5 Questions with... Duane Brown

Ready for your coffee break, Toronto? Here's this week's 5 Questions...

Gamer – Marketer: those two words sum up Duane Brown. Duane has a background in public relations and marketing working with organizations such as GamerCamp, TELUS, Research In Motion, CIBC, H&M, DreamCatcher Interactive, and the City of Toronto. He uses his knowledge and passion to help launch digital marketing campaigns on 5 of 7 continents for these clients; he has also run search-engine marketing campaigns for Research In Motion all over North America.  He is the founder of Creative Traction, and runs www.GameCensus.ca, a list of gaming companies across Canada. 

What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

I often joke with people that I'm high on life. I love waking up to the start of a new day and knowing that anything is possible by the strike of midnight. The day may not be perfect and things may get canned by the time I check my BlackBerry or e-mail but staying positive and working towards both my personal and professional goals in life keeps me going. Adding to the fact that I get the chance to be creative in my career and learn from people smarter then me is a chance I don't turn down. 

Do you have any success start-up tips for people wanting to create a name for themselves in your industry?

Be yourself at the end of the day. Showing an interest and a passion for hobbies or anything that you love will take you further in life then any other plan will. Most people know my two big passion are technology and video games and when every I get the chance to talk about those two topics with family, friends and clients. It can be hard to get to me stay quite. Other then that, seek out like-minded people and people you look up to and can learn from. 

In your opinion why is Toronto a great place for cool tech start-ups?

The people. We've such a diverse city with people moving to Toronto (and Canada) from all over the world. That experience and knowledge is something that we've been tapping more in Toronto. I think the city is waking up to realize that we have to encourage people to want to stay here and innovate on their idea. Also with more successful start-ups getting media coverage, it's showing the world that we are more then just old money in Toronto. You can build a successful company in Toronto and have the world still be interested in you. You don't always need to move to California or New York city to do that. 

What's your favourite tech toy and social media site and why?

I really love Twitter (@DuaneBrown) and spend a good chunk of time on the site. However, I just signed up for Plancast recently and have been enjoying using it. It keeping me aware of what events are going around the city but also what's happening in other cities that I've friends in. I love to travel whenever I can for work or vacation. So knowing what's happening event wise in a city is important to me. I love getting the opportunity to build better relationships with people in real life and not just online. 

Who would you say is one of Toronto's up and coming stars in your space and why?

It's hard to pick just one person. I'll give a shout out to my friend Kevin Richard (@kevrichard). He recently got a very cool job at Syncapse on the measurement team. By the sounds of some of their recent reports/white papers.... he's totally doing an awesome job their. Kevin's a pretty humble guy at times I find and doesn't try to be the centre of attention all the time. He's always fun to chat with and listens to what you've to say. I always enjoy when ever I get to chat with him.