answer, like I’ve seen in many projects with a lot of risk and uncertainty, lay in a project manager’s ability to build relationships and engage in open and effective communication - and Joe was up to the challenge.

Creative Industry: Publishing

Project: Book Tour

In a changing society where self-promotion through social media is the norm, some of the responsibilities typically taken on by the publisher have been shifted to the author. Claire Humphrey shares how she had to redirect her creative energy to tackle all three project constraints. She shares her experience working with a small support staff for finding the right venues at the right stages of the book launch, finding her own affordable travel and accommodation solutions, carving out time for touring while maintaining an income to survive, and dealing with the inevitable surprises that all projects bring. Claire Humphrey, is the author of Spells of Blood and Kin and multiple short stories.

Read more about Claire at https://clairehumphrey.ca.