Environmentally & Socially Responsible Event Planning * Consulting * Staffing * Catering

What our clients say about us...

  • “You have extraordinary attention to detail. You took care of the little things (like the place setting utensil twine and the food platter you sent up to the girls’ room) that we didn’t even think about. We’d be able to tell future clients to feel confident that everything will be taken of with style, even the things they may not have thought of beforehand.” – John, on his wedding

Sunday, July 31, 2011

75 Cat Naps - Grinding at CSI: Annex

SORRY!

Okay as you can all tell, its been a bit since my last post.  I've been lurking around in the background with a new client and cooking up several awesome new projects for Simplicity and our crew.

Since my last post on the blog I've been doing such a wide variety of things with and for Simplicity that I just caught myself scratching my head and saying "where did my summer go?!"  Thankfully it has been truly fun, interesting and always learning new things along the way.

As July is drawing to a close, I've definitely been exposed to new avenues of art, everything from the graphic art of my client rewfoe, to the stark and richly coloured works of Caravaggio.   I've finally had a chance to awaken my wanderlust for the "roadtrip", and it seems that even 120kmph is now considered slow!

I got a chance to be a human smoke alarm when I had a chance to help CSI:Annex by being the "Fire Watch Guy".  It was a pretty unique opportunity that gave me a unique opportunity to meet many of the awesome tenants of CSI:Annex and work from 6pm to 9am.  It was like a strange retreat or a sleep over for me, except at the office and nobody around!  I was slightly disappointed that I only completed 30 of the 75 Fire Watch walks that had to be done every hour.  Then again I love sleep and readjusting from being a night owl and waking up every hour was pretty tough.




I snapped some beautiful pictures of the new office space.  Being here is such a great inspiration!  Its such a great feeling to be here and these snapshots are taken at those odd hours when most of the city is just waking up.


 With so many ideas and awesome things on the hot plate, August is looking to be just as awesome for myself and the Simplicity team.  I'll fill you all in as fast as I can.    

Saturday, July 9, 2011

If you can't beat 'em - Tweet 'em.

Perhaps I'm old fashioned or slow, but I always prefer face to face contact.

Which is likely why I've taken some time to really consider getting a Twitter account for Simplicity.  I guess I prefer to be highly effective and operate with surgical precision instead of blurting out into the Internet-verse my every day, random observations or superficial proselytizing.

I find that Twitter posts, in striving to be brief and to the point, are stripped away of a lot of meaning and human connection that I find important.  It's like reading a newspaper article in the Metro.  It's just the facts and nuances of complex issues are missing.  Either way, communication is beautiful and necessary and Twitter is now a tool we're going to add to our kit for connecting with our clients, friends, family, supporters and community.

Anyhoo, that being said, you can now follow Simplicity's exploits and information about our upcoming events through Twitter at @SimplicityEPC  (That's Event Planning & Catering)

Friday, July 8, 2011

Check out our new office space! CSI - Annex

As a result of Simplicity getting recognition as a runner-up in last year's Agents of Change competition run by the Centre for Social Innovation, we now have the office space at the Centre for Social Innovation - Annex starting in July!

Check it out!   This is a fabulous environment for social innovators and we are neck deep in connecting with so many other social entrepreneurs!



A SUPER BIG thank you to all of you folks who took the time to nominate Simplicity for our work.  We would not have gotten this fabulous opportunity to grow and be a part of a larger community without you!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Snapshots of Toronto Taste 2011

Looking back at these pictures, I am so glad I brought the camera.  I barely had any time to snap them, as there was so much to do.  I'm quite proud to have been there and did what I love to do for a great organization and a fantastic cause.

Jasna and I at the main entrance.  (+7 Hours)
Emily and I near the main stage bussing line (+8 hours)


You know its late when...
Here are some of the awesome volunteers (90+) that made this possible.   THANK YOU!
 As I mentioned before, the 16 hours on-site was such a blur, that I appreciate being able to take a look at these pictures.  They are really like fleeting memories of something awesome that happened.

 I'm super thankful for Jasna coming down to bring the camera mid way through the event.












One of the most awesome aspects of my volunteer experience for this event was the chance to meet so many fantastic people.
Second Harvest is chock full of great people willing to put in crazy hours for a great cause.  It turns out that, as a result of this charity event, over 650,000 meals will be served to Torontonians in need.

It's a big step from clearing my dinner plate as a kid growing up.  That was one of the original reasons why Simplicity started to donate to Second Harvest and I'm truly amazed to see where it can lead me.

As you can see, its super packed outside the ROM with over 1400 guests closing off Queens Park.  I salute Emily for being the early bird on-site at 5am!



      You can tell it's getting late in an event when the staff get super tired and start to have silly fun.   Here I'm posing with Cheri who is what I'd call a veteran of several Toronto Tastes.  This year is the first time the role of one Catering Lead has been split up between a team of three.

Judging from Cheri's smile we must be doing something right!

(Can you tell I REALLY like wearing my headset radio?)






     To the left is my main objective for being part of the Toronto Taste 2011.  As the Catering Lead I had a such a great opportunity to coordinate and work with over 90 volunteers from across the city, from so many walks of life, who come together for this cause.

I'm kinda sad I didn't have more of a chance to engage all of them and spend more time with them.

I especially want to thank Joyce and Katie for being my Floating Team Leads.  Having them there to trouble-shoot was such a great thing.






Here we have just some of the key people of the Second Harvest Committee that made all of this year's event possible.  I managed to snap this at the very end of the night on the steps of the ROM.

It was a perfect setting to sit down and take stock of the night as teardown started around us at +15 hours from the beginning of the event.  I think the smiles speak of exhausted happiness.




I count myself lucky enough to be down the street from the venue.  It's an even greater feeling to have a chance to be a part of this great team and pull of such a memorable event!

I'm really looking forward to Toronto Taste 2012!

At the end of Toronto Taste 2011