Right now, there are more than six million people left homeless and more than 20 million suffering from the flooding in Pakistan. Water levels are still rising in southern Sindh and hundreds of thousands of people have fled cities, towns and villages for safety.
The purpose of Give To Pakistan is to create awareness and encourage donation to help the poor in Pakistan. As a 3rd year Ryerson University student and Toronto-raised Pakistani, I felt I had to do something to help the people of Pakistan.
Generous Torontonians Make It Easier to Help Pakistan
Friends and colleagues in Toronto have been very generous in donating goods and services for auction to support Pakistan; from $50 gift certificate donated by Zoran Kocovski, Owner of Sassafraz to $900 3-day ticket to the highly anticipated unGEEKED e’lite conference in Toronto.
Emergency Life Boxes
Additionally, to help send aid as quickly as possible, GiveToPakistan.com is partnering up with a registered Canadian charity, North American Muslim Foundation (NAMF) to deliver Life Boxes.
For $30, life boxes can support the basic needs of a family of 6 people for a month. Life boxes include: 30kg of flour, 5kg of rice, 5kg of lentils, 5kg of sugar, 4L of oil, a package of milk powder, detergent, two bars of soap, basic spices like salt and pepper, and toothpaste. We simply can’t afford all this in Toronto for the cost of $30.
So NAMF set up field offices in major zones in Pakistan equipped to efficiently allocate donations to purchase materials, sort the materials, pack them in boxes and send them out quickly to the people in need.
The Ambitious Goal
The goal of is to raise enough money for 200 emergency life boxes for Pakistan ($6000). Please visit http://www.GiveToPakistan.com for more information and how to donate. Please join the fan page here.
Disclaimer: This is an initiative independent to Techvibes.com. I appreciate the support from Rob Lewis and the rest of the Techvibes crew!
With more than 1 million Blackberry users in the country, Research in Motion was satisfied to reach an agreement with India in August. Well, perhaps RIM can give some advice to Google and Skype on how to do battle with India, because they're next in the country's line of fire.
India is targeting Gmail's powerful encryption technology, as well as Skype, and is expected to give them ultimatums very soon.
Google says it has not yet received any official notice from India on this matter.
BlackBerry (Research In Motion) is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile... [more]
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. As a first step to fulfilling that mission,... [more]
Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls,... [more]
Recently, we announced our plans to roll-out localized Twitter feeds for cities within the Techvibes network.
Soon after, we launched our first two cities: TechvibesEDM for Edmonton, and TechvibesCGY for Calgary.
Today, we launch TechvibesOTT for Ottawa, TechvibesKW for Kitchener-Waterloo, and align our already-established TechvibesTO (Toronto) with this new system. As described in our previous posts:
You can easily access these streams via sidebar links on our main Twitter page, allowing you to view our localized content streams without even leaving the the main Techvibes page. And we'll add links for cities to all city accounts too, creating a connected network where one-click access is the name of the game. Plus, permanent links will be integrated into our blog filters over the coming weeks to further accommodate this hyper-local enhancement.
If you live in or near these cities, we encourage you to follow its specific Twitter account. In addition to relevant news content, we'll also localize job listings and event postings, effectively personalizing your Techvibes experience.
Techvibes is the leading online community for technology professionals in Vancouver and across Canada. Techvibes provides an easy-to-use platform... [more]
The GROW 2010 technology conference took place last week at the Vancouver Convention Center, and Techvibes was on location with an on-site studio conducting video interviews with a selection of speakers, sponsors and attendees.
Here, Michelle Skalr of Techvibes interviews Kunal Gupta of Toronto's Polar Mobile.
Thank you to KPMG LLP who was the exclusive online video sponsor for Techvibes' GROW coverage. Stay tuned for continued GROW 2010 coverage.
Polar Mobile has rapidly established itself as a leader in providing end-to-end mobile solutions in North America. Polar Mobile's key expertise... [more]
COM DEV International, a global designer and manufacturer of space hardware systems, announced today that long-time CEO, John Keating, will be leaving his post effective immediately. Keating was appointed chief executive of COM DEV in late-2002 and helped grow company revenues from less than $100 million in fiscal 2003 to more than $240 million in fiscal 2009.
The company has started its search for a new CEO, but in the meantime the board of directors have appointed Mike Pley as interim CEO. Pley has held the role of COO at COM DEV since early-2008.
Terry Reidel, COM DEV's Chairman, had this to say about the management shake-up:
"COM DEV wishes to express its gratitude for the significant contribution that Mr. Keating has made to the Company and wishes him well in his future endeavours. The Company is moving on to the next phase of development in its business plan with a renewed focus on profitability and the Board of Directors was of the view a new vision was required at this time."
The move comes just a couple days after COM DEV announced its preliminary third quarter results. For the second straight quarter, COM DEV reported declining sales, with year-to-date revenue figures trailing last year's numbers by approximately 7 per cent. If this trend continues, fiscal 2010 will be the first year that COM DEV has experienced a decline in sales since Keating took the helm.
COM DEV International Ltd. is a global designer and manufacturer of space hardware. We are world leaders in the production of space-qualified... [more]
The usual summer doldrums didn't hit Techvibes at all this year - July and August traffic numbers blew away last year.
Here are the Top 10 blog posts published on Techvibes during the month of August.
Thanks to everyone that wrote for Techvibes in August. Now that it's back to school (and work) time, let us know if you'd like to contribute a guest blog post in September.
Techvibes is the leading online community for technology professionals in Vancouver and across Canada. Techvibes provides an easy-to-use platform... [more]
The GROW 2010 technology conference took place last week at the Vancouver Convention Center, and Techvibes was on location with an on-site studio conducting video interviews with a selection of speakers, sponsors and attendees.
Here, Michelle Sklar speaks with the C100's youngest, and perhaps brightest member, Brian Wong of Kiip.
Thank you to KPMG LLP who was the exclusive online video sponsor for Techvibes' GROW coverage. Stay tuned for continued GROW 2010 coverage.
A Canadian survey, developed by The Creative Group, which is a specialized staffing servicing creative, advertising, marketing and web professionals on a project basis,, and conducted by an independent research firm, has revealed that executives are struggling to keep up the pace of social technology.
According to the survey, which is based on more than 250 telephone interviews with advertising and marketing executives randomly selected from companies with a wide of range of employee counts, 71 percent of executives say it's at least "somewhat challenging" to keep up with social media trends.
18 percent found remaining current was "very challenging," and only 29 percent did not find it challenging.
In order to keep up (or at least try to keep up) with trends, 22 percent said the best resource was participating in networking events and association meetings. The second-best resource was attending conferences and seminars, cited by one in five of respondents. Somewhat ironically, social media itself, plus blogs, were the most unpopular choices to keeping up with social media trends.
Dur, maybe that's why it's such a challenge for you folks.
The folks at TELUS asked me to participate in their "Work Shift, Work Styles, Work Anywhere – Flexible Work across Canada" summer blog series and my post appeared on their TELUS Talks Business site today.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Techvibes.com, a hyper-local Canadian technology blog, I meet with (and get pitched by) plenty of tech startups every week. These meetings tend to take place in coffee shops and cafes throughout downtown Vancouver and usually include a laptop or an iPad.
With over 300 Starbucks locations in Vancouver's lower mainland (and two kitty-corner on Robson Street), you'd think that I'd end up in the Seattle-born chain more often than anywhere else especially since they offer free Wi-Fi access. Not the case though. I find myself taking most of my meetings at a Vancouver-based coffee chain that prides itself in NOT offering complimentary Wi-Fi.
JJ Bean Coffee Roasters just opened it's 10th location and they're giving the big chains a run for the money in Vancouver. JJ Bean's Yaletown location is at the corner of Homer & Davie street and accessing the Web on the fly isn't a problem for me thanks to my trusty Mobile Internet Key.
With my latte set next to my MacBook, "pitches" turn into blog posts on the fly and I usually find myself diving into my regular daily activities before closing my laptop and heading back to the office.
At Techvibes, we do everything on the web - our email runs on Google Apps and we track our web stats with Google Analytics. We tweet all of our blog posts to the world and communicate internally with Yammer. We track customers on Salesforce, invoice them with FreshBooks, and then check our bank balances online.
As I type this blog post from my favourite coffee shop at summer's end on September 1st, I wonder if I'll be feeling so mobile when Vancouver's wet weather hits. Just in case I retreat to my office this Fall, come on by and say Hi at JJ Bean today. I'll be here from 11:00am until noon PST and have some sweet swag for the first few to find me.
Technology is a key enabler for TELUS and our customers, providing advantage and differentiation in the marketplace. By managing the life cycle of... [more]
The GROW 2010 technology conference took place last week at the Vancouver Convention Center, and Techvibes was on location with an on-site studio conducting video interviews with a selection of speakers, sponsors and attendees.
Here, Techvibes interviews Lesel Radage of Vancouver group buying site Grooster.com. Michelle speaks with Lesel about Grooster's plans to differentiate from the handful of Groupon clones serving Vancouver.
Thank you to KPMG LLP who was the exclusive online video sponsor for Techvibes' GROW coverage. Stay tuned for continued GROW 2010 coverage.
Group/Flash buying is sweeping across the US, growing Internationally and in Canada. We started Grooster because we want to be the intersection... [more]
