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

Canada’s leading environmental action organization, Environmental Defence, has partnered up with Ontario’s most inspiring environmental influencer of the year. Meet Penelope. Penelope is an eight year old girl that lives in Toronto and has been touring the province campaigning about the upcoming provincial election. Her message is what I believe most environmental organizations have been trying to communicate for years: Vote with your child’s future in mind by considering the environment. Ask yourself, “Does the party that I’m voting for care about the cleanliness of the water we drink or the soil our vegetables come from? Does it respect Ontario’s wild plants and animals?”  Penelope advises that your decision will affect generations to come whether you like it or not.

Last Wednesday, as I was preparing to commence the day at kitestring’s Art&Copy, a little bird tweeted:

kitestring’s been watching Penelope’s campaign since the day her first video hit the Twittersphere. We think Environmental Defence and Penelope are doing an awesome job! Natually, I went to City Hall to show my support of Environmental Defence and Penelope’s message. She was the most eloquent eight year old I’ve ever met and we at kitestring wish her all the best on her campaign trail.

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

If you’re like us, you like to unwind at the end of the day with a (insert alcoholic beverage of your choice here).If you’re like us, we need you. We need you to talk booze. We need you to talk booze while tasting booze. Ok, maybe not at the same time. But one after the other. (Responsibly. Because you’re 19th birthday was probably a decade ago and there’s no longer an excuse for “sloppy” on Monday evening.)

This speakeasy market research is so exclusive, we can only have a certain number of people of the right demographic over to taste cool beverages and talk about them with the kitestring research team.

Want to come? Fill out this quick survey.  kitestring will contact those who apply and meet the demographic criteria. You’ll be well fed and watered. You’ll leave with swag and more booze. You’ll also end up playing a role in the rebranding process for one of kitestring’s clients.

Here’s the deets, including when you’ll need to be available:

BOOZE TALK: A Market Research Speakeasy is on a Monday evening, but we can’t say here which one because it’s a Speakeasy. And Speakeasy’s are secret.

Have a question? Email meg@kitestring.ca

Local fashion enthusiast, Andrea Malick, approached the kitestring team to create her brand when she decided to open up a women’s jean store in the James St. S district. Everything from Rivet & Tailor’s brand name, visual identity and brand elements are inspired by the Victorian heroines of novels past – from Emily Bronte to Jane Eyre and Josephine March of Little Women. Old books and libraries alike were brought together when thinking of her brand’s story. Rivet & Tailor will celebrate its grand opening on September 17th! Check out the store and its beautiful storefront sign at 136 James St. South!

There is no question, Gmail is a great e-mail client, and Labs makes it ever better. Recently they launched a feature that allows you to have a “Preview Pane” when reading e-mail. This keeps a listing of all your e-mails on the left (or top), and the contents come up on the right. It’s more like the Tablet version of Gmail, or like a desktop client.

Here’s how you do it!

Click on the little gear in the top right hand side of your browser, and choose “Labs”

Find the one called “Preview Pane”, and Enable it.

Now, when you get back to your Inbox, on the top right hand side, you should see a drop down near your message count and previous/next buttons.

Click on the down arrow, and you can then choose how you want your preview pane to appear, No Split, Horizontal Split, or Vertical Split. For larger screens, the Vertical Split is very nice!

Enjoy!

After I heard about Madison Lord’s lemonade stand’s cooler being stolen, I suggested to the kitestring team that we step up and help out. Turns out, some of our good friends also had the same idea! With the power of social media, we rallied our followers and the kitestringers came together with Mark Scutella (of Pinstripe Painting) to provide 10-year-old Madison with a brand new lemonade stand! I got to help paint it and everything!

The Cossart Exchange is also going to provide Madison with free entrepreneurship classes – she’ll be the youngest person to ever go through their program! Plus, she’ll get to sell lemonade for charity at the Ottawa Street Sew Hungry: Food Truck Rally! Tomorrow everyone is getting together at the kitestring studio to present Madison and her family with the new lemonade stand and the big news! There will be lemonade and cookies to celebrate! We’re so excited!

Wanna come?

Contact meg@kitestring.ca or margaret@kitestring.ca and let us know!