It’s time again for kitestring’s holiday  pageant and after party: Christmas Spectacular!

Everyone is invited for all the fun! New this year: A festive holiday pageant!

Come share holiday greetings, gorge on goodies and be entertained by a super fantastic show featuring local artistic talent! Performers will be announced as the date gets closer! Ooo, exciting isn’t it?!

Our goal is to have 100% of the ticket sales go towards benefitting Culture for Kids in the Arts, a wonderful, local non-profit that makes arts education accessible for so many children in Hamilton! Tickets will be available online soon!

One ticket to Christmas Spectacular pays for eight weeks of after school arts programming for one inner city child in Hamilton! Pretty awesome to know how you’re helping out, eh?

I only get to see my immediate family three to four times a year. They live in Kingsville, a small town outside of Windsor. Basically, every Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and once in the summer. I wish I could see them more, but I work a lot and they’re far away. You do the math.

The last time I was home I was chatting with my brother and he seemed a little upset. I asked what was getting his panties in a twist and he blurted, “You haven’t even asked me how I’m doing in school!”

My brother started school in September,  at Fanshawe in London. And he was right. I hadn’t asked him how he was doing. Actually I didn’t ask him anything about his life. Nothing about his girlfriend, his new job or the cat he just adopted. I felt horrible. I apologized. He forgave. But I still felt kind of crappy. What kind of brother was I? I’m a caring person. Sometimes a little self centred (maybe more than a little) but I still care!

It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I actually had time to think about what had happened. I figured out the culprit to my jerkiness. His name: Facebook.

I knew exactly how my brother was doing. I knew he loved school. That he and his girlfriend were enjoying their new apartment in London. And I knew very well that my brother didn’t care for the behavior of his cat. I knew all this from his status updates. I knew what he was up to, but how was he to know I knew all this. I use my feed as a daily personal paper. I don’t “like” everything. And I don’t “comment” on everything. But, for the important people in my life, I check all updates.

I love facebook (not as much as twitter) and I use it for my business. It’s a great tool that works well to stay connect to my friends and clients.  I’m also happy I can use it to keep track of the family I love but only get to see 3 times a year. I can’t imagine my life without it. But it doesn’t replace the phone call. Doesn’t replace the hand written letter or card. And it sure doesn’t replace a conversation with my little brother, especially when he’s sitting right in front of me.

I’m gonna call my brother today to see how he is doing. Right after I check my farmville crop.

JUST KIDDING!!!!

Chris

Hey, everyone! The whole team at kitestring creative branding studio just got back from a great morning of bisque painting fun at Crock A Doodle in Dundas! We each painted another team member a mug inspired by their personality! So much fun!
(Brandon and I are obviously stoked about getting ready to paint^)

(Margaret did a wicked job of a #fail whale for Chris!)

(Josh and Ben had a great time, but were kind of sad to leave)

So, the mugs are going to go in Crock A Doodle’s kiln and then the colours become really vivid and the pottery is glazed, so what we’ve painted can be used to drink coffee at the studio! Awesome, eh? Crock A Doodle has all kinds of pottery to paint, like doggie bowls, huge serving platters, and Christmas decorations. All the more reason to to head back again soon!

kitestring loves Twitter as much as Ben the Intern loves Ketchup Chips. That’s a lot.

Chris from kitestring is going to be presenting at the Tweetstock Social Media Networking Conference in Brantford on Thursday, November 10th.

All the twitteratti will be there including a surprise virtual appearance by the entire kitestring gang! I was going to tell you more about it, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise!

Atomic Spark did a wicked job on the above promo video featuring a duet with Chris and Ben the Intern in front of the kitestring studio.

Tweet, tweet!

This past Saturday, some of the kitestring team took in the soulful voice and rockin’ guitar pickin’ of Matt Anderson. We loved every second of Matt’s rock, coutry and blues performance! Plus, he sounded that much more fantastic backed by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra!

Some of our favourite tunes included One Size Never Fits and his cover of The Impressions’ song, People Get Ready in which he had the whole audience ooo-ing, aw-ing, toe tappin’ and singing along!

Matt Anderson performed with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their 2011/2012 Pops Series. The Series continues next month when Chantal Kreviazuk joins them to sing some of her most popular hits! For more dates to see the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra check them out here.

And did you know, if you’re under 30 you can see the HPO for only $10 with their HPOgo program! Go Check them out!

Plan to attend Hive X 2011, Hamilton’s inaugural Young Professional Conference brought to you by Hamilton HIVE. Inspiring speakers, engaging panelists and interesting workshops will focus on the most pressing issues pertaining to the growth and development of our city. With special guests that include Canadian Social Media and Tech expert Amber Macarthur, the Honourable Glen Murray, Bob Young, and many others. All registrants get a FREE ticket to the final Hamilton Tiger-Cat home game on October 22nd the night before Hive X. Oskee-Wee-Wee! You won’t want to miss this opportunity.

REGISTER HERE:
http://www.hamiltonhive.ca/?p=1264

I spy with my little eye someone who is a junior web developer/intern, hopefully lives in the Hamilton area, and has good attention to detail.

• Someone who is obsessed with HTML and CSS to pixel perfection.
• This person is on the hunt for a contract position where they’ll work on a project by project basis.
• They can rock the PHP for back-end heavy lifting.
• Can work with many open source Content Management Systems (Drupal and/or WordPress will do for now).
• Can work with Photoshop and Illustrator to take apart the design, optimize it, and put it back together in website form.
• They’re the type of person who gets seriously jazzed about JavaScript (and jQuery).
• They’re ready to start paying back debts from their higher education in a job they’re excited to roll out of bed for.
• And, they are self-disciplined enough to work independently from home while reporting to kitestring’s Director of Technology.

If you found yourself nodding to the above description, maybe we’re looking for you.

kitestring’s relaxed and fun culture might seem appealing, but trust us, it’s not for everyone.

This eight week contract starts immediately, and the lucky contestant will need to have access to Skype for daily interactions and come to the studio for the occasional meeting.

Send your resume, some samples of your work, and bit about why you’d be a perfect fit for this adventure to:
iwant2work@kitestring.ca

Last Thursday, the whole kitestring gang attended the #140 Conference Ontario. The conference was the first of its kind in Canada and brought together many familiar faces, from the world of social media, to share their stories! kitestring took this opportunity to perform a short skit, Real World 101, poking fun at social media platforms.

The crowd seemed to love us as they laughed the whole way through! Plus, #kitestring became a trending topic on Twitter that afternoon! We were even bigger than Justin Bieber in the Twitterverse that day! That’s huge! Thanks so much to the organizers of the #140 Conference Ontario for inviting us, we had a blast! You can watch our short skit in the video below (we’re at about 03:12)!

Video streaming by Ustream

The #140 Conference is only one week away and we’re getting excited!

On September 15th, the kitestring gang will entertain and inform the audience of the #140 Conference in Kitchener! The #140 Conference is the first of its kind in Canada and will explore the  power of the internet and how real time social media sites have changed the way we respond,  react, and think on a day-to-day basis.

We’re very excited to perform a short skit poking fun at social media platforms. In our quirky and quick comedic skit, Real World 101, Professor Chambers will attempt to teach students like Tina Twitter and Freddy Foursquare the sometimes forgotten ‘real world’ skills in a counselling classroom.

kitestring will share the stage at the sold out event with popular social media influencer, Amber Mac and UnMarketing’s Scott Stratten.

See you there!

Want to win a  “Night Out in Westdale!”?!?!? All that you need to do to enter this contest is to fill out this short survey here. This should take only five minutes of your time.

This survey is intended for folks that live in the Greater Hamilton and surrounding areas who are either aware of the Westdale neighbourhood but have never visited, those who have visited before, and even those who live in the area.

All of the information provided will be kept confidential and will be used solely by kitestring creative branding studio to help better reflect Westdale Village’s brand.

If you have any questions, please contact meg@kitestring.ca