NOW and NEXT

If traffic reports are any indication, the commute in Toronto is getting close to the long haul you were making to and from work in the before-times! Offices and workplaces are getting back to doing in-person business.  In many cases, companies are considering a hydrid approach. Some staff will work in the office. Some will work from home. Some will split their time between the two. The discussion is at the heart of your corporate culture and how that effects your leaders and managers. Lisa Taylor is President of Challenge Factory. Her expertise is in the future of work. She's also a Story Studio Network podcast host and producer. In this episode of the Daily Brief, we get her take on what it will take to be a good leader as we continue to cope with the COVID pandemic and how she used her podcasting experience, (as a guest and a host), to explore new ideas, challenges and solutions in the workplace.

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From phishing emails to ransomware attacks, misinformation and disinformation, it's estimated the global annual cost of cyber crimes will hit $10.5 trillion US by the year 2025.

Jeff Musson, Executive Director at Coding for Veterans joins the Daily Brief to talk about the number of military vets who are shifting their defensive focus from the battlefield to cyberspace.

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Today on the Daily Brief: Is Doug Ford really buying your vote?  Have the Liberals already lost if they think a handgun ban in Ontario is going to put them over the top on June 2nd. Polls consistently showing the Liberals a solid second choice among Ontario voters. Should Andrea Horwath just riff off Kathleen Wynne's 2018 script and admit now, "The NDP has no chance of forming a government."?

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Today on the Daily Brief, we introduce you to Sarah Thorne, President and CEO at Decision Partners.  Sarah was a co-host and producer on the first podcast series we produced at Story Studio Network. Sarah was joined by Lisa Taylor, Dave Hardy and Ujwal Arkagud in a 12 part series called The Next Normal. Sarah also hosts and co-produces the Engineering With Nature podcast with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She joins the show today to talk about her experience and how podcasting has become an effective communications tool for her and the Corps.  

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It all started with a text message asking for a "quick call" and Story Studio Network was the outcome. Twelve months later, we've gone from one podcast series and three team members to 14 shows and a stable of major market talent. Our clients have proven podcasting is a great addition to their branding and marketing strategies. The power of podcasting allows them to tell their stories in their voice. On today's edition of the Daily Brief, Jamie Nickerson and Erin Trafford join to talk about our startup rocket ride and where we're heading!

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I'm sure many of you were face to face with friends and family this Easter weekend. In our case, we had a great chance to visit with people we have seen (save a video chat) for years thanks to COVID. That is good news for our collective psyche and it's also good for businesses and cultural events that rely so heavily on the in-person experience. Myseum Toronto's annual festival is among the many benchmark events in Toronto that make this city the coolest place on the planet and all the more this month because the event has shifted from remote to in person at various locations across the city. Myseum's Executive Director Heidi Reitmaier joins us to talk about the Intersections Festival 2022.

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All kinds of flack and full throated complaining over the appointment of Marina Glogovac as the new CEO at Torstar. It all stems from her comments about the pandemic - particularly her insistence that the "pandemic is over". It's not. And anyone who reads the pages of the Toronto Star would know that.

So, should she be held to account for her misleading twitter posts? Is she suitable to lead a major media and journalism organization? Maybe. Maybe not. It's worthy of discussion. But her "facts" aren't worthy of debate, because they're not facts at all. It brought me to a Tik Tok video that's gone viral called "Worshipping Jesus 30,000 feet in the Air" It's prompted no end of outrage assuming an in flight sing-along praising Jesus was inflicted on everyone on the plane. Really? Check out the video. Ask yourself two questions after watching it: What do you know and How do you know it? Then revisit your reaction. Does it still fly?

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We are finally starting to step out into the light a little more with each passing week. We're still being cautious, many people choosing to continue wearing masks in larger gatherings. And that's not a bad thing. And it's also good for our psyche and good for the economy. We were at a large trade show on the weekend in Toronto and it was as busy as I would have expected in the "before times". The only obvious differences were, you had to buy a ticket that specified your arrival time and about half of the people at the show were masked. So, it occurred to me that we will start having more "in person" meetings as we progress through this phase of the pandemic. Meeting over a coffee will be a thing again! It just so happens that it was a coffee meeting that launched the idea for one our early podcast series in Story Studio Network. It's called Why Meaning Matters - hosted by Erin Trafford, Ujwal Arkalgud and Jason Partridge. And the first epsiode of season one explored the meaning of coffee. Pour a cup and listen in.

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We are celebrating our FIRST YEAR in business at Story Studio Network! It's been a wild and exhilarating ride since Erin and I first kicked the idea around of creating an executive production service for organizations, brands and personalities who want to use podcasting as part of their communications and branding strategy. Among the shows we've been working on, I'm excited to introduce you to Engineering With Nature. It's a podcast developed by Sarah Thorne at Decision Partners and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It's all about the Corps' approach to nature-based infrastructure to help solve or mitigate problems caused by climate change. In this episode, Sarah and the team talk anbout ways and means that Engineering With Nature can be used to solve the water crisis in California's San Joaquin Valley.

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After 70 years as a "clothier for gentlemen" in Toronto, Korry's will be closing its doors on the Danforth. The pandemic lockdowns surely contributed to the "retirement" of this store - just over a year since Saul Korman, the Duke of the Danforth, the Mayor of Greektown, passed away. Businesses come and go all the time - not to ignore or diminish that - but Saul's character and quality of customer service gave life to the neighbourhood. And his shop became a shopping destination in an unlikely part of the city. Thanks, in part to Saul and Korry's, the Danforth developed into one of many vibrant "main streets" in Toronto. Losing the store leaves a large hole in the character of the Danforth.

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