THE AMPERSAND Dear Friends & Colleagues,
Welcome to Season 11 of The Ampersand, a Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation compliant monthly transmission of thought leadership, contemplations and cogitations from which you are entirely free to unsubscribe at any time by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the link. As many of you likely just did. For those 11,223 of you who have stuck by our side all these years, or those new to the show, we hope to bring you another season of thought-provoking viewpoints, with a focus this year on best practices in recruitment, people management, pitfalls to avoid and best practices to embrace. We’ll be sharing a few laughs, perhaps a few rants, even some tears, but ultimately a sprightly and intelligible way to stay in touch.
The format remains largely unchanged; an email to your inbox on or about the first of each month with some highlights of the month that was, some teasers of what’s ahead, sprinkled with links throughout, leading you down various rabbit holes – be it our blog, where we do a deeper dive on a particular topic, a video, an article, speech, story, cartoon or quote we thought you’d find interesting. Our favourite part is hearing from you and you can either post a comment on our site or send us a note, as so many of you do.
With that, we bring you Ampersand Issue #128!
We recently learned that Pekarsky & Co. has been short-listed as Small Business of the Year as part of the annual Small Business Week Calgary festivities. As we know better than most – for every search we lead also has a short-list — there can only be one winner and we won’t find that out until the Awards Gala on October 25th. If we knew for certain we were going to win, we’d absolutely invite you all. But, hey, even Meryl Streep was nominated seven times for a best actress Oscar without winning and she’s a pretty a good actress, so there’s that. Regardless of outcome, it’s an honour to be recognized. Speaking of movies…
In case you were too busy enjoying the lake or the mountains during our amazingly average summer, you may have missed the worldwide release of our cinematic triumph on July 28th. Viewed on YouTube a whopping 571 times, the critics are raving. We know that in today’s world of sound bites and character limits, requiring you to sit for 12 entire minutes (a complete .2 for the billing lawyers among you) is a fairly big ask. Seeing as it took us 10 years to make this movie, we’re hoping 12 minutes of your time is a fair bargain. Here you go for those who missed it! And speaking of movies, Pekarsky & Co. has once again stepped up in support of the Calgary International Film Festival, where you can see our smiling faces both on screen and at the many films showcased between September 18th and 29th.
For the second year in a row, Adam has been invited back to the University of Calgary Faculty of Law to co-teach a course on marketing and client service. Unofficially called “Everything You Never Learned in Law School but Should Have” the course focuses on career and client development for young lawyers. It strives to teach the students the skills required to become a well-rounded lawyer, not just a really smart one (leaving that to the real profs), all without turning into a raging A-hole. With a blend of expert panels, four throughout the semester ranging from General Counsels to Managing Partners to CEOs to an advisory board of ‘other’ experts, Adam and his co-instructor, Simone Hughes, guide the students through the many things lawyers actually don’t know how to do. The goal is to produce a generation of grads who possess the tools required to navigate the profession with a meaningful, balanced, practical and client-first approach. Watch this space for more details throughout the semester.
As you know, we believe in running a positive balance in our goodwill bank account. One never wants to be in the red when it comes to karma. It is for this reason, among other better ones, that we spend as much time volunteering and staying involved in our community as we do. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s a useful offset to occasionally call upon after a Vegas run or, more recently, Stampede week. We’re to be forgiven for having things go a little sideways this particular Stampede seeing as we weren’t just celebrating the annual Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, but we were doing so in conjunction with our firm’s 10th anniversary. Our annual rooftop Stampede party requires no additional excuse to make it better; it’s always a humdinger. But when you add to the annual winning recipe an absolutely perfect summer night, a 10-year-old-themed birthday party bonanza of gourmet hot dogs, rum snow cones and doughnut-infused birthday cake, it really did require at least a corresponding dose of good behaviour to keep the universe in balance. Keep reading to learn about a few of the credits positioned on the right of our karma entry from the summer.
As a proud partner of the Top 7 Over 70 Awards Program, we can advise that tables and tickets are now available for the October 17, 2019 Awards Gala. This biennial event recognizes seven individuals who are achieving excellence in one or more of a myriad of fields, focussing specifically on achievements and enterprises started after the age of 70.
Importantly, the last round of awards led to the creation of InterGen, a talent development and matching platform that is helping to reengergize Calgary’s economy. In its pilot program, InterGen partnered experienced individuals with younger entrepreneurs, creating diverse and multigenerational teams. More information on this incredible initiative and how to buy your tickets can be found here.
We are very pleased to be involved with the inaugural Lean In Calgary, Canada’s newest Lean In city-wide circle, part of the International Lean In Organization that was founded by Sheryl Sandberg who wrote the book by the same name and who is currently COO of Facebook. Lean In is a dynamic, vibrant organization filled with professional women leaders – and those who aspire to lead more – in their communities, in their organizations and in their lives.
The vision for Calgary – and, indeed, the world – is for women to have more of a voice, to have more opportunity to rise up and to be heard, and to shake the status quo so that there are more women in politics, more women on boards, more women in organizational leadership roles and equal pay for equal work is a given, not an aspiration. They are working towards an equal workplace for all and removing barriers to women’s success through providing inspiring speakers, authentic networking events, thought-provoking discussions ad tangible takeaways that our members can implement the day after they leave our events. Just our kind of people. As a firm comprised of 72% women, we remain baffled, and times stymied, by the pale, male, stale decision-making community. We’ll be at the Calgary launch on September 25th at The St. Louis Hotel in East Village. Are you with us?
On August 29th, Adam had the good fortune of participating with a great client and our placed candidate in the Shaw Charity Classic Pro-Am golf tournament at Canyon Meadows. Playing in a foursome along-side Champions Tour Pro Jay Haas, a complete gentleman who racked up 33 professional wins throughout his career, Adam’s caddy for the day was none other than Pekarsky & Co. Research Associate Kate Spencer who donned the caddy bib and proudly represented (and posted) throughout a memorable day. Happily she didn’t have to put her superior research skills to use looking for errant shots in the woods as the boys generally hit ‘em long and straight. Proceeds from the Shaw Charity Classic go to countless local charities and the event has been become a mainstay of Calgary’s summer and a fixture on the Champions Tour.
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